Saudi Arabia Launches ‘Culture and Green Future’ Initiative

Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan shakes hands with the Secretary-General of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO)
Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan shakes hands with the Secretary-General of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO)
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Saudi Arabia Launches ‘Culture and Green Future’ Initiative

Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan shakes hands with the Secretary-General of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO)
Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan shakes hands with the Secretary-General of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO)

Saudi Arabia has launched the "Culture & Green Future" initiative, which aims to enhance the role of culture and raise awareness of the centrality of culture in comprehensive and sustainable development and address its various challenges.

The initiative was launched by Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan, Minister of Culture and Chairman of the National Committee for Education, Culture and Science, in cooperation with the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO), on the sidelines of the activities of the 23rd session of the Conference of Arab Culture Ministers.

The conference was hosted on Wednesday by the Culture Ministry in cooperation with ALECSO in Riyadh, in the presence of ministers and officials from 20 Arab countries as well as the Arab League, and representatives of international and regional organizations.

"The issue of culture and the green future comes in line with the objectives of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030. Hence the Kingdom supports collective efforts to enhance knowledge, skills, and practices related to making the cultural sector more sustainable and environmentally friendly,” the Culture Minister said in a speech at the conference.

The role of culture in shaping a green future and implementing the commitments of Arab countries to harness culture for sustainable development will be focused through the launch of the "Culture and Sustainability Report in the Arab World", which will include five themes, including culture and sustainable development, knowledge transfer and exchange of expertise to create the green future, climate change, and local cultural policies, and “sustainable and creative cities and cultural solutions to ensure sustainability.”

The Culture Ministry also signed two separate agreements with ALECSO and the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO).



Ancient Egyptian Coffin Given New Life in Britain

Staff at Swansea University welcome back the artifact. Photo: Swansea University
Staff at Swansea University welcome back the artifact. Photo: Swansea University
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Ancient Egyptian Coffin Given New Life in Britain

Staff at Swansea University welcome back the artifact. Photo: Swansea University
Staff at Swansea University welcome back the artifact. Photo: Swansea University

An ancient Egyptian coffin was given a new life after it has been returned to Swansea University's Egypt Center in Wales.

The artifact, believed to date from about 650 BC, is now back at the university after thousands of hours of conservation work at Cardiff University, where it was painstakingly cleaned, reconstructed and consolidated to prevent it from deteriorating further, according to BBC.

The coffin, originally made for a man called Ankhpakhered in the Greek city of Thebes, was transported back under the watchful eye of the center’s curator Dr. Ken Griffin.

Staff described the finished project as “beyond our wildest dreams.”

“The coffin was gifted to us by Aberystwyth University in 1997 but details about its history are sketchy,” Griffin said.

He added: “It actually ended up being used as a storage box at one time, with other Egyptian objects placed in it for safekeeping.”

The university’s Phil Parkes explained that the wooden coffin was covered in textile and then had a thin layer of decorated plaster over the top.

He said: “Much of that textile had become detached over time and was just hanging loose.”

Parkes added that the separate wooden head was detached and there were a couple of large pieces of wood missing, the side of the base had fallen off and it was in a very sorry condition overall.