AW: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Re: Requests/demands for CS participation in Tunis phase

Wed Mar 10 21:23:08 GMT 2004

En francais ci-apres
Dear colleagues membrers of this list,
>From time to time, messages give the impression that
things should be better in the Future, it seemes to me
that Our very dear Sasha was trying to push the debate
in the good direction, for me a Civile Siety more
ambitious,, more proactive, more opened to the other
languages than the God English, more aware abour the
dramatic situation in Africa...
If somebdy want to know what is the african situation
ans what it the meaning of the Digital Divide we must
meet in Niger ou in Tchad, there only French is
spoken, there is 1 PC for 1.000 inhabitant and the
whole Niger big like four times France has 2000 Kbits
sold by a multinationale to the Niger operator for
many thousands dollars monthy. No internet in lot of
cities, no internet in all schools many villages
withour eletricity nor telephon.
South Africa and especially Cape Town or Jobg look
like America for very poor contries who needs that SC
visit and support and help...
Have we any difference with Private major or with
Governmant if we think only about our confort.
All the best
Djilali
Un coup de guelle pour décrier cette tendance que nous
avons en tant que société civile de choisir l'Afrique
du Sud (pays anglophone et relativement mieux nanti
que le restede l'Afrique)quand ce n'est pas Abidjan ou
Dakat ou Tunis ou Rabat.
Si nous voulons être différents des multinationales et
des Gouvernements nous devrions peut-être situer nos
rencontres au Niger ou au Tchad pour connaître ce
qu'est la pauvreté et ce qu'est le fossé numérique.
je cite le Niger qui est approvisionné à des coûts de
milliers de dollars par mois pour une bande passante
de 2.000 Kbits, si ce n'est pas la tragédie cela lui
ressemble sans connexion dans la plupart des villes et
des villages, allons voir et vivre ce qui s'y passe et
l'on en parlera mieux !
Djilali     
--- wolfgang at imv.au.dk wrote:
> dear list,
> 
> to bring more balance into meeting places I would
> like to propose to use two forthcoming ICANN
> meetings in developing countries (July in Kuala
> Lumpur/Malaysia) and December in Cape Town/South
> Africa) for special WSIS coordination meetings and
> /or regional meetings. A third relevant world
> conference is organized by the "Internaitonal
> Association for Media and Communication Research"
> (IAMCR) in July in Porto Allegre/Brazil. The IAMCR
> will have a number of smaller workshops and a "big
> plenary", probably with high officials from the UN
> and from UNESCO, on itd agenda. Also here,
> additional reigonal meetings (in the local language)
> could be organized to promote more civil society
> interaction between North and South.
> 
> best
> 
> wolfgang
> 
>   -- Original Nachricht--
> Von: Sasha Costanza-Chock <schock at riseup.net>
> An: Nnenna <nne75 at yahoo.com>,plenary at wsis-cs.org
> Senden: 09.03.2004
> Betreff: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Re: Requests/demands for
> CS participation in Tunis phase
> 
> Hi nnenna, thanks for your message. I hope you don't
> mind that I CC this 
> to the Plenary.
> 
> I hope you could see from what I wrote that I am not
> proposing 
> confrontation for confrontation's sake, and that I
> also believe holding 
> the summit in Tunis is better for Tunisians and for
> African civil 
> society in general than holding it again in Geneva,
> NY, or another place 
> in the 'North.'
> 
> At the same time, I am also sure that we do not want
> a repeat of what 
> happened in Geneva, where in political terms civil
> society was 
> unorganized, took very few strong positions, failed
> almost completely to 
> engage social movements of the base, missed many
> opportunities to 
> advance discourse, critique, alternative solutions.
> We were organized 
> enough to produce a wonderful consensus document,
> but not enough to make 
> demands for basic necessities (for example, a
> dedicated physical space 
> to meet and take decisions) or to make strong
> symbolic presence felt 
> within the space.
> 
> The reality is that the summit _does_ need the
> participation of CS: it 
> needs us for purposes of legitimacy. They are
> desperate to find an 
> alternative to the 'global governance' model that
> sees every meeting of 
> high level government officials behind high fences,
> with thousands of 
> riot police gassing and beating tens or hundreds of
> thousands of 
> citizens in the streets below, opposing the current
> version of 
> globalization and proposing alternatives.
> 
> They hope that by including 'civil society' they can
> avoid this 
> situation and make decisions seem legitimate.
> 
> This means they must open the door, at least a
> crack, to our participation.
> 
> It then becomes our task, not to be joyful for a
> seat in the peanut 
> gallery, but to make our participation meaningful:
> to insist. To make 
> demands. To take stands where we need to.
> 
> I only mean to say that I hope we will be organized
> enough during this 
> next phase to avoid bestowing the cover of
> legitimacy, unless we receive 
> more concessions than a fistful of 'overpasses' so
> we can take turns 
> sitting in the back row and listening to the
> powerful make empty promises.
> 
> Sasha
> 
> 
> Nnenna wrote:
> 
> > Hi Sasha
> >  
> > Thanks for your thoughtful message.  The Tunisian
> system is different. 
> 
> > It is different from the US,  China, Nigeria or
> anynother country.  I do
> 
> > not judge systems the way some people did
> recently.  I would rather 
> > speak with those on the ground.
> >  
> > I did speak with Tunisian CS members.  I can agree
> that that there is a
> 
> > possiblity that all of them are pro-regime.  You
> understand?
> >  
> > Then I went to see ex-colleagues at the African
> Development Bank.  They
> 
> > are people with diplomatic status. They are not
> afraid of the 
> > regime. They are still new to the system and they
> can still see the 
> > difference.  I was there the whole of Thursday.  I
> spoke with them at 
> > length.
> >  
> > And my personal perspective is that what needs to
> be changed is the 
> > system.  But you don't change systems overnight. 
> You lay the foundation
> 
> > for it.
> >  
> > That is why I belive tha the WSIS in Tunis should
> be a good oppurtunity
> 
> > to help lay foundations for a better freer
> Tunisia.  Support and 
> > reeducation is needed, not noisemakling and
> boycotting.
> >  
> > On a final note, the ITU SG made it clear that the
> WSIS was a gorvenment
> 
> > stuff.  CS is only "invited"!  We can only
> contribute.  This is a
> good 
> > chance for the CS  to  make good use of the
> oppurtunity.
> >  
> > Yes, I believe we should draft a position paper,
> enjoining the Tunisian
> 
> > government to enable a freer environment  :
> political, social and
> economic.
> >  
> > That, I agree.
> >  
> > Very best
> >  
> > Nnenna
> > 
> >
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Do you Yahoo!?
> > Yahoo! Search - Find what you’re looking for
> faster. 
> > <http://search.yahoo.com/?fr=ad-mailsig-home>
> _______________________________________________
> Plenary mailing list
> Plenary at wsis-cs.org
>
http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/plenary
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Plenary mailing list
> Plenary at wsis-cs.org
>
http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/plenary

=====
Djilali Benamrane : dbenamrane at yahoo.com
Tél/Fax : (331) 01 45 39 77 02 Paris - France
Page web sur l'Afrique et la globalisation : http://www.multimania.com/djilalibenamrane/
Groupe de discussion: http://www.egroups.com/list/afriqueglobalization

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Search - Find what you’re looking for faster
http://search.yahoo.com