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PHILIPSBURG--St. Maarten wants to submit at least two projects for possible nomination in the Memory of the World (MoW) project of United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Project consultant of UNESCO Elizabeth Watson is currently in St. Maarten meeting with organizations to discuss the MoW, and possible nominations and submissions from St. Maarten.

"Documentary heritage reflects the diversity of languages, peoples and cultures. It is the mirror of the world and its memory. But this memory is fragile. Every day, irreplaceable parts of this memory disappear for ever. UNESCO has launched the Memory of the World programme to guard against collective amnesia calling upon the preservation of the valuable archive holdings and library collections all over the world ensuring their wide dissemination," UNESCO explains on its Web World website.

Whereas the importance of conserving painting, sculptures, monuments and even landscapes has largely been understood, hardly anyone is aware of the vulnerability of documents. Paper containing acid disintegrates, irreplaceable records can no longer be played, films rot and fade, magnetic tapes lose their surface, and after a few years even electronic documents can no longer be read because of changing hard- and software.

This situation is serious. If efforts to preserve existing knowledge are not intensified, humanity may lose a considerable part of its collective knowledge within a few decades. The MoW project seeks to preserve the world's endangered documentary heritage, which can be one single document or a collection, be it on paper, photographs, music or video recordings, scrolls and maps, art, stone and fabric.

Entire libraries, archives or museums cannot be nominated for inclusion in the MoW, but only individual collections or items. These can be publicly or privately owned and must have some significance to the country.

There are three types of registers within the programme: national, regional and international. Nominations for listings on the regional and international registers must clearly demonstrate the regional or international significance of the documents being nominated. Joint nominations are possible for more than one country, for instance where it concerns slave registers. A committee for Latin America and the Caribbean oversees the inscription of nominations to the regional register.

Watson said the purpose of her visit was to help St. Maarten develop Memory of the World activities. "Main objectives are to identify national documentary heritage to be nominated to any of the three registers and to assist in the creation of a national register, as well as to build national capacities to complete nomination forms," she explained.

To this effect she met with Minister of Education, Culture, Youth Affairs and Sports Rita Bourne-Gumbs, who was very supportive of the initiative, UNESCO's Secretary-General for St. Maarten Marcellia Henry said.

Watson also met with various stakeholders on Monday and Tuesday, such as with Alfonso Blijden and Ingrid Gumbs-Arrindell of the Archives Department, Clemens Roos of the Kadaster Office, Jay Haviser of St. Maarten Archaeological Center, St. Maarten Museum Director Elsje Bosch and with Director of Philipsburg Jubilee Library Monique Alberts.

Among possible St. Maarten contributions to the registers were mentioned salt picking, shipping, the Treaty of Concordia of 1648 and the Freedom Letter written by plantation and slave owners to the King in Holland on June 1, 1848, asking the state to pay for the emancipation of their slaves. Runaway slave One Tete Lokhay and the creation and dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles were also mentioned as possible subjects.

"The project is to improve the individual and collective knowledge of documents and supports cultural tourism. It is to expose the fallacy of belief that the Caribbean does not have documents and history. It is important that children and others have access to documents that are truthful to our history and were previously hidden or unfindable or only accessible in libraries in Europe, the United States or elsewhere," said Watson in pointing to the importance of the project.

She stressed that the initial phase of the project involving identification and registration would not require a financial effort, but the preservation of documents would.

Currently documents are not kept well at the Kadaster and the Archives, said Watson. "Future investments in our cultural heritage are required," she said.

Henry said all stakeholders had responded positively to the project. "I am looking forward to briefing the UNESCO project consultant on possible members for the national committee and to start the project by making an inventory list for possible inclusion in the project lists. By June we should have at least two projects ready for submission," she said.