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Rhodes Forum 2011
Rhodes Forum 2010
Rhodes Forum 2009
Panel № 7 Cultural
Civilization space of inter-cultural dialogue
Intercultural dialogue based on mutual adaptation of cultural traditions and recognition of national and cultural peculiarities is the most effective and human way of resolution of ethnic conflicts, one of the main elements of intercivilizational interaction practices.
Intercultural dialogue is an efficient instrument in resolution of global conflicts. The world history gives examples of such practices in the period of political tension and ethnic conflicts when science, culture and arts has encourages peaceful coexistence of peoples, cultures and ethnic communities as well as interaction between the Western and the Eastern cultures.
Main vectors of discussion:
- The role of science, culture and arts in resolution of political tension and ethnic conflicts;
- The global world cultural environment: socio-cultural integration and the forms of influence related to national cultural tradition’s development;
- Cultural monocentrism, mosaic structure and kaleidoscopic nature of present day mass culture;
- Modern informational environment influence on the state of intercultural dialogue and its prospects.
Moderators:
Mikhail Piotrovskiy
Director, State Hermitage, Member of the Presidium of the Russian Committee of UNESCO, President, World Club of St. Petersburgers, Doctor of History, (Russia)
Cemal Usak
Vice President, The journalists and Writers Foundation, Member of ICC World Public Forum “Dialogue of Civilizations” (Turkey)
Reports:
Tolstoy and Gandhi: Genesis of an Ideological Revolution
Come Carpentier de Gourdon
Convener, Editorial Advisory Board
World Affairs Journal, Director
“I am a fragment of the Infinite”. Leo Tolstoy
“There is only one way of achieving independence
through non-violence; by dying we live,
by killing never”. Mahatma Gandhi (1945)
Count Leo Tolstoy’s philosophical and religious legacy is present in the lifework and thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi, from the latter’s early action in South Africa where, like the Russian novelist, he challenges the Western Enlightenment School in the name of what we might call an early “Post-Industrial’ Idealism.
The Myths and Realities of the Great Game, 1856-1907
Evgeny Yurievich Sergeev
Head of the Research Center ‘The Twentieth Century’,
The Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of World History
We are on the eve of stirring times; but if we
play the great game that is before us, the events
will be incalculably beneficial to us and to the
tribes whose destinies may change from turmoil,
violence, ignorance and poverty to peace, enlightenment
and varied happiness.
Arthur Connolly in a mail to his friend, 1840
The Oriental Carpet Manufacturers Company: Cartels, Trade, Politics & National Identity
Antony Wynn - writer, journalist, BA (Oxford) Oriental Studies
The case of a Levantine company in Ottoman Turkey 1907-1929
Since the times of Byzantium the Europeans in Constantinople and Smyrna lived in a commercial paradise. Benefiting from the ‘capitulations’ of the treaties with the Byzantines and then the Ottomans, they were subject to their own laws, which were administered by their own consuls and they paid practically no tax. Smyrna, with its large natural harbour and fertile hinterland, was a prosperous centre of export trade in dried fruit, tobacco and carpets. The city had a large Greek population, but was commercially dominated by a small number of Levantine French, Italian and English families, who owned the best houses around the harbour and up in the hill villages surrounding the bay. They lived like kings. The Turks had their own separate quarter and played little part in commercial life. The common language was Greek, while French was used in commerce.
China: From an ancient civilization to a modern culture
Dr. Patrick Chi Ping Ho - Former Secretary for Home Affairs
of the Government of Hong Kong (China)
One week ago, on October 1, 2009, we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
The founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949 ushered in a new era on China’s history. The Chinese people have since stood up and become masters of their own destiny. And they have been making the history of the New China.
Italy in the Horn of Africa and the Ethiopian Islamic literary tradition: L. Robecchi Bricchetti and his collection of manuscripts
Alessandro Gori - Assistant Professor,
Department of Linguistics - University of Florence
Prolegomena
The role played by travellers, explorers, adventurers, commercial agents, and more and less official envoys of European powers in paving the way for the colonial expansion in Asia and Africa cannot be underestimated. It is a well known fact that these forerunners of the military occupation were sometimes also scholars, sincerely interested in the culture of the local peoples, or at least they were conscious that it would have been impossible to control the “natives” without knowing their culture and languages. They thus promoted the collection of manuscripts, artefacts, oral histories and traditions to have a clear image of the peoples whose territories they were visiting.
Contemporary Greek Music Dialogue with Music of Other Nations
Giorgos Konstantinou - Pianist MMus
Soloist and Pedagogue
President & Artistic Director of “Concert Theatre-Cohilia Festival Association”
There is no more impressive site in the world than the temple of Apollo at Delphi on Mount Parnassus; of all the glorious holy places, this site of the Oracle of Delphi established the link between music and mystery. The word music itself comes from the Greek word musiki meaning all the arts of the nine Muses. Apollo, son of Zeus, was the leader of the Muses, as master athlete and warrior, as well as, master musician . Mount Parnassus came to be thought of as the home of music. Yehudi Menuhin “The Music of Man” Actually, there has always been a dialogue between Greek music and Music of other Nations initiated by the most eminent Greek composers. Here below I am presenting the most important contemporary ones.