(see photo gallery below)
The World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development
United Nations, Conference Room 4: 22 May 2017, 3:00 – 5:30 PM
“Cultural Diversity as a Driver of Economic Growth”
The United Nations General Assembly, in December 2002, declared 21 May each year to be the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. The day provides an opportunity for us to deepen our understanding of the values of cultural diversity, to promote human rights and fundamental freedoms and to encourage, amongst other things, a balanced flow of cultural goods and services and increase mobility of artistes and cultural professionals.
On this day in 2017, the Give Them a Hand Foundation (GTAH), the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP) and the United African Congress partnered with the Permanent Missions of Jamaica and Ethiopia to the United Nations to host a conference at UN Headquarters in New York to celebrate cultural diversity and to promote it as a driver for economic growth in countries with multi-cultural populations. As 21 May 2017 fell on a Sunday, the World Day event was held on the following day, Monday, 22 May. It was a day of torrential downpours which threatened to keep attendance to a very low level; however, the event went ahead with a respectable number of persons in the audience.
After an introduction and welcome by Gordon Tapper, President of GTAH, H.E. Ambassador Courtenay Rattray, Permanent Representative of Jamaica to the United Nations, made the opening remarks then handed off to the co-moderators, Milton Alimmadi of Black Star News and Judy Kuriansky of the IAAP.
The programme was divided into four parts, namely: Country Perspectives, Diversity and Peace, Science and Art, and Tourism.
Ambassador Mahlet Haiku of Ethiopia spoke about the challenges of governing a country with more than 100 ethnic groups and languages and how the present Ethiopian Government was approaching the task.
In the segment on Diversity and Peace, the speakers included Ms. Marie Paule Roudil, UNESCO Representative at the United Nations, Dr Hanifa Mezoui, Senior Advisor in the Office of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, Ms. Jennifer Rajkumar, Director of Immigrant Affairs and Special Counsel in the Office of New York State Governor, Andrew Cuomo. Ms. Rajkumar’s remarks were of great interest to the audience as most persons there were immigrants or had family who were recent immigrants. Ms. Rajkumar advised on practical steps that immigrants who were facing certain problems in NYC and the United States could take to resolve many of their problems.
In the Science and Art segment, HRH Princess Nisreen El Hashemite spoke about the programme she had instituted in Iraq and internationally to help girls who wanted to enter the field of science.
Ms. Grace McDonald spoke about the importance of art in the development of young minds and how the project that she was a part of, Project Art, was playing a role in inner city communities in New York City in keeping young people engaged after school hours. She mentioned that the Project Art programme was now well recognized nationally and that other States had asked them to set up the project in their cities as well. The New York Public Library had given Project Art space in some of their facilities to teach art to kids.
Grimanesa Amoros, a world-renowned artist of Peruvian heritage living in New York City, spoke of how she incorporated aspects of her culture into her work.
The first speaker in the Tourism segment, Mr. Sarbuland Khan, Senior Counselor of the WTO in New York, spoke on how interest in “other people’s culture” was one of the main reasons people chose to travel to many world destinations.
Diana McIntyre Pike travelled from Jamaica where she is the president of “Countrystyle Community Tourism Network” and founder of “Villages as Businesses’”. The thrust of her speech centered on how rural communities with no beaches or other obvious tourist attractions can organize themselves, in partnership with prominent all-inclusive hotels, to offer a different view of the country through organizing lunches with a typical Jamaican family, or an evening in the village pub or a tour of some unique or quirky notable points in the village. She emphasized how local communities can share in the financial rewards of tourism through offering visitors a slice of traditional life.
Ms. Mine Anlar, Director of the Turkish-American Chamber of Commerce and Industry, showed videos depicting Turkey’s cultural heritage and World Heritage Sites.
Dr. Judy Kuriansky made the closing remarks.
