Patrick Brazier: British council to extend mutually beneficial dialogue with Syria
Syria-UK, Culture, 4/29/2002

In a statement to Arabic News (ArabicNews.com), Director and Cultural Attache of the British Council in Damascus Patrick Brazier said that the visit of the British prime minister Tony Blair to Syria was very important because it demonstrated Britain's commitment to dialogue with Syria. He added that the British Council (BC) is to extend the dialogue in the areas of education and culture, in a way that is mutually beneficial.

He added that as part of the follow up to the Tony Blair's visit the BC organized a visit to Britain by the Syrian minister of Higher Education Hassan Reshe as official follow up and concentrated on higher education because both the President and Mr. Blair indicated educational cooperation is crucial. He added that as a result of this visit, the British Council is able to focus its educational activity in areas identified as important by Minister Reshe. Therefore " we are now working on the details of a capacity building project for the four universities in Syria ( Homs, Lattakia, Damascus and Aleppo) that will link them with British universities for staff exchange, training courses and joint research in the areas that Syria has identified as priorities." He continued that these area are IT ( Information technology), bio- technology, engineering, the environment and English language.

He said:" We are working to develop an IT strategy for Syria with funding from the British foreign office that has looked at e- government, electronic business and the communications infrastructure; planned projects include working with the new Syria "virtual university" to help establish links with Britain for the new private universities and also to look at support for English language teaching for adults."

These projects, he added, will be the bases for our program for the next two or more years.

He said that also as a result of Blair's visit to Damascus, the number of Cheveneing's scholarships offered by the UK was increase by over 75%. This year, we will be sending more than 30 bright young Syrians to the UK for both graduate study with a particular emphasis on IT and modern finance and business skills, such as banking, management study and economics.

He indicated: " in our cultural activities, we want to particularly engage with young Syrians and in collaborative events where British artists can work with Syrian partners and create something new through collaborations in the meeting of cultures."

He cited an excellent example which was the British Rock guitarist Justin Adams, working with Juan Karajouli on the "Lute." He created completely new music by working together from their different background, but had the audience of young Syrian up on stage dancing with them. Justin said he was able to learn so much about the Syrian culture from this work, that he wants people in Britain to have the same experience.

Brazier added:" we are working to get Juan and his band to the UK so that young people in Britain will also have the chance to be up to stage dancing to this new music, and appreciate how different cultures can work together to create something new and beautiful."

"We have also plans to develop our information service, particularly by developing new and exciting web-sites. The football world cup is coming up in June ( in Japan). The British Council has a web- site called ( www. Footballculture.net) which will tell all about the culture of football. We also have a competition to predict who will win. You an enter the world cup forecaster competition by visiting www.worldcup.britishcouncil.org ) and to find out about all activities of the BC from English language learning to art events, one can check ( www.Britishcouncil.org) and in the near future we are planning to launch Arabic language version of our web-sites."

He said that the British Council is not a political organization and this is quite deliberate. "Our role is to encourage dialogue between peoples. Dialogue can only flourish when there is an understanding and respect for different ideas; for different views on the same issues. The British works in education and culture, but its primary aim is to allow people to connect to have these dialogues, to learn from each other's experience and so to build an appreciation and an understanding of other cultures and views," he said.

He said that the British Council was established more than 60 years ago in the world to do exactly this activity. He said that recent events in the world have demonstrated that this activity is certainly important now as it was 60 years ago.

Patrick Brazier indicated that it is vital that young people, particularly those who have the chance around the world to learn about each other and to learn from each other and education and culture are some of the most effective means of developing this understanding. He continued that this was true after the second World War, and the terrible events happening then. It is true after September the 11th, 2001 and it is just as true now with the event in the Palestinian West Bank.

He concluded by saying "at all these times we believe dialogue and mutual understanding is ultimately the only solution."

Previous Stories:
  Syrian- British higher education, IT cooperation boosted   (2/11/2002)
  'StiffÉundertaking undertaking' in Damascus   (10/26/2001)
  British Council Director: Syrian- British cultural relations flourishing   (9/17/2001)

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