[WSIS CS-Plenary] speakers list transmitted to the ITU

[Heidi Paredes - I'lam]

Dear Rony,

 

I fully support your position.

 

 

Heidi Paredes

Development Director

I'lam, Media Center for Arab Palestinians in Israel

POB 101, 16000 Nazareth

Tel. +972-4-6001370, Fax. +972-4-6001418

www.ilamcenter.org 

 

 

  _____  

From: plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org [mailto:plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org] On Behalf
Of KovenRonald at aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2005 11:29 PM
To: plenary at wsis-cs.org
Subject: Re: [WSIS CS-Plenary] speakers list transmitted to the ITU

 

Dear All --

I'm not sure that it is a "reasonable request" to ask people with autonomous
existences as recognized figures in their fields to get their texts vetted
by a bunch of people they may or may not know and may or may not agree with.
At least some of the personalities whose names were submitted as speakers
were chosen because they have important standing in their fields and are
thus likely to be listened to by others. 

It does not strike  me as a "reasonable request" to make such personalities
seek permission on what to say from an ill-defined mass of persons, myself
included, whose leading qualification may be that they can get to attend
lots of meetings that people with active, time-consuming professional lives
in the real world can't take part in. 

If the names of prominent persons with real intellectual authority are
submitted  by us, it seems to me that we simply need to take our chances
that they will say things we can live with. And, if they don't, that strikes
me as just too bad. And just maybe such speakers are right and we're wrong.
It's a big world out there, much of which has "not been dreamed of in your
philosophies," as the Bard would say.

And those who might be willing to bend to such a text-vetting process may
not have ideas of their own and thus not much worth saying or hearing.

There's surely more than one acceptable set of ideas in a "civil society"
that is in fact infinitely broader than our congenial band of
conference-goers.

Rony Koven

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