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Australia Abstains from Culture

Ever wonderful gad-fly and commentator Phillip Adams, in his weekly column last Saturday in the Weekend Magazine in The Australian, wrote:

"A few weeks ago the United Nations approved the first international treaty to protect films, music and other cultural expressions from foreign dominance. The vote was overwhelming: 148 nations to two. One of the two was, of course, the United States. The other, sadly, was Israel, which you'd think would be wholly sympathetic to the idea of preserving a cultural identity. Isn't that why the Jewish state exists? And guess who abstained from the vote. We did."

How extraordinary that Australia took the position it did. One wonders why? It's very doubtful that we will ever find out. On the face of it it certainly reflects on how Oz sees as its priorities and values in the early 21st century.

Read the entire opinion-piece here.

By the way, the ever irrepressible Adams in his Late Night Live program [Radio National 10.05 pm Monday - Thursday and repeated at 4.05 pm Tuesday-Friday] describes the facility to download his program via podcasting thus - "Get a prod via your Pod!"

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