By Our buddies the French are at it again:
A French-led cultural diversity pact transparently designed to stem U.S. cultural hegemony is likely to be ratified by an overwhelming majority at UNESCO’s 33rd plenary meeting opening this Friday. But in an echo of the Kyoto treaty on climate change, the U.S., which rejoined the UN cultural agency only two years ago, is miffed because it believes the pact would allow countries to erect trade barriers against lucrative American exports like Hollywood blockbusters.
A ballot on Monday at UNESCO headquarters in Paris found the pact endorsed by a resounding 151: 2 with two abstentions. The only refuseniks were the U.S. and Israel, with Australia and the tiny island nation of Kiribati abstaining. South Korea voted in favor.
The draft pact draws attention to the “distinctive nature” of cultural goods and services, and gives countries a right “to maintain, adopt, and implement policies and measures that they deem appropriate for the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions on their territory” when they feel that diversity is under threat. It aims to acknowledge each country’s uniqueness in the face of globalization.
Basically what this is saying that a country now has the right to ban American products in their country for “cultural diversity” reasons. In reality this is just a way around fair trade laws to prevent US companies from entering foreign markets. However, if a country tries to block US imports under this law I would expect the US to go to the WTO to fight it.
I look at this way, if you don’t want your people watching Hollywood movies than make better domestic movies. Korea has done this very well. That got a booming domestic film market that is competing strongly with Hollywood films. With the crappy movies coming out of Hollywood now a days, it is not that hard to make a better movie. If your country cannot make a better movie than the Fantastic Four, your country has got bigger problems than a UN “cultural diversity” law will be able to solve.
It is the same thing with Coke. Make your own domestically produced soda. How hard can it be to make soda? Develop your own domestic capabilities instead of blaming the US for destroying “cultural diversity”. If the domestically produced products were better and cheaper people would buy them.
