[WSIS CS-Plenary] A note of thanks

[Elizabeth Carll, PhD]

Rik,

Thank you for your comments and work on behalf of CS.  No doubt after a
respite, there will still be much to do.

Elizabeth

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From: plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org [mailto:plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org]On
Behalf Of Rik Panganiban
Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2005 1:58 AM
To: plenary at wsis-cs.org
Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] A note of thanks


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[I wrote this yesterday, but only got access this morning (Sunday, 20
November). - Rik ]

Dear Friends,

Yesterday afternoon, the smiling, broad face of President Ben Ali appearing
simultaneously on every flat screen display in the entire Kram convention
center signalled the final end of the World Summit on the Information
Society.  At nearly the same time Nobel Peace Prize winner Ms. Shirin Ebadi
was giving a live interview with the BBC.  What a strange and marvellous
trip it has been.

As one of the privileged few who has been observing and participating in the
process for the entire four years, I feel a mixture of tremendous relief,
elation at our successes, and a swelling sadness that it’s all over.

I feel especially relieved that I don’t have to deal with you crazy people
anymore, at least not on a constant basis as before.  I think at several
times I have wanted to strangle several of you on this listserv (Robert,
Francis, Bertrand, etc) ;-) .  Some of you have probably wanted to do the
same to me.

At the same time, I feel so glad to have met so many of you over these years
(Robert, Francis, Bertrand, etc) , who I never would have met and labored
and argued and laughed with if this process had not been in place.  It has
been a tremendous honor to be associated with so many ardent defenders of
the rights to non-Microsoft computers, free scientific journals, software
for the blind, community wifi hubs, untortured webloggers, and a myriad of
other causes that I knew nothing about before the WSIS.  You all have
inspired me to keep fighting through this process, even at its darkest hours
(ahem, Hammamet, ahem).

So my heart is full right now.  I’m not exactly sure what I am going to do
tomorrow, but I think it will have nothing to do with overpasses, different
colored badges, or anything starting with the letters “CS.”

At the same time, I know that the “next thing” quickly comes along and
sweeps aside the memories and emotions of the current battle.  So before
descending back into the trenches, where I am sure I will find many of you
again, I want to congratulate you all on a job well done.

It is far from over.  We have at best simply put into motion what might
prove at some future moment to have been important forces and structures in
the development of a just, open, human-centered Information Society.  I
think we can say that we did more good than harm.  And we shed light on some
things that overs wanted covered.

I fancy myself a pragmatic, nut-snd-bolts person.   So I will stop
philosophizing before I forget myself.  Just to say that I love what I do,
just for this moment I am in right now.

With best, open, participatory, mult-stakeholder, transparent, regionally -,
linguistically- and gender-balanced wishes,

Rik Panganiban
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