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Best wishes for 2012

Have a peaceful 2012

Published on 22 December 2011

Author(s): CiD

Type:  New Year Greetings

Dear Readers,

Unfortunately, the past year has seen many a new crisis and the continuation of old ones.

A peaceful 2012 from Culture in Development.jpg

Worldwide the financial crisis caused many governments to cut back on their budgets for Culture. In the Netherlands alone € 200 million were cut from a total of € 800 million. This caused the closure of theatres, libraries and museums. Indeed, the Dutch authorities consider Culture (and Heritage) as a Luxury and not as a Basic Need! In contrast to the international community that slowly but surely seems to recognize Culture as an essential part of Development.

Many an old crisis continued. In Haiti the humanitarian community was unable to fight the effects of the tremendous earthquake from last year. Next, UNESCO could not stop the skermishes at the Thai-Cambodian border over a World Heritage site.

Perhaps the worst crisis in March this year was the tsunami in Japan. Surprisingly, this was hardly followed by a call for international support. Yet, the conservation efforts by the Japanese themselves were very impressive. The effects of the meltdown of the nuclear power plant for the regional heritage have not been investigated.

This year has also seen violent outbursts in the Middle East and especially Northern Africa. In Egypt the revolt caused damage to some archeological sites and museums. The defense of some of the heritage institutions and sites by the population was striking. The palaces of Ben Ali, the president of Tunesia who was the first one forced out in the region, were full of stolen heritage. It was returned to the owners - the Tunesians. The revolt in Libya showed us how heritage can be an important stake in the violent struggle. Fortunately, the damage and looting were very much controlled.

As we do not have yet an 'early-warning system for heritage' we continue to react on crisis situations instead of preparing ourselves for all kinds of disasters that will continue to plague our planet. That is why Culture in Development in cooperation with other heritage institutions in the Netherlands is preparing to design such a system. Our first meeting is in January 2012.

Let us all make 2012 a better year for mankind, afterall that is us, and our Culture and Heritage. We wish you all the best in your efforts!

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