US on track for another UN no vote

We will fight to protect our right to corrupt the youths of other countries while fighting Hollywood's liberalism at home? More contorting funnies from the US administration.

As the United States sets about trying to repair its battered international image by stepping up its "public diplomacy" abroad, is it willing to risk total isolation at Unesco in order to combat a perceived threat to Hollywood's freedom to show its movies around the globe?

The final answer will come next week, but the outcome seems foretold: everything suggests that the United States will be the only country in the 191-member United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to vote against a new convention on cultural diversity.

In fact, on three procedural votes related to the convention, the United States has already stood alone: its position was successively defeated by 54 votes to 1, by 53 votes to 1 and by 158 votes to 1.

So what is wrong with cultural diversity?

Well, here diplomatic mirror games begin. In the language of Unesco, "cultural diversity" is not what outsiders might imagine it to mean. That is, rather than promoting, say, ethnic traditions, minority languages or integration of immigrants, it has become the buzz phrase for opposition to cultural homogeneity a l'americaine.