Esperanto protects all languages and is supposed to be
the second language for all human beings.
RFG


Message from Mr Koitchiro Matsuura, Director-General
of UNESCO, on the celebration of 2008, International
Year of Languages

The year 2008 has been proclaimed International Year
of Languages by the United Nations General Assembly.
UNESCO, which has been entrusted with the task of
coordinating activities for the Year, is determined to
fulfil its role as lead agency.

The Organization is fully aware of the crucial
importance of languages when seen against the many
challenges that humanity will have to face over the
next few decades.

Languages are indeed essential to the identity of
groups and individuals and to their peaceful
coexistence. They constitute a strategic factor of
progress towards sustainable development and a
harmonious relationship between the global and the
local context.

They are of utmost importance in achieving the six
goals of education for all (EFA) and the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) on which the United Nations
agreed in 2000.

As factors of social integration, languages
effectively play a strategic role in the eradication
of extreme poverty and hunger (MDG 1); as supports for
literacy, learning and life skills, they are essential
to achieving universal primary education (MDG 2); the
combat against HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
(MDG 6) must be waged in the languages of the
populations concerned if they are to be reached; and
the safeguarding of local and indigenous knowledge and
know-how with a view to ensuring environmental
sustainability (MDG 7) is intrinsically linked to
local and indigenous languages.

Moreover, cultural diversity is closely linked to
linguistic diversity, as indicated in the UNESCO
Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity and its
action plan (2001), the Convention for the
Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and
the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the
Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005).

However, within the space of a few generations, more
than 50% of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world
may disappear. Less than a quarter of those languages
are currently used in schools and in cyberspace, and
most are used only sporadically. Thousands of
languages though mastered by those populations for
whom it is the daily means of expression are absent
from education systems, the media, publishing and the
public domain in general.

We must act now as a matter of urgency. How? By
encouraging and developing language policies that
enable each linguistic community to use its first
language, or mother tongue, as widely and as often as
possible, including in education, while also mastering
a national or regional language and an international
language. Also by encouraging speakers of a dominant
language to master another national or regional
language and one or two international languages. Only
if multilingualism is fully accepted can all languages
find their place in our globalized world.

UNESCO therefore invites governments, United Nations
organizations, civil society organizations,
educational institutions, professional associations
and all other stakeholders to increase their own
activities to foster respect for, and the promotion
and protection of all languages, particularly
endangered languages, in all individual and collective
contexts.

Whether it be through initiatives in the fields of
education, cyberspace or the literate environment; be
it through projects to safeguard endangered languages
or to promote languages as a tool for social
integration; or to explore the relationship between
languages and the economy, languages and indigenous
knowledge or languages and creation, it is important
that the idea that languages matter be promoted
everywhere.

The date of 21 February 2008, that of the ninth
International Mother Language Day, will have a special
significance and provide a particularly appropriate
deadline for the introduction of initiatives to
promote languages. Our common goal is to ensure that
the importance of linguistic diversity and
multilingualism in educational, administrative and
legal systems, cultural expressions and the media,
cyberspace and trade, is recognized at the national,
regional and international levels.

The International Year of Languages 2008 will provide
a unique opportunity to make decisive progress towards
achieving these goals.

Koitchiro Matsuura



~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~
Renato Corsetti/Korseti, Via del Castello, 1
IT-00036 Palestrina, Italujo,
<renato.corsetti@ esperanto. org>


Ruben Feldman-Gonzalez M.D.
-Initiator of Holokinetic Psychology
-Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry-Neurology-A.B.P.N.
-Professor in Psychology and Psychiatry- IAS- RSM
International Academy of Sciences-Republic of San Marino
-President of IAS-RSM-Mexico Branch
-Director Ejecutivo del CPH-Mexicali-Mexico
-Candidate to the Nobel Peace Prize 2008

1-Libros en papel: hkl_cf@...
2- Séptimo Congreso Internacional: Guadalajara-Marzo 17 a 19-2008-
(10 libros nuevos a presentar.)
3- Consultas con RFG en Mexicali:
cphmexicali@...
4- youtube.com.....busque Ruben Feldman-Gonzalez-VIDEOS-
5- Vea la Página Web renovada semanalmente y baje libros gratis
o escuche Talleres Completos gratis.
www.percepcionunitaria.org