Chirac lashes out against US cultural domination

Chirac lashes out against US cultural domination
Thu Oct 07 2004 21:37:42 ET

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.

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Geez, overreacting much?

This guy is the leader of France and saying this? If it werent for us, he would be speaking German right now. "Choking" cultures...

I have something he can choke on:nerd:...sorry.

He shouldn\'t be so concerned about the U.S., supposedly we\'re all going to be speaking Chinese someday anyway.

He’s just jealous people don’t like to speak French as much anymore.

Its always been like this, the "big/powerful" countries influence the others.

During the medieval times it was the Germans, then to some degree the Spanish, then the French under 1700 (very popular to speak french in the royal courts.).

In 50 years it might be the Chinese (like Ginko said)

Then again, we are in the American century according to our (surprisingly) French loving king Gustav III (1746-1792, assassinated).

"Kanske befinner vi oss nu i Amerikas århundrade, och kanske skall den nya republiken, fastän till en början knappast bättre utrustad än Roms första bebyggare, brandskatta Europa, liksom detta (Europa) nu i två århundraden brandskattat Amerika."
- Gustav III

Translated:
”Maybe we are now in the American century, and maybe this new republic though from the beginning no better equipped then the first settlers of Rome, shall burn tax Europe, like this Europe for two centuries has burn taxed America.”