French Cultural Policy Debates by Jeremy Ahearne

Author:Jeremy Ahearne [Ahearne, Jeremy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780415275002
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2001-12-06T00:00:00+00:00

Notes

1

[Translator’s note] On the Houses of Youth, see above, p. 61, n. 6.

2

[Translator’s note] L’Express is a leading weekly news magazine.

PART THREE

NATIONAL CREATION AND THE ECONOMY

  Chapter 10

JACK LANG

CULTURE AND THE ECONOMY (1982)

PRESIDENT, DIRECTOR GENERAL, COLLEAGUES, FRIENDS, Allow me first of all to make some preliminary observations before coming to the heart of the matter.

First, I should like to express our joy at being in Mexico, a land of revolution and emancipation. Mexico has traditionally been a friend to the France that emerged over the Revolution, and many images of this live on in French memories. We remember in particular the priest Hidalgo, an enthusiastic devotee of the Encyclopedists, of Rousseau and Voltaire, and who, at the same time as fighting the colonizer, used to teach French in his village — at the time it was seen as the language of emancipation. Or again, to evoke another memory, the red marking the flag of the revolutionary National Convention was soaked in the dazzling red of the Mexican cochineal found on the nopal plant. Let us not forget either the warm welcome given some months ago by President Lopez Portillo to President François Mitterand, and so I salute warmly the government of Mexico and the Mexican people.

May I also thank you, my colleagues, and thank also the conference as a whole, for asking France to take on the role of principal rapporteur.

Would it be setting too much store by that unanimous vote if we said that the object of your choice was the France that emerged on May 10, and that over the last twelve months or so has linked up again with the great traditions of liberty and independence, a country which, through a bold cultural policy, has over the last few months taken up again the creative flame?1

I thank likewise Mr M’Bow, Director General of UNESCO, for inviting us to this great gathering, and I am glad to tell him how proud France is to house the headquarters of this great organization that we will continue to support with all our strength.

Let me greet also all the personalities that are present here, and in particular the Prime Minister of Tunisia, the President of the Executive Council and my good friend President Senghor.

May I also tell you that a feature of our delegation — but I believe that this is true for other delegations present here as well — is that it brings together not just officials but also men working in the domains of culture and creation.

When UNESCO was founded after the war, Léon Blum, head of the French government, proposed that, as with the International Labour Organisation — which, as you know, brings together in its national representative bodies representatives of governments, workers and managers — UNESCO’s national delegations should be composed in an analogous manner, with half the representatives being officials and the other half comprising men working in the domains of culture and creation. Perhaps one day this proposition will be adopted as part of a reform of UNESCO.

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