One of my favorite correspondents sends this remarkable lecture, given March 3 2005 at Karachi’s Aga Khan University by Sir John Tusa, a former BBC journalist, now a cultural bureaucrat.

I vaguely remember Tusa and, given his career, naturally presumed he had no interesting opinions of any kind. However, here’s a polite but positively Solzhenetsynian unyielding statement of the value of distinct national cultures, along with a sophisticated but unoptimistic analysis of their capacity for cross-fertilization. Sample:

“I insist – for Europeans, cherishing the European tradition is the starting point for understanding other traditions and cultures, not a reclusive cul-de-sac for ignoring them.”