Globalisation 'can be guided'

2005-10-06 08:46

Maryville - The US must accept its role as a leader in globalisation while working to preserve cultural diversity worldwide, Nobel Peace Prize co-winner FW de Klerk said.

If it fails to do so, the former SA president said in a speech at Northwest Missouri State University, globalisation will still go on but without the guidance that only the world's sole superpower can provide.

"It happens, and nobody can stop it," De Klerk said. "It is, perhaps, the latest manifestation of the universal drive toward ever more complex systems."

But that economic complexity, he said, often exacts a price on other cultures, especially those of developing countries.

"As a result of globalisation," he said, "a new, colourless culture _ I don't mean colourless in the sense of race, I mean in the sense of 'bleak' - is developing."

That culture, he said, is consumerist, trend-driven and English-speaking. And with the values of Hollywood and MTV both saturating and conflicting with other cultures, a backlash is inevitable.

Threat of cultural conflict internal, external

"Globalism is posing a threat to multilingualism, posing a threat to multiculturalism and putting identities under pressure," said De Klerk. "Somewhere, there is going to be a negative reaction."

And with more than half of the world's countries possessing significant minority populations, added De Klerk, the threat of cultural conflict is internal as well as external.

"Attempts to ignore, to turn your back on others, to suppress diversity, can lead and is leading, in many instances, to confrontation and conflict."

"I am an Afrikaner, a South African and an African," said De Klerk, who as president released Nelson Mandela from prison and recognised the ANC. "President Mandela is a Xhosa, a South African and an African."

The US and other developed countries must also respond to globalization, he said, with commitments to multilateralism and economic fairness for developing nations. That includes ending subsidies that benefit US and European farmers but prevent African farmers from gaining market shares for their products.

"I know it may not be a popular message here, in America's agricultural heartland," he said. "But we must phase out subsidies and open up markets to third world exports."

- AP