Friday, April 27, 2007

Cultural Diversity in the Era of Globalization

Check out the website of UNESCO's Division of Cultural Policies and Intercultural Dialog.

Statistics to illustrate the state of cultural diversity:

  • The approximately 6000 languages that exist in the world do not all have the same number of speakers: only 4 % of the languages are used by 96 % of the world population.
  • 50 % of the world languages are in danger of extinction.
  • 90 % of the world’s languages are not represented on the Internet.
  • Some 5 countries monopolize the world cultural industries trade. In the field of cinema, for instance, 88 countries out of 185 in the world have never had their own film production.

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