"DIALOGUE AMONG CIVILISATIONS" - 1st step in November 2007

1st step: 11-18 november 2007 - Greece (Athens area)
2nd & 3rd steps: 2008

WHY WAS IT AN ISSUE?

"...The anxiety and confusion caused by the "clash of civilizations" theory regrettably has distorted the terms of the discourse on the real nature of the predicament the world is facing. The history of relations between cultures is not only one of wars and confrontation. It is also based on centuries of constructive exchanges, cross-fertilization, and peaceful co-existence. Moreover, classifying internally fluid and diverse societies along hard-and-fast lines of civilizations interferes with more illuminating ways of understanding questions of identity, motivation and behavior..."
- Extract of the final report presented by the high level group to the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as a preamble for establishing an Alliance of civilisations within the United Nations. (ALLIANCE OF CIVILISATIONS REPORT)

This issue is now political, challenging and up-to-date. The European Union, through the "Youth in Action" and the "Euromed Youth III"Programmes, is fully part of this reflection process. Naturally, SALTO-Youth Euromed as a resource centre for training and cooperation within the Euromed Youth Programme has an important role to play: after having worked on training courses like "Education and civilisation" or "Common memory, common heritage", SALTO-Youth Euromed RC, the Greek and Cypriot National Agencies have decided to co-organise and to respectively host the two training events of this long term process is surely not a casual choice. The question of civilisations and dialogue can surely gain historical, philosophical and geopolitical consistence at the crossroad between these two countries.
Within Euromed area the question of dialogue as an operational tool, for developing networking and partnership strategy of non formal education between the two sides of the Mediterranean is a crucial and challenging issue. In other words, to make dialogue among civilisations become a reality.

The Team

Leo Kaserer (trainer)
Taoufik Louzari (trainer)
Gisele Kirby (reporter)
Federica Demicheli (coordinator)

The Report

The report of the first step of this Training course is available to download here.

In cooperation with the Cypriot National Agency, the second and third phases will take place in Cyprus during the year 2008 and the themes will be: « Networks for dialogue" Networking projects according to participants » and « Common ground for a common future ».