Chirac lashes out against US cultural domination

[tommyilromano]

French President Jacques Chirac warned Thursday of a "catastrophe"
for global diversity if the United States' cultural hegemony goes
unchallenged.

Speaking at a French cultural center in Hanoi ahead of Friday's
opening of a summit of European and Asian leaders, Chirac said
France was right to stand up for cultural and linguistic diversity.

The outspoken French president warned that the world's different
cultures could be "choked" by US values.

This, he said, would lead to a "general world sub-culture" based
around the English language, which would be "a real ecological
catastrophe".

Citing Hollywood's stranglehold over the film industry as an
example, Chirac stressed that only with government assistance could
countries maintain their cultural heritage.

Vietnam is a former French colony, but only around 375,000 of its 81
million people speak French. English is considered by most people a
far more valuable and practical second language, particularly among
businessmen.

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash5.htm

[7even]

well English is just that what Esperanto was supposed to be.. imo

[mauzip]

chirac needs to shut up... seriously, english is the #1 language in the world and the french refuse to learn that language

[Trauma-san]

Why don't the French just step up and do something about it, then? What does he suppose we should do, just stop making English movies? For whatever reasons, America is fascinating to the world, they ride our nuts on everything, and we've only been here for 200 years.  Do it better, or shut the fuck up. 

[tommyilromano]

  ^

[tommyilromano]

Why don't the French just step up and do something about it, then? What does he suppose we should do, just stop making English movies? For whatever reasons, America is fascinating to the world, they ride our nuts on everything, and we've only been here for 200 years.  Do it better, or shut the fuck up. 

Who is that man in your posts?

[Don Seer]

french people are jealous.

its not just about americans... they want to be the power they never were in history.

they always refuse to conform to standards etc.. instead they try to rush their own through (admittedly often better, but thats because they 'borrow' from the real standard) and try to monopolise that way.


the reason its not in their interest is 1) power 2) money and 3) jealousy

[tommyilromano]

I guess its not really important but the French were at one time the most powerful and influential nation on the planet.

[Don Seer]

so were we, and the italians.. we're not bitching...

[mauzip]

so were we, and the italians.. we're not bitching...

don't forget the dutch

[Trauma-san]

The english, by birthing America are still pretty much the #1 power on the planet, they just urgh... 'diversified' their portfolio.