Welcome
at the World Cultural Council’s 21st Award Ceremony

by Prof. Willy Legros
Rector University of Liège

November 8th 2004
It is a great honour for the University of Liège to host this 21st award ceremony of the World Cultural Council, thus concluding and crowning the Council’s 20th anniversary celebrations that began in Helsinki last year.

As the start of the 21st century is shaken by important economic changes and resulting multiple conflicts, the notion of culture seems to have taken a back seat. Most of the planet is fighting for basic material survival and the existence of the remaining minority only seems to focus on accumulating and consuming material goods.

The role of the scientific community is essential in this regard. It is the responsibility of scholars in general, and that of the University in particular, to recall the importance of knowledge in social and individual development. If the actions taken to preserve, create and transmit knowledge contribute to technical progress, they remain, above all, factors of civilisation in the broadest sense of the word. There is no harmonious societal life possible without this sharing of knowledge that is the very foundation of a common culture. Democracy is impossible if this shared knowledge does not integrate the highest human values and cannot be called into question while opening up to the knowledge of others.

The cultural stake is also central to democracy, as it assumes, on the one hand, the equality of all in accessing knowledge and, on the other hand, the free exercise of reflection and intelligence. In contrast, the control of knowledge and imposing of dogmas by elitist leaders both rigidify and impoverish culture. Submission to power originates in ignorance. We know about the autos-da-fé of totalitarian regimes, the destruction of books and the elimination of intellectuals. We know today about the invasion of the environment by marketing and political one-sided thinking, the reign of entertainment media and the dictatorship of audience ratings.

Docile consumers and submissive voters do not mix well with critical thinking. The reason why it is vital to reaffirm the necessity of sound, committed public policies in research and teaching matters. Learning and sharing what one has learned are tools of liberation and progress. Serving this ambition rather than reducing the world to stock market results is but a simple question of choice. In the current context, the future of Professor Cicerone as the President of the American Academy of Sciences looks packed with difficult challenges. Our University already assures him of its support in this weighty task of preserving and developing the humanistic and democratic dimensions of science.

The World Award of Science and the World Award of Education that are granted today illustrate this vocation. The University of Liège is that much prouder to be at the centre of this ceremony as it reinforces the values that it defends Our University already received this recognition several years ago with the attribution of these prestigious prizes to two of its researchers, Professors De Landsheere and Ghuysen. Neither shall we forget that yet another Liège academic, Professor Pol Swings, was one of the pioneer members of the World Cultural Council.

Beyond honours, our institution’s links with both the concerns and the spirit of the World Cultural Council demonstrate that we remain attentive to the responsibility of science and culture in tomorrow’s world. One in which we hope that the interest of the majority prevails over all others. We have no doubt that personalities as eminent as Sir David Attenborough and Professor Cicerone will contribute to this development.

I thank you.