Speech by Chair of the Eurasian Media Forum Organizing Committee Dariga Nazarbayeva
27.04.2009We have thought a lot and decided as follows: the global crisis is definitely a colossal event, but even that cannot preclude… spring from coming. So according to the calendar, these are the last days of April, which means that it is time for me to tell you for the eighth time now: welcome to Almaty where no matter what, lilac is blossoming and … the Eurasian Media Forum is about to start off!
Parting last April, the attendees and the guests of our Forum could not even imagine what challenges the world would have to face in the near future.
The Eighth Eurasian Media Forum is starting off in hard times. The global economy is experiencing the biggest downturn of the past decades, and globalisation – whose fruits we were so proud of not long ago – has resulted in the crisis taking the form of a global one affecting a number of the largest economies.
You have to agree that the amount of pleasing news has declined considerably in the past year. Now we have to share with our acquaintances and friends our concerns about the crisis and the challenges, ahead of any other issues.
However, I am sure that today is a special day because today we are here in Almaty again. And when, despite any crises and economic hardships, so many friends get together again in one room in order to speak to us of the vital matters it is very important, you can believe me. Thank you for that with all my heart!
Dear colleagues and dear friends,
Let me express my gratitude to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev for the attention he has been paying to our Forum and for his constant valuation of our joint efforts!
I also thank the State Secretary of Kazakhstan Kanat Saudabayev for his bright speech!
I suppose that in the short but rich history of the Eurasian Media Forums, changes in global politics and the global economy have never been as significant as at this time. And events occurring in parallel with such changes have never been that dramatic.
Blood and tears of the war in the Caucasus this August, the destruction in the Gaza Strip, the ongoing war in Iraq, the intensifying war in Afghanistan, which recently started spreading to Pakistan, the outrageous attacks by the Somalia pirates, the cold-blooded assassination of tens of people in the Indian state of Mumbai… More and more issues can be added to this list. Every day we learn from the news schedules about more and more locations of tension. Even schools and kindergartens cannot avoid death and violence. All that echoes painfully in our hearts and makes the mind ask one and the same question – why?
Unfortunately, the past year has been full of military conflicts. That is why the attendees at this Forum will focus on such matters as the objective and unbiased coverage of military actions in the media. Unfortunately, it is easy to notice that the reports on military actions, whether in South Ossetia or the Middle East, were sometimes extremely contradictory and even led to biased conclusions. That should evidently call for some serious discussion.
An intriguing election that captured the attention of the international media for many months ended up with the compelling victory of Barak Obama. Many observers tend to consider that as something unprecedented. They speak of a fundamental change in US foreign policy, of fundamental economic transformation in that still major global power – and that gives us a reason for organising the various panel discussions on our agenda.
It is widely reported today that the U.S. is preparing to withdraw its troops from Iraq. The situation in Afghanistan is getting out of control, although it has not yet led to a move for withdrawing the Western coalition troops.
One may ask a reasonable question, which is far from being an idle one for us, as regional neighbours of Afghanistan and Iraq. What will happen after the U.S. and the NATO troops leave these countries? What will happen in Pakistan and what will then happen to its relations with India, which are uneasy anyway?
There has been no a single answer yet to these and many other similarly difficult questions.
Before the G20 summit held in April in London for the leaders of the world’s major economies, the UK Foreign Secretary David Milliband said that the ‘one-pole’ world would come to an end.
Our colleague Farid Zakaria, editor-in-chief of Newsweek International, stated it in a very clear manner in his book entitled The Post-American World of the Future: “The forces are getting redistributed. America does not dominate here anymore. That does not at all mean that we are entering the anti-American world. We are entering the post-American world, which is determined and managed from many centres and by many people”.
The move towards multi-polarity means not just an absence of domination by the world’s one ‘supercentre’. The move towards multi-polarity means the redistribution of global responsibility for both security and the economy among several players.
Are they ready to take on such responsibility?
This question does not seem to be at all rhetorical now.
Many influential politicians and experts in the world say that the total loss of trust by political and economical entities is the key challenge of the current times. This loss of trust is the essential effect of the crisis and the essential factor intensifying it. When the Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao says that his country is concerned about the safety of its American assets, it is not only about major politics, but also about the effect of a crisis between the world’s largest economies. And when the U.S. President Barak Obama says that foreign investors can be absolutely confident in the security of their investments in U.S. government securities, it is an attempt to restore the trust that has been jeopardised.
I am not afraid to repeat myself, indeed I am very ready to keep on saying – that only continuous multi-channel global dialogue will enable the restoration of the balance of trust in global politics and the economy. Only this dialogue will prevent the world from getting into more and more conflicts, which otherwise are becoming ever more intense.
And we are going to speak again in Almaty of the eternal significance of the traditions of the Eurasian dialogue of civilisations.
But not just to speak. I am convinced that our Forum is by right one of the important long-standing centres for such a dialogue, enabling the creation of a common information community in Eurasia. I would also call it the community of understanding of civilisations.
Today it is impossible not to recognise that apart from economic challenges, this moment in history is also facing major ideological challenges. Literally in our eyes, the civilisation values, including some humanitarian ones, which very recently seemed to be unquestionable, are being tested, if not devalued. There is now an absolutely new cultural, historic and political situation, in the face of which I think we feel somehow lost. The global crisis is also an intellectual challenge. And it is also a good incentive for development and self-improvement. A good excuse for looking at the world differently.
And in this sense a productive discussion seems absolutely essential.
What is peculiar about this crisis is that for the first time it is happening in the era of global communications. When any news item becomes known to millions of people worldwide within a few minutes and even seconds, when the public is often unprepared for the latest developments, we can very well understand, that this creates an atmosphere of
disturbing tension and continuous expectation of problems, an atmosphere which does not always reflect reality and the actual trends. The worst thing in a crisis is to panic and start thinking negatively.
Finally, the international media are also experiencing, if not a crisis, then big changes. The circulation of newspapers and magazines is reducing, and the ratings and advertising proceeds of TV networks are going down. Meanwhile genres that emerged in a so-called virtual community are becoming increasingly popular. First of all, that means comments by anonymous commentators in the forums and pages of Internet newspapers. The interest in specific Internet videos is growing noticeably. Live journals and blogs are extremely popular. It seems that it is now time to recognise these changes openly, face to face.
This is the menu for this Forum. These topics have been chosen given the events occurring in these hard times.
I invite all the attendees of the Media Forum to a frank, open and proactive discussion of all the items on our agenda.
Dear colleagues, dear guests and friends,
The eighth Eurasian Media Forum is declared open!
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