[WSIS CS-Plenary] Re: Veni's objections

[Vittorio Bertola]

Il mer, 2004-09-15 alle 08:08, Veni Markovski ha scritto:
> Tracey,
> thank you for your letter.
> I'd like to see nominations which bring equal:
> - participation of South / North representatives
> - male / female
> 
> Otherwise, we are always saying "yeah, there's a digital divide, but we'll 
> fix it." How? By not finding enough names from the South to be on the WGIG? 

I don't like the direction this discussion is taking.

I think we have to find enthusiastic and competent people who actually
care about the North *and* the South, about males *and* females, about
people who speak English *and* personnes qui parlent Français (e anche
Italiano and all other languages of the world), about domain names *and*
human rights.

Of course no one will be an expert of everything, so an open mind,
willingness to listen to everyone, and a caring attitude towards all
problems are fundamental. In my view, the first task of a civil society
WGIG member will be to connect the working group with all civil society
participants, and move information and proposals back and forth - not
just to push his/her own pet issues.

So if this turns into a race in which each caucus, each country, each
social group is just focused on pushing someone from his own group and
raising their own problems above those of the others, then we will all
be losers - and we'll not be behaving better than governments or private
sector.

So for example:

> North is taking many things for granted, while South is often forced
> to fight for them. This fight builds characters, which we need now in
> the WSIS.

I have no problem with this: simply nominate one person from the South
who has the right skills and attitudes and everyone will be happy to
support him/her, perhaps even financially.
-- 
.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo vb.
Vittorio Bertola - vb [a] bertola.eu.org
(((f1tt3r h4pp1er))) @ http://tmp.bertola.eu.org/