IPS News reports that writers, artists, and musicians gathered in Paris this week at UNESCO headquarters to map out medium and long-term strategies for “recreating” the Caribbean nation, led by Haiti’s minister for culture and communication, Marie-Laurence Jocelyn-Lassègue. At the forum “Rebuilding the Social, Cultural and Intellectual Fabric of Haiti,” Minister Jocelyn-Lassègue said, “Culture is at the basis of our development. For us, culture is not a luxury, not an accessory. It is through culture and by culture that we’ll be able to develop certain aspects of our society.” See excerpts with links to the full article below:
[Jocelyn-Lassègue] told IPS in an interview that the UNESCO forum, which included internationally known artists such as African writer Wole Soyinka, was necessary to “keep Haiti on the agenda”, as the world’s attention shifts in the aftermath of the disaster. She said the agency was helping to re-focus attention on Haiti’s continuing plight and working to find international partners to help in reconstruction. [. . .]
Jocelyn-Lassègue, whose chief of staff was killed as he sat next to her when her office collapsed in the earthquake, has been leading a crusade to keep Haiti in the world’s consciousness. She said that recent flooding has added to the country’s woes.
UNESCO’s director-general Irina Bokova visited Haiti earlier this month to see the situation first-hand, and Wednesday she stressed that the agency was committed to helping Haiti recover. [. . .] The agency has taken steps to establish an International Coordination Committee for Haitian culture to “bring together all the organisations concerned with the rehabilitation of the country’s culture.”
To highlight Haiti’s cultural contributions, UNESCO is also hosting two exhibitions at its headquarters here – one on Haitian art, and the other showing photographs of Haiti before and after the earthquake. In addition, Bokova has named the Haitian playwright, artist and musician Frankétienne as UNESCO ‘Artist for peace’, to help promote culture worldwide. Accepting the honor before a packed audience, the white-haired playwright burst into a song. He said he would carry out UNESCO’s work “conscientiously.”
[. . .] France this week announced that it would send 30,000 books to the island and help in setting up a digital library. The French government is also implementing residence programmes for Haitian artists, and will dispatch experts to repair damaged works of art in Haiti itself, officials said.
French minister of culture, Frédéric Mitterrand, plans to go to Haiti in the coming weeks, following a visit by President Nicolas Sarkozy in February – the first by a French leader since the country gained its independence from France in 1804. Some black French associations have been calling on France to repay Haiti the crippling sum it demanded in reparations after the Caribbean country had the world’s first successful slave revolt. But Jocelyn-Lassègue said her country had moved beyond these historical disputes.
For full article, see http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50784
Photo of Minister Jocelyn-Lassègue from http://www.radiostarhaiti.com/news.php?news_id=977&start=0&category_id=1&parent_id=1&arcyear=&arcmonth=
