| [16|08|04] Culture and development in a globalized world
Culture and Social Development- Sharing Responsibilities was one of the themes discussed at the I official meeting of the World Cultural Forum 2004, on June 30, at Anhembi Convention Centre . Participants at the table were: the Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil, the Spanish Minister of Culture Carmen Poyato, the anthropologist Tassadit Yacine from Algeria, and the president of Casa Via Magia Ruy César, who was also the moderator of the debate.
The debate started with the speech of Yacine, an anthropologist, who analised the globalization process of economic, social and cultural relations. She concluded that there is a modern form of traditional colonialism expressed through concepts and rules by the ones “in charge ” who impose their culture on the ones “who obey”, in all walks of life. In other words, according to the anthropologist, the Neoliberalism system became a Neo-Social- Darwinism system which divides the world into two categories: “competent winners” and “incompetent losers”, leading to full submission of the latter by the former.
“Today´s globalization is the equivalent of yesterday´s colonialism . When colonisers from the North arrived in the southern countries, they couldn´t understand the practises of the natives. They imposed their production technologies, market concepts, not taking into consideration the fact that such local practises followed the rules of environmental, cultural and social sustentability. The new economic order brings this new cultural order which comes out of nowhere”, she explained. “These days, when I see South Korean women trying to change the colour of their skin or the shape of their eyes, I can see right there the existance of a serious pathology originated from colonial wars. It feels as if the original culture was the one of the ruler”, explained Yacine. To her, such process also happens in the relation between the government and small comunites located in the country of centralising states.
The next speaker, Carmem Poyato said that what is important is to invert the logic between market and culture; in other words, it´s important to reinforce culture as basis for social and economic development. For such, public investiment is essential not only in culture, but also in providing the access of the public to it.
“Culture has its market , but it is not only a product of the market”, she continued. “There´s no better reply to social exclusion than cultural inclusion. What is worrying is the north and south division in such process, the frailty of the poor South to maintain its cultural independence in relation to the rich North. That´s why, based on our Iberian-American culture and mutual admiration, Spain can help Brazil consolidate its relations with the European Union. We want to help the enhancement of North-South relations”, said the minister.
To bring the conference to an end, Gilberto Gil made his speech based on concepts of culture and development, which are, according to him closely connected, all the more so because there is no development which is not cultural and shared in all levels, economic, social and political. According to the minister, culture lies beyond artistic expressions, but at the same time one cannot deny the fact that creative industries, which shoud make more than US$ 1,2 trillion next year, are of high importance to the economies of poorer countries.
“The more colourful local products are, the higher their value”, said the minister who defended the use of the term culturalized development instead of economical deveopment. “If the economic development covers other sectors of society, very few people will benefit from it. Development is not a concept of economy, rather economy is one of the components of development”, he explained
Regarding multilateral negotiations of the cultural sector, the minister defended the use of unequal actions towards unequal realities. “It´s essential to exchange negative discrimination for positive discrimination. That´s the reason why the government has been investing so much in south to south relations”, said Gil. According to him, Brazil will defend some precepts in international negotiations (especially at Unesco level) such as: the creation of public policies which make the access to culture and to cultural assets easier, initiatives to make creative industries dynamic, the creation of an international system for the exchange of goods and cultural services based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and respect of differences , and the elimination of policies which liberalize processes of cultural negotiations.
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