UNESCO (Paris, France)
I attended an interesting presentation at UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), which is based in Paris. Its World Heritage Center Director, Francesco Bandarin, talked about the work his staff has done around the world preserving cultural and historic sites. Organized by the UC Berkeley Alumni Paris chapter, many Americans attended the event. The evening started with a tour of UNESCO, which was created in 1953. The modern, 50s style building houses many works of art from around the world, with displays changing quite frequently throughout the building. I especially liked the outdoor Japanese Garden, where the beautiful trees and plants were imported from Japan. Bandarin spoke about some of the challenges of preserving (in some cases, restoring) important historical sites. For example, in Bamyan, Afghanistan, the Taliban government blew up ancient buddha stone statues, despite UNESCO's pleas to not destroy them. After the Taliban ignored their please, according to Bandarin, UNESCO decided to restore a couple of the statues, hoping that one day when the country is safe enough for tourists, people can visit the unique place of history. UNESCO approves World Heritage sites based on what the respective country's government nominates. That means some sites are more difficult to preserve because the lack of government support. I'm hoping to accompany UNESCO on one of its missions to a historic site in the coming months. It would be great to document the work they've done and hope to do in the future.
