DOHA: Adviser to the Emiri Diwan and Qatar";s candidate for the post of Unesco Director-General H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kawari, was recently awarded a PhD Honoris Causa by the University of Rome Tor Vergata in Italy. Addressing the faculty, alumni and students of the university at the awarding ceremony, Al Kawari described the recognition as a historic and distinctive. He pointed out that the recognition from prestigious Italian university constitute a new drive towards furthering education and cultural enhancement for the achievement of Unesco";s noble goals..

'I";ve realised after long years of working and learning in diverse multi-ethnic countries, that learning about, and experiencing, true cultural exchange is the most effective protective measure for domestic or international societal problems. If culture is used as a divisive weapon, it is far more dangerous than any other weapon. With this in mind, I placed cultural understanding at the forefront of my Unesco campaign,” said Al Kawari.

Giving a lecture under the title 'The role of education and culture in international relations” Dr Al Kawari said he has been fortunate to spend more than half a century in the field of diplomatic and cultural practice from where he learned the fact that achieving lasting reconciliation between people of different cultures and races require cultural understanding and acceptance of diversity.

He said Unesco developed the guidelines to the aptly-titled 'Seven complex lessons in education for the future,” and he praised Qatar";s role in providing education for more than 10 million children in poorer regions of the world without distinction of gender, race, religion or other factors. The complex problems facing the world today is a dominance of the 'dormant mind” stage of human development where it is became common to talk about 'thinking by proxy” and 'self-determination by proxy” because of lack of free thinking development, creative and critical minds.

He called for saluting efforts aimed at preserving and restoring the heritage of humanity, including the efforts of Qatar, which contributed $10m to an emergency fund for Unesco heritage conservation and the restoration projects of Aleppo in Syria before the war, Kairouan in Tunisia, Timbuktu in Mali, Sudan, Yemen, Iraq and other areas rich in the heritage of humanity that are under threat.

Dr. Al Kawari said it is no secret to anyone that we are in an ongoing open battle against extremists which he described as a battle between knowledge and ignorance against those who have targeted our collective humanitarian heritage. He explained that a new centre established in Turin is going to train experts in cultural 'heritage protection”, and fighting smuggling of cultural artefacts. He called for whole of humanity";s combined values defended by the founding fathers of Unesco.

The Arab-Islamic civilisation contributed to global peace-building through science and knowledge with deep history in medicine, philosophy and other sciences.

He told the Italians: 'Your beautiful country has the largest number of archaeological sites in the world, and indeed, some of the most famous sites known to man and Italy is often referred to as an 'open museum.

'Your response to terrorism was a cultural one and this is an option which I inherently share with you and which truly represents a shared conviction for all of us,” he added.

The Peninsula