UNESCO CONFERENCE ON AFGHAN CULTURAL HERITAGE

Kulturní zpravodaj Lawrence Pollard z Paříže: This three-day conference was originally planned for Kabul but has been moved to Paris because of the unstable situation in the Afghan Capital. And that gives a good idea of how huge the task facing UNESCO really is. The basic aspiration is that culture should serve as a rallying point for nation building - in practice neither the finances nor the security conditions seem very favourable. But Unesco can and will be drawing up a strategy for what needs to be done, based on repair, protection and finance. It wants better coordination of projects and more of the promised finances to materialise. The distance still to travel is enormous, though. The Kabul museum has no roof, may have to be relocated, and the 30 % of its collection which hasn't been recently destroyed has to remain in secret storage for its own safety. Another headline issue is Bamiyan, the site of the world famous rock statues of the Buddha, blown up by the Taleban in 2001. VOCABULARYin practice - ve skutečnosti, v praxi to draw up - načrtnout, navrhnout, formulovat the promised finances to materialise - aby se slíbená finanční pomoc realizovala the distance still to travel is enormous - zbývá stale urazit pořádný kus cesty headline issue - titulkové téma