| Towards a new cultural diplomacy |
 |
 |
 |
| Tuesday, 01 June 2010 10:46 | |||||
|
Brazil is experiencing the best moment of his life story as economic stability, and there is a happy prospect for growth.
The country not only settled the debt, accumulated since she was a colony of Portugal, as has become a creditor of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Has been making locks increasingly positive trade balance. It has received heavy investment from foreign companies, betting on the domestic market with vigor.
Discovered a large layer of oil in its waters (pre-salt) and even received a grant to host its second World Cup football and the first Olympics to be held in the South American continent, to be held in Rio de Janeiro. Moreover, crossed the most violent global economic crisis of all time and came out almost unscathed. Therefore, the World Economic Forum chose President Lula as the first winner of the newly created Global Statesmanship Award, for leading the Brazilian economy during the global financial crisis. Even before the Forum, economists from several countries have predicted that Brazil will be the fifth largest economy by 2020. All these facts are extraordinary. But the international relations of Brazil must be seen not only through the prism of political-economic understanding. It is necessary to think and develop more effective our cultural diplomacy, our dialogue with the cultures of other countries. The commercial activity and financial businesses promote contact between people, but nothing better than culture to strengthen the roots of the integration process between the companies. The mistrust and rivalry soften quickly when there is a higher level of knowledge of the specificities of each other. If you look at it, we see that the diffusion of the cultural history of the people positively influences the way you think relations between the states. The representations of diverse cultures constitute themselves as legitimate historical objects, so an increased exchange of cultural products and practices must always be promoted. Unfortunately, culture is still considered by many superfluous, it is not valued as a tool for harmonization of societies or as a facilitator of the advancement of regional or global integration. In Mercosur, for example, cultural issues are barely discussed. The rich cultural heritages of the countries members remain ignored and are not used as tools for building bonds of trust and cooperation among their peoples. A lack of cultural politics of member nations makes it clear what are the priorities: those of a commercial nature. The cultural aspect of international relations in Brazil and can be better cultivated. We need to promote integrated initiatives for countries from all continents to encourage mutual knowledge and disseminate the main aspects of Brazilian culture, introducing thus a cultural policy that aims to harmony and reconciliation among peoples, even before any marketing of cultural products . A significant action in this direction would be the implementation of the Institute Machado de Assis (Ima), an institution which should be linked to the Ministry of Culture (Minc). The institute was designed to formulate and coordinate policies to promote Portuguese language in Brazil and abroad, promoting and organizing research on the language, besides being a reference to the ensinoe teacher education and promote scientific and cultural activities aiming to disseminate the language Portuguese and Lusophone culture. Portuguese is the language used by 200 million people, becoming the fifth most spoken in the world. It is for the Brazilian government structure the project to establish the Ima along the lines of the joint declaration between Brazil and Portugal, during the 7th Summit Luso-Brazilian, held in Oporto in 2005, in which both countries assert the importance of promoting English language internationally. Serve as reference for the background and the early establishment of an appropriate entity to the Brazilian traditional institutions and experienced in that work, such as the Instituto Camoes, Instituto Cervantes, Instituto Dante Alighieri and the British Council. Machado de Assis The Institute should also contribute to the effective performance of the social practices of writing and reading for all citizens. It is imperative that will soon be "taken out of the paper," helping to start a new cultural diplomacy in Brazil. At this time, the government should structure the project of creating the Institute Machado de Assis
Related Tags:
|
SpotLight
Advertisement
