United Press International - September 30, 2003
Elizabeth Bryant

Much of the pomp and circumstance came Monday, with an appearance by U.S. first lady Laura Bush. As clouds skidded across blustery skies, Bush stood outside the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's Left Bank headquarters, hearing a rendition of the American national anthem by a singer from her Texan hometown.

Earlier she called on the organization to step up its efforts in battling illiteracy and intolerance, and in promoting basic and AIDS education.

"As a former public school teacher and librarian, I believe education is our most urgent priority, and should have the first and highest call on our time and resources," Bush told an audience of diplomats and journalists. "Education is vital to developing nations -- and generations."

The U.S. quit UNESCO in 1984, after concluding the body had strayed far from its purpose of promoting peace and security through education, scientific and cultural relations. Critics also charged that a so-called "new world information order" advocated by former UNESCO Secretary-General Amadou Mahtar MBow aimed to muzzle press freedom.

Washington's decision to return to UNESCO, announced by U.S. President George W. Bush last year, is considered a coup for Koichiro Matsuura, the body's Japanese secretary-general, who has spent much of his four-year tenure wooing Washington back. Matsuura also introduced far-reaching reforms, which included slashing the organization's staff numbers and overhauling its management.

In recent years, too, prominent U.S. lawmakers and diplomats concluded UNESCO had shed its one-time image of nurturing corruption, nepotism and an anti-Western bias. The growing chorus calling for America to rejoin included former Secretary of State George Shultz who signed America's 1984 resignation letter.

Today, too, many foreign diplomats are hailing the U.S. return as a victory.

"It will certainly make a tremendous contribution to its work," said Hans-Heinrich Wede, Germany's ambassador to UNESCO. "This contribution will not only be in terms of financial resources -- obviously the United States is going to be the biggest contributor to our budget. But it will especially be a contribution in terms of ideas coming from the American side -- coming from American civil society.

Even countries whose relations with the U.S. are edgy at best, have offered words of welcome.

"The return of the U.S. is a good thing," said Libyan delegate Abdel Kader al-Maleh. "To understand other people, and opinions and concepts, and to know what's going on, particularly in the Third World. To understand what's happening. People fear the Americans are far from them, far from all things."

But the gossip around UNESCO's sleek corridors has not been all positive. Some fear the Bush administration aims to impose its agenda on a world body that daily debates such esoteric issues as world heritage, tolerance and intellectual property rights.

"What is peace? What is security? What is tolerance? What is human rights?" asked one delegate from a developing country, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Words are one thing. But from whose lens will we looking at them?"

"To be frank, right now its a mixed feeling" about the American return, said Kenyan delegate Shem Wandiga. "We're waiting to hear the mission and the vision of the U.S. delegation. But some are worried that the unilateralism of U.S. foreign policy could extend here."

One battle already looming is on cultural diversity, which is expected to pit U.S. calls for a free flow of ideas and goods across borders, against demands by France and several other countries for greater protection for movies and other cultural products.

France's Le Monde newspaper also suggested the decision to send the U.S. first lady to Paris -- in contrast to the presence of five heads of state, including French President Jacques Chirac -- amounted to "a certain condescension" on the part of the Bush administration. But in a news conference Tuesday, U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige insisted the Americans were back as team players.

"We want to hear from other member countries," said Paige, interim head of the U.S. delegation. "We want to learn their point of view. We want to share our thoughts.

"But I think you can expect the United States to be a good team member -- with other countries within UNESCO, working toward world peace."

Few, however, are complaining about U.S. dollars fattening UNESCO's lean coffers. U.S. dues will amount to 22 percent of the organization's budget, which is expected to grow from $544 million to $610 million in the next two years.

Even so, delegates like Wandiga say, the new money cannot possibly meet the organization's ambitious agenda. A chemistry professor in Nairobi, Wandiga notes UNESCO earmarked $20,000 for promoting chemistry in Africa over a 2-year period.

"What can you do with $20,000 dollars in a continent with as big and wide a need for science, particularly in my discipline?" he asked. "I don't see the United States coming back as an answer to UNESCO's budgetary problems."

But if they cannot tap American coffers, many UNESCO members appear eager to tap American expertise.

"The fact the United States has been out has tended to give UNESCO an appearance as a discredited body," Wandiga added. "Now, its coming back will strengthen the principles of UNESCO -- and the reasons why it was started."
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