Heroic attempts in the complex world

What courses are worth the effort to fight for?

Everyone would probably have a different answer.

The UK's international development secretary Penny Mordaunt's attack to UNESCO made me angry. <Read more: Emily Thornberry's article on Guardian >I thought the UK could be better than this.

Here is one of the reason that I joined UNESCO's expert facility.

After working for the British Council for many years, and championing "mutual benefits" in cultural exchange, Reflecting on these years of effort, I am not sure that the effort one puts in the so called work for more cultural exchange, better international collaborations, skills development is actually worth it. After all the belief of building a better shared future through culture is at best idealistic or even naive.

A few months ago, I was selected to take part in UNESCO's Asia Pacific Region workshop on Diversity of Cultural Expression (2005 Convention). It gives me some insight knowledge of how UNESCO works.

I hope my UNESCO colleagues would not find my comparison in any way disrespectful to their unique effort in making the world a better place, but I find the spirit behind the work that I used to do in the British is rather similar to what UNESCO colleagues are working.

The British Council was also established after the bitter lessons and reflections on the war. Perhaps it would be better to build "friendship and knowledge" in the world, than fighting with each other?

That since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed. (Preamble of the UNESCO constitution)

"At its best, UNESCO is the heroic intellectual and moral force of the idealism encapsulated in its Preamble" Professor Singh stated in this book Creating Norms for a Complex world(2011). What a precise summary. The idealism seeks to educate humanity to overcome its worst self through cultural dialogue, scientific collaborations, literacy and communication. At its worst, UNESCO, like many other UN agencies, is a functional tragedy of our own making, suffering from power politics, lack of resources, ineffectiveness and managerial ineptitude.

The two sides described above are true and present. I want to believe that the idealism human "shared better future" is worth fight for.

Otherwise, who else is going to stand there and fighting for the norm, the good and the ethical against, great power behind states?

I am most familiar with the 2005 Convention -Protection and promotion of diversity of cultural expression , which includes preferential treatment to developing countries on cultrual products and services or do we content with only getting Hollywood movies in every country? or do we really want to have racial and cultural purity (such as the Nazi German had) before the Second World War?

I hope politicians and people in the UK will choose to be with the norm, the good, the ethical, and remain as a member of UNESCO.

Reference: Singh J.P (2011) United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO): Creating Norms for a Complex World