UNESCO to U.S.: Drop Dead!

The American Enterprise Online ^ | 10/26/05 | Neil Hrab

[GVnana]

Bump.

[Smedley]

Last Thursday, the United States was sucker-punched by an international organization. A majority of countries belonging to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) voted to support a joint French and Canadian initiative aimed at making it easier for foreign governments to limit consumer access to American cultural products.

I think that this might well be a violation of GATT. While there are cultural exceptions to free trade under GATT in order to preserve an indigenous culture, I don't think that you can single out a single country.

BTW, having done research on this issue in Law School, Canada and France are the two biggest tools on this issue. Canada even went so far as to screw over the Country Music Channel (CMT) in favor of their own country music station (CNC) under the cultural exception even though there was little or no difference in the perceivable content. It was a $$$ scam.

http://www.american.edu/TED/cmtvcan.htm

Likewise, France declared war on the American entertainment industry calling movies like "Jurassic Park" the biggest threat to French culture. Dont ask me how a movie about dinesaurs that takes place on an island off the coast of South America is a threat to the French.

http://reason.com/9807/fe.cowen.shtml

In a contest between Hollywood and the French, who do I want to lose?

[Carry_Okie]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Bush sign back onto UNESCO as part of his bid to get the UN to support military action in Iraq? If so, Bush was double-suckered.

Yup, and so were we.

[Question_Assumptions]

I think we should withdraw from the UN, stop paying our dues, and give them a 30 day eviction notice from their New York City headquarters. Then we'd see who gets the last laugh.

[A Strict Constructionist]

Maybe we should ban all "cultural exchanges" with the French and Canadians. This would eliminate a lot of the SNL crowd, the movies produced in Canada and other such exchanges. I guess it's too late on the news anchor front.

[TheSpottedOwl]

All I can say is that the boycotts must have done some sizable damage : )

Bush needs to immediately tender our resignation in UNESCO.

[joebuck]

This resolution is nothing more than an end run to avoid the provisions the various trade treaties which have gone into effect over the last several years. (NAFTA and others.) There is virtually no commodity that a Country cannot claim is intrinsically part of the national culture. (Think French wine). Thus, this resolution allows countries to put bans and quotas on imports of these important "culture destroying commodities". I bet a month's pay that within a couple of years France will put quotas on the import of Californian wines in order to protect France's "cultural identity". Take it to the bank.

[MARKUSPRIME]

Ahh Canada what a great ally. /sarcasm
Getting to be more like an enemy day after day.

[metmom]

Kick the UN out of the US.

[Wings-n-Wind]

US to UNESCO, C'nucks, eh...., and Frogs, n'est-ce pas?.....

Kiss my red-white-&-blue... A$$
And don't let the screen door hit you in your soft-man tushies...
ON THE WAY OUT!!

Have a nice day

[playball0]

US to UNESCO. FU. Go away or we'll taunt you some more.

[bubman]

I am confused. I thought they were on the same side, Hollywood and the anti-american left!!! Ah well just goes to show you that the left always eats their own.

[Publius6961]

Most newspapers that covered the story portrayed the vote as a humiliation for the United States.

I don't usually laugh out loud when reading a news report, but this one did it.

The truly humorous part is that the reporter seems to share the tribal primitive belief that "humiliation" is the ultimate crime, so felt a need to repeat what the helpless savages have attempted: pretend that they are capable of humiliating their betters.
Obviously, if I am laughing, humiliation must not be far behind.
LOL!

[Getsmart64]

I don't get it...how does this hurt me as a citizen of the United States of America?

[LearnsFromMistakes]

Did i missed the good news? Baldwin moving to Frogland??? :-)

Only if Bush is elected, then re-elected...

[Getsmart64]

uh...please explain to me how this hurts me as an average US citizen?

[tomjohn77]

As I said before free global trade is the best option. Wonder how the protectionists on this forum react to this. The people that are against free global trade find themselves in a strange position after reading this article. If they criticize this they criticize themselves and they have double standards.
Go free trade.

[khnyny]

The U.S. earns about $80 billion a year from the export of its popular culture.
If I'm reading the article correctly, the "Cultural products" are mostly movies and music. On one hand, I want to support American businesses, but OTOH the world is kinda sticking it to Hollywierd. Given the amount of crap that passes for "cultural products" these days, it might be nice to limit them here too....

I agree. Last night (Tues) at 8:00 pm (family hour?) on NCIS there was a graphic sex/porn scene which culminated in a murder (you actually see the woman's throat slit, blood and all) and this is in the first five minutes of the show. It's a CBS network show. My husband was like, "they show this kind of crap on TV now? What happened to family hour, it's only 8:00." We turned it off. Most movies and television are worthless, boring, stupid, inane...I don't have enough adjectives. Maybe Hollyweird should come up with a better product, then everyone would want it. A market-driven economy does work, the advertisers should know this.

[kabar]

LOL. Trying to limit them will make them more attractive and sought after.

[khnyny]

The U.S. earns about $80 billion a year from the export of its popular culture.
If I'm reading the article correctly, the "Cultural products" are mostly movies and music. On one hand, I want to support American businesses, but OTOH the world is kinda sticking it to Hollywierd. Given the amount of crap that passes for "cultural products" these days, it might be nice to limit them here too....

I agree. Last night (Tues) at 8:00 pm (family hour?) on NCIS there was a graphic sex/porn scene which culminated in a murder (you actually see the woman's throat slit, blood and all) and this is in the first five minutes of the show. It's a CBS network show. My husband was like, "they show this kind of crap on TV now? What happened to family hour, it's only 8:00." We turned it off. Most movies and television are worthless, boring, stupid, inane...I don't have enough adjectives. Maybe Hollyweird should come up with a better product, then everyone would want it. A market-driven economy does work, the advertisers should know this.