SECRETARY-GENERAL ACCEPTS 'BARJIL' DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AWARD FOR BEST PRACTICES TO IMPROVE LIVING ENVIRONMENT
Press Release
SG/SM/6849
HQ/594
SECRETARY-GENERAL ACCEPTS 'BARJIL' DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AWARD FOR BEST PRACTICES TO IMPROVE LIVING ENVIRONMENT
19981222 Magnificent Replica of Wind Tower (Barjil), Says Kofi Annan, 'Will Help Us All Manage and Withstand the Storms that Rattle Us in Future'Following are remarks by Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the presentation of the "Barjil" Dubai International Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment, in New York today:
Thank you, Ambassador [Mohammad] Samhan. When I visited the United Arab Emirates only two weeks ago, I was touched by the kindness and hospitality extended to me by your people and Government. In allowing the United Nations to display for a time this magnificent replica of a wind tower, you have yet again lived up to that spirit of generosity. As it stands along the path of the guided tours of the United Nations, tens of thousands of visitors will also be able to enjoy it.
It is truly fitting that the wind tower should serve as the Dubai International Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment. As the whole world knows, the United Arab Emirates has shown itself capable of achieving truly remarkable things. In just a few decades, a whole new world of lofty towers has sprung up where there used to be only a few one-story buildings scattered in the sand.
The juxtaposition with the blue waters of the Gulf is living proof of the literally life-giving importance of that waterway. And the harmony of those modern high-rises co-existing with ancient wind towers such as the one we see depicted before us, the old and the new living side by side, testifies to the marriage of tradition with progress; to the sense of continuity and stability you have retained to this day.
These wind towers not only show the ingenuity of your forefathers in managing and withstanding the summer heat of the Gulf long before the advent of air conditioning. Today, they also stand as a symbol of the Emirates' ability to manage and withstand the winds of change and storms of turmoil that have swept the region in the modern age.
- 2- Press Release SG/SM/6849 HQ/594 22 December 1998
And so, as we pass this "barjil" in the months to come, let it stand as a reassuring reminder that what is built with skill and ingenuity will help us all manage and withstand the storms that rattle us in future. And that we must never forget what our forefathers created for us. On behalf of all of us in the United Nations, Choukran, Wassalamu Alaikum.
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