Cultural Exception

gerardM Sam 11 Mai - 19:58

Hi everyone,

Life was sweeter in the past in France.
France was admired by lots of people throughout the world and more specifically, inventions, discoveries, sciences, revolutionary ideas, innovations, luxury, good food, literature and beautiful language were French.
The climate was/is mild and many tourists were coming to our country.

The country I got to know when I was a kid is not nowadays' (but it's a personal thought).

-> Charles Trenet's Douce France (4 min YouTube)
-> -> Charles Trenet's Douce France (3 min YouTube - a version I prefer to the former one)
Take advantage of these links to YouTube to listen to other songs by Charles Trenet; he also sang several other songs about sweet life in France.

In 1993, France managed to convince other countries that France was different, mainly regarding its Culture and to exclude Culturam items from the GATT-General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade's negotiations (link to Wikipedia).

... I know I'm mixing things up in this topic...

What do you think? Is still France an exceptional country or was it merged with all of the countries of the world? Was Globalization a monster that swallowed our country?

MurielB Sam 11 Mai - 20:57

Hi Gérard, everyone
I don't think that France is a cultural exception. As a matter of fact, I am terribly attracted by countries where foreign languages are spoken and where the culture is not French (any country). Anyway, each country should keep its own identity which is not easy with globalization ( we have to be careful with globalization. it must help us to be open-minded but not accept standardization) Italy should keep its traditions, ways of live, culture and the same for Germany, Spain etc. Our country has varied landscapes and is rich in history, we are lucky for that. Other countries can also boast to have the same. We are not superior but not inferior either.
Thank you for Charles Trenet's Douce France. I enjoyed it but i am not chauvinistic.

gerardM Sam 11 Mai - 21:45

Hi Muriel,

Thanks for your response.

France is a country (there are a few others) that managed to be granted "Cultural Exclusion" ("exclusion" is the official term) for the GATT. Germany didn't, Italy didn't (as far as I know)...
My former message mixed this Trade Agreement with sweet olde life (which was not discussed in the Agreement).

MurielB Dim 12 Mai - 21:59

Hello Gérard, everyone
Charles Trenet's songs during world war 2 were of great support for those who were suffering. There is one called Espoir – « Tous les jours noirs ont leurs lendemains »
My daughter has just shown me a recording of a documentary called Apocalypse and I imagine Trenet's songs with their lightness in the middle of that nightmare.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse:_The_Second_World_War

Apocalypse: The Second World War (French: Apocalypse, la 2e Guerre mondiale) (2009) is a six-part French documentary by Daniel Costelle and Isabelle Clarke about the Second World War. The music of the documentary was composed by Kenji Kawai.

The documentary is composed exclusively of actual footage of the war as filmed by war correspondents, soldiers, resistance fighters and private citizens. The series is shown in color, with the black and white footage being fully colorized, save for some original color footage. The only exception to the treatment are most Holocaust scenes, which are presented in the original black and white.

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