UNESCO Courier articles from September 1998

UNESCO Courier archives from September 1998

Hopes and dreams of Algeria's youth.
September 1, 1998... It isn't easy to be young in Algeria, a country where five years of violence have claimed nearly 100,000 lives and economic upheavals are having drastic social consequences. In spite of everything, today's young Algerians refuse to abandon...

Progress for whom?(sustainable development)(Editorial)
September 1, 1998... It is too often forgotten that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is not only concerned with civil and political rights but also with what are known as economic and social rights. In the preamble to the Declaration, it is stipulated that...

Mutants on the menu.(includes related articles on genetic modification, Amazonian forest, and whale protection)(genetically modified plants)
September 1, 1998... Genetically modified plants are being developed so quickly that they could become the backbone of tomorrow's agriculture. For better or for worse? Feeding the world is one of the big challenges of the next century. Paradoxically, whereas...

Colombia's community mothers.(includes related articles on Amcolombia, the Inter-Regional Network of Latin American and Caribbean Scientists, and the 'Learning to Be' report of UNESCO's International Commission of the Development of Education)
September 1, 1998... For years 'community mothers' have been helping to bring up children in Colombia, a country plagued by violence and poverty In the mid-1980s, the Colombian government, alarmed by very high rates of infant mortality and malnutrition,...

Shaking the ivory tower.(Higher Education ... and After?)(higher education)(Cover Story)
September 1, 1998... Universities have changed radically to keep pace with modern life. Now where are they heading in this high-speed age? In the past half century higher education has been transformed from a privilege conferred on social and political elites...

Four pillars of wisdom.(Higher Education ... and After?)(historical models of the university)(Cover Story)
September 1, 1998... Four countries have left their mark on the world's higher education systems. What contributions have they made? For more than 900 years, the university has been remarkably active in "exporting itself". The great medieval universities of...

Germany: lost illusions.(Higher Education ... and after?)(student situation)(Cover Story)
September 1, 1998... What do students want? Thirty years ago, from Dakar to Mexico City, from Paris to Berkeley, students took to the streets to announce the coming of a new world. Students have often been in the forefront of revolutions, and in several...

Indonesia: an uncertain future.(Higher Education ... and after?)(student situation)(Cover Story)
September 1, 1998... The future of a nation lies in the hands of the young. For Indonesia, that is no overstatement. In May 1998, it was the students who caught the world's attention by spearheading the drive to unseat the nearly godlike figure of President Suharto...

Wanted: a new deal for the universities.(Higher Education ... and After?)(includes related article on higher education enrolments)(Cover Story)
September 1, 1998... Higher education must meet new demands in order to turn out well-trained professionals instead of unemployed graduates We are living through a period of profound historical change, marked by an on-going knowledge revolution. Society is...

Vision and action for the next century.(Higher Education ... and After?)(World Conference on Higher Education)(Cover Story)
September 1, 1998... Challenges await a World Conference on Higher Education in the 21st century, convened by UNESCO in Paris from 5 to 9 October Is world mobilization in favour of higher education justified while millions of adults and children are illiterate...

Turkey: a course for the future.(Higher Education ... and After?)(university system changes)(Cover Story)
September 1, 1998... Specialization, proliferating courses, regionalization and privatization are key trends in Turkey's changing university system Change is in the air as the 1998-1999 Turkish academic year begins. The focus is on the entrance exams, reputedly...

Bulgaria's overdose of Russian profs.(Higher Education ... and After?)(unemployment among teachers of Russian courses)(Cover Story)
September 1, 1998... Since the Soviet collapse, the demand for Russian courses in Bulgarian schools has plummeted, leaving many teachers jobless In the early 1990s, after the fall of the Berlin wall and communist regimes, Bulgarians could hardly imagine what...

Graduates for hire.(Higher Education ... and After?)(includes related article on expatriate students)(Cover Story)
September 1, 1998... Mobile, talented students are increasingly numerous and sought-after players on the international job market Business follows graduates. For the countries that host them, today's high-flying foreign students hold the keys to tomorrow's...

The talent spotters.(Higher Education ... and After?)(employee recruitment via international agencies)(Cover Story)
September 1, 1998... In search of that precious raw material - intelligence - multinationals are skimming the cream of the student crop Without by-passing their own departments of human resources, big companies are increasingly recruiting employees through...

India's loss, West's gain.(Higher Education ... and After?)(Indian foreign students)(Cover Story)
September 1, 1998... For many in India, a diploma from the North represents a passport to financial and social success It is a familiar sight to the residents of Madras and other big Indian cities. Oblivious of the scorching sun, scores of young people stand...

Full heads but empty pockets.(Higher Education ... and After?)(unemployed college graduates in Morocco)(Cover Story)
September 1, 1998... Thousands of young Moroccan graduates are jobless. So far their protests have got them nowhere At the end of the academic year in June 1998, some 4,000 people with postgraduate degrees and 18,000 other university graduates arrived on...

Tomorrow's world elite.(Higher Education ... and After?)(interview with Jacques Attali)(Interview)
September 1, 1998... After reporting on the state of his country's university system, the French expert fears the rise of a two-tier system, with quality higher education reserved exclusively for the elite * Is there really a crisis in higher education? I...

The web, the spider and the fly.(includes related article on Internet service providers)(Internet censorship)
September 1, 1998... Will censorship on the Internet forbid the unacceptable or just silence troublesome voices? What grip can be held on a communications tool designed to be free from control? A skull rotates on the black screen. The picture of a baby flanked...

Bilbao: the Guggenheim effect.(includes related article on the Guggenheim Foundation)(Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum)
September 1, 1998... Life looked grim as the industrial heart of this Basque city ground to a halt. But an ambitious new cultural policy may be just what the doctor ordered Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum celebrates its first anniversary in October. In the year...

Cybersnoopers on the prowl.(includes related articles on the 2nd InfoEthics congress by the UNESCO, the Food and Agriculture Organization website and the millennium bug)(data protection on the Internet)
September 1, 1998... In the digital age, how can privacy be protected without infringing people's freedom to trade via Internet? 'No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence.... Everyone has the right to...

Jeremy Rifkin: fears of a brave new world.(includes glossary)(includes related article on Rifkin as an author)(interview with economist and activist Jeremy Rifkin)(Interview)
September 1, 1998... Will wars be fought for the control of genes in the 21st century? Jeremy Rifkin fears the worst and explains why * What is the Biotech Century? Our futurists have too narrowly defined the twenty-first century as the information age. In...