International Roundtable
"Dialogue of Cultures and the Modern Ukrainian Society"
Organised by Eugene Kushnaryov Foundation for Democracy Initiatives Support
"Kharkiv" Hotel, Kharkiv, Ukraine, 2008, September 25-26
Additional information - Yulia Zmulyukova, Programs Manager
Not Existing Side-by-Side but Living Together
I believe that living in harmony with your own self and the surrounding world is a dream of any normal person. Is it possible to realize that dream? What should we do about the wars and conflicts? Is it possible to fight xenophobia and hatred, misperception and neglection of other cultures, views and religions? Though at our last conference discussing the principles of tolerance in modern democracies we have heard- though solitary-a call upon the necessity to restrict tolerance, we all the same are willing to pursue with our debate on world’s diversity and its integrity.
Of course, it takes all sort to make a world. One cannot recognize somebody’s right to deprive others of their lives. However, one can and one should accept the right of every person to their individuality, beliefs, views and traditions. The key point is that one should learn to live in the world full of diversities in order to make our differences mutually rewarding rather than disintegrating. That, in my view, is one of the main conditions for sustainability of democratic society.
Moreover, in the world, where boundaries are getting more and more conditional and cooperations - transnational, the topic of national identification and intercultural communication often plays a crucial role. To that both history and modernity have persuasive proofs.
Sharing the expectations of other organizers, I hope the debate will not concentrate around the question: who is more important and useful and indispensable. Taking the importance of every individual for a starting point, we hope the debate would concentrate on how to live together, rather than plainly exist side-by-side. A lot of things depend on the government, the people in power and the politicians. But not less important are our own efforts.
Clearly understanding that the subject of discussion is a complicated issue for Ukraine of today, I nonetheless wish all the success to the participants of the round table. I would like to believe that we will hear each other in order to be heard by the society.
Andrei Kushnaryov,
Vice-President of the Foundation
