Sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, World Philosophy Day has been held on every third November since 2002. The event is:
“An opportunity to make philosophical reflection accessible to all (professors and students, scholars and the general public, the young and the less young), thereby enlarging the opportunities and spaces for the stimulation of critical thinking and debate.”
According to UNESCO.org.
In 2008, UNESCO accepted Iran’s bid to host this year’s World Philosophy Day; but a group of academics, the U.S. and the European Union, demanded a boycott due to Iran’s culture of hatred toward the ayatolla’s domestic opposition, the West and the Jewish State of Israel. The New York Times wrote that UNESCO, by holding the celebration in Tehran risked “turning its ‘school of freedom’ into a propaganda exercise for a brutal regime.”
On November 9th, UNESCOs Secretary General, Irina Bokova made the decision to not hold the proceedings in Tehran, final. She said:
“The conditions necessary to guarantee the effective organization of a UN international conference have not been met.”
Iran, who blames the Jews, refuses to comply with UNESCOs decision and may be holding a little philosophy celebration of their own:
“Despite all attempted sabotage by the Zionists, the World Philosophy Day will be held in a more impressive manner this year than in past years.â€
Said Ambassador Mohammadreza Majidi to the Persian service, IRNA last Thursday.
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