UNESCO Courier articles from January 1994

UNESCO Courier archives from January 1994

Theodore Monod. (naturalist-explorer) (Interview) (Interview)
January 1, 1994... Theodore Monod is a naturalist who himself belongs to a disappearing species: that of the explorer-scientists who travel to remote regions to satisfy their passion for knowledge. In his Paris workplace, the Ichthyology Laboratory of the Museum...

The dry lands. (arid regions)
January 1, 1994... IN most people's minds the term desert conjures up an image of undulating sand dunes beneath the hot sun. There are, however, many other kinds of desert. Antarctica, Greenland and the polar ice packs are cold deserts where the water is locked up...

The call of the wilderness.
January 1, 1994... Ascetics have always been drawn to life in the desert, far from the world and the pleasures of the flesh. Some of them became a prey to strange forces and malign spirits... THREE calls come from the desert. The first is the call of God, who...

A place of trials. (deserts in Persian literature)
January 1, 1994... THE Persian mystic tradition compares the spiritual quest to the crossing of desert valleys. Sufism enumerates seven of these valleys: quest, love, knowledge, detachment, unity, amazement and annihilation. The path is perilous. Asceticism to...

A painter's paradise. (deserts)
January 1, 1994... The desert's abrupt changes of colour, light and mood cast a powerful spell on artists THE desert is a mysterious and disturbing presence. Beneath its endless surface a world of profusion is waiting to reveal itself to those who take time to...

Screenplays in the sand.
January 1, 1994... The desert has played a dramatic role in the history of the cinema BUSTER Keaton, his hands joined together as if in prayer, entreats a cow, with just the right combination of buffoonery and solemnity, to produce a drop of milk. In the...

Protecting the world's wetlands. (Greenwatch)
January 1, 1994... THE River Okavango flows for about 1,400 kilometres from its source in Angola (where it is known as the Cubango) before disappearing into the sands of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, where it forms the world's largest inland delta. This vast...

Changing course at WWF. (World Wildlife Fund) (Greenwatch )
January 1, 1994... WHEN it was founded in 1961, WWF--the biggest private international organization devoted to the conservation of nature--was known as the World Wildlife Fund. In 1986 it changed its name to World Wide Fund For Nature, though in the United States...

Hidden waters. (underground water in deserts)
January 1, 1994... For centuries arid land in many parts of the world has been made fertile by tapping underground mountain water through tunnels--often several kilometres long--that are masterpieces of hydraulic engineering The world's biggest and oldest oases...

A long look at the world's arid lands. (UNESCO In Action)
January 1, 1994... UNESCO's pioneering work in arid zone research, begun over 40 years ago, was the starting point for a continuing effort to mobilize science in the cause of the global environment HUMANKIND has always encountered aridity, and over the ages has...

Africa: learning to manage the desert. (UNESCO In Action)
January 1, 1994... THERE are more arid lands in Africa than in any other continent. In addition to these natural deserts where there is very little rainfall, there is also an area twice as large, straddling the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, that receives...

The price of peace. (Commentary)
January 1, 1994... THE world has changed. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 marked the end of Cold War confrontation between the two major power blocs, which is undoubtedly the most important political...

Rabindranath Tagore: a greater awareness of truth. (text of letter by Rabindranath Tagore to scholar Gilbert Murray) (Archives) (Transcript)
January 1, 1994... The letter published below, in abridged form, appeared in Correspondance, a journal published (in French) by the International Institute of Intellectual Co-operation. It was sent in 1934 by Rabindranath Tagore to the British classical scholar...

The stone age temples of Malta. (includes related article) (UNSECO In Action)
January 1, 1994... DURING the first half of the present century European archaeologists, puzzling over the similarities between ancient cultures, came up with the diffusion theory: a steady spread westwards of ideas, skills and inventions from the early...

Quizas tu nombre salve/Et si ton nom sauvait.
January 1, 1994... This anthology of Salvadorian poetry is mainly devoted to the twentieth century and more than half of the contributors are still alive. Although the country's verse is relatively little-known, it "has contributed to Central American literature...

L'Epopee de Samba Gueladiegui.
January 1, 1994... This daarol (epic) in the Peul language is one of west Africa's most famous oral narratives, and four versions of it have already been published. Historical rather than mythological in form, in the manner of the chanson de geste, it tells the...

Old Czech Legends.
January 1, 1994... This collection of old Czech legends was originally intended for children, but parents may enjoy it even more, now that so many people are concerned about preservation of the cultural heritage in all its forms. Alois Jirasek, a student and...