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All human beings began from one origin. Along the passage of time, however, it has diverged into thousands of different cultures and peoples each of which resembles the unique look and temperament of the environment they belonged.
Just as a primitive little cell differentiates, evolves, and grows in its number to create together an intricately wondrous body of life, human culture has continued to divide and develop in a hundred different directions to form one complex body of community.
¡°One global village¡± is no more an abstract catch phrase. It is what we continually experience in the course of our daily lives: we talk to friends on the other side of the globe as if they are sitting right in front of us; people take flights across the continent and the ocean as easily and frequently as they drive around the neighborhood; news of an outbreak of earthquake in some remote region could possibly mean personal bereavement to my next door neighbor. In such a closely interconnected world, the strategy for individual survival becomes a matter of another dimension that takes account of every individual culture and life in this global community.
People have long realized this fact and accordingly a number of political, economic and social efforts were contrived in attempts to bring the world together. Through trials and errors people learned how to respect and work with each other, and these efforts have come to bear fruits in the form of various international organizations, institutions, solidarities that all have been working tirelessly to cultivate a more cooperative international environment.
WCO esteems all these efforts and their achievements. At the same time, we are trying to find ways to bring changes on the more fundamental level. And we see culture as one such way that can draw real changes from the bottom of people¡¯s hearts. We believe that our global community can stand at its best when every culture is appreciated and respected as it is, for culture is the source of our inspiration, a foothold for our activities as well as a fruit that contains the best of what we do and who we are.
Cultural diversity is a fundamental source of life and inspiration to humanity. True wellbeing and prosperity can inhabit only in such an environment where all peoples share, respect, enjoy, and value cultural diversity, and where each develops the lifelong respect for other cultures as well as for their own.
WCO encourages all human activities and efforts guided by intent to integrate the improvement of their own lives with the betterment of their culture and the whole humanity. WCO identifies all such activities as cultural legacies for common humanity. WCO also seeks to build an environment where all peoples communicate and cooperate freely with one another with confidence in their own culture and appreciation of others¡¯.
A forest full of life, where creatures of all shapes, colors, smells and sounds blend so naturally together in peace - it is the very picture of the world WCO envisions and strives to make come true.
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