I will never forget my visit to a Central American country in which the government requested me to visit the guerrillas up in the hills at the end of a long process of peace negotiations. Otherwise, reconciliation and social re-articulation would not be feasible. Culture is as we behave everyday. Too often, decision-makers have a plastic or even ornamental concept of culture. If today the cultural aspects have suddenly appeared as protagonists of the political agenda, it is because culture defines citizenship.
Science is universal.
It cuts across cultural differences while at the same time respecting religious practices and beliefs. It advances largely through team work in which individual scientists from many backgrounds work together toward the common goals of solving problems that often are obstacles to human well-being. Because science, like the phenomena it studies, crosses national and cultural barriers, its common methods and shared language make it possible for former enemies to learn the ways of peace, of tolerance, even of love. It is a laboratory in which researchers and students all lean out from their personal local shells and learn to share knowledge on a global basis to solve common global problems, hand in hand, the governmental institutions and the private sector. Development is not only possible through advances in science and technology but also through our ability to apply our findings in the social settings where poverty and ignorance thrive.