(ANSAmed) - ROME, APRIL 16 - To preserve and promote Arab
cultural heritage and lead to greater mutual understanding
between it and the West is the purpose that characterises much
of the activity of the Sheikh of Qatar, Mozah Bint Nasser,
president of the Qatar Foundation, who at Rome City Hall this
afternoon presented the 'Loghati' project, which will share the
rich heritage of the Arab world using multimedia and
multilingual formats. This is an electronic communication
platform developed by the Scientific and Technological Park of
Qatar (STPQ), which is part of the Foundation chaired by the
second wife of the emir, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani on an
official visit to Italy. "At such a delicate and complicated
time in relations between the West and the Arab world - said
Sheikh Mozah - the dissemination of knowledge and mutual
understanding are much needed to break down mistrust and fears."
Loghati (in Arabic, my language), allows the construction of
virtual libraries, including ancient and modern texts, where
each document contains information that can be multi-dimensional
exploited, corrected and instantaneously translated from Arabic
and vice versa. Moreover Loghati can contain audio and video,
thus creating a multimedia interface for knowledge of texts and
documents of different cultures, previously inaccessible to
millions of people.
The project may be an unprecedented cross-cultural exchange and
can contribute to the emergence of new forms of collaboration
between academics, researchers, and institutions. All this is to
make a positive contribution to the development of relations
between countries based on knowledge.
At the presentation of the project followed by the signing of
the Memorandum of Understanding between the STPQ were a number
of Italian partners including Giunti Editori, In Lucina
Associati, the European Norman Study Centre and the Oriental
University of Naples. The purpose of the agreement is to
undertake a series of projects to demonstrate the influence of
Arab culture on Western culture. "It takes intelligence - said
the sheik on the sidelines of the ceremony - to seize new
opportunities for collaboration and Italy has this
intelligence." (ANSAmed).