UNESCO and South Korea – A Preview

By Sonia Mahut

An organization that has education, science and culture in its title should appeal to South Korean ideals maybe more than to any other country’s. Originally, UNESCO was designed to promote peace by stopping wars in their tracks just as they took root in the minds of people.

At the end of World War II, when all countries were exhausted by the battles, it was decided to attempt to prevent a recurrence by creating an organization oriented towards honoring cultural diversity, dialogue and sustainable development in order to promote profound understanding and tolerance among nations.

Wars used to be simpler, as well as more spectacular. They were mainly about territory, as the enemies tried to impose themselves using their size. Fights were in the open and casualties were measured in lost limbs and commodities. Nowadays, wars are low-key; most of the time the violence is hidden. There is a trend towards minimization and the losses are spiritual, cultural and moral, measured in dying languages, traditions or philosophies of life.

Science now has a life of its own, and is becoming more and more specialized and narrow in its focus, though it has to be regulated by people who have a more general background. If we are capable of doing something, it doesn’t necessarily mean we should actually do it without careful consideration of the ramifications. As South Korea has seen a spectacular expansion in the natural and life sciences fields, many older people perceive that this has come at the price of losing the compass of morality.  There has thus been a recent revival of interest in Seowons, academies in which students are taught the Confucian way of life. Seowons want to put ethics and history back into the schools that have shunned them in order to make more room for the sciences. UNESCO wants philosophical dialogue in schools so that young people can learn to make decisions based on a long-term evaluation of their effects.

So what better challenge for UNESCO, the grand mediator between cultures, than to reconcile its policies towards youth empowerment with the Seowons’ preference for respecting status and age hierarchy without damaging the culture it is supposed to protect? How will it do at its next meeting on May 18 in Gwangju, especially now that several Confucian academies have applied for the protection granted by being part of the UNESCO World Heritage program?

From the press release of the Ad-hoc Committee for Establishing May 18 Archives

“May 18 Archive”, to be opened in May 2014, will provide a multi-functional space where exhibitions, research and education can be seen through database planning of archive contents including documents, sound, oral statements, images, research and cultural reappearance. With regard to this, the Ad-hoc Committee for Establishing May 18 Archives is waiting for donations of May 18 records from both Koreans and foreigners.

Its collection targets are diaries, statements, reporters’ notebooks, proclamations, films and photographs, tapes and anything else relevant to May 18 democratic movements from organizations, groups and individuals within and outside of Korea. All inquiries are welcomed by the Ad-hoc Committee for Establishing May 18 Archives (email: 518 Unesco@hanmail.net, contact number: 062-376-6644).