Dear  Valerie Jullien:

         A few months back, you sent the list members a copy of the ICOM seminar
in Bhopal, India. I thought the seminar interesting and decided to attend.
I asked Dr. Amereswar Galla if I could come even though I am from South
East Asia  (Philippines) and he said I could as long as I paid my way. So I
attended the seminar and I must say that it was a very enriching experience.

        Thank you for informing the list members about seminars like these.

        I attended the seminar because I wanted to know more about the museums
situation in India - actually in South Asia. India has a lot of progressive
thinkers and there are a lot of good books published in the country. I
therefore look to India for some answers regarding the issues facing
museums here in my own country.

        I must say that I was a little disappointed to find that the other South
Asian countries did NOT attend the conference. There was only a contingent
from Bangladesh. The seminar organizers tried their best to invite other
South Asians but they were not successful.

        I learned a lot from the conference's discussions. But I must say that I
also learned a lot from what the conference did NOT discuss.

        There was also a call for young people to join ICOM. To be fair the
conference organizers tried their best to explain the advantages of ICOM
but I'm not sure how their explanations went over with the people present.

        While I was in Delhi I met someone who was with a major museum and he had
some negative points to raise about ICOM and this was why he never joined.
He felt that ICOM had come to represent in his country the established
order and he felt that progressive ideas were not being discussed in the
ICOM forums in India.

        Best regards,

        Victorino Manalo


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