<<February 25, 2000>>
Dr. Marco Antonio R. Dias <mardias@club-internet.fr>
Dr. Parker Rossman <grossman@mail.coin.missouri.edu>
P. Tapio Varis <tapio.varis@uta.fi>
Dear Marco:
===========
(1) Many thanks for your msg (ATTACHMENT I).
Dear Electronic Colleagues:
===========================
(2) Attached to his msg is Marco's acceptance speech for the
Legion of Honor
by the French Academy of Letters in Paris.
We are very honored and privileged to have Marco as the Vice
President
for Administration of our Global University System and one of
our
listserve members.
Pls enjoy reading his very interesting French connections.
Dear Parker:
============
(3) Many thanks for your excellent translation.
Dear Tapio:
===========
(4) Pls kindly forward me Marco's msg about his vice presidency.
Best, Tak
****************************************
ATTACHMENT I
From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Marco_Ant=F4nio_Dias?=" <mardias@club-internet.fr>
To: "Tak Utsumi" <utsumi@friends-partners.org>
Subject: Re: English traslation of your speech
Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2017 11:57:46 +0100
Dear dr. Tak Utsumi,
the work done by Parker Rossman is wonderful. He really knows
French very
well. I made some suggestions to make the text clearer. It is
nice to have it
in English. Of course, I have some doubts if everybody in GLOSAS
will be
pleased with it. It had a good impact here in Paris, but people
who read it
must know what language means in international organizations.
It is a very
complex matter and unfortunately sometimes language is used as
an instrument
against freedom. I tried to explain my historical connections
with French
culture and the utilization I try to give to this. This justifies
the
motivation of French authorities to pay a tribute with the Legion
d'honneur.
But, the main message I tried to transmit is that international
cooperation
for higher education must in all cases be an instrument for the
building of a
better society.
2- Did Tapio send you a copy of the correspondence we exchanged
about the
vice-presidency of GUS?
My best wishes.
Marco Antonio R. Dias
========================================
Speeches of writers and philosophers at the French Academy
of Letters
tend to be works of erudition, full of scholarly citations, long
dissertations
on the meaning of life and the organization of society. Those
who are awarded
the decoration of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, the most important
French
decoration, often do much the same. But I will not do so. What
I have to say
here--in front of my family, representatives of the government
of France,
groups of friends and others who have aided me in my professional
career--will
first aim to show you how I feel just now. I am very moved at
this moment.
This ceremony is the symbol of a personal encounter with a culture
and, in
this familiar setting, represents the closing of a circle, a return
to the
origins of a saga; I am here in front of my wife, my children,
my daughter-in-law,
my son-in-law and grandchildren. One day in the middle of the
19th
century, a Frenchman, Jean Boucher, officer of the French navy,
according to
legend ventured into South America. In hot invigorating Salvador
in Bahia he
met Francisca Genoveva, the mother of Elisa Boucher, my great-grandmother.
Who would be able to imagine that a century and a half later,
after six
tropical generations, the avatars of life would make authentic
French people
of my grandchildren, Mathieu Autran Dias and his brother who will
be born in
several days? My grandmother, Maria Paula, who from childhood
bore the name
Boucher--and who gladly pictured herself a descendant of the 18th
century--
would be delighted to know that some of her descendants are French.
This ceremony is equally the happy culmination of a personal
choice.
Through my parents generation, French was the second language
of my country.
In my wife's family they amuse themselves by going through old
albums where
they find menus in French for dinners which my wife's grandfather,
a member of
the parliament, in the empire of Brazil, gave for his friends
in the colonial
town of Diamantina, Minas Geraes. My generation which grew up
during and
immediately following the second world war, saw the consolidation
of English
as the international language as young people turned towards the
Anglo-Saxon
world. For very diverse reasons that was not true of me nor my
wife, student
of the good Sisters at the College of Notre Dame of Zion, Belo
Horizonte.
Myself, in Rio de Janeiro, under the influence of a Breton priest,
Monseigneur
Soubigou, and of a Brazilian philosopher, Father Penido, and stimulated
at the
same time by my ancient French ancestry, I chose French as my
principal
foreign language. Monseigneur Penido, I say parenthetically, was
a personal
friend of Jacques Maritain and was the only author cited with
praise by one of
the creators of UNESCO in his classic work "The degrees of
Knowledge" where he
describes as excellent the work of Penido, especially on analogy,
The 1950's,
the years of my adolescence--just after the war in which Brazilians
were drawn
in battles that were not theirs even if they were on the good
side--saw Brazil
inundated by the products of North American culture. They included
plastic
toys, yo-yos in many colors, and Coca Cola took over the place
of national
drinks which disappeared forever. With reserves accumulated during
the war,
Brazilians bought American plastics and, at high price, old British
trains
which later, according to the contracts of concession, were given
away free.
The country was dominated by films produced in Hollywood. One
of the heroes
of my generation was Errol Flynn. It was also the peak time for
beauty
pageants to select the prettiest girls in the world and to present
in
developing countries an understanding of life and of beauty--and
to be sure,
to sell cosmetics. In 1954, if my memory is good, after the collective
commotion in Brazil after losing the world cup in football, another
"catastrophe" occupied the pages of newspapers, magazines
and the imagination
of millions of Brazilians: Martha Rocha, the brown Bahia beauty,
Brazil's
candidate for Miss Universe, lost the title because she had four
toes too
many. Sometime historians will notice that when candidates for
Miss Brazil
were asked about their literary preferences, all of them favored
"The Little
Prince" by Saint-Exupery. That was nearly obligatory among
beauty contest
candidates, as among the young of that epoch who knew the passage
where the
wolf said to the little prince "tame me."
If someone asked me what was the first book I read in the original
French, I would have to say that it was in 1952 or 53 when I was
twelve or
thirteen. The book was "Le Petit Prince" by Antoine
de Saint-Exupry. That
aviator led me to discover French literature. I subsequently went
to a
bookstore on rue Mexico in Rio to buy other books by the same
author, "Night
Flight" for example and the works of other French authors
that in the 1950's
were available in paperback. Later, under the influence of teachers
previously mentioned and of Brazilian Dominicans from the school
of Toulouse,
such as Brother Mateus Rocha--who had a great influence on a whole
generation--
I discovered authors that I read perhaps without yet having
the maturity to
understand them at depth: Jacques Maritain, Gabriel Marcel, Garrigou-Lagrange
and, later, Mounier, Teillard de Chardin and Bernanos, --who one
of my
professors, Edgar de Matta Machado had welcomed in Brazil during
the Second
World War and had translated into Portuguese.
A French Dominican in Brazil, Brother Pierre Secondi in 1966--at
the
moment when I was trying to get a French scholarship to obtain
a diploma from
the University of Paris--wrote for me a letter of recommendation
addressed to
the Cultural Consul of the French Embassy in Brazil. After making
some surely
exaggerated references to my personal and professional qualifications,
he
suggested with all the seriousness and dignity of his character
that the plan
would support French-Brazilian cooperation, at the moment on such
a high
level. So in October, 1966, during cold and somber autumn, I disembarked
in
Paris for the first time. By chance a Brazilian friend I encountered
at Orly
airport, Francisco Paiva Chavez, helped me find a hotel, the Gersen
on rue des
Ecoles. Then on that evening of my arrival he kindly drove me
around by car
`Paris by night.' You can not imagine the intensity of sensation
and
enthusiasm of a young Brazilian at seeing, for the first time,
the Eiffel
tower, the Sorbonne, the Bastille square, the Obelisk, the Champs
Elysees.
The first two years in Paris were marvelous. When then I lost
my scholarship
under pressure from the military attache from Brazil, it was the
Catholic
Committee Against Hunger and for Development that came to my assistance,
enabling me to complete my third cycle of studies.
We returned then to Brazil to a Brazil during a period of coup
d'etat
which consolidated a dictatorship which endured for twenty years.
To be a
person strongly influenced by French culture during that historical
period was
not the best way to be appreciated by those who held power. I
will limit
myself to telling one anecdote that certain ones here--such as
these working
with the French ambassador to Brazil at that time--know all of
the details.
Around 1974, using the analytical skills I had acquired as a journalist,
I
concluded that Francois Mitterand, defeated in elections, would
one day win.
So I suggested that the university invite him to come and give
a lecture. But
permission was not given. Several years later when I was vice-rector
of the
university I was accused of beeing the personal representative
of Mitterand in
Brazil. Poor Francois Mitterand! He probably had never heard my
name, but a
security officer of Brazil went to France to enquire into my life
and
relationships there. He made contact with adversaries of Mitterand
and a
Corsican situated among high-ranking functionaries of a cabinet
minister
informations which would justify that trip to France. Fortunately,
the effort
manipulation was blocked by some Quai d'Orsay diplomats such as
Ambassadors
Legendre and Jean-Louis Marfaing, here present today. It was all
ridiculous,
however I must admit that I developed at that moment a strong
feeling against
Corsicans. Later, however, in the 1990's there was another process
of
destabilization, this time inside UNESCO, which reminded me that
such
generalizations are dangerous. This time my ties with France were
not
adequate in a setting dominated by other sensibilities. At that
time I was a
French speaking person isolated in an Anglo-Saxon milieu which
was not of a
mood to give in to me. It was at that moment that another Corsican,
president
of the national French commission, took the initiative to come
to see me and
tell me that France saw what was happening at UNESCO and was very
satisfied
with the direction of UNESCO's Division of Higher Education, and
to say that
France was ready to speak up in my defense should that become
necessary. That
had a great impact at UNESCO headquarters, so you will not be
surprised that I
here express my profound gratitude to Mr. Jean Sirinnelli, former
Pesident of
the French national commission for UNESCO.
This decoration is the fruit of what in France is called "cohabitation".
Proposed by the government of France, especially the Ministry
of Foreign
Affairs, it was implemented by a special decree by President Chirac.
I must
give special thanks to Ambassador Musitelli, Madame Sylvianne
Legrand and all
of the members of the delegation, and most happily to the friends
in the
French Commission for UNESCO who have supported the work of the
Division of
Higher Education during all these years, nearly eighteen, during
which I have
been Director. By this gesture I knew that the French government
wished to
pay tribute to someone who, although having a strong national
accent and weak
French, has always used French as his principal working language,
but has also
wished to reward a long enduring, an understanding of life. In
choosing
French as my principal foreign language, I opened for myself a
door to the
work of philosophers, journalists and humanist writers. I gave
myself direct
access to the principles of liberty and respect for human rights.
I obtained
an instrument which enabled me to position myself monopolist positions,
especially in the world of culture. In the 1960's, as a journalist
and young
director of means of communication in Brazil, I had spurred the
presence of
French song. I signed agreements with the French Press Agency.
In the 1970's
at the University of Brazilia, I pressed for an agreement with
France for the
teaching of public administrators which led to my country experts
and
Graduates of the ENA (Ecole Nationale d'Administration), such
as Jean Pierre
Hoss, to cite one example. I was at the same time an enthusiast
for the
polemical new `world information order'--and if my French friends
can pardon
my insolence--I would say that the principles that we supported
on that
occasion are the same that all french people defend now with the
idea of
("Cultural Exception").
I also know that in awarding the Legion of Honor to a foreigner, an ex-functionary of UNESCO,
the French government wished to express publicly its
support for the orientation and work of a team, a dynamic conception
of
education, an idea of cooperation based upon solidarity, sharing,
and a
respect for cultural diversity. I began by saying that I was not
going to
give an academic lecture such as these of the French Academy of
Letters. But
in a moment of transition there are certain ideas that should
be emphasized. I
am in full agreement with Monsieur Jospin who declared--at the
UNESCO higher
education conference (Paris, October 1998), that "there is
no one unique model
for higher education," and that "if higher education
must adapt itself to the
market, then I challenge the mercantile conception that it must
be determined
by the market." I am in complete agreement with President
Chirac who just
before the World Trade Organization Conference in Seatle, stated
seven
principles for a new world order: collective responsibility in
action, equity,
solidarity, diversity, caution, liberty, complimentarity.
I am very grateful to the Brazilian authorities who--despite
menacing
agent of repression, supported with courage in the 1980's my nomination
to
UNESCO: Ministers of Education Portella, Ludwig and Euro Brand
o, Ministers of
Foreign Affairs Silveira and Guerreiro, Ambassadors Geralo Holanda
Cavalcanti,
Baena Soares and Paulo Carneiro, Vice-Minister Octavio Costa and
many others.
President Cardoso and Minister Paulo Renato Sousa, despite the
fact that I
defend an economic politics different from that of their administration,
gave
a clear support at crucial moments for my actions at UNESCO. I
also happily
recognize Monsieur M'Bow who--in naming me Director of the Division
of Higher
Education--did not give support to those who thought that our
efforts should
be limited to developing nations. I am grateful to Monsieur Mayor
for not
yielding to the pressures of those who would have sent me to the
far corners
of the universe and who opened the way to a humanist vision in
our work. I am
also grateful to Rector van Ginkel and members of the University
Council of
the United Nations who, always taking into account my limitations,
solicited
my collaboration in efforts to help to strenghten universities
and research in
the developing world.
UNESCO, as all human institutions, must try hard to improve
itself.
Reforms are always necessary. Abuses must be eliminated, but it
is not
necessary to go very far to find philosophical foundations which
have the
power to justify educational and cultural action on the international
level.
The team which launched the UNITWIN program, which organized the
world
conference on higher education, who prepared normative instruments
for higher
education personnel, and for academic mobility, who developed
the idea of
cooperation based on solidarity, the team with which I share this
decoration,
knows that all we have done has been for the construction of a
better society,
more just, more equitable. The governements have a role to play
in this
enterprise, but civil society and members of the academic community
in
particular, have their word to say in this area.
Return to Global University System Early 2000 Correspondence
****************************************
List of Distribution
Dr. Marco Antonio R. Dias
Vice President, Global University System
Consultant of United Nations University
Former Director, Division of Higher Education of UNESCO
36, Rue Ernest Renan
92.190 Meudon
FRANCE
Tel: +33-1-45 34 3509
Fax: +33-1-45 34 3509
mardias@club-internet.fr
m.dias@unesco.org
Dr. Parker Rossman
3 Lemmon Drive
Columbia MO 65201-5413
573-443-3256
FAX: 314-876-5812 (emergency)
grossman@mail.coin.missouri.edu
jrossman@mail.coin.missouri.edu
grossman@bigcat.missouri.edu
http://www.trib.net/~prossman
P. Tapio Varis, Ph.D, Professor
Acting President, Global University System
Chairman, GLOSAS/Finland
Professor and Chair
Media Culture and Communication Education
Hypermedia laboratory
University of Tampere
P.O.Box 607
FIN-33101 Tampere
FINLAND
Tel: +358-3-215 6110
GSM: +358-50-567-9833
Fax: +358-3-215 7503
tapio.varis@uta.fi
http://www.uta.fi/~titava
**********************************************************************
* Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., P.E., Chairman, GLOSAS/USA *
* (GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A.)
*
* Laureate of Lord Perry Award for Excellence in Distance Education
*
* Founder of CAADE *
* (Consortium for Affordable and Accessible Distance Education)
*
* President Emeritus and V.P. for Technology and Coordination
of *
* Global University System (GUS) *
* 43-23 Colden Street, Flushing, NY 11355-3998, U.S.A. *
* Tel: 718-939-0928; Fax: 718-939-0656 (day time only--prefer
email) *
* Email: utsumi@columbia.edu; Tax Exempt ID: 11-2999676 *
* http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/ *
**********************************************************************
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