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Two capital cities, poles apart on the issue of conservation

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Published Date: 10 October 2008
By LORD McCLUSKEY
I HAVE just returned from Warsaw where, at the headquarters of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), I spoke at their annual meeting on "The Rule of Law".
The OSCE is the organisation created by the Helsinki Final Act, of 1975 to monitor progress in matters of democratic practice – especially in relation to legal and political rights – in sovereign states in and around Europe.

Each year, ambassador...



The full article contains 977 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 09 October 2008 8:35 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

David Ban,

04620 Vera 10/10/2008 16:23:18
What a telling article; the Poles have great pride in their country and perhaps the onslaught against their civilisation and culture by the Germans and Russians has united them and reinforced their language and belief as a Nation.
The "Scots" in Edinburgh that allow the vandalisation of their once great city have no pride in themselves as Scots and have lost the cultural drive to maintain and promote their city in a Scottish dimension. Nae wynds,nae glorious Scottish arhitecture; nae nothing!
2

Dr. James Wilkie,

Vienna 10/10/2008 22:00:19
I agree with Lord McCluskey about the Polish national spirit, which I have experienced at first hand. Attending the Corpus Christi ceremony at the cathedral in Cracow was an object lesson in why the Communist system broke its teeth on Polish Catholicism. And one of the experiences of my life was hearing Chopin's music played by a Polish winner of the Chopin Competition at a small house party in Poland.

However, Lord McCluskey obviously needs some more information on the OSCE, the headquarters of which are in Vienna, not Warsaw. Its departments located in Warsaw are those dealing with what is called the Human Dimension -human rights, democratic government, the rule of law, freedom of the press, etc. The OSCE has a much wider remit, including conventional disarmament and various cultural, economic and financial functions. It is the world's largest security organisation, with 21 ongoing missions, and regularly cooperates with NATO in trouble spots. The OSCE was largely instrumental in ending the Cold War and reducing the sizes of military forces all over Europe.

In the early 1980s I worked for the international Commission on Disarmament (the Palme Commission) that was one of the steps leading to the formation of the OSCE. The 1975 Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, a Soviet proposal, held in Helsinki, was repeated several times in that form before being converted into the present permanent Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) several years later.

3

Dr. James Wilkie,

Vienna 10/10/2008 22:12:33
As a corollary to the above, I should say that Lord McCluskey's confusion as to the status of the OSCE is understandable, given the interminable ballyhoo over the European Union, which is actually by far the smallest of all the major European organisations. The EU is by no means to be equated with "Europe". The longer-established organisations like the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe and the UN Economic Commission for Europe are not only considerably larger, but are also the source of much of the policy that is implemented by the EU at second hand. There is a considerable leeway of education to be made up here, not least among national leaders in every field.

4

Buttress,

11/10/2008 13:08:13
Architecture Scotland published a critical piece on article - well, it would wouldn't it?


"Lording it
10 Oct 2008

john.glenday@carnyx.com

Lord McCluskey, one of Scotland’s most respected legal figures, has escalated discourse on the impact of recent Edinburgh development to a “new pinnacle of hyperbole” say critics with an outspoken attack on the “systematic vandalism” of Edinburgh’s built heritage.

Evoking war time imagery of Hitler’s sacking of Warsaw, McCluskey alludes such destruction to be of equivalence with such schemes as Haymarket and Fountainbridge.

Described as a “rambling polemic” the article, published in today’s Scotsman, evinces the achievements of European cities in a comprehensive reconstruction effort at the end of the war. Plans, photographs, paintings and memory were all utilised to rebuild the past in exactitude.

No mention is made of the downtown skyscrapers and shopping malls which now dominate the Polish capital.

The Scottish capital meanwhile is subjected to a further drubbing with recent concrete and glass structures derided as “monuments to how callous, how lacking in taste and bereft of respect for our heritage it is possible for a city to be.”

Further claims are made regarding the demolition of “old stone buildings”, precisely which historic structures this is referring to is not divulged."




http://www.architecturescotland.co.uk/news

Note that the quotes are unreferenced.


However, Caltongate will see the demolition of the Canongate Venture and facade retention schemes for other buildings... how many listed buildings have been demolished in Edinburgh in recent times? A fair few. There are plans to demolish others - in order to build a glass fronted edifice in Princes Street I believe?

Pictures:

www.eh8.org.uk


 

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