COVER N. 313 - UNESCO

Postmark: Premier Jour UNESCO Paris, 08.09.2023

Posted on the 8th September; Received on the 23rd September 2023

_________________________________________________________________________________

Another box ticked in my collection. Thank you so much Jean-Pierre.

UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialised agency of the UN contributing to  peace and security by promoting international cooperation in education, sciences, culture, communication and information. 

It was founded in the wake of the second world war, in 1945, on the perfectly rational principle that intercultural dialogue is an essential cement to ensure advancement and understanding between human societies.

In fact, people, persons, come and go. We are all short lived, even if our standards of living and hope of life have significantly increased, in general terms, over the centuries.

But art, what significantly remains of our passage, out-endures us. So much so that over time it constitutes a common cultural heritage not of a society, but of our species, as a whole.

UNESCO has of course understood this long ago with the World heritage programmes that aim at preserving sites, traditions, usages, forms of art that are of outstanding value to humanity.

Then, of course, there are those who are so deeply blinded by their irrationality that aim at exactly the opposite... but then again, we are all short-lived, and these too shall pass, while stones, pigments, sounds, are much more resilient....

Once I was at Niaux cave... looking at paintings done by humans 13,000 years ago is sound proof of this. 

UNESCO headquarters are located at Place Fontenoy, in Paris, France. By an agreement with the French postal authorities, UNESCO service stamps, denominated in Francs first and now Euro, have been issued since 1961, these being only usable on mail posted from the UNESCO headquarters.

On 11SEP2023, celebrating 20 years of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage adopted on the 32nd Session of UNESCO's General Conference, held in Paris from the 29 September to the 17 October 2003, La Poste issued the UNESCO service stamp on the cover.

Fittingly, it is illustrated with a photo depicting a Zaouli dancer. the Zaouli being a traditional dance of the Guro people of Ivory Coast, which has been inscribed in the Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2017. 

Although officially issued on the 11th, the First day Postmark states 08.09.2023.