UN Flunks Economics Again

[Kuciwalker]

My refusal to kill Germans as an ex-soldier should it arise should tell you the current "state of play". Nobody has an interest in war in Europe. Europe has moved on, you ain't.

wtf?

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

We resist the Americanisation of our culture, and we help others resist the Angloisation of their own cultures so that they may join the mosaic that we have sought to create and nurture for some years now.

What bull****. You guys aren't "resisting" the Americanization of your culture in anything but your own inferiority-complex addled minds. You're thoroughly a part of the "mosaic" that is American culture and your refusal to admit this truth, while occasionally humorous, is usually just sad...

[RGBVideo]

Theatre was also initially reviled as dumb tripe, corrupting the minds of the ordinary man.

Wait... you mean it now doesn't?

Originally posted by Smiley
First World economies have moved from the Agricultural Age to the Industrial Age and now to the Information Age.

If national development follows the same pattern as urban development, the next step is the Entertainment Age. It is quite understandable why Europe and other places want some protections on their home industries.

You're up for a nasty surprise once you're out of that hippie college...

[DanS]

I think many of the policies y'all propose would fit right in in the Islamic Republic.

Go UNESCO!

From the Guardian...

Iran bans foreign films

Staff and agencies
Wednesday October 26, 2005

A committee of Islamic clerics in Iran, led by the country's new hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, this week banned foreign films in an effort to wipe out what they called "corrupt Western culture".

Elements that were specifically named as affronts to the government's vision of Iran's Muslim culture included alcohol and drugs, secularists, liberals, anarchists and feminists.

The ban, which follows Mr Ahmadinejad's campaign promise to promote Islamic culture and confront what he called a cultural invasion by the west, aims to distance the state from the open cultural policies undertaken by former reformist president Mohammad Khatami that encouraged cultural coexistence and dialogue among civilisations.

Many experts and officials say the ban will only cause Iranians to turn to the black market for western videotapes or to foreign satellite television broadcasts. It is understood that the ban will have little effect on cinemas where few Western films play anyway, but it could dramatically change television, where all channels are controlled by the state and overseen by religious hardliners.

State-run television has hitherto shown foreign films after censoring many scenes deemed immoral or offensive. Films considered hostile to the Islamic values preached by the ruling establishment are already banned altogether.

"This new ban appears to be part of a campaign to push Iran back to the 1980s and to impose the same restrictions that were only just eased under Khatami. But it will be impossible to take Iran back to the 80s again," said international relations professor Davoud Hermidas Bavand.

Under President Khatami, Iran's 70 million citizens, more than half of whom are under 30, enjoyed growing social and political freedoms and were exposed to western popular culture through satellite television. The dishes are officially banned but tolerated by authorities. Many residents in Tehran hide them under tarpaulins or disguise them as air-conditioning units.

Western music, films and clothing are widely available in Iran, and hip-hop tunes can be heard on Tehran's streets, blaring from car speakers and music shops. Bootleg videos and DVDs of films banned by the state are widely available on the black market.

Already, the state-run television station in the holy city of Mashhad in north-eastern Iran has reported that police closed several video clubs last week on grounds that they were offering films inconsistent with Islamic culture.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by DanS
I think many of you would fit right in in the Islamic Republic.

Go UNESCO!

Yes, of course that is what I have been advocating for twenty years now!

Do you really think they needed UNESCO to do that?

[DanS]

Do you really think France needed UNESCO to have a quota system on films?

[notyoueither]

Ah, France = Islamic Republic of Iran.

I see the reasoning...

[Drake Tungsten]

You forget a step.

Canada = France = Iran

[DanS]

Don't blame me for your intellectual bedfellows.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
You forget a step.

Canada = France = Iran

Exactly!

Let the renaming resume, it is freedom bacon, damnit!

[Drake Tungsten]

Canadian bacon isn't even bacon anyway. We Americans call it ham, as you guys would if you weren't so desperate for some kind of distinctive national food.

[notyoueither]

No, we wouldn't be stupid enough to call ham bacon. We leave that to Yanks.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by notyoueither


Like in the US defence industry?

Last I heard about 1/3 to 1/4 goes to foreign companies. That said, unlike the movie industry there is a legitament defense interest in seeing that defense production is not subject to enemy blockade. That is why most defense production is kept in North America instead of over seas and yes Canada gets a big slice. One look at the Canadian made landing craft the Marines use to make their landings in Camp Pendelton shows you that. The Europeans (especially the UK and France) along with Austalia but also countries like Japan and Korea also get contracts. Notice how British Aerospace got a huge aircraft order? GM Canada got a huge armored vehicle order? France got a huge small arms order? That the army only uses Italian designed pistols made by an Italian company?

Your claim is questionable just with a basic understanding of who gets what from defense spending.

[notyoueither]

Notice how Hollywood and American network productions still dominate Canadian prime time, despite CanCon?

Your point (what is it?) is questionable with just a basic understanding of who gets what from Canadian broadcast spending.

[Drake Tungsten]

I wonder if American states could figure out a way to ban Hollywood movies or network TV shows. There are plenty of regional cultures in America that differ more from the general American culture propagated by the mass media than "Canadian culture" does. These cultures obviously deserve protection as well.