The UNESCO courier; Vol.:54, 5; 2001

P ro fil del ’ i n t e r n a u t een rupturede To i l e

Le nucléaire,p a ra d eà l’effetde serre ?

I t s u k u s h i m aet son temple:le tempsre t ro u v é

Afrique CFA:1000 F.CFA,Antilles:18 FF, Belgique:160 FB, Canada:3,95$Can,Espagne:550 Ptas, USA:4,25 $US, Luxembourg:154 F.Lux, Portugal:700 Esc ,Suisse:6,20 FS , United Kingdom:2,5£,Maroc:20 DH.C o l o m b i a :

t oxic rain killsm o re than the coca

Porto A l e g re :alternative webnews takes onthe media giants

Mark A n s p a c h :s a c r i fice andenvy in themodern globalmarket

May 2001

Canada:$3.95 Cdn,United Kingdom:£2.5,USA:$4.25

Th er i d d l ein the skies

Scienceand Creation

new titles from UNESCOPUBL ISHING

UNESCO Publishing

7, place de Fontenoy75352 Paris 07 SP, FranceFax: +33 1 45 68 57 37Internet: www.unesco.org/publishingE-mail: [email protected]

EuropeanPerspectives onCultural PolicyCultural policy reviewsRequirements for a sustainablecultural policyBy Christopher Gordon andSimon Mundy

■ Any policy for development mustbe profoundly sensitive to andinspired by culture.

■ Fresh thinking on the matter ofsustainable cultural policy.

World Directoryof Human RightsResearch and TrainingInstitutionsFifth edition

■ Materials, addresses of specializedinstitutions, bibliographies related to humanrights teaching and research.

■ Dedicated to the International Year ofMobilization against Racism, RacialDiscrimination, Xenophobia and relatedIntolerance (2001)

■ A much-valued tool for the protectionand promotion of human rights and thecreation of networks.

20 x 13,5 cm80 FF/ 12.20

27 x 22 cm384 pp.180 FF/ 27.44

◗ PEOPLE AND PLACES4 I, Galina Komarnitska, nurse in Kiev

Dreams and distress in contemporary UkrainePhotographs by Reiner Riedler, text by Galina Komarnitska

◗ PLANET10 Toxic rain kills more than the coca

The so-called “ war on coca” in Colombia is threatening the livesof half a million peasants and indigenous people. Nelson Fredy Padilla Castro

◗ WORLD OF LEARNING13 When girls go missing

Figuring out why millions of girls still don’t make it into school. Cynthia Guttman

15 Egypt’s celebrity model

◗ ETHICS38 More than just the truth

Truth commissions are one way of confronting crimes of the past,but not the only one. Priscilla B. Hayner

39 Revenge in the making in Bosnia Herzegovina40 Rwanda:“Let the victims voice their pain”

◗ CULTURE41 Weaving magic with the spoken word

A new wave of storytellers in Latin America gains a cult following.Asbel Lopez

43 The world according to Nicolás Buenaventura

◗ MEDIA44 Striking media giants with news on the web

For the World Social Forum in Porto A l e g r e, the Internet is the number one tool for offering analternative to news served up by the mainstream media. René Lefort

◗ TALKING TO…47 Mark Anspach: Global markets, anonymous victims

An American anthropologist explores the enduring presence of sacrific ein the modern global marke t p l a c e.

Detailed table of contents on page1 6

Fo c u s Science and Cre a t i o nThe riddle in the skiesVast in size and deeply mysterious ino r i g i n , the universe stands as the gre a t e s tchallenge to the ambitions of moderns c i e n c e. Cosmologists from around theworld believe the secrets of creation mayb ejust around the corner, and have spentthe last decades enriching and perfectingtheir accounts of the big bang. But arethey really as close as they think? Canscience ever answer the eternal question:why something rather than nothing?

The MyCn18 planetary nebula.

C O N T E N T SMAY 2001

Signed articles express the opinions of the authors and do notnecessarily re p resent the opinions of UN E S C O or those of the

e d i t o rs of the UN E S C O C o u r i e r. Photo captions and headlines arewritten by the UN E S C O C o u r i e r s t a f f. The boundaries on maps donot imply official endorsement or acceptance by UN E S C O or the

United Nations of the countries and territories concerned.

I N T H I S I S S U E

◗ ImaginationLet us begin at the beginning,at time zero. The universe is bornin unknown,possibly unknowablecircumstances. Billions of years later,since the most ancient times, humanbeings have marvelled at the night skyand sought answers to profoundquestions there. The frontiersof cosmology explored in this issue liefar beyond the human scale, givingfree rein to the imagination(pp. 16-37).Myths of enchantmentand terror have always accompaniedthe story of creation.In LatinAmerica,they are also nourishinga new wave of storytellers, includingthe Colombian Nicolás Buenaventura(pp. 41-43).

◗ ExclusionAs part of the war on drugs,Colombia’s coca crops are beingsprayed with a herbicide that isthreatening the health of close to halfa million people, driving them offthe land (pp. 10-12).Customs, poverty,sexual violence continue to closethe school doors to millions of younggirls, notably in Africa and south Asia(pp. 13-15).After civil war,dictatorship or genocide, grievouslywounded societies have set up truthand reconciliation commissions asa path to pardon and recovery.Countries as far apart as Bosnia,Canada and Mexico are consideringthe option (pp. 38-40). To give thoseexcluded from the information worlda voice, participants at the WorldSocial Forum in Porto Alegre adoptedthe Internet as their chief weaponfor taking on the major media groups.To end,Mark Anspach draws parallelsbetween the use of ritual sacrificein primitive societies to end internalconflict and the anonymous victims—another kind of sacrifice—usheredin by the cold logic of the modernmarketplace (pp. 47-51).

Abandoned,Christina, two-months, receives care in a state hospital.

The deep-seated changes that have occurred in our country in thepast 15 years have given some people the chance to strike it rich anddragged others into poverty

4 The UNESCO Courier - May 2001

Single parent:drugs drove the father away.

Ioften think back on this day last year. It was May 27,the dayafter my birthday. I had just turned 28 and didn’t really feellike going to work, but, as the Ukrainian expression goes,“Hiba hotchech,mousych!” (“You must,whether you like itor not!”).

Before the ambulance set off on the streets of Kiev thatm o r n i n g, I ran down the usual checklist.The doctor filled outthe call sheets, a co-worker checked the equipment. Wheneverybody was ready, we hit the road!

Our rescue squad answers all kinds of calls,but most of thetime we deal with cardio-vascular and gastric diseases,v a r i o u skinds of poisoning and,of course, trauma.

That day, from ten in the morning till four in the afternoon,we drove through the city following a well-worn pattern. Id o n ’t know if the capricious weather that spring had anythingto do with it, but there were a lot of heart attacks.We treatedsome patients at home and brought others to the nearesthospital.One man had dropped a 200-litre barrel on his legand paid for his lack of caution with a broken foot.

Then we had to deal with a car crash caused by two recklessd r i v e r s. One was suffering from brain trauma and a chestinjury.The other was walking around desperately waving hisa r m s, trying to convince us that he wasn’t speeding and that hehadn’t been drinking “too much”—just a few beers—eventhough drinking and driving are against the law in Ukraine.

At around 5:30 p.m.,we received a call.A man,we weretold,showed no signs of life.We rushed to the scene. He wash o m e l e s s, dead drunk and incapable of the slightest reaction.And there we were, three young women—I was the oldest—lifting this poor, dirty “divine creature” on to a stretcher and

The people in these pictures inspired meto share with readers from other shores scenesfrom my everyday life. I’m often faced withdistress, but there’s still timefor dreaming

PHOTOS BY REINER RIEDLER;TEXT BY GALINA KOMARNITSKA

GALINA KOMARNITSKA IS A UKRAINIAN NURSE.REINER RIEDLER,A 33-YEAR-OLD AUSTRIAN PHOTOGRAPHER,PLACES SPECIALVALUE ON THE “ETHICS OF SEEING.” IN RECENT YEARS, HE HAS COMPLETED SEVERAL LONG-TERM PROJECTS IN EASTERN EUROPE

I , G a l i n aKo m a r n i t s k a ,n u rse in Kiev

P E O P L E A N D P L A C E S ◗

May 2001 - The UNESCO Courier 5

I , Galina Ko m a r n i t s k a ,n u rse in Kiev

A gripping story.

All bundled up for school in the village of Mikulicin.


P E O P L E A N D P L A C E S ◗

But something else baffles me. We used to have a specialward and rehab centres staffed by sturdy men for this kind ofc a s e.That was indispensable: in Ukraine,“ d r i n k i n g ” does notmean the same thing as in the west. But recently, a fewbureaucrats decided to get rid of these centres, probably forfinancial reasons.And they gave paramedics the responsibilityfor “collecting”drunks.

Ours woke up and decided that now was the time to “getto know each other.” He grabbed me by the leg and started

Companionship in a retired people’s home.

carrying him to the ambulance. Our driver helped us, o fcourse, but no man,much less a woman,can feel fulfilled bythis kind of work.

We are all children of God, and no one has the right tojudge that homeless man.Who knows why he’s on the streets?The deep-seated changes that have occurred in our countryin the past 15 years have given some people the chance tostrike it rich and dragged others into poverty. A n dunfortunately, those others are the great majority.


Key figuresPopulation 50 millionSurface area 604,000 sq.kmAdult literacy rate 99.6%Life expectancy at birth 69 yearsPopulation lacking essentialfood and non-food needs 50%GNP per capita (US$) 1989 2,610

1992 1,8201999 750

◗ P E O P L E A N D P L A C E S

pulling me towards him. I screamed, t h edriver stopped the ambulance, came tomy rescue and calmed him down witha . . . heavy object. The incident wasquickly over, but my hands shook for along while. That time, we were lucky.Our “ c u s t o m e r ” fell asleep withoutmoving or making noise.We had to takehis pulse to make sure he was still alive.

It was 20 kilometres to the hospitaland as many for the way back. B e i n gstuck in traffic jams gave me time towonder about a few things. For example,why go through 10 years of school andseveral years of training—three for an u r s e, six for a doctor — just to pickdrunks up off the street? At these timesI feel as though my profession,knowledge and eight years’ experienceare useless. I t ’s hard to escape a deepsense of disappointment.

But you can’t spend your timeb r o o d i n g. In two months, I ’ll be onvacation with my boyfriend on theshores of the Black Sea. I used to gothere with my parents, but that was sucha long time ago, it seems like a dream.…We want to stop at Feodosiya,the townwhere the seascape painter Ay v a s o v s k yonce lived.Then we’ll head further south,to Sudak and Novi Svet, where PrinceGalitsin had tunnels dug to grow thelocal mushrooms that won a medal at the1900 World Fair in Paris. Close by, t h e r eis a cave where the world-famous operasinger Chaliapin used to give impromptuconcerts. And then, somebody told me

about a grove of juniper bushes whose fragrance is so subtlethat words cannot describe it.I am familiar with the scent ofroses, lilies and lavender, but that of juniper is still unknownto me.

I’m also planning to see the Toplovski monastery, wherethe martyred Saint Paraskeva lived. After the OctoberR e v o l u t i o n , the Soviets set up the Besboshnik (“The A t h e i s t ” )kolkhoz [collective farm] on the monastery’s land, and thethree sacred sources dried up. In the early 1990s, when theproperty was restituted to the Orthodox church, the springbegan to flow again.Now, people come from everywhere onpilgrimages to drink and touch the water. I know all thatfrom accounts and pictures. But now that I believe in divinep r o v i d e n c e, I’m looking forward to seeing it with my own eyes.

But the day is not over.Another call took us to a dead-endnear the train station, where someone found an unconsciousb o y.The siren wailed.We rushed into the unknown, to a placewith neither a street nor a house. It was almost midnight. ■

I , Galina Ko m a r n i t s k a , n u rse in Kiev

U K R A I N E

FeodosiyaSudakSevastopol

Sea ofAzov

BlackSea C R I M E A

D n i e p r

In Ternopil,a vendor seeks to protect her wares against the blustering winds.

KIEV


In ticklish reptile company.

I used to go to the Black Sea with my parents, butthat was such a long time ago, it seems like a dream.. . .

A

NELSON FREDY PADILLA CASTRO

CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER OF THE MAGAZINE CAMBIO AND CORRESPONDENT FOR THE ARGENTINE DAILY CLARÍN

Toxic rain killsm o re than the cocaThe so-called “war on coca” in Colombia, backed by the United States, is destroying jungles andforests, and threatening the health of half a million peasants and indigenous peoples

t frst sight, a coca leaf is nothing morethan an ordinary light-green leaf thatgrows on a rather ugly bush.But if youhold one up to the light,it turns yellowand a system of veins appears that seemsto carry a substance towards the centre.This is the narcotic over which 15,000leftist guerrillas and 8,000 far- r i g h tparamilitary troops are fighting inC o l o m b i a . Each side’s secret militarystructure rests on the undergroundeconomy of growing and refining cocal e a v e s. Drug trafficking has set off a warin Colombia just as diamonds have inSierra Leone.

Over the last 15 years, t r a f ficking hasturned Colombia into a top nationalsecurity issue for the United States, theworld’s largest consumer of cocaine.As

such, the U.S. has a direct influence onColombia’s fight against drugs throughhefty budgets, military hardware andother aid, along with the threat ofpolitical and economic sanctions.American involvement has increased tothe point that the so-called ColombiaPlan,the main programme of PresidentAndres Pastrana’s government, n o wreceives $1.3 billion in U.S. aid.

According to Pastrana’s reasoning, i fall the coca planted in the country isd e s t r o y e d , there will be no money left tofight the war, allowing peace to benegotiated with the outlawed groups.No more cocaine would be sold on thestreets of American cities. Washingtonsupports this scenario. To achieve thegoal within five years,a military offensive

was drawn up, including the creation ofthree anti-drug battalions and a fleet ofplanes to spray the plants with a poisoncalled glyphosate.

Is this a good thing? EnvironmentalNGOs such as Acción Andina see it as ascorched-earth policy and the EuropeanUnion criticizes the programme becauseit provides no long-term solution for thesurvival of communities that live offgrowing coca. The government says atleast half a million people—450,000peasants and 50,000 indigenous people—depend directly on the crop for theirl i v e l i h o o d . Yet last December, t h eauthorities began large-scale secretspraying of coca plantations withg l y p h o s a t e, a pink liquid herbicide usedagainst all crop diseases.

A desolatescene

Colombian officials from theantinarcotics directorate of the nationalpolice say 30,000 hectares of coca weresprayed with the poison last Ja n u a r y.Glyphosate has been used since 1984 tokill marijuana plants.A decade later, t h egovernment authorized its use in theAndean highlands to eradicate a violetpoppy whose buds produce a thick whiteliquid that forms the rubbery substancefrom which opium, morphine and heroinare refined.

Although glyphosate is banned inseveral U. S. s t a t e s, including Florida,where it was rejected as a way toeradicate marijuana plants in theEverglades region “because of its uncleareffects on the environment,” t h eColombian authorities cited researchfunded by the country’s national farminginstitute that ensures the chemical doesnot pose a health risk to humans and iso n l y slightly toxic for animals and plants.

To appease the growing chorus of

A Colombian national police plane sprays poppy crops in the state of Huila.

◗ P L A N E T


c r i t i c i s m , the authorities promised toimplement an environmentalmanagement plan that would limit use ofthe chemical to destroying illegal plants,without harming the rest of theenvironment or people. Six years later,this plan remains a draft document onthe desk of environment minister JuanM a y r. M e a n w h i l e, the poisonous rainhas now been sprayed over more than300,000 hectares of jungle and forest.

National watchdog bodies such asthe office of the ombudsman have sinceshown that glyphosate causes irreparableharm to people and the environmentwherever it is used. The ombudsman’smost recent studywas of the ColombiaP l a n ’s launch inPutumayo province,which bordersEcuador and wherehalf the country’scoca is grown.

R e p r e s e n t a t i v e sof four indigenousc o m m u n i t i e sprotested lastJanuary 11 againstthe damageglyphosate had done to their staple crops( m a i z e, b a n a n a s, manioc and otherv e g e t a b l e s ) , their health and the lives oftheir animals. A delegation from theombudsman’s office, along with expertsfrom the UN High Commission forRefugees (UNHCR), visited the areabetween January 15 and 25 and reportedon what they described as a “desolatescene.”There had been “indiscriminatedestruction of the jungle, legal crops,medicinal plants and fis h - p o n d s.There isclear evidence that wildlife has fled,rivers are contaminated and productionin the region has fallen.”

Skin and gastro-intestinal problems,f e v e r s, h e a d a c h e s, n a u s e a , colds andvomiting were common among theinhabitants, the mission observed. Thepolice and the national anti-narcoticsa u t h o r i t y, which are in charge of thes p r a y i n g, argue that the herbicide isdropped very accurately thanks tosatellite imagery and aerial photographythat pinpoint the exact location of thecoca plantations. But wind and theweather means that the chemical canovershoot the fields by up to 150 m e t r e s,the ombudsman said.

The social consequences of this areh u g e.Villages have been abandoned andabout 20,000 people have fled their landin the face of the military campaignagainst coca.Anticipating the arrival ofrefugees, the UNHCR set up camps inthe border area of Lake Agrio (Ecuador)halfway through 2000.“The evidence iss t r o n g, so we’re calling for an immediatehalt to the spraying and for thecompensation of the victims whoselivelihoods are seriously threatened,”says ombudsman Eduardo Cifuentes.There is no effective coordination, heo b s e r v e s, between the various statebodies involved in the government’s

anti-drug campaignand those whose jobit is to protect theenvironment.

Peasants likeAicardo Loaizahave to live in the35-degree heat ofthe coca plantationsand under theconstant threat ofthe guerrillas, t h eparamilitaries andthe crop-spraying

planes. L o a i z a ,4 8 , came to Putumayo in1968 drawn by fortunes to be made out ofrice growing. To d a y, he has a wife, 1 3children and has had enough of growingcoca “for the big shots.” He lives in theSantana district and is trying to persuade500 of his neighbours that the onlysolution is to sign an agreement with thegovernment to pull up the coca plants byhand themselves in exchange for an endto spraying and subsidies to grow legalc r o p s.

“Look at us. We ’re the embitteredchildren of this damn coca thing,” h esays. “We’ve been doing it for 20 or 30

y e a r s. I t ’s left some of us ruined andothers in jail or in the cemetery.” He hasthe hands of an expert coca gatherer, ar a s p a ch í n, as the drug traffickers callthem,and they were the first to sign anaccord with the government to destroythe coca plants “voluntarily and notunder threat of the poison.”For Loaiza,this is the only solution.

In recent months, 5,000 families—small-time growers with no more than10 hectares of coca—have chosen thispath.These are people who harvest theleaves between three and six times ay e a r,pack them in bags and take them byriver to the nearest processing plant.Amid or alongside the coca bushes, t h e ygrow bananas, manioc, maize, fruit andmedicinal plants. If these crops are

Colombia is the world’s main producer ofc o c a i n e, coca paste and cocaine base.

U. S. State Department figures from March2000 say 140,000 hectares in Colombia areplanted with coca bushes, producing about580 tonnes of pure cocaine a year. Coca doesnot hold the same cultural importance in

Colombia as it does in Bolivia and otherAndean countries, although it has alwa y sbeen used for medicinal reasons, especially bythe Indians living in Amazonia.But it is stillnot legal to use it, as it is in some parts ofBolivia. ■

COCAINE IN COLOMBIA

Half the country’s coca plantations are locatednear the southern border.

Medellín

Cali

Mocoa

BOGOTÁ

C O L O M B I A

V E N E Z U E L A

B R A Z I L

P E R U

E C U A D O R

P A N A M Á

Pacific

Ocean

Caribbean Sea

P L A N E T ◗


“We’re theembittered children

of this damn cocathing. It’s left some

of us ruinedand others in jail

or in the cemetery.”

sprayed from the air, t h efamilies’ lives are destroyed inone stroke.

The agreements signed bythe farmers stipulate that theymust uproot all their cocaplants within a year inexchange for being includedin alternative developments c h e m e s. The deal works inL o a i z a ’s village, where afactory to process palm-oiland fruit has been set up toenable the villagers who carryout the deal to earn a living.

This would seem to be theideal solution for getting ridof coca without furtherdamaging the eco-system, atleast in the eyes of peasantsand environmentalorganizations. But the fundsset aside in the Colombia Planfor such alternativedevelopment are smallcompared with the amountfor military operations ands p r a y i n g.The U. S. is supplyingonly $300 million for socialand economic substitutioncompared with $1 billion formilitary purposes.

A new strategy?Another obstacle to the agreements

with the peasants is that they do notattract the big-time coca growers, thosewho have 100 hectares or more planted,with hidden arsenals to protect them.Gonzalo de Fr a n c i s c o, an aide toPresident Pastrana, runs the ColombiaPlan in Putumayo province. Th e r e, h es a y s,“the government has no choice butto use military means and aerialspraying.”

The head of the national anti-narcotics authority, Gabriel Merchán,told the UN E S C O C o u r i e r that “the drug-t r a f fickers are the ones who damage theenvironment and nobody protestsagainst that.The arguments are all aboutcondemning the use of glyphosatedespite the fact we’ve used it inaccordance with national law andinternational rules.” E n v i r o n m e n tminister Juan Mayr agrees, and bothmen insist the “drug traffickers havedeforested 600,000 hectares of jungleand forest land and use 75 chemicalsmore poisonous than glyphosate.”

Tomás León Sicard, a ColombianNational University researcher andexpert on the environment andd e v e l o p m e n t , thinks the parties involvedshould stop being politicians for amoment and get to the heart of thematter. This is urgent, he says, because

the fighting is taking place in very fragileand biologically diverse rural eco-systems, such as Amazonia. He calls onthe combatants to save them since “ t h e r eis enough room for everyone on land inthe agricultural regions.”

Implementation of the ColombiaP l a n , massive spraying and peasantprotests have spurred the

environmentalists toi n t e r v e n e. After a lot ofp r e s s u r e, the U. S. S t a t eDepartment recentlyadmitted for the first time that“errors” were perhaps beingmade in the sprayingoperations and that a neweradication strategy might beconsidered if an effective onecould be found.

Court actionFor the time being, t h e

figures used by the anti-narcotics officials themselvesshow that the more land iss p r a y e d , the more new landis planted with coca. Th eplantations simply move fromone province to anotherbecause the conditions forgrowing it are still all there—p o v e r t y, u n e m p l o y m e n t ,absence of the state, s o c i a lconflict and a growingdemand for cocaine fromforeign markets.

In these circumstances,o n enon-repressive solution is thel a w. Environmental lawyersClaudia Sampedro and Héctor

Suárez have persuaded a Colombianadministrative court to allow a demandfrom a grassroots group for thegovernment to take responsibility for thedamage the spraying has done to theenvironment and to people.

“ For the first time,Colombian societyis using the law to check that thegovernment respects the environment,not just by recognizing the damagecaused,but by suspending the sprayingand taking preventive measures,” s a y sS a m p e d r o, an expert in internationalenvironmental law.

How can the authorities have beenspraying for more than 15 years withouttaking any steps to protect theenvironment? Who will takeresponsibility for that and for theirreversible damage that has been done?The court will try to answer that verysoon because the debate is moving onto

+ …http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/ar/colombiahttp://www.presencia.gov.cohttp://www.mediosparalapaz.org

Children playing in a sprayed coca field in January 2001.

◗ P L A N E T


“The drug traffickersare the ones who

damage the environment andnobody protests against that.”

http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/ar/colombia

http://www.presencia.gov.co

http://www.mediosparalapaz.org

I

W O R L D O F L E A R N I N G ◗

CYNTHIA GUTTMAN

UNESCO COURIER JOURNALIST

When girls go missingf rom the classro o mMillions of girls are not making it into school, despite a concerted international movement to pushthe cause forward. In some African countries, the gender gap is even widening.What’s gone wrong?

n Ethiopia, girls are sometimes abducted formarriage when they’re no more than eight.I nWest A f r i c a , t h e y ’re recruited from poorrural families to work as domestics in coastalcities or neighbouring countries. In SouthA f r i c a , a recent report by Human RightsWatch warns that sexual violence and abuseis hampering girls’ access to education.Andin Afghanistan,they’ve simply been barredfrom school under the Taleban regime.

C u s t o m s, p o v e r t y, fear and violence: g i r l s

still account for 60 percent of the estimated113 million out-of-school children, and themajority live in sub-Saharan Africa andSouth A s i a . In 1990, faced with adeteriorating educational record in manycountries, the major development agenciesand 155 national governments rang the alarmat a high-profile conference in Jo m t i e n ,Thailand.Launching the Education for Alli n i t i a t i v e, ambitious targets were set, n o t a b l yto get all children into school within teny e a r s, stressing that “the most urgentp r i o r i t y ” was to ensure access to, and improvethe quality of education for girls and women.Ten years later, in Dakar (Senegal), the worldcommunity had to face up to the fact that

“gender discrimination continues topermeate education systems”and that “ l i t t l eprogress has been made in increasing girls’participation in basic education.” This timer o u n d , they set 2015 as the date by which“all children,particularly girls . . . completefree and compulsory primary education ofgood quality.” More boldly, they pledged toeliminate “gender disparities in primary andsecondary education by 2005.”

For Christopher Colclough,a professor atthe Sussex-based Institute of DevelopmentStudies (IDS), there is “no chancewhatsoever”of reaching the 2005 target.Insub-Saharan A f r i c a , where he has led a nine-country research project1 to diagnose


Girls account for an estimated 90 percent of child domestic workers. Few have a chance to attend school.

constraints to schooling and propose policiesto improve outcomes, the gap between girls’and boys’ primary enrolment rates hasincreased in some places. “ G o v e r n m e n t srecognize that girls’ education is incrediblyimportant but their policies to tackle it areusually inadequate,” says Colclough,suggesting a “de facto political unwillingness”to deal with the problem.S e c o n d l y, he notes“if you have a situation where women andgirls are discriminated against in society andnot all children are in school, it follows almostas night follows day that girls will be kept outof school most.”

Not that the task is easy.In many countriesstrapped by debt burdens, the goal appearsmore elusive than ever, with families bearingincreasing costs for educating their children.“A lot of girls are dropping out of school or notbeing sent at all because of the poverty ofp a r e n t s,” says Peninah Mlama, e x e c u t i v edirector of the Forum for African Wo m e nEducationists (FAW E ) , a partner in the IDSs t u d y. “ Traditional cultural attitudes are stillvery strong,especially in rural areas.The littlemoney parents have to scrounge for sendingchildren to school is seen as too big aninvestment to risk on the girl child.”To makematters worse, the HIV/AIDS pandemic iscutting into a generation of young adults—inS w a z i l a n d , it is estimated that three to fourteachers die every week of A I D S. In theabsence of a breadwinner, girls are the mostlikely to be denied access to school to head ah o u s e h o l d .

Hidden costsWhile there is no magic bullet for solving

the quandary, there is little left to discoverabout why girls stay on the sidelines,s t a r t i n gwith the number one factor, p o v e r t y.“Although we can’t underestimate the role ofc u l t u r e, even in the most conservativesocieties like rural Ye m e n , the vast majorityof families want to send their children toschool,and they will do so if you reduce thec o s t s,” says Carolyn Wi n t e r, of the Wo r l dB a n k . The problem lies in the complexweaving of “social and economic forces that

overlap and strengthen each other,”Colclough underlines. Waiving school feesfor example, does not address the question ofhow to replace a girl’s valuable labour in thehome and the fie l d s,nor the profound bias insome countries against educating daughters.Nor does it recognize the hidden costs ofs c h o o l i n g, from clothing to textbooks.Recruiting more female teachers, a nindisputably positive influence, is only trulyb e n e ficial if parents are informed of theirpresence, if textbooks are revised to cut outstereotypes and training tackles attitudeq u e s t i o n s. In all the countries where theyconducted research, the IDS team found thatteachers believed that boys were moreintelligent….And when chores have to getdone like cleaning the classroom, girls arenaturally expected to oblige.

“If there is one lesson we have learned,

i t ’s that there is no single quick fix , but thereare usually to two or three actions togetherthat are catalytic,” says Mary Joy Pigozzi, asenior UN I C E F education advisor. Two areproven musts: getting parents andcommunities involved in schools, a n dimproving quality. Most importantly, s a y sP i g o z z i , quality has be thought about in“ e n g e n d e r e d ”terms through an “ a f fir m a t i v ea c t i o n ” approach that takes into accountwhere the learner is coming from:“ You haveto understand that girls may get less proteinthan boys, that communities raise girls tohave different expectations of themselves.Then you have to look at the quality of thelearning environment to address issues suchas safety and sexual harassment, and thewhole teaching-learning process.”

Understanding the critical things thatmake a difference is one part of the story, t h eother is how countries go about changingtheir ways. “Nearly every single policydocument mentions girls’ education, i t ’salmost as if it’s the politically correctlanguage to use,” says Mlama. “ B u tgovernments don’t have the capacity andcommitment to really do something.” Many

education ministries, for example, have set upgender or girls’ education units,“often staffedby one or two people who don’t have theskills and capacity to influence overalleducational policy.”In meetings on educationreform, she continues, “they’ll be called intowards the end of the process or at the fin a lmeeting with donors.”

Addressing the biasOutside pressure is founded upon

irrefutable evidence: educating girls andwomen has a significant impact on reducingpoverty. Benefits include lower fertility andinfant mortality rates, better health andn u t r i t i o n , higher productivity and chancesthat the next generation will in turn bee d u c a t e d . But shaking up bureaucratic,patriarchal structures might well be the mostmammoth task of all.“Civil structures areoften set up so that there is very limitedincentive to invest in improvements andwork towards goals and targets,”says Wi n t e r.Some examples of good practice involveskirting slow bureaucracies and vestedinterests. In India,for example, the state ofUttar Pradesh took advantage of a law ondeveloping charities to set up a well-staffed“ p a r a l l e l ” structure to push through acomprehensive package on girls’ educationin rural areas.Women in the community walkgirls to school, parent-teacher associationsand principals reach out to homes wherechildren aren’t enrolled, and local groupsstress to mothers that schooling is a basiclegal right.

Such fine-tuned strategies can only bearfruit when countries are ready to take thefirst step, by addressing deeply set biases intheir societies. Committed governments, saya c t i v i s t s, can start changing the tide, f r o mmaking education compulsory to delaying theage of marriage and opening their eyes to therealities of child labour. Otherwise, ten yearsdown the road, millions of girls will still gomissing from the classroom,keeping the wheelof poverty turning. ■


+ …www.id21.orgAn online education reporting service run by the Instituteof Development Studieswww.unesco.org/education,to keep up on internationalinitiativeswww.fawe.orgwww.antislavery.org,for more information about childlabour and how to fight against itwww.girlseducation.org,to find out about a new multi-agency partnership on girls’ education

1. Partnership for Strategic ResourcePlanning for Girls’ Education in A f r i c a ,conducted under the auspices of FAW E ,in collaboration with nationalg overnments and the Institute ofDevelopment Studies, Sussex (UK).Other partners include the Gov e r n m e n t sof Norway and Ireland, the Rock e f e l l e rFoundation and the World Bank.

“ You have tou n d e rs t a n d

that girls may get lessp rotein than boys,

that communities ra i s egirls to have

d i f f e rent ex p e c t a t i o n s .”

W

W O R L D O F L E A R N I N G ◗

hen in 1992, community schools came tothe e z b a h—hamlets along the Nile that areislands amidst an arid desert landscape—they started from scratch, in places with nobasic services. While some districts arenotorious for their seclusion of girls andw o m e n , the overriding obstacle to schoolingwas distance and economic duress. “ Wewish all girls, women and men of the villagewould get an education,” said an elderlyman from Helba, a hamlet in the governateof Assiut,“but we cannot afford it,nor canwe allow our girls to go to far places ontheir own.”

In most rural areas of the south, girls’net enrolment rates range from 50 to 70p e r c e n t , compared with 90 percentnationally. In the most extreme cases, only12 girls are enrolled for every 100 boys.Although the government tried to reachthese groups in the 1970s through smallmultigrade schools, population growth,combined with economic strife andteachers’ low qualific a t i o n s, led to highabsentee rates, and the initiative graduallydisappeared.

From the outset, we were in this

endeavour with communities and theMinistry of Education. Communities donates p a c e, ensure that children come to classand manage the schools through aneducation committee in each hamlet. TheMinistry pays facilitators and providestextbooks while UNICEF is responsible forthe overall development of the programme.

Lifting the economic barriers was a fir s ts t e p : rooted in communities, the schoolsare close to the home. Timetables areflexible and all hidden costs are knockedout, from uniforms to schoolbags. But theother pivotal dimension is quality. Parentstake it for granted that their sons will go toschool. This is not the case with girls: youhave to prove the experience is worth it.

Tappingcreative talents

Our model relies on active learning.After intensive training,young facilitators—women chosen from the area with anintermediate school certificate—know howto transform the contents of the governmentcurriculum into activities, such as cards,games, etc. They enhance it with subjectssuited to local interest, such as health,e n v i r o n m e n t , agriculture and local history,and encourage self-directed activities,learning by doing and in small groups.

A plethora of hand-made curricula hasflourished over the years, which were onloan to the curriculum development centrefor a year.The centre invited the facilitatorsto help produce learning guides in mathand Arabic for grades one to three, whichwill be distributed to some 3,500 multigradeclassroom schools in rural areas.These havebeen launched by the government, on thebasis of the community school model.

Now we are designing teacher trainingin tandem with government andimplementing it ourselves:in short,we aretraining a whole new corps of inspectors,s u p e r v i s o r s, headmasters and teachers inthis new “active learning” p e d a g o g y. Weare gradually negotiating with regularschools to assess children’s achievementother than through regular exams.

If we are making headway, it is alsobecause we have been fortunate to benefitfrom highly committed policy m a k e r s. Fr o mthe outset, the initiative has not beenregarded as a project, but as a contributionto national educational reform. Since 1995,an Education Innovations Committee hasbeen systematically working to incorporatenew pedagogies in mainstream schools.Beyond reaching the hard to reach,n a m e l yg i r l s, this model is showing the way tochanging the classroom experience for all.

Since the programme was launched, w ehave reached some 6,000 children, a n dfemale enrolment stands at 70 percent. Th ereal barrier lies in girls continuing theireducation, even though evaluations showthat our graduates pass government examswith flying colours.The first lady,a longtimedefender of education,has given prizes tocommunity school graduates, to the tuneof nationwide media coverage. Wi t h i ncommunities, the schools are catalysts formore profound changes: we are seeingfacilitators publicly declare they will onlymarry a man who lets them continuet e a c h i n g, and 12-year-olds convincing theirparents to postpone marriage until theyg r a d u a t e. S l o w l y, girls are gaining a voice inareas far from the city walls. ■


Community schools:E g y p t ’s celebrity modelTwo hundred schools in deprived hamlets of Upper Egypt are sending ripplesthrough the country’s education system, making girls and women the beaconsof a new learning experience

WHEN GIRLS GO MISSING

MALAK ZAALOUK

EDUCATION SECTION CHIEF, UNICEF CAIRO

Plenty of fun keeps everyone’s attention.

our hundred years ago, Giordano Bruno suffered an unenviable fate: h i stongue gagged, the Italian astronomer was burnt at the stake form a i n t a i n i n g , among other things, that each star in the sky is a sun likeour own and space is infin i t e. L i ke it or not, modern science has provedhim largely right. Our universe is of daunting size, mysterious origin andunfathomable purpose.The frontiers of cosmology explored in this issue lie far beyond thehuman scale. Using the renowned big bang theory of creation (pp. 1 8 -2 0 ;p p. 2 6 - 2 7 ) , scientists have deployed telescopes, mathematics and

particle collisions to plunder further through the first moments of time. Could ani n c o n c e i vably fast expansion have ballooned the early universe (p. 21)? Might weinhabit a distorted strip of reality, unable either to observe the deep structure of matter(pp. 22-23) or discern the vast optical illusion that is in fact the universe (pp. 24-25)?Yet while each new theory strives to fill a gap in our understanding, science may be nearingits own limits. The sheer improbability of life remains unexplained (pp. 28-29),while nocosmic theory seems free of deepmetaphysical assumptions (pp. 3 0 -31).Centuries after being displacedfrom the heavenly bodies, could Godonce again be the answer to ourdoubts (pp. 32-35)? Or is that just aget-out clause, to be replaced by atheory of multiple recycled universesnot unlike those of Hindu myth (pp.35-36)?The consolations lie in awe of ourineffable and sublime origins. Th ecost may be in knowing (see the shortstory on p. 37) that all we leavebehind is a very faint noise.

Dossier concept and co-ordinationby Ivan Briscoe. Scientific advicefrom Jean-Pierre Luminet.

FC o n t e n t s1/ Science at the limits

1 8 F rom bang to eternityGeorge Ellis

2 1 And then there was infla t i o nInterview with Andrei Linde

2 2 What came beforeI van Briscoe

2 4 M i r ro r, m i r ror up aboveJean-Pierre Luminet

2 6 The story of everything

2 / Cosmos, God and Us2 8 Life against the odds

John Horgan

3 0 The myths of scienceMarcelo Gleiser

3 2 The highest summit:God meets the big bangDominique Lambert

3 5 Out of butter and water:the Hindu cre a t i o nS u d h a n va Deshpande

3 7 F re s c oAlastair Reynolds

SCIENCE ANThe riddl

F O C U S


Since ancient times, people havemarvelled at the night sky and soughtanswers to profound questions there. Whatare the heavenly bodies? What moves them?How do they affect one another? Where arethey? And how do they affect us? These arequestions of cosmology, and each age andculture has produced its own answers.

To the modern astronomer, acceptableanswers come from physics. But if I maypoint my telescope not just towards deepspace but also back in time, I would suggestthat modern answers continue to draw upondeep-seated cultural values.

R e l i g i o n , social practices andobservational astronomy have long beenintertwined in the development ofcosmological beliefs.The ancient Egyptiansobserved the dawn risings of key stars andfrom them established not only theiragricultural calendar and civil timekeeping,but also their religious rites. Two thousandyears of observations gathered byBabylonian astronomer-priests gave rise tomathematical planetary astronomy, w h i c hGreek philosophers such as Aristotle used asthe basis for their physical models of thecosmos. Aristotle’s cosmos was structured,hierarchical, finite, and compatible with thetenets of Christianity, Ju d a i s m , and Islam.God was Prime Mover of the planets and theunmoved foundation of a stable worldsystem.

In the 17th century, the A r i s t o t e l i a ncosmos gave way to the Newtonian worldview. Looking out into an infinite universe,Isaac Newton showed how the motions of thestars, planets,and comets were all governedby universal gravitation.Comets circulatedvital spirits and fuel to the stars, but couldalso slam into worlds, causing massextinctions and global destruction.

In 1755, Immanuel Kant offered aphysical theory on the origin and evolution ofthe universe. He described how universalforces of attraction and repulsion,acting onmatter diffused throughout space, gave rise toinstabilities in the chaos, leading to physicaland chemical complexity. Denser regionsgravitationally attracted lesser ones, w h i l ethe action of repulsive forces caused in-fallingmatter to swirl around the dense centres.Over time, these vortices collapsed into stellarsystems containing suns, p l a n e t s, and comets.

Creation thus spread out from a centralpoint into the chaos and animated the wholeregion of infinite space. But Kant observed,“whatever has a beginning and origin,has themark of its limited nature in itself; it mustperish and have an end.” When a world-system exhausted all the manifold variationsthat its structure could embrace, it perishedin a violent confla g r a t i o n .The universe was,Kant envisioned,a “phoenix of nature,w h i c hburns itself only in order to revive again inrestored youth from its ashes, through all

the infinity of times and spaces.”K a n t ’s book was one of the earliest

attempts to describe the origin and evolutionof the cosmos under the influence ofuniversal natural laws. Prior to Kant,it wascommonly held that creation was fixed andthe universe was maintained in a steady state.So where did Kant’s modern evolutionaryideas come from? From popular culture asremade by Newton.

Until the 17th century, people believedthat comets were divine signs heraldingimminent world change. Newton appropriatedthis popular belief when he portrayed cometsas natural agents deployed by God to create,r e n o v a t e, or destroy heavenly bodies, t h u smelding popular beliefs with physics.This newapproach gave license to those who held thatmaterial forces created new solar systems andthe universe evolved according to natural laws.

If popular beliefs were formative in theearly development of modern cosmology,should we be worried that they continue tosully current science? Not at all.We can stillcelebrate the ways our diverse culturalheritages have shaped our scientific inquiries.Cosmology is ultimately a human endeavour.In asking questions about the deep past anddistant future, it draws from many richtraditions and brings us closer together ashuman beings. ■

A PHOENIX OF HUMAN NAT U R EBY SARA SCHECHNER

DAVID P. WHEATLAND CURATOR OF THE COLLECTION OF HISTORICAL SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS, HARVARD UNIVERSITY


ND CREAT I O Ne in the skies

O P I N I O N

GEORGE ELLIS

PROFESSOR OF APPLIED MATHEMATICS AT THE UNIVERSITYOF CAPE TOWN (SOUTH AFRICA), AUTHOR OF

BEFORE THE BEGINNING (BOWERDEAN/MARION BOYAR,1993)

From b a n g to e t e r n i t yThe big bang is now the accepted scientific account of how the universecame into being and started to evolve, but there is still much leftto discover

1 . SCIENCE AT THE LIMITS

Cosmology aims to determine the nature ofthe universe on the largest observable scales,and then explain how it got to be the way itnow is.Dismissed for a long time as a largelyphilosophical enterprise based on a few sparse

o b s e r v a t i o n s, this branch of science has undergone anextraordinary transformation in the last 50 y e a r s,becoming a compelling body of knowledge about theu n i v e r s e, rich in data and tied to the most pioneeringadvances in nuclear and particle physics.

On the one hand, the discipline relies on telescopesof all kinds and their associated measuring instrumentsand computers,amplifying and analyzing the incrediblyfaint radiation1 from very distant matter.O b s e r v a t i o n sof apparent size, radiation fluxes and numbers of distantgalaxies and quasi-stellar objects can now be obtainedup to almost inconceivable distances. When twinnedwith theories of physics—namely mathematical laws

that characterize how matter and radiation behave—the result is something that few scientists a centuryago would have believed possible: a “physical standardm o d e l ” of cosmology, comprehensive enough to take usback to the first few seconds of the universe’ existence,when atomic nuclei formed. Less defined and morespeculative science promises to take us even further,possibly back to the very threshold of creation.

The basic structure of the visible universe on thelargest scales is now well understood: there are vastdomains of empty space more or less uniformlypopulated by clusters of galaxies, with each galaxyitself being a dynamic configuration of about 100 billionstars interspersed with dust and gas.

F u r t h e r m o r e, the fundamental motion of thecosmos is known: a uniform expansion of these clustersof galaxies,with distances between them ever- i n c r e a s i n gequally in all directions. If we extrapolate backwards int i m e, this movement would suggest an ever higherdensity and temperature of matter and radiation,w h i c hat a certain point in the distant past—in conditions ofthe most extreme heat—coupled tightly together.Estimates of an origin to this expansion indicate itbegan around 10 billion years ago.


Echoes of the early universe: a satellite image showing background radiation.

1. Radiation is the flow ofenergy via subatomicp a r t i c l e s. The termcomprises radio waves,m i c r ow a v e s, i n f r a r e drays, visible light, X raysand gamma rays.

2. Light moves to the redside of the visiblespectrum when its sourceis moving away.This phe-nomenon is called theredshift.

At the extreme temperatures (over a billion degreescentigrade) of this initial phase, matter existed only as themost elementary particles in equilibrium with radiation.No more complex structures could survive thebombardment of the radiation at those temperatures.But as the universe expanded and cooled,successivelylarger and more complex units could form: first of all,within the very first second of the cosmos, protons andneutrons from quarks, thus far among the mostfundamental units of matter yet known to exist.Th e n ,o n l yminutes after the universe began, these protons andneutrons could combine into light atomic nuclei, a processknown as nucleosythesis.

Some 300,000 years later,complete atoms wereconstructed from nuclei andelectrons—an episode calledr e c o m b i n a t i o n. This eventallowed the radiation,which hadpreviously been trapped by thefloating electrons, to separate (ordecouple) from matter and flowfreely for thousands of millionsof light-years, cooling all thewhile due to the expansion of the universe from atemperature of about 3,000 degrees Kelvin at emissionto 2.75 Kelvin (–270 degrees centigrade) today. Thisr a d i a t i o n , known as the cosmic microwave backgroundradiation,provides the best map we now have of thevery early universe.

Once complete atoms were formed—mainly in theshape of hydrogen and helium—gravitation could pullmatter together to form the first generation of stars,which clustered together to form galaxies, which inturn bunched together to form clusters of galaxies.

Some of the first generation stars ended their livesin massive supernova explosions, spreading throughspace the elements of organic life they had beenforming in their interiors through successive nuclearr e a c t i o n s. The resulting clouds of dust then becamethe birthplace of second generation stars, surroundedby planets, on which the molecules of life could findhospitable places to generate the first living cells and soprovide the origin of complex living beings (see alsopp. 26-27).

There are three basic reasons for believing thispicture of our universe’s history.Fi r s t l y, estimates of the

distances of galaxies (obtainedfor example from theirluminosities) can be correlatedwith estimates of the speed atwhich they are moving awayfrom us (deduced from theirmeasured redshifts2) . The datashows that the further away thegalaxies are, the faster they arereceding from us, thus providingbasic evidence for the expansionof the universe. S e c o n d l y, t h e

very existence of the cosmic background radiation isevidence that there was a hot early state of the universe,because its precise spectrum—exactly described by atheoretical formula deduced by Max Planck 100 yearsago—shows that matter and radiation were inequilibrium at early times. Such equilibrium indicatesthat the early universe was very hot, for only at extremehigh temperature can this balance come into being.

A third piece of evidence comes from observationof the abundance of light elements in the universe,namely hydrogen, helium and lithium. Our theory

What are the major issues that remain for us to tackle? First,we wantto know more about the geometry of the universe, both inside and

outside the limits we can observe.The part of the universe we can see seemsto be remarkably simple on the largest scales,being spatially homogeneousand isotropic (it looks the same in all directions). But the major parametersdescribing this region are only loosely known. Uncertainty in our estimatesof the universe’s age is about 20 percent, and needs to be improved, as doour estimates of the dark energy that is causing an accelerated expansionof the universe. We also want to know if sections of space close up onthemselves, and if so, whether the scale of closure is such that we live in a“small universe” where we see multiple mirror images of the same galaxies(see pp. 24-25).Second,we want to know more about what the universe is made of. It isdisappointing that we don’t know what kind of matter makes up the lion’sshare of the density of the universe, nor the nature of the force thatpresently dominates its expansion. Better understanding of these featuresis intimately tied in to a better understanding of the creation of large-scalestructure in the universe.Third,we want to understand the very early universe better:in particular,what caused the mighty cosmic inflation? What came before inflation? W h a twas the nature of creation,and what alternatives are there to creation?

Though there are a wide variety of competing proposals, it proves veryd i f ficult to test them experimentally.To help resolve these,we need to extendour understanding of particle physics as far as we can so as to probe theinteractions at work at the moment of creation and immediately thereafter.However far we extend experiments probing this physics, we willnevertheless be unable to attain the energies required to unlockexperimentally the secrets of quantum gravity.There are thus clear limits to the testable laws of physics that underlie thecosmological account of creation.The challenge is to develop a coherent andconvincing physical theory that is supported by tests insofar as they arepossible.Fo u r t h , we must grapple with the question of how to relate theory too b s e r vation in the exceptional context of a science with only one object ofstudy—the single existing Universe.We lack a proper account of the limitsof scientific proof in this context. One attempt to break this impasse isthrough the idea of an ensemble of universes (a “ m u l t i v e r s e ” ) , but it is notclear yet if this is a physical or a metaphysical proposal. ■

THE WAY AHEAD FOR COSMIC SCIENCE


T H E R I D D L E I N T H E S K I E S

As the universeexpanded and cooled,

successively largerand more

complex unitscould form.

“The whole theoryofthe universeis directed unerringlyto one singleindividual—namelyto You”Walt Whitman,American poet(1819-1862)

galaxies?The remarkable concept of inflation—a period

of extremely rapid accelerating expansion in the veryfirst fraction of a second of the universe’s life—potentially explains both features. Such an enormousexpansion might first have smoothed out space, b e f o r equantum flu c t u a t i o n s3 in this early force created areasof marginally different densities. E x p a n s i o n , fir s ti n flationary and then decelerating, may then havespread such tiny variations over regions the size ofgalaxy clusters. From these beginnings, matter couldthen be pulled by gravity over billions of years into thestars and galaxies we are now so familiar with.

Fi n a l l y, some current studies of distant spectra givetantalizing hints that the nature of physics itself may bedifferent at great distances, in places whose radiationemissions we are receiving billions of years after they

were emitted. Might it be thatthe constants of nature vary withtime? If so, this would be adiscovery of groundbreakingsignificance.

The next few years anddecades are certain to see amassive extension in the quantityand quality of cosmico b s e r v a t i o n s. These will beaccompanied by enrichedtheories of how matter clusteredto form galaxies and a deeper

exploration of gravity,both of which will help determinethe model that best fits our observable region of theuniverse.

But even once this model is drawn,a host of elusiveissues await.How should we link what we understandof quantum gravity4 to cosmological theory—especiallythe creation of the universe? What of the possibility thatthe laws of nature were different in the early universe?And how common is life in the universe? Could one inany other way create a universe allowing intelligent lifeto exist?

This sets the framework for considering majorphilosophical issues within the context of theuniqueness of the universe. Science per se can neverresolve these issues, but it can at least provide an ever

o f how atomic nuclei were formed in the hot earlyu n i v e r s e, based on knowledge of nuclear physicstogether with the hypothesis of an expanding universe,fits all these measurements just so long as the densityof matter lies in a specific limited range—a remarkableconfirmation of theory by observation.

As a result, this cosmological history has come to beaccepted by the scientific community. We have clearevidence that the universe emerged at vast speed froman initial fir e b a l l , though this event’s remoteness—andthe enormity of space—obviously leaves a host ofquestions waiting to be answered,particularly as we tryto understand its origins.

Recent observations have nevertheless filled inmany details of the universe’s structure and history.Wehave been able to obtain estimates of the amount ofmatter in the universe,particularly from studies of themotions of galaxies and clusters ofg a l a x i e s. On the basis of thesef i g u r e s, we have been able todeduce the presence of a largeamount of mysterious “ d a r kmatter”—matter which can’t bedetected by emitted radiationsuch as light because it is simplynot shining. By comparing theseestimates of the amount of darkmatter (about 95 percent of theu n i v e r s e ’s mass) with thosecoming from the nucleosynthesiscalculations mentioned above, we can deduce thatmost of this matter is not composed of protons andn e u t r o n s : in short, that it has an entirely different make-up to that of ordinary matter.

We have also been able to get much better distanceestimates than before for faraway galaxies,p a r t i c u l a r l yby observing supernovae explosions in them andmeasuring the decaying light from these death throes ofburnt-out stars. This has led to another unexpectedd i s c o v e r y.We expected the expansion of the universe tobe slowing down because of the gravitational pull of allm a t t e r,but in fact it seems to be accelerating.This mustbe attributed to some form of dark energy which, u n l i k ethe dark matter referred to above, acts like a negativegravitational fie l d , tending to make all matter moveever faster apart. C o n s e q u e n t l y, it now seems clear thatthe universe will expand forever.

Theories of how galaxies and galaxy clusters arosehave also been subject to intensive research. B yconnecting data on the gravitational effects anddistribution of galaxies with minute temperaturefluctuations across the sky in the cosmic backgroundr a d i a t i o n , we have been able to construct broad picturesof how large-scale structures emerged from smallvariations in density in the early universe.

Yet these findings leave a major question begging:how can we possibly explain why the universe is sohomogeneous (i.e. uniform) in all directions while alsohosting from very early on in its existence minutedifferences in density that served as the seeds of future


A HUNDRED YEARS OF P IONEERS

1905:Albert Einstein announces the theory of relativity.1912: Ernest Rutherford discovers the atomic nucleus.1 9 2 4:The basic equations for quantum mechanics are established.1929: Edwin Hubble reveals that the universe is expanding.1950:The term “Big Bang”is coined by astronomer Fred Hoyle.It is meant as a put-down,but it sticks.1965: Cosmic microwave background radiation is discovered.1 9 8 1:Alan Guth presents the first version of the theory of cosmicinflation.2000: First possible experimental evidence of Higgs Field—theforce that gives mass to particles.

3. A c c o rding to quantumm e chanics—the scienceof energy and particles atsubatomic levels—energywaves will tend tofluctuate randomly.

4. Quantum gravity is theas yet unknown theoryof how gravity works atthe quantum level. T h etheory is believed to haveheld at the moment of theuniverse’ creation.

We expectedthe expansionof the universe

to be slowing downbecause of gravity,but in fact it seemsto be accelerating.

Quantum fluctuations inan inflationary univers esometimes create re g i o n swith very large density(the peaks) and divide theu n i v e rse into regions withdifferent laws of physics(shown by differe n tc o l o u rs ) . We live in al o w-density re g i o n .H i g hdensity regions ex p a n dex t remely fast andp roduce more areas ofeven higher density. Thisstarts an eternal chainreaction of self-reproducing universes.


Why do we need a period of inflation in theuniverse’s early history?

I n flation explains several different things: w h ythe universe is large, why it is homogeneous, whyit looks approximately the same in all directions,why it started expanding simultaneously. It alsoexplains how galaxies have been formed out ofquantum fluctuations.

Above all, we need to explain why differentparts of the universe look approximately the same.Imagine that the universe just started.At the veryearliest time we can consider [10-43 seconds afterc r e a t i o n , called the Planck time],our universe wasa fraction of a centimetre. In this time, light andradiation could only have travelled a tiny part ofthis space.So the left side of the universe could notknow about the right, and the middle about neitherof them:there was no time for such contact.Thenall of a sudden we have a universe whereeverything is exactly the same. This looks like amiracle—something physicists do not expect.

This is where inflation comes to the rescue. Inthe simplest version of the theory, inflation startsat the Planck time.Until 10- 3 5 s e c o n d s, space wouldblow up by the power of 10 to the thousand billion,rather like an elastic membrane stretching in allpossible directions at a speed faster than light to asize much larger than the universe you now see.Our universe would then be a tiny spot on a hugecosmic balloon.

Is there any matter inside this expanding space?Usually people understand by matter particles

that move,collide and build solid things that we cans e e. But there are also fie l d s — e l e c t r o m a g n e t i cfields for example. We do not see the magneticfield of the Earth, but we know that it is there.This field is also a kind of matter.

Our assumption is that in the early universe,matter was in a very specific form called a scalarfie l d . We do not see this field—it looks like avacuum—but if it exists it may have a lot ofe n e r g y. In a normal expanding universe thedensity of matter decreases,but the scalar field andits energy do not decrease, meaning space expands

faster and for a much longer time. This leads toinflation.

G r a d u a l l y, h o w e v e r, the scalar field losesenergy. It decays and produces normal particles,and the universe becomes hot as in conventionalbig bang theory.

But where did these scalar fields come from?They could exist in the universe from the very

beginning, just like any other matter.Those partsof the universe where these fields were small didnot experience inflation and therefore remainedvery small.But regions of the universe with largescalar fields have grown up enormously.We live inone such region now.

You have used the expression “cosmic tre e ” t odescribe the true universe. What does this mean?

Small fluctuations in the field are necessary forthe later formation of galaxies. But if thefluctuations in this field are large, they could leadto the creation of new parts of the universe—notjust galaxies, but places where the fields havedifferent values, particles are lighter or heavier,and space and time different as compared to ourpart of the universe.These are so far away from us,h o w e v e r, that you will never have a chance ofseeing them.

You also call this inflation eternal. Does this mean itcan happen again?

It may happen at some distance from us now.It might also happen here, though you are notgoing to see it because inflation occurs when spaceis expanding from its own resources. If inflationhappens near you,don’t worry—it’s not going tocrush you. I t ’s just going to create a baby universethat you will not see.

Twenty years ago,when inflation was invented,it looked like a piece of science fiction.Graduallyit has become the standard cosmological theory,solving many problems and making importantpredictions that can be experimentally confir m e d .We ’ve tried hard doing something withoutinflation,but so far nothing else has worked. ■

INTERVIEW BY IVAN BRISCOE


And then there was i n fla t i o nThe hottest theory of cosmology in the last 20 years is that of cosmic“inflation”—a burst of force in the very early universe that expanded adot into almost boundless space. Professor Andrei Linde of StanfordUniversity, one of the theory’s chief exponents, explains




IVAN BRISCOE


What came b e f o reDo the secrets of the universe lie within the atom? Could a 27-kilometre tunnelreveal the deep truth?


Reverse the film of our universe’s history,and things seems to get mighty strange inthe last reel. What began in physicalh a r m o n y, propitious for planets, h u m a n sand domestic appliances, has reverted to

h e l l :temperatures hotter than the sun’s core, an exoticaof hysterical matter, forces rupturing asunder. N u d g ethe reel a bit further on, and the image abruptlyswitches from fury to a vague and peaceful nothing.

It is not an ending—or rather a beginning—thats a t i s fies too many people.Though little headway hasbeen made exploring this peculiar transformation ofnothing into hot and very excited everything, t h eissue has not been absent from scientific minds. I fonly to combat the allure of a “God particle” bent ongenerating the cosmos, science has searched for analternative:not just a history of before the big bang,but some deeper reason for why, out of unfathomablychaotic stuff, should emerge a place where a hair-dryer works.

Gabriele Veneziano is one of those who believesan answer may have been found.According to thisleading Italian theoretical physicist,a deeper realitylies “under”the one we perceive. Superstrings, to bep r e c i s e, vibrating away in 10 or 11 dimensions,c r e a t i n gand composing the entire universe from theirminuscule shudders.

Deciphering his account of how the universecame to be reads like an odyssey through 20t h c e n t u r yp h y s i c s. Superstring theory,and its many cousins in thedomain of elementary particle physics, are offshootsof the two great theoretical inventions of the century’sfirst decades—general relativity and quantumm e c h a n i c s. On the basis of the fir s t , a convincingpicture of the universe could be drawn back to aninitial point, or “ s i n g u l a r i t y,” of massive, p o s s i b l yi n finite density. Through the quantum world, v a s tleaps could be made in penetrating the atom, t h ecomponents of the atom (protons, neutrons andelectrons),and then,colossal equipment and mindsp e r m i t t i n g, the components of the components ofthe atom.

Slam and seeAt that point, the two theoretical roots join as one.

Assuming the universe is created in a blazing,primordial soup, then clearly the most basic units ofmatter will be those that prevail. Finding out whatrules govern them is then the golden bridge towardsunderstanding how the universe was made.

Until the end of last year, a palm-sized pipewrapped in potent magnets and circling beneath theFranco-Swiss border was the world capital for suchi n v e s t i g a t i o n s.Along this 27-kilometre pipe, a pair ofelectrons would pass 11,000 times a second—close tothe speed of light—before hurtling to a splinteringc o l l i s i o n . Such is CERN, the European laboratoryfor nuclear research. The principle is simple: s l a mand see.

Behind the principle lies a very basic formula,Einstein’s E=mc2, which establishes an equivalencebetween energy and mass. Accelerate a subatomicparticle like an electron or proton, crash it into ap a r t n e r, and the energies accumulated in its light-speed dash will be scattered into more massive, veryshort-lived particles—exactly the sort of particlesthat reigned in the early universe before gluingtogether as space cooled.

The appetite of scientists has naturally not abated.

1. Another target for re-s e a r ch might also usherin a new unity. T h i sbranch of theory, knownas supersymmetry,speculates that afundamental balanceexists throughout thequantum realm,and thatat high energies the“ s u p e r p a r t n e r s ” of know nparticles will flit into

Inside the atom (left) lies the nucleus;inside the nucleus,neutrons and protons; inside each of them (top right),

three quarks.The search for elemetary matter continues.


By 2005,a new accelerator is due to be operating atC E R N : the Large Hadron Collider, armed with amagnetic field 100,000 times that of the earth,interspersed with six-storey high detectors and able totake subatomic conditions back to those which held inthe universe’s first picosecond (10- 1 2 s e c o n d s ) . “ Weare going to be able to probe distances inside matterwhich are perhaps ten times smaller than we’ve seenbefore,” explains John Ellis, a senior physicist at thelaboratory.

Through theoretical work and experiments atthis and other accelerators, scientists have alreadydisaggregated the atom and the forces that rule itsmovements into a menagerie of over 60 particles.Astory of the universe has emerged:a tale of descentfrom high to low energy, in which primitive forces split(creating electricity), and unstable fundaments ofmatter convert their mass into the astonishingenergies inhabiting every atom.

The staircase of universesBut the story is far from complete. It may be very

well to enumerate and calculate the powers of quarksand spins of photons, yet how could such anencyclopaedic set of characteristics sprout so level-headedly from a meltdown? Perhaps moreimportantly, where does gravity fit in? Its supposedf o r c e - c a r r i e r, the graviton, has never been observed.The force itself appears alien to quantum theory.And its strength for each atom is derisory comparedto the belligerence of the nuclear and electromagneticforces:how else could a chair buttress you from theentire gravitational attraction of the planet?

In search of an answer, the scientific communityhas appealed to the notion of unific a t i o n .The deeperone gets into the interstices of matter, they argue, t h emore sweeping and elegant the formulae may become.

The lust for a unified theory behind nature hasprime targets in sight. In a last gasp of CERN’s olda c c e l e r a t o r, the first experimental indications emergedof the so-called Higgs field,an arena of force like theelectromagnetic field with which species of particlesinteract (or do not) and win their very unique masses.“Imagine you’re cooking pasta,”says Ellis,“and you addolive oil. When it cools, the olive oil separates out.What we’re trying to do in the new collider is boil thewater so that we can see the differences evaporate.”1

Yet this still leaves the gravitational conundrumunresolved. John March Russell,a physicist at CERN,enthuses over one mind-bending possibility: that gravityis so weak in comparison to other forces because muchof it is swallowed into other dimensions. Should this bethe case, he says, the new collider may reveal morethan just new particles:energy might be sucked awayinto the nether- w o r l d ,or even more radically, tiny blackholes may form for a fraction of a second.

Such extra dimensions would appear to makeelementary particles that bit more baffling, but theopposite is probably true:it may offer the first proof

that strings exist.“ Th e o r e t i c a l l y, the gravity problemand string theory fit together very nicely,” a r g u e sMarch Russell.

But what precisely are these magical strings? Fo raround 30 years, theorists have laboured over rivalsets of formulae explaining how string-likep h e n o m e n a , around 10- 3 2 cm in length and thusinvisible to all possible experiments, generate theentirety of known particles and forces, i n c l u d i n ggravity. If true, it would be the deepest theory evere n c o u n t e r e d : the overarching law breathing formand function into the universe.

U n f o r t u n a t e l y, their infinitesimal size andsupplementary dimensions have given the theory anair of high abstraction,but Ve n e z i a n o, also of CERN,is undaunted. For him,the epoch of creation mighthave to be rewritten.“I see the big bang as a way toput string theory to the test.When you get very closeto time zero, strings simply cannot fit into space.”

The results are revolutionary. No infinitely densesingularity could exist at the start of the universebecause of the strings’ irreducible size.I n s t e a d , a “ p r e -history” must be sketched in.“This could be a verylong pre-history starting with an almost trivial, i n fin i t euniverse filled with gravitational waves that barelyinteract at all,” says Ve n e z i a n o.“ The beginning of theprocess ending in the big bang is the occurrence of anoverdense region leading to the formation of a blackh o l e.”Within this hole, trapped waves start to interactin the form of strings. An early relative of gravitycauses a lightning expansion of space, and at somecritical and obscure moment,the era of strings cedesto the big bang, thus begetting the era of particles,planets and us. “What we have for most of the timebefore and after the big bang is a classical evolution,”he says.

Major problems remain,above all in explainingwhy the underlying strings (or any other fundamentaltheory for that matter) do not lead to an utterlydifferent set of physical laws. But the thought is stilla giddy one—that reality migrates along a staircase ofu n i v e r s e s, each step recumbent on the one before.“ I n

the world today,the castle is destroyed—it’s a heap of


An image of one of CERN’s recent collisions:the first proof of the Higgs field?

“By conventionthere is colour,by conventionsweetness,by conventionbitterness,but in reality thereare atoms andspace”Democritus,Greek philosopher(c.460-c.400 BC)

JEAN-PIERRE LUMINET

DIRECTOR OF ASTROPHYSICS AT THE PARIS-MEUDON OBSERVATORY,AUTHOR OF L’UNIVERS CHIFFONNÉ (FAYARD, 2001)

M i r ro r,mirror up aboveCould we be living deep in a cosmic mirage, where rays of light multiplyand distort our perceptions of space? Instead of being flat and infinite,might space not in fact be folded up—and our sense of the universe’svastness just an illusion?

It is extremely difficult for most of us to give ashape to something as intangible as space. Fo rthe physicist, the question only has meaning ifcouched in the language of geometry. So thenthe question becomes: how can geometry best

represent physical space—the space we inhabit?The problem is much more complex than it

first appears. There is no doubt that the space welive in and which we arefamiliar with iscorrectly described bywhat is known asEuclidean geometry, aset of laws devised bythe Greek geometerEuclid in the thirdcentury BC.1 But spaceat the tiny microscopicl e v e l , according toquantum mechanics, isa chaotic, f l u c t u a t i n gdomain somewhat likethe foam on the surfaceof an ocean, while atthe very largecosmological level welearn that space is intruth “ c u r v e d .” Wh e nwe ask what shape orform space has,t h e r e f o r e, modern physics actually gives us avariety of answers depending on the level at whichwe are looking.

Yet what exactly do we mean when we saythat space is “curved”? The modern science ofcosmology stems largely from the equations ofgeneral relativity formulated by Albert Einstein inthe first two decades of the 20th century.A c c o r d i n gto these equations, all space is deformed, or ratherc u r v e d , by the distribution of matter such asgalaxies inside it.This curvature manifests itself asone of the universe’s most fundamental forces:gravity.

Now if we turn to the universe as a whole—by

which we mean huge scales of over 102 5 m e t r e s — i tappears that the virtually uniform distribution ofgalaxies throughout the cosmos must curve space ina likewise uniform fashion.Aside from this constantc u r v a t u r e, the universe should also have anunderlying dynamic: in other words, it can either beexpanding or contracting.

On the basis of Einstein’s equations,A l e x a n d e rFriedmann and GeorgesLemaître discovered inthe 1920s a set ofmodels for such curvedspace.The most simpleversion points to so-called positivec u r v a t u r e, resembling asimple sphere thatdilates from the bigbang onwards to reacha maximum size beforecontracting back into afinal “big crunch.”Space could also haveno curvature or anegative curvature(forming a“ h y p e r b o l i c ” shape thatresembles a saddle).Inboth of these cases, theuniverse expands

forever, though the rate of expansion slows overtime.

Recent observations have suggested that cosmicspace is in fact close to the “no curvature” m o d e l —in other words it is flat and almost Euclidean,likeour normal understanding of space. But the data alsoindicates that the universe is expanding at anincreasing rate, suggesting that some kind of“cosmological constant” is accelerating theexpansion rate.This constant may be understood asthe energy of empty space.

But important questions remain. Can generalrelativity really give us a satisfactory description ofthe shape of space at the largest scales? It is, after all,


Four images of the same quasar, bent arounda central galaxy:a common astronomical mirage.

1. Based on five axioms(including his mostfamous one, n a m e l yt h a t parallel lines don o t m e e t ) , E u c l i d ’s 13-volume text E l e m e n t sincludes commonsensegeometric theorems suchas that the angles in atriangle add to 180º.N o n -Euclidean geometry wascreated in the 19thcentury.


still unclear whether space is finite or infin i t e : aspherical universe would certainly be finite, but aEuclidean or negatively curved universe could beeither finite or infinite.

At this stage we need a new approach: that oft o p o l o g y,a branch of geometry devoted to exploringthe properties that define particular spatial objects.Where the science of curvature falls shorts, t o p o l o g ycan step in to tell us about the overall structure ofspace.

Euclidean space can certainly be a lot morecomplicated than imagined. A surface with noc u r v a t u r e, for example, is not necessarily fla t .All onehas to do to prove this is take a rectangular piece ofpaper and stick it together at the edges to make acy l i n d e r. Just as with the original flat piece of paper,the surface of the cylinder is still Euclidean. Thecy l i n d e r ’s surface thus still has no curvature, b u tunlike the flat paper, it is finite in one direction.This is the sort of property that topology, n o tcurvature, can reveal.Cutting and sticking the flatpiece of paper into various new shapes does not alterthe curvature of the paper itself, but radicallychanges it overall shape—its topology.

The dawn ofruffled space

In space which is fla t , any two points can bejoined only by a single line, or geodesic—meaningsimply a line in curved space. In what we call multi-connected space, on the other hand, an infin i t enumber of geodesics join two points together,as canbe seen in the diagram.It is this very property whichgives such spaces extraordinary cosmologicalrelevance.

When we look at a faraway galaxy, we normallythink that we are seeing just one unique object,inone particular direction and at one distance. But ifcosmic space is multi-connected,rays of lights willreplicate to produce multiple images of the observedgalaxy. Since our entire perception of space comesfrom analysis of the trajectories of light rays, such amulti-connected space would mean we are plungedin a massive optical illusion that makes the universeappear much larger than it really is. Distant galaxiesthat we believe to be “original” would in fact berepeated images of a single galaxy.

A “ruffled”space would be just such a cosmos:a multi-connected domain of finite volume, whosesize would be smaller than the observed universe(whose radius is around 15 billion light-years).Th i sspace would create a topological mirage t h a tconstantly repeated the images from shiningsources—akin to standing in a hall of mirrors.

Similar optical illusions are already well knownby astronomers,and go under the name g r a v i t a t i o n a lm i r a g e s. These occur when light from a distantobject such as a quasar is bent by the effect of amassive body situated on its sightline. As a result,light rays from the star follow the curvature of

space and are scattered (see photo). What theobserver sees is a group of phantom imagessurrounding the intervening heavy object (known byastronomers as a “ l e n t i l ” ) .This sort of mirage can bedirectly ascribed to the l o c a l curvature of spacearound the lentil.

In the event of a topological mirage, however,there is no single heavy body like a galaxy deformings p a c e. I n s t e a d ,space itself plays the role of a lentil:phantom images are distributed in all directionsand for all their points in history across the entiretyof space.Such a global mirage allows us to examineobjects not only from every possible angle,but alsofrom every possible phase in their evolution.

For space to have this ruffled shape, it wouldhave to be highly subtle and constructed over verylarge scales. If not,we would have already identifie dphantom images of our own galaxy and other well-known structures—a feat we have not yet achieved.

So how can we then establish the true topologyof the universe? One method, c o s m i cc r y s t a l l o g r a p h y, attempts to pinpoint repetitions inthe distribution of distant objects. Studies offluctuations in the cosmic background radiation—a fossil from the big bang—might also indicate thatspace is ruffled by uncovering specific recurrences.

Experimental projects in both fields are under-w a y, though neither the depth nor the resolution ofobservations are yet good enough to drawconclusions about space’s overall topology. Th enext few years, h o w e v e r,promise great things: d e e psurveys of distant galaxies and quasars, along withnew satellites probing background radiation.Perhaps we will soon be able to give a form tospace. ■

A very simple two-dimensional universeillustrates how an observerin galaxy A (red) can seemultiple images of galaxy B(yellow).This model of theuniverse, called a tore (adoughnut shape),isconstructed from a squarestuck together on two sides.Instead of one line linkingthe galaxies, light fromgalaxy B can now reachgalaxy A by various routes;as a result, the observer ingalaxy A sees images ofgalaxy B from variousdirections.Though the tore isfinite, the observer is underthe illusion that space ismuch larger than it reallyit—his or her image ofspace is similar to a grid ofrepeated cells.

1 2 3

4



10–43 seconds (i.e. 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 seconds)

10–35 to 10–12 seconds

10–6 seconds

300,000 years

Between 5.5 and10.5 billion years

(precise date unknown)

10 (to 15) billion years

The storyof everything

B Space and time as defined byEinstein’s basic laws of physics haveas yet no meaning.

D “ I n fla t i o n ” has stopped. The primitive force which drives it leaves behind a series ofelementary particles—electrons, q u a r k s, gluons and neutrinos—existing in an environmentof inconceivably high temperatures (102 7 degrees centigrade). E x h a u s t e d , the universalearly force breaks up into gravity and other forces operating at the nuclear level.Einstein’slaws now apply.The universe continues to expand and cool.

F Quarks begin to stick to one another in threes, forming the first protons and neutrons—the building blocks of atoms.Anti-matter and matter meet and engage in mutual destruction,leaving for some unspecified reason a remainder of pure matter.The universe has chilled toa billion degrees centigrade.

H No light has been able to pass through the early universe due to its soup-like mixture ofelectrons and photons (carriers of light and other energy wa v e s ) . Upon reaching 3,000degrees centigrade, the electrons are finally able to cling to the basic atomic nuclei: thephotons are thus set free, making up the universe’s first ever electromagnetic signal.We canstill hear its remnants today. Space is now transparent.

J Our Sun is formed along with the planets of the solar system, possibly due to a cataclysmics u p e r n o va blast followed by the gradual accumulation into spherical bodies of dust, rock andgas. On those planets closest to the sun—Mercury,Venus, Earth and Mars—most light gasis burnt off, leaving in the case of Earth a mix composed largely of iron, n i c ke l , c a r b o n ,oxygen and magnesium. Distant planets, such as Jupiter and Saturn, remain gigantic globesof light gas.

L Multi-cellular organisms flo u r i s h , aided by the onset of sexual reproduction. The fir s tvertebrates emerge in the Ordovician era.Plants, dinosaurs, reptiles, and mammals follow.Some five million years ago, various species of hominids begin to inhabit A f r i c a . H o m os a p i e n s steps forth over 100,000 years ago.L a n g u a g e,culture and human society are created.

The UNESCO Courier - May 200126© David A.Hardy/Science Photo Library, Cosmos, Paris



0

10–43 to 10–35 seconds

10–11 seconds

100 seconds

2 or 3 billion years

A The universe is born in unknown, possibly unknowable circumstances. Traditional BigBang science suggested it emerged from a “singularity”—a point of infinite density at whichall known laws of space and time break down. S p e c u l a t i o n ,h o w e v e r, has not abated: o p t i o n sfor the first cause include a fluctuation in a field of quantum “foam,” a growth inside a BlackHole or the bounce from a self-annihilating parent universe. Theists prefer the hand of God.

C Current theories point to an era of rapid “ i n flation”—an expansion so fast that itoutstripped the speed of light. From a tiny ball less than a millimetre in size, the universemay have ballooned far beyond the distances our most advanced telescopes can currentlyobserve. The force behind this expansion is unknown.

E The temperature drops to a million billion degrees centigrade. Electromagnetism is born.All four fundamental forces of physics—gravity, the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclearforce and electromagnetism—are now in place. Time is ripe for the creation of more complexparticles.

G Neutrons and protons combine to form the most basic atomic nuclei—those of hydrogen,helium and lithium.The universe cools at extraordinary speed,so fast that there is no longerenough heat to form other, heavier elements.

I The cosmic dark age ends with the formation of the universe’s first ever stars at the heartof dense gas clouds. Compacted by gravity, hydrogen in these stars fuses into helium, p o u r i n gheat and light into space. Hot and violent nuclear reactions clamber up the ladder of thee l e m e n t s. C a r b o n , oxygen and magnesium are formed. Giant stars—called supernova e —expire in tremendous explosions, ejecting heavy matter across the evolving galaxies.

Time

© B. Tucker/International St/Cosmos, Paris

K Emergence of life.The very first cells begin to populate the earth. Early theories suggestedthe fundamental components for life, such as amino acids, were generated by the action of

lightning on a primal stew of wa t e r, methane and hydrogen. Contemporary accountspostulate that asteroids impacting on Earth may have instead carried the seeds of organiclife.

6.2 (to 11.2) billion years

Is science on the verge of explaining the mysteryof existence,once and for all? Some prominentscientists are suggesting as much. They claimthat unified theories of physics such assuperstring theory,when combined with refin e d

versions of the big bang model,will soon bequeath usa so-called “theory of everything.” As described byphysicists such as Stephen Hawking, a theory ofeverything will be a kind of mystical revelation,which permanently transforms the “ H u h ? ”of wonderevoked in us by our contemplation of nature into agreat “A h a ! ”

Those who find this vision of a wonderless worldchilling rather than exhilarating should be assuredthat it will never be fulfil l e d . One of the greatparadoxes of modern science is that the more ittells about about existence, the moremysterious existence becomes.

The conundrumof reality

Take the simplest question ofa l l :Why is there something ratherthan nothing? The big bangtheory, for all its power, cannottell us why and how the bigbang happened in the firstp l a c e. Some physicists notethat according to quantumm e c h a n i c s, empty space isseething with so-called virtualp a r t i c l e s, which spring intoexistence for an instant beforev a n i s h i n g ; p e r h a p s, t h e s ephysicists speculate, the entireuniverse began as a kind of virtualp a r t i c l e. Honest physicists willnevertheless admit that they haveabsolutely no idea why there issomething rather than nothing. After all,what produced the laws of quantummechanics, which supposedly allowed quantumcreation to occur?

The next question is: Why does the universelook the way it does rather than some other way?Why does it adhere to these laws of nature rather

than some other laws? Altering any of those lawswould have radically altered reality. If gravity hadbeen infinitesimally stronger, the universe wouldhave stopped expanding almost immediately afterthe big bang and collapsed into a black hole;a bitw e a k e r, and the universe would have flown apart sorapidly that stars, galaxies and planets would neverhave formed. The physicist Lawrence Krausscompares the odds against gravityhaving precisely thevalue necessaryfor the

L i f e against the o d d sCosmology has led us back to the very first second of the universe’sexistence, yet the more science reveals, the more it leaves unanswered

2 . C O S M O S, GOD AND US


JOHN HORGAN

U.S. AUTHOR OF THE END OF SCIENCE (1996) AND THE UNDISCOVERED MIND (1999).HIS NEXT BOOK, THE DEEP END: GETTING TO THE BOTTOM OF

MYSTICISM, WILL BE PUBLISHED NEXT YEAR.

A negative image of the Cat’s

cosmos to exist to the odds against someone guessingprecisely how many atoms are in the sun.

Then there is the enigma of life. The biologistRichard Dawkins once declared that life “is amystery no longer”because it had been solved byDarwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.A c t u a l l y, life is still a complete conundrum, in spiteof all the insights provided by evolutionary theoryand more modern biological paradigms, such asgenetics and molecular biology.None of these fie l d scan tell us why life appeared on earth in the firstp l a c e, and whether it was a probable event or aonce-in-eternity fluke.

Dawkins and others proclaim that life is a robustphenomenon that occurs throughout the universe,but there is no scientific evidence to support this

b e l i e f.After decades of searching,we have foundno signs of life elsewhere in

the universe.As far

as we know, life emerged here on earth only once,approximately 3.5 billion years ago. M o r e o v e r,attempts to replicate the origin of life in thelaboratory have left researchers more baffled thanever at how it occurred. The Nobel prize winnerFrancis Crick once complained that “the origin oflife appears to be almost a miracle, so many arethe conditions which would have to be satisfied toget it going.”C r i c k , it should be noted, is an agnosticleaning toward atheism.

Scanning the heavensfor signals

Many scientists have contended that once lifestarted evolving on the earth, it was only a matter oftime before it produced a species as complex as wea r e. But the history of life on earth does not supportsuch a view. For roughly 80 percent of life’s 3.5-billion-year span, it consisted entirely of single-celled organisms, such as bacteria and algae. Thensomething happened—biologists will probablynever know exactly what—and the era of trilobites,t r i c e r a t o p s, taxi-drivers and other multi-cellular

creatures commenced.The palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould

has pointed out that contingency — j u s tplain luck—has played an enormous

role in the emergence of H o m os a p i e n s. If life on earth started

from scratch a million times over,Gould contends, chances are itwould never again producem a m m a l s, let alone anythingresembling Homo sapiens .S i m i l a r l y, the biologistErnst Mayr suspects thatwe may be the only lifeforms in the galaxy andpossibly the entireuniverse capable ofinventing radios and other

c o m m u n i c a t i o n st e c h n o l o g i e s.For that reason,

Mayr believes that SETI—thesearch for extra-terrestrial

i n t e l l i g e n c e, which scans theheavens for extra-terrestrial radio

transmissions—is doomed to fail.The particle physicist Steven

Weinberg once wrote: “ The more theuniverse seems comprehensible, the more it

seems pointless.”My analysis of science suggestsa corollary aphorism:the more the universe seemsc o m p r e h e n s i b l e, the more it seems improbable.Th emost wildly improbable feature of the universe is the



The oppositeof a correctstatement is a falsestatement. But theopposite of aprofound truth maywellbe another profoundtruth.Niels Bohr,Danish physicist(1885-1962)

Eye nebula,3,000 light-years away

MARCELO GLEISER

BRAZILIAN-BORN PHYSICS PROFESSOR AT DARTMOUTH COLLEGE (U.S.),AUTHOR OF THE DANCING UNIVERSE: FROM CREATION MYTHS TO THE BIG BANG (PLUME,1998)

Since the dawn of civilization, h u m a n k i n dhas marvelled at the skies and at Nature’smyriad creations.This sense of wonder wasdeeply interwoven with a sense of fear:N a t u r e ’s dual role as creator and destroyer

has puzzled and polarized our perceptions of thec o s m o s. As a way of establishing a degree of controlover the apparent unpredictability of naturalp h e n o m e n a , gods were held responsible for thesec o n flicting manifestations.In short,Nature was deifie d .

The question of why there is something ratherthan nothing was a crucial part of this process. Allcultures have attempted to provide an answer to themystery of creation, and our modern scientifictradition is no exception.Perhaps more surprisingly,there is an intriguing correspondence betweenanswers suggested by mythic narratives and thosesuggested by scientific research. The cruciald i f f e r e n c e,of course, is that thescientific process is capable ofweeding out explanationswhich do not measure up too b s e r v a t i o n s,while those basedon myth are held true on thebasis of faith alone.

Greece and reasonCreation myths can be

divided conveniently into twok i n d s : either the cosmosappeared at a specific momentin time marking the beginning of history, or it hasalways been “there.” Myths with a creation eventdescribe time in a linear fashion,with a beginning,middle and, as in the Christian narrative, an end.Myths without a creation event may consider timeto be either unimportant or cy c l i c. Within thesetwo sets,we encounter an enormous variety.S t a r t i n gwith the “no creation myths,” the two possibilitiesa r e :an eternal,uncreated cosmos,as in the narrativeof the Jains of India,or a cyclic cosmos, c o n t i n u o u s l ycreated and destroyed, as beautifully represented inthe Hindu tradition by the dance of Shiva.

The first and by far the most common “mythwith creation” invokes a deity or deities who createthe world, as in the Judaeo-Christian myth ofGenesis. A second possibility is that the world was

created out of nothing, without the interference ofa god; this is what the Maori people of New Zealandhave in mind when they sing, “from nothing thebegetting, from nothing the increase. . . .” A finalpossibility is that the world appeared spontaneouslyfrom a primordial Chaos, where order coexists withdisorder, Being with Non-Being.

The religious nature of the creation event haspermeated scientific thought since its origins inAncient Greece in the sixth century BC. As theGreek philosophers pondered the physicalmechanisms that created the world and controlledits motions, many assumed an organizationalprinciple based on rational design, attributed to a“ D e m i u r g e ” by Plato or to the “Unmoved Mover”by A r i s t o t l e.Plato was a true heir of the Pythagoreant r a d i t i o n ,which saw the world as a manifestation ofN u m b e r, arranged and combined to create the

harmonies perceived by thes e n s e s. The emphasis on acreation event was somewhatleft aside, being substituted bythe importance of reason inunderstanding the workings ofN a t u r e.The philosopher, in hissearch for rational meaning,was in effect elevating himselfto a higher level of existence—that of the Demiurge’s mind.To understand Nature was tounderstand God,or, in an oft-

quoted aphorism,to understand the mind of God.This tradition reappeared in the West during

the birth of modern science in the Renaissance.The great natural philosophers that spearheaded theso-called Copernican Revolution were all, to agreater or lesser degree,deeply religious men, w h osaw their scientific work as an integral part of theirreligious beliefs. Th u s, Copernicus himself was acanon of the cathedral in Frauenberg, a reluctantrevolutionary who sought to reconcile thearrangement of the celestial spheres with thePlatonic ideal of circular motions with constantv e l o c i t i e s. His model of the solar system was anelegant compromise between the old and the new,looking back at Plato and forward at the aestheticprinciples of his time. His great opus, On the

The m y t h s of scienceMyth, religion and science have more often than not proved inseparablein addressing the eternal imponderable: why something rather thannothing?



To understand Naturewas to understand

God, or, in anoft-quoted aphorism,

to understandthe mind of God.

Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs, was dedicated toPope Paul III, in the hope that the Church wouldrecognize the need for a reinterpretation of theScriptures based on the new astronomical thought.

It was through the work of Giordano Brunoa n d , more importantly,Johannes Kepler and GalileoG a l i l e i , that the Copernican Revolution wase n a c t e d . Kepler was deeply influenced by thePythagorean tradition, a number mystic whobelieved geometry to be the key to the cosmicharmony. His three laws of planetary motion are apowerful illustration of how the scientific output ofa great mind can be a byproduct of a belief systemtempered by the analysis of data.

No final truthsG a l i l e o ’s now famous tribulations with the

Church were also a product of his beliefs.A pious(and overconfident) man, Galileo took as hispersonal mission to reset the course of Christiant h e o l o g y, preaching to the Church leaders theimportance of accepting the new cosmic design.The clash was unavoidable, and in 1633 Galileowas forced to abjure his conviction in theCopernican system.Not for long, though,for soonafter Isaac Newton put forward his three laws ofmotion and his universal theory of gravity in 1687,the sun-centered cosmos became widely accepted.To Newton, the cosmos was a manifestation ofG o d ’s glory, i n finite in extent and sublime in design.

During the twentieth century, the Newtonianuniverse was substituted by a curved Einsteinianuniverse;Einstein showed how matter and energycan bend space and alter the flow of time, e n d o w i n gthem with an unprecedented plasticity. N o w h e r eis this more spectacularly displayed than in theexpansion of the universe itself,discovered by EdwinHubble in 1929. Once again, the question of originscame back to haunt scientists: if the universe isexpanding, there was a moment in time when allmatter was squeezed into a very small volume.Astronomy was proclaiming that the universe didhave an origin, after all.A cry of dissent emergedfrom Cambridge University via the proposal of the“steady-state model,” where the universe neverhad a beginning in time.With the discovery that thewhole cosmos is immersed in a bath of microwaveradiation in the 1960s, the steady-state model wasabandoned by most cosmologists; the “ b i g - b a n gmodel” has since been accepted as the one whichbest fits the data.

Can science “explain” the age-old question ofCreation? Certainly,physical models describing theorigin of the cosmos can and have been proposed,a tleast since the 1970s.But these models face a serioustechnical obstacle: the lack of a proper theory todescribe physical processes at the enormous energyscales prevalent during the first moments of cosmich i s t o r y. They could be called scientific creation

n a r r a t i v e s, at least until they can be placed on moresolid theoretical ground.We see old themes comingb a c k ,dressed in scientific jargon. In some models theuniverse was born out of “ n o t h i n g,” a quantumvacuum populated by all sorts of ephemeral energyfluctuations;others see the beginning as essentiallyc h a o t i c, with an ordered cosmos emerginghomogeneously in three dimensions.

Some of these models of creation makepredictions about measurable properties of theu n i v e r s e,which can be used to test and refine them.Yet it may be hard to rule out all alternative models,which may also be compatible with thesemeasurements. The best that we can hope for is a

workable model of cosmic origins, compatible withobservations but open to changes. S c i e n t i fic inquiryis after all an ongoing process—there is no fin a lt r u t h , only approximations to the truth.Furthermore, science, at least as it is formulated atp r e s e n t , cannot answer questions concerning itsown origin: we do not know why the universeoperates according to the laws we have uncoveredand not others. This essential incompleteness ofscience suggests a new form of complementaritybetween science and religion; religion does not existto cover the holes of our scientific knowledge, butas a driving force behind scientific inspiration.Through our search for knowledge we uncover ourtrue nature, fuelled by the same sense of mysterywhich filled our ancestors with awe. ■



Copernicus’ vision of the planets,from a 17th-century illustration.


“There were two ways of arriving at thet r u t h . I decided to follow them both,”declared Georges Lemaître, one of thefathers of modern cosmology and also aCatholic abbot1.“Nothing in my working

l i f e,nothing I ever learned in my studies of either scienceor religion has ever caused me to change that opinion. Ihave no conflict to reconcile. Science has not shakenmy faith in religion and religion has never caused me toquestion the conclusions I reached by scientific methods.”

What relations are there between modern scienceand theology, understood as a rational explanation ofa religious tradition? Are the two entirely separate,do they overlap or are they just complementary?

L e m a î t r e,a defender of “ d i s s o n a n c e ” between thedisciplines, argued that the approaches of science and

DOMINIQUE LAMBERT

PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE-DAME DE LA PAIX,NAMUR (BELGIUM)

The highest summit:G o d meets the big bangAre science and religion inseparable twins or hostile strangers?Could a third party—philosophy—act as a bridge between the two?


Was this the beginning? An artist’s

Steven Weinberg*: Towards a final theory“I’m reasonably sure that we will have a final theory from which all theregularities in nature can be deduced, but I am also reasonably sure thatthe final theory will leave us with a mystery: why isn’t the theorysomething else, such as a theory with nothing at all, or a theory with justtwo particles endlessly in orbit around each other. The best we can hope todo is discover a theory that is logically fragile, in the sense that any smallchange in the theory would lead to logical contradictions.On a more mundane level, there are limits to science that are not sofundamental but as a practical matter we will probably not be able totranscend. For example, the final theory may very well be something likestring theory, but I cannot conceive of how we will ever directly producestructures that are 17 powers of ten smaller than those probed in thelaboratory today. Likewise there’s a wide class of cosmological theories inwhich our big bang is one of many that go off all over the universe, thoughin principle we will never observe the others. In both cases the theory willbe successful or not depending on whether its predictions for things wecan observe are correct.As for religion,whatever reasons it provides still raise the question of why:why should there be deities with certain characteristics? In fact the moreyou learn of physics, the less you see of what may be regarded aspurpose.”

* Professor of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Nobel Prize forPhysics (1979)

John Leslie*: Inside the divine mind“Cosmology can give us speculative stories that are very much worthtaking seriously. But at the moment science cannot give us any confidencethat these stories are correct. The stories are all about how this universecame into existence against the background of the laws of physics, andthere’s a question of why there are any laws of physics, and why theyshould apply to anything.Let’s suppose you had a completely empty situation.What would there bein that situation which could create a universe? Well, first note that thesituation couldn’t be entirely empty because it would be full of all sorts offacts—for example, the fact that 2+2=4. I don’t think you can get rid offacts like that just by banishing the universe from existence, because theseare facts about possibilities and hold no matter what. There would also beethical facts:for example, it would be a fact that the emptiness was in onerespect bad because you could have a really good situation instead, awonderful cosmos.If Plato was right in thinking that Value itself acts creatively, then thecosmos must be the very best possible cosmos. It then consists of aninfinite number of minds, each knowing everything worth knowing:mindswe might want to call divine. The structure of the universe is just one ofthe things worth knowing, and all of us exist inside one of those divineminds. This is a pantheistic view—that the structure of the cosmos issimply the structure of divine thinking.”

* University Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Guelph,Canada, and author of Universes (Routledge, 1996)

1. Interview in New Yo r kTimes Magazine,February 19,1933

2. R o ck of A g e s : S c i e n c e,Religion and the Full-ness of Life (BallantineBooks, 1999)

INTERVIEWS BY IVAN BRISCOE

Overlapping Magisteria) principle proposed by U.S.palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould2 a n do t h e r s, s c i e n c eand religion supply m a g i s t e r i a— fields of knowledge—that do not encroach on each other,but are not entirelys e p a r a t e ; an intimate dialogue is possible betweenthem.Gould uses the metaphor of oil and water, twoelements that do not mix but can remain in very closecontact.The contours of their separation are complexand flu i d , since both can move back and forth intoplaces occupied moments before by the other. S c i e n c eand religion, in short, are inseparable but radicallydifferent,friends but never partners.

Transcendental gapsNot true say the supporters of “correspondence,”

who base their viewpoint on the notion that scientificdata can be directly useful to religion.According to thisapproach,concepts in these two fields can link up oreven agree, so that theories of the big bang and Creationmay interact to their mutual advantage. But thisposition raises a host of questions, particularly over thenature of knowledge:is science not impoverished orcheapened by confusing all or part of it with religion?Does a concept such as Creation not mean verydifferent things in different religious traditions and inthe mouths of scientists, for whom it has a precisetechnical significance?

The essential weakness with this approach isevident in the concept of a “God particle.” S i n c e


religion were completely separate and insulated fromeach other. Because they belong to totally differentareas of knowledge,he added,science and theology notonly do not overlap, but are so far apart they cannoteven influence one another.

This conclusion is not upheld by other supportersof dissonance. According to the NOMA (Non-


representation of a black hole.

Michael Heller*: The limits of scientific understanding“There is a great temptation for the scientist to identify the limits ofrationality with the limits of scientific method—or, to put it in a morepicturesque way, to identify the limits of the method with the limits of theuniverse. This temptation is so powerful because the scientific method isthe easiest kind of rationality and can efficiently distinguish what isscientifically valuable information from what is not.The nature of the big bang is a purely scientific problem. To “explain”it asa result of God’s action is like ascribing thunder to the bad temper of Zeus.I think the really important question lies elsewhere:namely, where do thelaws of physics come from?There are currently two ways of answering this. One is to show that on afundamental level there reigns complete anarchy and the laws of physicsare just effects of purely random averaging processes. The other is toimagine a set of all possible universes, each of them with different physicallaws. We then happen to be living in a highly ordered universe because inall other universes the life of beings like ourselves is excluded.But can suchprobabilities be an ultimate explanation? Why does the universe—or theset of all universes—have this property of probability? Here, I think,we aretouching the real limits of our understanding of the universe.The only way to get rid of such questions is not to ask them. But thatwould go against a criterion of critical rationality:one should not cease tolook for further arguments as long as something remains to be arguedfor.”

* Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Pontifical Academy ofTheology, Cracow, Poland

Tsevi Mazeh*: The beauty of the world“Science cannot tell us why and what for, and in a sense science is limitedto the technical details of how the world works. I think there is no problemwith saying God was in the beginning, that God set the world rolling anddecided upon its rules. But as for the question of God interfering during thehistory of the universe—that is something I believe, but which I do notfully understand.My religion [Orthodox Judaism] does not influence my work as anastronomer, but it does make me appreciate God and the beauty of theworld. I have been teaching a course on binary stars, in which there is amathematical formula describing perfectly the stars’ motion.In my eyes itis a miracle that the human mind can find such beautiful mathematicaltools to explain the motion of the world—I see that as one of the miraclesof the world that God created.As for Chapter 1 of Genesis, you have to realize that it has a core and ithas details. The core is the theological message:there is one unified God.When the Bible was written, this was a complete revolution and actuallydoesn’t make sense when you look upon the world and see its forcesfighting each other. The writer of Genesis had to convey this message insome cosmological terms, so he chose the cosmology of his day. He couldnot mention the big bang, the speed of light or atoms. Instead, he spokein terms understandable to the people of that time.”

* Professor of Astronomy at Tel Aviv University

“Religions die whenthey are proved true.Science is the recordof dead religions.”Oscar Wilde, Irish wit, poetand dramatist(1854-1900)


scientists have no quantum theory of gravitation todescribe what happened in the first few moments afterthe big bang—there is a scientific gap to be fil l e d — t h einitial creative impulse is attributed to divine power. B u tGod provides no explanation at all. Reduced to asimple physical cause within other physical causes,God also loses his divinity to become just anotherelement in the material world.

Dissonance avoids this trap by allowing a calmdialogue between scientists and theologians thatrespects each other’s independence of thought: theyagree not to exploit bits of each other’s field ofknowledge to advance their own. But is this divisionperhaps too radical,depriving each side of elements thatcould be useful for their own thinking?

Thus the need for a third position that rejects allblending of science and theology advocated bysupporters of correspondence, but establishes anindirect dialogue between them via a go-between—philosophy in the broadest sense.The dialogue is alsoa s y m m e t r i c a l , since it encourages theological debate onthe basis of scientific knowledge rather than the otherway round.

This perspective begins by recognizing that scienceinevitably raises philosophical questions which it cannota n s w e r, such as ones about meaning and ethics.Philosophers can then draw on religious traditionsamong other resources to search for answers. These

answers are of little use to scientists in their everydayr e s e a r c h , but may help them deal with the kind ofquestions every human being runs up against. A n dtheology in turn can benefit from philosophical workinspired and fertilized by science. This pathway fromscience towards religion is thus the fruit of work that hasto be carried out continually as scientific knowledgea d v a n c e s : questions are raised, and philosophicalresponses generated that must at some stage takeaccount of religion.

Unravellingthe beginnings

Let’s go back to the example of the big bang. Ascientist from the school of correspondence couldsay it was equivalent to Creation in the theologicalsense. But this assertion would not be scientificallylegitimate:physics is based on natural causes alone,while Creation comes from divine and thereforemetaphysical intervention.As a result, the issue of thepurely physical origin of the universe “ r e m a i n sentirely separate from any metaphysical or religiousquestion,” according to Lemaître. The theory of thebig bang hence does not presuppose any specialreligious belief, contrary to what some scientiststhought in the 1950s.

Dissonance, which rules out all dialogue betweencosmology and theology, is no more satisfactory. But an

Lee Smolin*: Cosmological evolution“A key issue is understanding the fine-tuning of the universe: how did itcome to be that the parameters that govern elementary particles and theirinteractions are tuned and balanced in such a way that a universe of suchvariety and complexity arises? The probability that a universe created byrandomly choosing the parameters will contain stars is one chance in10229.The universe is improbable, and it is improbable in the sense that it has astructure which is much more complex than it would be if its laws andinitial conditions were chosen more randomly. Thus we seek a kind ofexplanation which is checkable, which is falsifiable, and which is based onsome hypothesis of natural phenomena. Broadly speaking, biology andnatural selection are the most successful examples of a theory thataddresses such questions.In the case of the universe, this leads to the hypothesis of cosmologicalnatural selection:in other words, that our elementary particles are the waywe find them because they make the production of black holes, and thusthe production of new “universes,” much more likely.If it is true that the big bang was not the beginning of the universe but anevent that came from another part of the universe, whether a black holeor something else with a prior structure, then it’s very possible thatobservations over the next few decades will help us—just as by studyingthe ripples in water, you can measure the shape of the rock that causedthem.”

* Professor of Physics at Pennsylvania State University, author of The Lifeof the Cosmos (Oxford University Press, 1997)

Seyyed Hossein Nasr*: Be, and there is“Science by its very nature can deal only with one level of existence, physicalexistence. Science also relies on the study of events in time and space. Thescientist therefore pushes towards the beginning, but find its impossible toget to the beginning itself since it is beyond material existence and beyondthe spatial or temporal.In contrast,most religions—with exceptions, such asConfucianism—have spoken about the origin of the universe.Those who accept the religious point of view, such as myself, can say a greatdeal about the origins of the universe. We believe that the reality whichbrought the universe into being has also sent us a revelation in knowledge ofthe origin of that universe. In the case of Islam, this revelation comes first ofall from the Koran, which describes the creation of the universe as comingfrom the word of God, recounted in the very famous verse of Chapter 36 inwhich God says “Be, and there is.”Until the 17th century, science from East to West was aimed at studying thetraces of God’s wisdom in his creation. But the Cartesian philosophy thatundergirds the scientific revolution created a division between the knowingsubject and the known object: modern science considered its goal to be thestudy of pure quantity, and tore away all qualitative aspects of nature—allits spiritual elements.Every ten years there are new cosmological theories and views. But I do notreally take these to be steps towards understanding the ultimate structure ofthe universe since we are dealing with so many unknowns. It’s as if you knewone inch of a line and extrapolated it straight to the moon.”

* Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University

May 2001 -The UNESCO Courier 35


SUDHANVA DESHPANDE

ACTOR AND DIRECTOR WITH THE DELHI-BASED THEATRE GROUPJANA NATYA MANCH

Out of b u t t e r and w a t e r: t h eHindu creationIn the classic myths of Hinduism, there is no primeval emptiness:just different stages of gods and the universe, recycling themselveslike crops


There is no single Hindu myth of origin.Th e r eare as many myths as there are texts;s o m e t i m e s, the same text has more than one.The earliest myths date back to the Rig Ve d a ,the first of the four Ve d a s, composed over a

period of time, though certainly before 1000 BC, a n deventually committed to writing many centuries later.

Contrary to what some believe, the bulk of RigVedic hymns—all told, there are 1028 of them, s p r e a dover ten books—are not spiritual or metaphysical at all,

consisting mostly of tributes to an entire pantheon ofanthropomorphic gods. But books one and ten, w h i c hcoincide with the emergence of varna, the four-foldhierarchical division of society,which rapidly led to theproliferation of hundreds of castes, also contain theorigin hymns.

The most celebrated of these is the hymn thatcontains the earliest known reference to v a r n a.Creation is the result of the sacrifice of Purusha (Man),the primeval being, who is all that exists, i n c l u d i n g“whatever has been and whatever is to be.” Wh e nP u r u s h a , who had “a thousand heads, a thousand eyes,a thousand feet” was sacrific e d , the clarified butterthat resulted was made into the beasts which inhabit

intermediate philosophical discussion about themeaning of the big bang as the physical origin of thecosmos can help theologians unravel the links anddifferences between notions of physical beginning,metaphysical beginning and divine Creation,and seemore clearly the purely theological meaning of thelatter.

Creation in the theological sense can mean thesudden physical appearance of the world for divinereasons, but it can also mean a relation that God usesto keep the universe in existence by giving it physicals h a p e.This “sudden appearance” cannot be regarded asthe start of a process in physical time because it is itselfthe origin of space, time and matter.

F u r t h e r m o r e, this “Creation link” cannot be seen asa physical cause because it is in fact the cause of allphysical causes. New theological ways of describingthe relations between time and eternity, between Godand the world, can flow from this philosophicalc l a r i fic a t i o n . It also makes for better understanding ofthe range and limits of science.

For some, science and religion are inseparable butvery different friends. For others, they are friends onlylinked by a third party. For get others, they are friendsthat are in fact true twins.And finally, they are viewedas two people who are not friends at all because theynever meet. In short, a set of bonds running all theway from fusion to fission. ■

“God as an Architect”, by William Blake.

“The brain—is widerthanthe Sky—For—put them sideby side—The one the otherwill containWith ease—andYou—beside”Emily Dickinson,American poet(1830-1886)


the earth.This same sacrifice produced the gods, I n d r a(the menacing king of gods),Agni (Fi r e ) ,Vayu (Wi n d ) ,as well as the Sun and the Moon. From Purusha’snavel the atmosphere was born; his head producedthe heaven; his feet produced the earth;his ear the sky.The four v a r n a s were born too: the mouth was theb r a h m a n ( p r i e s t ) ; the arms the k s h a t r i y a ( w a r r i o r ) ;the thigh the vaishya (general populace);the feet theshudra (servant).

Primeval incest is the other method by whichcreation takes place in the Rig Ve d a , and this idearecurs throughout Hinduism. Later mythology claimsM a n u , the first man, gave birth to the human racethrough the act of incest;Manu himself is also born ofincest that the creator indulges in. By the time wecome to the texts known as the Puranas (dates between300 and 1500 A D ) , the story of creation becomes morec o m p l e x : the creator of the universe was the godB r a h m a , who came from the primeval waters,and wassw ay a m b h u ( s e l f - e x i s t e n t ) . Brahma transformedhimself into a giant boar (varaha) to bring forth theearth from the depths of these waters. The first man,

M a n u , was born directly of Brahma. Manu was ah e r m a p h r o d i t e, and created two sons and threedaughters from his female half.

What is striking in all this, of course, is that none ofthese stories actually say how the universe began.There is no sense of things being created out of nothing,the stuff of the universe only happening to be reusedand recycled periodically, like in a giant ecofriendlye n t e r p r i s e. In a sense, of course, this is a naturaloutcome of the Hindu view of the eternally recyclingu n i v e r s e, that goes through the four successive periods,y u g a s, forever condemned to the cycle of regenerationand destruction. The four y u g a s are said to berespectively 4800, 3 6 0 0 ,2 4 0 0 , and 1200 god-years long.A god-year, in turn, lasts 360 human years.The qualityof life,as well as of humans, progressively deteriorates

in each successive y u g a until we reach the presentdark (kali) yuga, which will end in the great universaldeluge, followed again by a new golden age and thebirth of man from Manu.

This great cosmic cycle, eternally chasing its ownt a i l , this depressingly monotonous ebb and flow inwhich all illusion of forward movement is actuallyr e t r o g r e s s i o n , fairly accurately sums up the Indianp e a s a n t ’s life over centuries. The hard summer isfollowed by the great deluge of the monsoon,whichrekindles the eternal hope that at last hunger, misery,and want will come to an end.Thus every agriculturalcycle is actually the great cosmic cycle in microcosm.Practically all festivals in various parts of India coincidewith the major punctuations in this agricultural cy c l e ;for instance, even as I write these lines in late March,the traditional Indian new year is being celebrated inmost regions, now that the crop is ready.

A visit to the barberTo the extent that India is still a predominantly

agricultural society, these festivals, and the variousrituals that go with them,are an organic part of people’slives, and not just corporate inducements to an urbanelite to consume more and more in the globalizedm a r k e t p l a c e.Ye t , since these festivals and rituals haveactually evolved over a very long period of time, theyare now most often taken for granted; like the self-existent creator, they just exist,with neither beginningnor end. For most practitioners of these rituals, muchof the original meaning is either unimportant,or simplylost under centuries of cultural sedimentation.

Yet ideas persist over centuries and pop up at youwhen you least expect them. Last week, I needed ah a i r c u t , and so I went to the barber who has performedthis service since I was about ten. It is a veritabler i t u a l , evolved over two decades or so. It begins with hismagnanimously offering me tea, and ends with hisnever returning change.In between, he asks about myfamily, I about his;he checks if I am still off smoking,I if he is off drink.Through all this,of course, we discussp o l i t i c s, s p o r t s,and anything else of topical interest.Th i stime, I asked him how he was told the universe cameinto being.He laughed,snipped off a tuft of hair on myf o r e h e a d , and said: “ Who knows how all this wascreated? Who was around to see? Even the gods wereborn after something existed, so who can tell whathappened when nothing existed?”

My barber has not read the Rig Veda. But if hewere to, some day, he will be struck by the followinghymn:Then even nothingness was not,nor existence.There was no air then,nor the heavens beyond it.Who covered it? Where was it? In whose keeping?Was there then cosmic water, in depths unfathomed?But,after all,who knows, and who can say,Whence it all came, and how creation happened?The gods themselves are later than creation,So who knows truly whence it has arisen?

(Rig Veda,X,129) ■

Brahma (centre-top) emerges from a lotus flower.

On the day that the blue ones stoppedtransmitting, the caretaker was doing itsrounds of the Eye, humming and potteringamong the other, duller maintenancerobots.

Th e n ,when the news came in, it stopped humming.Near the heart of the Eye—the vast radio telescope

floating beyond the orbit of Jupiter—was a giganticspherical tank which had once been used to store thewater the humans had needed during the construction.They had lived in it, too—dwelling in pressurizedcabins surrounded by water, shielded from radiation.

Now they were gone—long gone—but themidnight blue tank remained.

Like, the caretaker had thought one day, a hugeblank canvas.

✩✩✩

Until the coming of the Eye, no radio telescopehad been sensitive enough to pick out signals ofintelligent origin from the mush of cosmic backgroundn o i s e. But then the feast had begun: a tsunami ofknowledge almost beyond human comprehension.Ye tthe messages showed that humanity was stillfundamentally alone.All the signals had originated inother galaxies, often at distances that bordered on thec o s m o l o g i c a l .They had been sent hundreds of millionsof years ago, when the dinosaurs were still evolution’scool new idea.

But there was a more disturbing thing even thanthe loneliness.

At any one time the Eye was picking up themessages from about a hundred civilizations, but eachonly stayed active for a few centuries before fallings i l e n t .The net number stayed roughly constant becausenew species were always popping up and discoveringradio astronomy, but they too would be doomed tospend only a relatively short amount of time among theh u n d r e d . For a few glorious centuries they wouldbroadcast their cultural legacy into the sky;enrichingthe knowledge of the other listening cultures.

But then—it was often around the time they starteddiscovering some of the more interesting things thatcould be done with subatomic particles—they wouldstop sending.

Usually without much warning.

✩✩✩

It shouldn’t havebothered thecaretaker.

But in tendingthe Eye it found thatit became quite attached to some of those transmittingc u l t u r e s. It became absorbed in their histories;fascinated by their biologies and outlooks.

It hummed their music and pondered their art.And waited with deep, mounting sadness for the

day it always knew would come; the sudden,roaringsilence from that part of the sky.

✩✩✩

It moved to the part of the Fresco which recordedthe senders in a distant galaxy in the constellationSculptor.

The caretaker had marked the tank with faint linesof celestial latitude and longitude. At the precise co-ordinates of the transmitting civilization, it had painteda spiral galaxy much like our own;an impressionisticswirl of white and ochre. It was one of the first galaxiesthat the caretaker had painted,and while it had gainedproficiency since—there were better ones dotted allaround the Fresco—there was a certain charm to thiseffort which appealed to it.

Two thirds out from the core, the caretaker hadmarked the location of the transmitting culture’s solarsystem.

It thought of them:blue, tentacled aquatic beingswith a reproductive system so intricate it had taken thecaretaker decades to work out how many sexes theyhad. Their music had been even trickier;sounding atfirst pass like synchronized drowning. But the caretakerhad persisted, and after a while it had even caughtitself humming some of the more accessible bits.

But they were gone now.Silent.

✩✩✩

Nothing for it,then.With sadness in its heart—but at the same time

emboldened by the execution of a solemn task itknew must be done—the caretaker prepared theprecise shade of midnight blue it needed. When itwas ready, it carefully stippled the galaxy into oblivion,like a master picture restorer removing a blemish.The caretaker was very good at its work,and when itwas done there was no sign that the galaxy had everexisted.

The Fresco was up-to-date, but it would not belong before it had to be changed again.

Art is long, it thought. And life short. ■

A SHORT TALE BY ALASTAIR REYNOLDS

AUTHOR OF REVELATION SPACE (VICTOR GOLLANCZ,2000) AND ASCIENTIST WORKING WITHIN THE ASTROPHYSICS DIVISION OF THE

EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY

F re s c o2 . C O S M O S, GOD AND US



Jupiter and its moons.

WPRISCILLA B. HAYNER

PROGRAMME DIRECTOR OF THE INTERNATIONALCENTRE FOR TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE,NEW YORK,AND AUTHOR OF UNSPEAKABLE TRUTHS: CONFRONTING

STATE TERROR AND ATROCITIES, (ROUTLEDGE,2001)

M o re than just the truthTruth commissions can set in motion a process of grieving and recovery, but they are not the onlyanswer to confronting crimes of the past. Trials are critical, while traditional healing practices canalso assuage wounds

hen nations go through a transition from arepressive regime to a democracy, as manyhave in recent years, a state and its peopleare often left with a legacy of violence,bitterness and pain. Because it is not alwayspossible to prosecute hundreds ofp e r p e t r a t o r s, many new governments haveturned to mechanisms outside the judicialsystem to confront the horrific crimes of aprior regime.

More than 20 such commissions havebeen created over the past two decades,mostly in Africa and Latin America (seeb o x ) . As they are more widely used ands t u d i e d , it has become clear that they fill avery different role from judicial inquiriesand trials. They paint a larger picture,looking at many thousands of victims,whereas trials (which are criticallyimportant as well) must,by defin i t i o n ,f o c u son specific events of wrongdoing, a n ds p e c i fic perpetrators. Truth commissionscan be defined as offic i a l , t e m p o r a r ymechanisms established to investigate apattern of past human rights abuses orviolations of international humanitarianl a w.As a transitional tool,they are chargedwith investigating and reporting thesea b u s e s, and recommending reforms inorder to prevent further abuses in thef u t u r e. In the process, they serve toacknowledge formally past wrongs thatwere silenced and denied.

Perhaps the most controversial andpublicised of these was the South AfricanTruth and Reconciliation Commission, s e tup in 1995. It is the only commission todate which had the power to grant amnestyto individual perpetrators.The very publicnature of the hearings, with both victimsand perpetrators testifying in front oftelevision cameras, resulted in the countryas a whole reflecting on its history andcoming to a new understanding of the past.

To be granted amnesty, p e r p e t r a t o r swere required to make a request in writingfor specific crimes, tell the full truth aboutthe event,and prove that it was politicallymotivated.Thus, it was not a full amnesty:if someone killed ten people and appliedfor amnesty for only five, he or she couldstill be prosecuted for killing the other fiv e.A l s o, amnesty could be denied if it wasfound that the applicant did not tell thefull truth or that the crime was motivatedout of personal spite or ill-will, rather thanfor political reasons.

High expectationsThough the commission had a profound

e f f e c t , it also shed light on the limitations ofsuch exercises. Often,the time allotted forthe commission to complete its work wastoo short, and it was impossible to verifyand reach conclusions on the thousands ofcases presented. For many victims, it waspainful to watch their perpetrators walkfree after admitting to heinous crimes.Th eexpectations from the commission weretoo great from the start. South A f r i c a ’s

experience teaches us that we can’t expectthe truth process to resolve all issuespertaining to past conflict and abuse.Reconciliation and recovery is a processthat can take generations.

There is no one truth commissionm o d e l . Countries respond to legacies ofmassive political violence in different ways.Mozambique, for example, is right next toSouth Africa,and its transition took placealmost exactly at the same time. Yet here,there was no interest in digging up the past:the victims and general public wereexhausted from the war and didn’t want totalk about it,while the political leadershipon both sides of the conflict were alsouninterested in looking closely at the past.Each nation must determine what span oftime to consider, what acts or events toi n v e s t i g a t e, and under what rules. Th edifferences will range from whether acommission chooses to hold public hearings,as in South A f r i c a , or undertakes itsinvestigations behind closed doors.

Past experience shows that there aresome basic requirements for judging

A torture victim breaks down as he testifies before South Africa’s truth commission.

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W

whether a commission’s exercise is likely tolead to credible results that fairly refle c tthe concerns of all society. Tr u t hcommissions must have operationali n d e p e n d e n c e, but at the same time, b egiven the necessary political andgovernmental support for their work, o f t e nincluding direct financial support from thegovernment.

We are likely to see strongercommissions in the future, as the lessons ofpast experiences are incorporated into newand more inventive models. The newcommission in East Ti m o r, for example,makes creative use of local customs topromote healing and reconciliation. Th ecommission has been set up, in part, t ohelp facilitate the return of low-levelperpetrators who are still in West Timor.These include members of the militia whowere not responsible for killing, raping ororganizing violence, but who might havetaken part in the burning or looting. It isbelieved that such persons would be safefrom acts of revenge once they haveadmitted to their crimes, apologized forthem and agreed to carry out a communityservice sentence. Likewise in Sierra Leone,the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

that is now being formed is likely to turn totraditional and religious leaders to facilitateits work on a local level. Wh e r ea p p r o p r i a t e, it may facilitate such practicesas cleansing ceremonies as a way ofrecognizing and honouring past events. I nM o z a m b i q u e, traditional mechanisms werein place that allowed people to processconflict and pain in their own way. When

combatants came home, for example, t h e yoften went through a healing ritual wheretheir past sins were seen to be washeda w a y. It is important for a country toconsider the indigenous mechanisms thatmay be in place that can help it to countera painful past, with or without acomplementary truth commission process.

■

This article is based on an interview.

JAKOB FINCI

PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL COORDINATING COMMITTEE FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TRUTHAND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION IN BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA

Revenge in the makingChildren in Bosnia are growing up learning that their neighbours are enemies. Civic groups say that atruth commission is the only way to defuse brewing ethnic hatred

MORE THAN JUST THE T R U T H

hen truth commissions were set up inLatin American countries such asArgentina, Chile, and El Salvador, theywere justified because the systems ofabuse there had been designed to hide thef a c t s. Torture and related abuses werecommitted largely in secret; crimes like“ d i s a p p e a r a n c e s ” were intended to eraseany trace of the victim or the crime.Hence the compelling need to uncoverand acknowledge the truth.

In Bosnia, such a commission is notneeded because of a hidden truth, b u tbecause of multiple “truths,” each with adistinct ethnic vein.Nationalists from thethree ethnic communities involved in therecent war propagate a history thatportrays their group as the one and onlyvictim of mass abuses,depicting the othertwo as evil perpetrators and monsters.Three separate war crimes commissions,dominated respectively by Bosnian,C r o a t

and Serb perspectives, have focused onthe victimization of their own group.

Owing in no small part to the legacyof communism, people in BosniaHerzegovina have long been accustomedto a “ t o p - d o w n ”a p p r o a c h , by which theypassively let leadership determine theirfate. Shedding this mentality has been aslow process,but citizens are sending outa clear signal that they are ready toconfront the past with an eye to shapinga better future. On no other issue is thismore obvious than the current effort toestablish a Truth and ReconciliationCommission (TRC).

In January 2000, an extraordinaryconference in Sarajevo on the proposedTRC brought together a diverse group of


The first truth and reconciliation commission was set up in 1974 by the Ugandan dictator Idi Aminunder pressure from human rights groups and the international community. Not surprisingly, his

regime refused to make public the report or to implement any of its recommendations.Other truth commissions established in the 1980s fared better. Nunca más, the report by Argentina’scommission to investigate disappearances under its military dictatorship, became a nationalbestseller and led to the prosecution of several generals. Spanish judge Balthasar Garzon used theChilean Truth Commission (1990-91) report as his primary information source in issuing an arrestwarrant for dictator Augusto Pinochet in October 1998. Guatemala’s Historical ClarificationCommission (1997-99) and South Africa’s much-publicized Truth and Reconciliation Commission(1995-2000) have been lauded for helping citizens of those countries come to terms with theirtraumatic pasts.Truth commissions have recently been set up in Nigeria, Panama, East Timor and Sierra Leone, whileother countries, including Bosnia, Serbia, Mexico and Burundi are exploring the option. Canada mayestablish one to investigate the treatment of its native peoples. ■

A POPULAR FORMULA

8 0 civil society leaders from both theMoslem-Croat Federation and the SerbRepublic. Representatives from humanrights groups, victims’ associations,religious orders, political parties,a c a d e m i a , youth groups and othersexplained why they thought the TRC wasvital to reaching durable peace.Independent media re-broadcast theentire eight-hour discussion.This broad-based grassroots citizens’ coalition hasnow established a National CoordinatingCommittee for Establishment of theTruth and Reconciliation Commission.This is an important step in the processesof both democratization andreconciliation in Bosnia. To date, o v e r100 NGOs, political, religious and civicleaders have signed a petition calling forsuch a Commission.

One of its main goals is to enablehistorians to write one history of thec o u n t r y.For now,we have three differenth i s t o r i e s, each teaching our children thatour neighbours are our enemies.Continuing like this, we cannot expect

anything more than a new war in 20 or 30years.

Finally, some have suggested that theTRC should not be established until theWar Crimes Tribunal in The Haguefinishes its work.This would only postponefor at least another five years a processthat many believe is essential tor e c o n c i l i a t i o n . Five years for the threecompeting nationalistic versions of historyto become further embedded in thecollective psyche of each group. A boywho was ten years old when the recentc o n flict began has already reached theage of military service. With every yearthat children are raised on accounts ofrecent history that demonize other ethnicgroups and refuse to acknowledge theirs u f f e r i n g, it becomes more likely that thisyoung generation will grow up to fight.Itis a common belief that if NATOpeacekeeping troops withdrew tomorrow,the country would likely descend anewinto bloodshed and division.To make thedeparture of these troops possible, it isimperative that Bosnia take the T R C

route.To prevent a new cycle of violence

and abuse, our society urgently needs toconfront the legacy of evil committed byneighbour against neighbour, to identifythe shortcomings in its political, legaland social institutions which rendersuch abuses possible, and to begin theextraordinarily difficult and slow workof re-stitching the social fabric.D e l a y i n gsuch a process by several years would beboth tactically mistaken and morallywrong. ■

Idon’t have much trust in the effectiveness of international tribunals.When trials and hearings are held far from the scene of the crime, it

doesn’t help reconciliation in the least.In the Rwandan town of Nyamata,where I spent six months, people would hear on the radio that “so and sohas been sentenced to 25 years in prison” in Arusha, Tanzania,where theinternational tribunal for Rwanda sits. But what help is that? The survivorsof the genocide are neither there to hear the trial nor to point accusations.What is said over there, before a foreign judge, leaves them indifferent.Obviously, it would be unthinkable for justice not to be done. But after civilwar or genocide, the first job of justice—precisely because it has come toolate—is not so much to punish as to tell the truth,to unravel the complexnature of responsibilities, and to acknowledge the victims’ suffering. Leteverything be known,said and recognized! Let the victims voice their pain!Only then can the process of mourning begin,that crucial stage on the pathto reconciliation.And it can only happen before the eyes and ears of thosewho suffered or “participated.”In Sarajevo, as in the hills of Rwanda, you hear that “the guilty must betried here, by us.” All the more so as many cannot accept that weWesterners, who stood by as the war and genocide went on, are nowjudging its authors. The words of Marie-Louise, featured in my book,comeback to me: “foreigners usually show a routine pity towards people whoendured uncomparable hardship, as if the pity was more important thanthe suffering itself.”Time cuts two ways. A lot has to be left to survivors. They need it to find anew footing in life. Conversely, however, time is running short for the Hutucommunity, which is living in terror. About 125,000 accused people arewaiting in Rwandan jails. What’s being done about them? And what aboutthose who’ve returned home to find themselves at the mercy ofdenunciation and vigilante justice? The page must be turned on an era of

suspicion, justice must be done so that each charged person can at lastmake their way back into society without fear.Are the Rwandans capable of judging their own? Not for the moment,butwe can help by training their judges and prosecutors. To ask “who will trythem and how?”and to ensure there are some Hutu among the judges isa step towards dialogue. Let’s allow the time it takes for the peopleinvolved to resolve this themselves, rather than turning to symbolicinternational tribunals set up by the West as a warning against more warsand genocides, but which don’t help reconciliation at all, except thereconciliation of Westerners with their own conscience.For now, in the hills, the genocide remains hidden,secret,wrapped in guiltand shame. This silence is killing Rwanda. Should there be forgiveness tobecome reconciled? I don’t think so. For one, you can’t forgive someonewho’s tried to exterminate you from your land. Second, reconciliationdoes not require forgiveness, but a sense that justice is being done. Deepdown inside, the survivors know that life must get back on course.Because, as Francine told me, “the teachers have to return to their schoolblackboards.”

* Author of Dans le nu de la vie (Seuil, 2000), a series of poignantaccounts by survivors of the Rwandan genocide. Orchestrated by the“Hutu power,” this genocide claimed hundreds of thousands of livesamong Tutsi as well as Hutu moderates, from April to July 1994.

JEAN HAT Z F E L D * : “LET THE VICTIMS VOICE THEIR PA I N ”

The war’s toll (1992-95)Population 1992: 4.4 million

2000: 4 million

Death toll: 200,000

Internment camps: 15

Refugees and displaced persons:1995: 2.2 million2000: 782,200

Source : UNHCR, Le Monde

◗ E T H I C S


HASBEL LÓPEZ


Weaving magic withthe spoken wordStorytellers in Latin America have gained a cult following in thepast decade. Some are delving into ancient traditions, others arespinning stories with a distinctly post-modern edge

alfway through his performance, DiegoCamargo notices that he’s forgotten oneof his characters.He asks the audience forpermission to go backwards and finds therebel climbing a tree, crestfallen andupset. To convince him to return to thes t o r y, Diego promotes him to the rankof main character, giving him theassurance that nobody will ever drop himhalfway through a tale again.

To hear stories like this, fans turn upin numbers every year to theInternational Congress of OralStorytelling, an event held since 1995 aspart of the annual Buenos Aires BookFa i r. Last time round, over 800 peopleflocked from Argentina and neighbouringc o u n t r i e s, all keen to hear stories old andnew, but also to learn how to tell them—those subtle tricks of timing and voice, o fgestures and facial expressions.

Many were teachers eager to getchildren to read by adapting stories fromworld-famous authors, such as IsaacBashevis Singer and Ray Bradbury, andtelling them in the classroom.A c c o r d i n gto Nora Fo n o l l o s a , a narrator andresearcher into children’s literature, p u p i l soften go to the nearest library to lookfor copies of a story they have heard, a n dif they can’t find it,ask for another bookby the same author.

But this enthusiasm is not confined tos c h o o l s. Juan Moreno, from A r g e n t i n a ,stopped teaching literature 17 years agoand began a new life telling stories andlegends from around the world int h e a t r e s,b a r s,universities and libraries. I fthey happen to be in Fr e n c h , E n g l i s h ,

Portuguese, German, Italian or Hebrew, hetells them in the original language. He alsoruns workshops for psychologists, lawyers,housewives and grandmothers. What doeshe teach to people from such differentwalks of life?

“The value of the spoken word,” hesays.“Words that heal and restore, thatcan give life but also take it away.”Learning this is very important for alawyer involved in mediation,he says,but also for social workers inhospitals and seniorcitizens’ homes. H er e m e m b e r swhat adespairing wo-man once told DoraPastoriza de Echebarne, t h epioneer scholar of oral storytelling inA r g e n t i n a :“ When I heard you tell the story,I didn’t feel sad any more.”

Witches and goblins minglewith spirits of nature

On a more material note, storytelling issaid to have its bonuses. I t ’s usually betterpaid than acting in a theatre, and evenmore enticingly, has lots of travellingthrown in. Cuban storyteller FátimaPaterson has already been twice toL i v e r p o o l , in England, to tell storiesaccompanied by her musicians. Everyy e a r, there are congresses, festivals ands e m i n a r s, such as those in Bucaramanga(Colombia),Monterrey (Mexico) andAguimes, in the Canary Islands.

After 15 years of slowly takingr o o t , storytelling is now flourishing inLatin A m e r i c a . According toArgentine anthropologist A d o l f oColombres, the wave is not so much arevival of Latin American narrativetraditions, but simply an enthusiasmfor oral communication. In countrieswhere few people read, “ o r a lnarration strangely enoughencourages people to write,” he says.

C U L T U R E ◗


public places.” Does she feel she’s justlending her voice and body to a tradition?“Certainly not,” she retorts.“It’s not justf o l k l o r e. I break with tradition because Igive my own version of a story. By tellingthem in French, not just in the originalC r e o l e, I open up these stories to theworld in a novel way and place them in acompletely different context.”

Spreading this tradition is verymeaningful for Haitians, she believes.When they listen to stories, h e rcompatriots come into close contact withan ancient tradition that is part of theirh e r i t a g e. They feel proud of belongingto a civilization that has invented suchcharacters and stories. For animpoverished Haitian minority living inFrench Guiana,for example, listening to

these stories is a mirror that can givethem a more positive image ofthemselves.

For each place gives rise to its owns t y l e. In Colombia, for example, amovement of urban storytellers hassprung up in several towns, despite at e n d e n cy to associate the form withexaggeration and lies. Most of thoseinvolved are university students between17 and 35 years old. Although they donot claim to be inspired by any specialt r a d i t i o n , they are hardly cultural rookies:“ We always know something, w h e t h e ri t ’s about music,fil m , theatre or literature,and we take the story from there,” saysCarolina Rueda,one of the students.

The daughter of an impassionedb u l l fighting fan, Rueda studied literatureand worked as a theatre actress. Fr o mthose experiences, she created a narrative

The continent’s storytelling traditionsare nevertheless very rich,a mingling ofthree historically oral societies: t h eindigenous Indian, the African and to alesser extent, the local Spanish. “ Th eEuropean tradition of witches, g o b l i n sand fairy tales mix in with Indian andAfrican traditions of the spirits of water,jungles and mountains,” says Bolivianwriter Victor Montoya.“ There are spiritsthat defend nature and severely punishthose who harm it, such as Marimonda inColombia and Coipora in Brazil. Th e nthere are the ships condemned to sail theseas forever, never reaching port, s u c has C a l e u ch e in Chile and the Barco Negroin Nicaragua.And beautiful women whoseduce men but when you kiss them, t h e i rheads turn into frightening skulls.”

Fortunately thesetraditions are still alive.Oral storytellers, s u c ha s the Colombian Nico-lás Buenaventura (seen e x t article) and MimiB a r t h é l e m y, from Haiti,are spreading them andlinking up with otheroral traditions.

Barthélemy wasborn in Port-au-Princeand gave up thec o mfort able l i f e ofa d i p l o m a t ’s wife tocompile traditionalHaitian folk tales andmake them betterknown throughout thecountry and beyond,inLatin America and Europe. She travelledto villages to listen to local storytellersand read books on Haitian anthropologyin Washington libraries.

Kindling pridein oral heritage

One of the stories she collected wasabout the ogre Bakulu Baka, w h oswallowed the sun and left the country indarkness until a benevolent god arrivedwith a machete and liberated it.“ When Itell stories,” she says, “I mention Haitiand how voodoo and Catholicism minglet h e r e. In one of my performances, t h egods of both religions join hands incommon cause.”

Telling stories is a political gesturefor her.“ When I’m before an audience, Istop being somebody else’s lady. I becomeM i m i , a modern-day woman speaking in

about bullfighting based on stories shehad heard since childhood, with someextra help from books about the sport.The structure of her show is rather like abullfight,with six parts, like the six bullsthat traditionally feature in an afternoonperformance.

Narrative tricksThe storytellers have dropped simple,

linear narration and delved into thelanguage of films and advertising. O n eof them tells a half-hour story about a3 0-second TV spot in which a drop oftomato sauce falls from the 22nd floor ofa building and sets off a gun-battle in thecentre of Bogotá.

Diego Camargo, the storytellermentioned above who lost one of his

characters in the midstof his performance,h a salso written a tale in 174two-syllable words. B u tbecause it is difficult forthe character to killhimself with three-s y llable “b a l a zo s”( S p a n i s h for bullets),h easks the audience toallow him a bit of poeticlicence and ends thestory with a loud “p u m -pum!”(bang-bang!).

Through suchnarrative tricks, the newmovement is breakingwith tradition, c u l l i n ginspiration from post-modern authors such as

Italo Calvino and his I f on a Wi n t e r’sNight a Tr a v e l l e r. The Colombianstorytellers have thus managed to capturea media-educated urban audience fortheir art, which is filling public squaresand theatres.

Using both ancestral and post-modern tales, the storytellers are revivingamong Latin Americans the ritual oflistening to stories, those pricelessmoments of communication that beginfor us all with the first stories we hearfrom our parents and grandparents.Th e yare occasions that can spark novel feelingsand reactions in a world ruled by thee v e r-present screen.A direct one-to-onec o m m u n i c a t i o n , between an audienceand a real human being who looks youstraight in the eye and invites you tosummon up your imagination so youd o n ’t miss the only story in the world

Haiti’s Mimi Barthélemy: telling stories is a political gesture.


AASBEL LÓPEZ


The world accord i n gto Nicolás BuenaventuraEarly on, Colombian storyteller Nicolás Buenaventura learned that “you have to invent the truthevery day.” With several storytellers in his family tree, he treats his gift with reverence and warmth ofspirit

fter a few minutes of introduction,N i c o l á sBuenaventura realized that for the firsttime, he was before an audience that hadgrown up without listening to stories—street children who had never heard ofThe Little Red Riding Hood. It wasmidnight in Bogotá and the faces of theseyoungsters lit up. Once upon a time,people referred to them as street urchins,but as the country’s situation deteriorated,they simply became billed as rejects.

So he decided to tell his version ofhow the world was created.“There wasonce a God who managed to resist theunfortunate temptation of making Man inhis own image.First he created the Earth,and when he saw it was round andbeautiful, he was left with lots of teenytiny bits and pieces.Then he created timeand when that started moving forward,h ewas left again with lots of teeny tiny bitsand pieces.” The children shouted andclapped as the storyteller rose to a higheremotional pitch to end his tale.“There’salways a moment in life when you feelyou don’t belong in the world,and that’st e r r i b l e.But if you know the story of To mThumb, you know that even the tiniestliving thing has its place in the world.”

Buenaventura found his own place inthe world through storytelling.The boys inhis neighbourhood were quick to discoverhis young talent. Because he did not haveenough money to go to the cinema, t h e yclubbed together to buy him a ticket sothat he could tell them the film from A toZ afterwards. Today he makes a livingfrom storytelling and dreams of directinghis second feature fil m .

Like all his family, Nicolás was bornwith a storyteller’s gift.His father Enriqueis one of Colombia’s leading playwrights

and theatred i r e c t o r s. H i sg r a n d f a t h e rC o r n e l i o, a tirelessc o n v e r s a t i o n a l i s tand professionals t o r y t e l l e r, a l w a y srepeated that “ y o uhave to invent thetruth every day.” Sowhenever he walkeddown the street,people would callout:“Hey, Cornelio,make up a little bit of truth for me, willyou?”

Daily breadBut Nicolás did not get his enthusiasm

for storytelling from them.His inspirationcame from Fermín Ríos, a blackstoryteller from Colombia’s main Pacificport of Buenaventura.“Fermín told me:‘I must tell you the story of the boy wholost his bomboro [a magical realist termthat stands for any type of object],but henever did. The next year, he said: ‘ N o,you’re still not ready to hear it.’” Finally,he died and Nicolás had to go searchingthe world for the story himself. So far, h ehas found six versions of it—three inColombia and three in Africa.

The Colombian ones form the story ofthe origin of the river Ti m b i q u i . On a visitto Burkina Fa s o, he told the story in av i l l a g e. “Because I was a storyteller, Iw a s n ’t seen as a foreigner.People realizedI was bringing back stories they had givenor lent to us centuries ago.” Stories donot need a passport to travel,he says.A l lthe world’s people ask the samequestions—why are we here, why do we

have to die, what are we made of?—andthe answers change from place to place.For ethnologists, these oral stories standmidway between question and answer.

After visiting three African countries,Nicolás understood how “telling a story islike putting bread on the table.”This onlyenhanced his deep respect for all stories.Perhaps it explains why he staunchlyopposes his stories being used for otherp u r p o s e s, such as by schools to encourager e a d i n g.S t o r y t e l l i n g, he says, c a n ’t happenwithout an audience. There is no setending in storytelling, and if there waso n e, it would be a story in itself.“Storytellers are the cups out of whichpeople drink stories,” he says.

Do stories change people? “In anyc a s e, they changed me. I’m more sensitivenow to life’s nuances.” And do storieschange the world? Nicolás replies bytelling what happened to him one night inBogotá as he was making his way home.“I was suddenly surrounded by somestreet kids and I thought ‘I’m going tobe robbed.’ But no. Instead,I heard oneof them shouting a familiar line at me:‘ h ewas left with lots of teeny tiny bits and

W E AVING MAGIC WITH THE SPOKEN W O R D

Nicolás Buenaventura at home with storytellers in Mali.

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May 2001 -The UNESCO Courier 43

TRENÉ LEFORT

DIRECTOR OF THE UNESCO COURIER

Striking media giantswith news on the We bThe Internet offers an unparalleled chance to spread an alternative to the news served up by themainstream media, the “second power” of globalization, affirmed the World Social Forum in PortoAlegre

he organizers of the World Social Fo r u min Porto Alegre, Brazil,were expecting2,000 people to attend a debate on“another possible world” in the lastweek of January. To their surprise, this“ a n t i - D a v o s ” attracted 5,000 fans. S ohow did the organizers of the forum,who like to cast themselves asv i s i o n a r i e s, explain their all too modestforecast? Why, the Internet of course:they had set up a website one monthbefore the Fo r u m .Although very basic,it spurred much greater interest thananticipated.

The unexpected turnout was onemore feather in the cap of the anti-globalization movement.Activists hadalready spent much time pleading forcommunication in general—and theInternet in particular—to be considereda leading “issue in the fight againstn e o l i b e r a l i s m .”As such, it deserved the

same attention as the campaign for theTobin Ta x , the cancellation of Th i r dWorld debt or the control of worldfinancial organizations. If not, t h e ya r g u e d , cyberspace would become theiradversaries’ haven. According to theconclusions of a Forum workshop oncommunication and citizenship, t h eInternet has already been instrumentalin shaping the economic and“ i d e o l o g i c a l ” revolution that hasmarked the process of globalization.

An ideologicalmachine

Workshop participants launched astinging indictment:“If the first power iseconomic and financial, the secondbelongs to the media,” declared IgnacioRamonet, director of the monthly LeMonde Diplomatique, upon openingthe workshop. “It is the ideological

machine of globalization.” P a r t i c i p a n t sasserted that mainstream news “ i sessentially transformed into acommodity…that does not obey anyrule except that of the market. It isu n i f o r m , one-dimensional and basedon a single source.” Continuing thea t t a c k , Ramonet asserted that themainstream media strikes a tone that is“ e m o t i o n a l ,” “ i m p r e s s i o n i s t i c,”“ s e n s a t i o n a l i s t ,” “ r h e t o r i c a l ,”“simplistic” if not outright “infantile,”and which is dominated by a quest for“ i m m e d i a cy.” In short, “the supremec r i t e r i a ” of media “ m e g a - g r o u p s ” is nottruth but profit. “ Th e y ’re sellingconsumers to their advertisers.”

The organizations attending PortoAlegre decided that it was high time totake on this “ideological apparatus,”using the Internet as their chief weapon.One strategy involves criticizing thenews produced by the “mega groups”—criticism that must not only besystematic, but should also be diffusedas widely as possible.A leading exampleis FA I R , the best known media

Coming up with alternatives:the World Social Forum,held in Porto Alegre, Brazil,in January 2001.

◗ M E D I A


watchdog in North A m e r i c a . Th eorganization aims to show how thestructures of media conglomeratesdictate content: the topics andviewpoints developed are those of aneconomic and political elite becausethese media belong to multinationalsand are financed by others viaadvertising.

According to Seth A c k e r m a n ,one ofFA I R ’s staff members, the Internetboasts three advantages over otherforms of communication, including theg r o u p ’s magazine quarterlyE x t r a !. Fi r s t , it providesinstant access to a widerange of alternative newss o u r c e s, allowing thenetwork to pick up onimportant matters ignoredby North A m e r i c a nmainstream media or toreveal a fine-tunedunderstanding of biasedc o v e r a g e. S e c o n d l y, FA I Rcan dispatch to-the-minuteanalyses at minimal cost tos u b s c r i b e r s. Th i r d l y, it caninvolve subscribers in theo r g a n i z a t i o n ’s campaignsby encouraging them toemail protest messages tomedia in FAIR’s spotlight.“ Thanks to the Internet,our activities made such ahuge quantitative leap thatt h e y ’ve also changedq u a l i t a t i v e l y,” s a y sAckerman.

The second front thata n t i - g l o b a l i z a t i o norganizations are intent onopening is far morea m b i t i o u s. The goal is tomake the Internet thevehicle for a stream of “ c o u n t e ri n f o r m a t i o n ” or “ a l t e r n a t i v ei n f o r m a t i o n ” aimed at a mass audience,far larger than the narrow circle ofactivists that all other mediums chargedwith the same purpose—the writtenp r e s s, radio and television—havemanaged to reach.

Diverse sources,grand ambitions

“ Wh a t ’s really new about theInternet—and its chief asset—is that

the entry ticket is infinitely moreaffordable than for any other moretraditional media,” says Je a n - P i e r r eM a r t h o z1 of Human Rights Wa t c h .“ Th etechnical and political obstacles, s u c has getting around potential censorship,and above all the financial ones, in termsof investment and operating costs, b e a rno comparison with those faced bysomeone wishing to start up anewspaper or a radio or TV station.Internet opens the way for a diversity ofvoices that has been unheard of until

n o w.” Antonio Martins, head of theBrazilian edition of the M o n d eD i p l o m a t i q u e, adds that distributionchannels are nearly unlimited on thew e b,whereas hertzian wavelengths haveto be shared among a limited number ofusers.

In short, the Internet radicallychanges the information on offerbecause it can harbour an unrivallednumber of information sources. Giventhat one of the main criticisms of mediaconglomerates is their “single source”

c h a r a c t e r, this makes the Internet allthe more appealing says Henri Maler, o fAC R I M E D ( A c t i o n - c r i t i q u e - m é d i a s ) ,a nNGO devoted to media monitoring.According to Maler, the rising costs ofkeeping a staff of journalists up andrunning means news is based on anincreasingly narrow range of sources.

A first attempt at striking back wasmade last December in Bangalore,I n d i a , by some 30 journalists and writers.Their starting point was twofold:throughout the world, they stated,

“ d i s c o u r a g e d ” o r“ d i s i l l u s i o n e d ”p r o f e s s i o n a ljournalists want to restoresome “nobility to their job,based on a social anddemocratic commitment.”They can’t do so, however,because employers stand inthe way of publishing“articles that the publicwants but never sees inp r i n t .” Their goal is hence“to enrich the publicinformation space… andcreate a critical mass ofalternative information”through “articles in thewritten press and broadcastreports that can contributeto a socio-economic, c u l t u r a land political alternative” t og l o b a l i z a t i o n .The ambitionis titanic: to launch a newsservice on the Internet thatwould sell its products andsucceed in “becoming acounterweight to themainstream media’sstereotyped information.”It would be “ acomplementary channel,”rich in professionally

packaged content.

Professionalsor not?

To “communicate well, you need arange of skills,” underlines Ramonet.“You can know the truth and have noimpact because you don’t know how toc o m m u n i c a t e. To think that the truthwill naturally impose itself is to take anarrogant and contemptuous attitudetowards citizens.The price of this is anabsolute absence of communication.”


“A diversity of sources does notnecessarily lead to an avalanche ofquality information, something whichonly results from a thorough processof checking, selecting and setting incontext to give meaning,” says Marthoz.“The process still requires the hand ofintermediaries who may not bejournalists in the classical sense but‘ p a r a - j o u r n a l i s t s ’ .” He points to hiso r g a n i z a t i o n ’s site,which has become analmost indispensable source ofinformation for anyone wanting to keepabreast of human rights in the world.Some 10,000 cybernauts visit the siteeach day, according to Marthoz,b e c a u s ethe information placed online iscollected by reliable experts and editedby seasoned experts in communication.

If this type of alternative service isanything to go by, audience rhymes withcredibility, which in turn calls for someform of professional involvement.Nott r u e, declares Roberto Savio of the InterPress service, which has been servingup alternative news since 1964: t h i sstrategy risks running a lap behindcurrent trends.Although IPS relies on anetwork of journalists in over 100countries and counts more than 30,000NGO subscribers on its online service,Savio, a pioneer of alternative news, isgetting ready to step down and launchother ventures.

Civil society,he asserts, and youth inp a r t i c u l a r, reject outright all institutionsor outfits functioning along verticallines. It follows that the attempt to usethe Internet as a carrier for a newscounterweight while upholding the keyposition of the journalist—producinginformation from on high for the publicbelow—is doomed to fail.It even restson a deep contradiction, r e p r o d u c i n gvia Internet the same vertical modelcharacteristic of all other media eventhough the web offers the chance tostart a “communication society”operating horizontally.

The Brazilianmodel

Brazil’s Rits (Information networkfor the third sector) is one such newcommunication network that believesthe Internet’s advent will allow the well-worn revolutionary slogan “of giving avoice to the people” to come true atlast.“Let the people who live the storytell it,” declares the network.For a start,

you do away with the costs of fin a n c i n ga team of journalists. R e d ’s associates—some 200 organizations from the “ t h i r dsector” (neither public nor private)—exchange around 10,000 messages aweek and express themselves withoutany supervision or editorial advice.Th eonly protection is an ethical code thatdictates what can be put on the site.

With or without professionali n t e r v e n t i o n , whether raw or edited,can alternative news find its place inthe limelight simply because it’salternative? Judging from presentt r e n d s, Ramonet is mildly optimistic.“As the overall education level rises,that of the media is getting worse.Th e r ewill come a time when the two will crosso v e r : more and more groups and social

categories are dissatisfied with them e d i a ’s infantile discourse.” Wh i l e“nothing is won in advance, b e c a u s ewe’ll also have to be appealing, to winover hearts and souls,” Martins insiststhat once a site is up and running, theInternet gives a chance to take on mediaconglomerates on equal terms, a nimpossible task in the print press orb r o a d c a s t i n g.M a r t h o z ,h o w e v e r, is mores c e p t i c a l . “ Th e r e ’s no reason for theInternet to escape the newstand effect.Just as the average reader first buys themost prominent publications at an e w s t a n d , the average cybernaut willfirst go to the best-known portals( Ya h o o ! , Google etc). But the latterselect what information is posted,justlike the gatekeepers of the traditionalm e d i a .While Internet offers room for alarge number of information producers,the tunnel effect is well and truly thereon the receiving end.”

Marthoz also foresees anothers c e n a r i o. “Rather than think that theInternet will become an authentic

information counterweight, its maineffect will stem from how it influencesthe mainstream media.In this respect,there is no comparison with what thealternative print press or broadcastingcan do. An alternative site canimmediately be seen by the wholep l a n e t .” Proof of this is how the world’sp r e s s, including the most prestigiousp u b l i c a t i o n s, consulted the HumanRights Watch site to keep up on theChechnya war and even find “stories.”

The force ofthe alternative

The “Internet mystique” does notconvince AC R I M E D’s Maler “ M a k i n gthe web’s immense democraticpotential a reality does not dependchiefly on the tool itself,” he says.“Thespace given by the public to alternativen e w s, as opposed to commodified news,will be a reflection of the alternativeforces carrying it.” In other words,between the Internet and anti-globalization activists, w h o ’s the chickenand who’s the egg? ■

1. Jean-Pierre Marthoz, European newsdirector of Human Rights Watch andauthor of Et maintenant le mondeen bref ( “And now the world inb r i e f” ) , Editions Complexe s, B r u s s e l s,1 9 9 9 , and contributor to Human rightsand the Internet, Orbicom/UNESCO,1 9 9 8 , as well as the UN E S C O Wo r l dCommunciation Report 2000.

+ …The organizers of the World Social Forumcreated a site atwww.forumsocialmundial.org/br;comprehensive reports on the event can befound on the s<æÂite of the Latin AmericanInformation Agency, at www.alainet.org. Formore information on FAIR,see www.fair.orgOther sites æÂthat keep a close watch on themainstream media include Media Channel(www.mediachannel.org) and ACRIMED forthe Francophone media(www.samizdat.net/acrimed/).The Human Rights Watch site is at:www.hrw.orgAlthough the participants of the Bangaloremeeting have not set up a site yet,majoralternative general news sites include OneWord (www.oneworld.net) and Indymedia(www.indymedia.org).For the Inter Press Service, see www.ips.organd for the Rede de informaçóes para otercero sector:www.rits.org/br

“Nothing is wonin advance because

we’ll also haveto be appealing,

to win over heartsand souls”

◗ M E D I A


Global markets,anonymous victims

ou study exchangein primitive societiesas well as in markets o c i e t y. D ot r a n s a c t i o n se v e r y w h e re matchthe description ofeconomists?

N o. Th eeconomists’ myth tells us that exchangef u l fills a simple instrumental function.You live in a community that producesyams and I live in a community thatraises pigs, so we enter into anexchange in order to vary our diets.One fine day, to facilitate ourt r a n s a c t i o n s, we invent a system ofequivalence between our products—money—and there you have it. B u t ,a santhropologists have shown us, M a r c e lMauss in particular, the main form ofexchange in so-called “ p r i m i t i v e ”societies is the gift, which cannot bereduced to economic rationality.

that makes this point: “ Your ownm o t h e r, your own sister, your own pigs,your own yams,you may not eat.Th o s eof other people,you may eat.” If you eatyour own yams,your neighbour is liableto think they’re better than his, a n dyour relationship could turnacrimonious.

Even if my yams are just like his?Even then, there could arise what

the thinker René Girard (see inset)calls a mimetic rivalry, based onreciprocal imitation. The neighbourwho sees you feasting on your yamswill want to do the same as you, that is,

Mark A n s p a c h

Y1. Mark A n s p a ch studied at Harvard and Stanford . He obtained a doctorate in

anthropology from the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. He is ar e s e a r ch scholar at the CREA (Centre for research into applied epistemology),E c o l ePolytechnique. His book, “A charge de revanche, les formes élémentaires de la

In the great metropolises ofmarket society, hundreds ofhomeless people die eachyear.We don’t even know theirnames. For the Americananthropologist MarkAnspach1, the marketeconomy has not succeededin ridding usof sacrifice. And yet, itsrationality was supposed todistance us from ritualviolence and those whopractice it

You mean to say that people did notinvent exchange in order to satisfy theirmaterial needs?

In “ p r i m i t i v e ”s o c i e t i e s, families maybe quite capable of producing what isnecessary for their subsistence. A n dy e t , they will still enter into exchanges.Why? For the sake of exchanging—offorging relations with others andparticipating in the circle of positivereciprocity on which social life isf o u n d e d .To refuse to exchange, to keepwhat one has for oneself, amounts to akind of incestuous indulgence, a sClaude Lévi-Strauss observes. H equotes a proverb from New Guinea

Wearing death masks,workers protest a factory closure in eastern France.


T A L K I N G T O . . . ◗

“We continue to p e rs e c u t e victims but arenow a s h a m e d to do so: that is pro g re s s”

ON GIVING, TRADING AND RITUAL SAC R I F I C EAdam Smith (1723-1790) recommended giving free rein to individual rivalries with the ideathat their combination produced order. To describe this phenomenon, he invented themetaphor of the “invisible hand of the market.”Marcel Mauss (1872-1950) described, in The Gift, the systems of ritual exchange amongnative Americans or Melanesians. For him, the gift is a “total social fact,” at once religious,economic, political, matrimonial, legal.… Today, the Mouvement anti-utilitariste dans lessciences sociales (MAUSS) lays claim to his heritage and criticizes economicreductionism(www.revuedumauss.com).In The Elementary Structures of Kinship, Claude Lévi-Strauss analyzes marriage as a formof reciprocity between kin groups, but he does not explain its origin (see Lucien Scubla, LireLévi-Strauss, Odile Jacob, 1998).René Girard has taught in the United States since 1947. His writings take us back to theviolent origins of exchange. In all human relationships, he discerns the mechanism of mimeticrivalry, set forth in his first major work, Deceit, Desire and the Novel. We desire only whatothers desire. When this contagious rivalry seizes hold of a whole community, it is notappeased until the “all against all”is transformed into an “all against one.” One antagonistis killed and peace returns. The victim then appears all-powerful since he or she was able torestore order. His following book, Violence and the Sacred, shows how the sacred arises out ofs a c r i fic e. In The Scapegoat, he develops the idea that the Christian scriptures inaugurated a long processof questioning this founding violence. Latest book: I Saw Satan Falling Like Lightning (Orbis, inp r e s s ) . The journal C o n t a g i o n publishes the work of “ G i r a r d i a n ” s c h o l a r s(http://theol.uibk.ac.at.cover.index.html).

he will want to eat your yams. Wh a tseems to be desirable to you becomesdesirable for him. But if he tries toappropriate your yams for himself, y o uw o n ’t want to surrender them. Wh a tis desirable for him becomes equallydesirable for you. In this mannerpeople can easily come to blows overn o t h i n g. Ritual prohibitions serve toprevent rivalries of this kind.The incestt a b o o, for example, keeps men fromfighting for the women who are closestat hand, those who belong to the samef a m i l y.A crime of passion could triggera general crisis. It is hard for us toconceive just how dangerous theslightest dispute can be in a communitywith no police or judicial system. A swith a hemophiliac, any bloodshedcould prove fatal. If you kill yourneighbour when he tries to grab youryams, his relatives will come after youn e x t . Each act of violence must beavenged by a new act of violence, andthe ensuing chain reaction canultimately engulf the entire community.

Doesn’t this approach betray the beliefthat human beings are fundamentallyviolent?

People are not fundamentallyviolent,they are fundamentally social.Once they have satisfied their materialinstincts—eating and reproducing—they still sense a lack. They desiresomething more, but what? SinceFr e u d ,we assume that desire is the mosti n d i v i d u a l ,most intimate thing there isabout a person. For René Girard, this isa romantic myth. On the contrary,people do not know what to desire, it issomething they must learn.And theylearn it in the same way they learn allthe essential things in life: by observingand imitating others. Humans areincomplete beings who are bornradically dependent on others. It is nowonder they show themselves to befascinated by others. But it is precisely

p e o p l e ’s fascination with each otherwhich brings them so easily into confli c t ,and can sometimes embroil them in theworst forms of violence.

All your explanations presuppose auniversal human nature.

I believe one should stand firm onthis point: y e s, there is a universalhuman nature. That does not meanthat people everywhere are identical.Since people do not know instinctivelywhat they want to do in life, t h e i rculture must offer them answers.O b v i o u s l y, the range of answers variesfrom one culture to another. It is notsuch and such a model of behaviourthat is universal,it is the need to havem o d e l s. If people do not know what todesire, if each person tends to desirewhat others desire, the culture mustchannel desires in such a way that theydo not constantly converge on thesame objects.It must defuse the viciouscircleof reciprocal desire, where each

wants what the other wants, or riskdescending into reciprocal violence.The paradoxical law of revengecommands the killing of the killer.A n dthe killer’s killer? Here one falls into anew vicious circle.

And is there any way out?What interests me is precisely to

see how the shift is made from viciouscircles to virtuous ones, from thenegative reciprocity of violence to thepositive reciprocity of the gift. Wi t hv e n g e a n c e, each person responds to anoffence committed by the other, eachreacts to what the other has alreadyd o n e. This comes down to lettingoneself be dominated by the past. I ngift exchange, on the other hand, oneturns toward the future and anticipatesthe desire of the other. Instead ofwaiting for your neighbour to comesteal your yams, you offer them to himt o d a y, and it is up to him to do the samefor you tomorrow.Once you have made


http://theol.uibk.ac.at.cover.index.html

a gift,he is obliged to make a return gift.Now you have set in motion a positivecircularity.

One which makes it possible to escapethe circle of violence?

Ye s, but through one last act ofv i o l e n c e. By killing a “ s a c r i fic e a b l e ”

violent reciprocity of the gift.But how does market exchange cometo take the place of the gift?

First let’s see what distinguishest h e m . When you offer me so manysheep, or shells, or shields, you make adisplay of your prestige, and I must atleast match your generosity with areturn gift. On the contrary,a monetarypayment nips the relationship in theb u d : it relieves one of any returno b l i g a t i o n .A market transaction leavesthe seller and buyer free of any ties.Just as the gift breaks the circle ofvengeance, money breaks the circle ofthe gift. I asked myself how such atransaction could arise within a ritualc o n t e x t . In Vedic writings from ancientIndia, we see that monetary paymentbegins with the compensation of thes a c r i ficial priest, a b r a h m a n who carriesout a dangerous task and whom oneprefers to keep at arm’s length.In theGreek world, money is associated withthe figure of the tyrant.He is a usurper,a king whose legitimacy does not derivefrom traditional structures. To getaround the system of reciprocalobligations which he challenges, h emust resort to employing mercenaries,whom he pays off with money. War, aritual activity, becomes a professionalo n e. In our monetary economies, a l ltransactions involve this distancingmechanism which originally targetedthose charged with carrying out ritual

v i c t i m , meaning onewhose death will nottrigger further acts ofvengeance within theg r o u p : a slave, a nimprisoned enemy, ananimal.… In a peaceritual described bya n t h r o p o l o g i s tRaymond Jamous, themurderer leads hispeople to the territoryof his victim.His handsbound and a knife inhis teeth, he offershimself as a newv i c t i m , he anticipatesthe desire for revengeof his adversaries. Butrather than killing themurderer as theywould if the cycle ofvengeance were toc o n t i n u e, they take theknife and sacrifice ananimal in his stead.Toseal the end ofh o s t i l i t i e s, t h e

members of both camps join togetherin eating the animal.Not only will thisvictim not be avenged,but it providesthe feast which launches a new cycle ofpositive reciprocity.The rite which putsan end to a vendetta facilitates thetransition between the reciprocalviolence of vengeance and the non-

Abraham and Isaac:the birth of an “anti-sacrificial”consciousness.

T A L K I N G T O . . . ◗

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“If your neighbour is h u n g r y, you haven o o b l i g a t i o n to feed him”

violence.

So you trace market exchange back tosacrificial rituals?

In these examples we already seethe beginning of an impulse to thrustaway the operators of sacrifice. Later,s a c r i fice itself will be banished.All ourhistory is a long process of awakeningan anti-sacrificial consciousness.Fi r s t ,a nanimal replaces the human victim, as inthe story of Abraham and Isaac. Thenthe day comes when people hesitateeven to butcher the animal. R e n éGirard attributes the origin of thisawakening of consciousness to theBiblical texts, the Gospels in particular.One may also find anti-sacrificialmessages in other traditions, i nBuddhism for example. But one doesnot have to be Christian toacknowledge the force of René Girard’sanalyses, or to follow him in reflectingon where the decay of religious mythsand rituals may lead.If sacrificial rites,while producing victims, made it

possible to avoid even greater violence,what will happen in the absence ofrites? We know that human progresshas always been fragile, with stepsbackward accompanying every stepf o r w a r d . I believe it is important,n e v e r t h e l e s s, to defend the notion ofp r o g r e s s. Even if we continue topersecute victims, we are now ashamedto do so:that is progress.

We have learned to recognize the victims.But our morality adapts quite well tothe market economy, which alsoproduces victims of another sort.

Monetary transactions sever thebond between exchange partners; t h e yeliminate all obligations of reciprocity.If your neighbour is hungry, you haveno obligation to feed him; if he isevicted from his home and freezes tod e a t h ,you have no obligation to avengeh i m . As Canadian philosopher PaulDumouchel observes, the elimination ofthe obligation of revenge keepsviolence from spreading from oneindividual to the next,but at the sametime it universalizes the category of“ s a c r i fic e a b l e ” v i c t i m s, those whosedeath will not result in vengeance. Inthis sense, we continue to sacrificeanonymous victims. In his book L e

sacrifice et l’envie (“Sacrifice andE n v y ” ) ,French philosopher Je a n - P i e r r eDupuy shows the extent to which thespectre of sacrifice haunts the thinkingof the major theorists of the marketeconomy.

Why not set ourselves the objective ofreturning to the gift?

We have not completely left it,f o r t u n a t e l y. G i f t s, including serviceswithin the household, still hold animportant place. In Fr a n c e, by theconservative estimate of one economist,Ahmet Insel, gifts are of a magnitudeequivalent to about three-quarters ofG D P. We should aim for a balancebetween the gift sector and the marketsector. But this balance is threatenedtoday by the imperialism of marketl o g i c. It is that logic therefore whichmust be questioned. O b v i o u s l y, we willnot go back to archaic forms ofe x c h a n g e. These presuppose a ritualframework which has vanished.A newreligion cannot be made to order.

But hasn’t the market economy take nthe place of religion?

The ritual framework of primitiveexchanges entails the presence ofinvisible mediators. The spirit of the

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gift obliges the recipient to make areturn gift,Marcel Mauss tells us.A d a mS m i t h , the father of liberal politicale c o n o m y, likewise invokes a hiddenspirit when he talks about the invisiblehand of the market. Of course, h emeans this as a simple metaphor: themarket is supposed to be self-r e g u l a t i n g, functioning best withoutvisible intervention on the part of theS t a t e. But nothing guarantees that, l e f tto itself, the market will converge on asatisfactory equilibrium. History tendsrather to prove the opposite. In thiss e n s e, the doctrine of the invisible handdoes depend on quasi-religious faith. I tserves mainly to absolve people of theconsequences of their actions.

When a jumbo jet falls to theg r o u n d , there is an investigation todetermine who is responsible.But everyday, the number of people who die ofhunger in the world is equivalent tothe number who would perish if severalhundred jumbo jets crashed. N oinvestigation is needed: the market isr e s p o n s i b l e. Which is another way ofsaying nobody. Nobody is individuallyresponsible for a violence which iscollectively accepted, just as theviolence of sacrifice is collectivelyaccepted.

The opponents of market globalizationadvocate the establishment of “ f a i rt ra d e.” Isn’t this a contradiction in terms,if the market is by nature irre s p o n s i b l e ?

Why not develop fair trade? Inr e a l i t y, the partisans of marketglobalization claim that they themselveswant to promote the interests of poorw o r k e r s.This is a good illustration of theethical progress we were talking about:everybody recognizes the centralimportance of the victims. But the alibiis pretty flimsy because poor workersare perfectly able to determine what isin their own interest. Their unionrepresentatives could organize aninternational summit to negotiate a fairframework for trade themselves—atDavos, for example. Just as war is tooserious a matter to be left to thegenerals, trade is too serious to be leftto the captains of finance.

Montesquieu said that the natural effectof trade is to lead to peace.Your analysesdo not seem to confirm this adage.

Globalization means the

development of market exchangeamong nations. N o w, despite theexistence of the United Nations, t h einternational arena still displays one ofthe essential features of primitives o c i e t y : the absence of the State. In trueprimitive societies, where gift exchangep r e d o m i n a t e s, one sometimes findstransactions quite similar to markete x c h a n g e. These transactions arepracticed solely with foreigners towardswhom no duty of solidarity exists.Wi t hthem,one has the right to cheat,steal,or wage war. Lévi-Strauss alludes tomarkets of this type where buyers andsellers are ready to fight at the slightestprovocation and goods are offered ats p e a r- p o i n t .That reminds me of a N e wYork Times journalist, an advocate ofglobalization, who explained that theinvisible hand of the market must beaccompanied by an iron fist. I amskeptical about the idea that anexpansion of international trade leadsto peace.The same idea was expressedthe last time a comparable level ofeconomic integration betweencountries was reached, early in the lastcentury.

And?And then the First World War came

along and dispelled this illusion.

INTERVIEW BY YANNICK BLANCAND MICHEL BESSIÈRES

RESPECTIVELY WRITER ANDUNESCO COURIER JOURNALIST

+ …For further reading:Mark Anspach, Les fondements rituels de latransaction monétaire, oucomment remercier un bourreau, in LaMonnaie souveraine, edited by MichelAglietta and André Orléan,Odile Jacob,1998.Alain Caillé, Anthropologie du don, Descléede Brouwer, 2000.Paul Dumouchel and Jean-Pierre Dupuy,L’Enfer des choses: René Girard et la logiquede l’économie, Seuil,1979.Jean-Pierre Dupuy, Le Sacrifice et l’envie ,Calmann-Lévy, 1992.Simon Simonse, Kings of Disaster: Dualism,Centralism and the ScapegoatKing, Brill,1992.

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ISSN 0041-5278 No. 05-2001-OPI 00-592 A

May 2001 - The Unesco Courier 51

http://www.unesco.org/courier

Focus:

■ The ABC of modern volunteering ■ An economic sector in its own right■ South African students draw the “rainbow” society ■ In Nepal, the handicapped join forces■ A helping hand to Bangalore’s abused women ■ Slovenia’s youth reach for the phone■ A stop-gap state: are volunteers replacing welfare?

Features include:

■ A photographer’s first impressions of Sydney■ Fighting pollution after the U.S. pullout from Kyoto■ Can Bolivar save Venezuela’s schools?■ The killing fields of European farms: between money and

life■ An Indian journalist on the trail of media

indifference to poverty

In the next issue

many voices one world

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