[IRP] Problem of abject poverty and hunger (was Re: Call notes...)

[M.I.Franklin]

Hi all

Thanks Dixie for the update and summary of this current discussion;

Obviously I'm all for members of/.in the coalition showing some palpable 
support for a crisis situation on the doorstep of the IGF this year by way 
of donations; as long as there is a clear consensus here.

Also, happy to help with some sort of statement; perhaps Robert, Mike G, 
Graciela and I could see what we come up with and then post for conferral 
(the usual approach to date); have been doing some homework re. the 
actually situation and links between IG issues and the current - and 
longer-term situation. It would be great to have some input from anyone of 
the list with experience/knowledge about ICT and refugee camps to help 
here. I do know from a research student of mine that here this is a 
disconnect; or rather a silence in the literature....

As its the summer holidays for many and we have some time before the 
actually IGF, I would also support waiting to hear from more coalition 
members....

cheers
MF

--On Thursday, August 11, 2011 14:13 -0300 Graciela Selaimen 
<graciela at nupef.org.br> wrote:

> Totally agree.
> I'm keen to helping formulate the statement.
>
> best
> Graciela
>
> Em 8/11/11 1:27 PM, michael gurstein escreveu:
>> I won't be (financially) able to attend in Nairobi but I think that the
>> IRP (and the overall IGC) should take the opportunity to make the
>> connection between Internet governance, Internet Rights and Principles,
>> economic and social development and Internet practice on the ground
>> (including in response to emergency relief issues and practices in Kenya
>> and the region and longer term developmental initiatives).
>>
>> My thought is that the best intervention that can be made is to raise and
>> pursue the issue of the connection between all of thsese within the
>> context of the IGF including vigourously making these connections in all
>> appropriate venues.
>>
>> Developing and circulating an appropriate sign-on statement concerning
>> these matters would seem to me to be the most potentially useful form
>> that our interest and commitment could take and I would be prepared to
>> spend a bit of time with others formulating such a statement if that was
>> the will of this group.
>>
>> Best to all,
>>
>> Mike
>>
>> Michael Gurstein, Ph.D.
>> Director: Centre for Community Informatics Research, Development and
>> Training (CCIRDT)
>> Vancouver, CANADA
>> http://www.communityinformatics.net
>>
>> Now blogging at http://gurstein.wordpress.com/
>> Tweating at @michaelgurstein
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: irp-bounces at lists.internetrightsandprinciples.org
>> [mailto:irp-bounces at lists.internetrightsandprinciples.org] On Behalf Of
>> Tapani Tarvainen
>> Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2011 2:46 AM
>> To: irp at lists.internetrightsandprinciples.org
>> Subject: Re: [IRP] Problem of abject poverty and hunger (was Re: Call
>> notes...)
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Aug 11, 2011 at 10:36:06AM +0200, Norbert Bollow (nb at bollow.ch)
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Tapani Tarvainen<tapani.tarvainen at effi.org>  wrote:
>>>
>>>> I thought this list was about Internet Rights and Principles, where
>>>> development agenda of any kind is not primary at all, certainly not
>>>> more so than many other IG issues.
>>> Hmm... I would argue that internet rights and principles are not
>>> important in and of themselves in some ideological way, but they're
>>> important because of their importance for fundamental human rights and
>>> needs.
>> Of course, I agree with that 100%.
>>
>> But "development" has a rather different meaning or at
>> least connotation in this context, it is not equivalent
>> with human rights and their improvement, even though
>> there is overlap.
>>
>>> We cannot engage with every specific local and temporary situation, as
>>> it's impossible to achieve anything unless there is focus on
>>> something, and this coalition has chosen to focus on the "big picture"
>>> aspect of rights and principles.
>> Well, rights and especially principles kind of are the big picture. Also,
>> the group (as its name implies) is concerned with _Internet_ rights and
>> principles, not all human rights&c.
>>
>>> That is good. But in our focus on this, I believe we still need to be
>>> informed by actually engaging, in some genuine way, with the important
>>> problems that internet rights and principles can contribute to
>>> solving.
>> Agreed, again. But they can't necessarily contribute to all important
>> problems - Internet is not directly involved in every crisis, even if it
>> can be used as a tool in them, and all practical applications of the
>> Internet do not have specific relevance to rights and principles.
>>
>> We should keep our focus narrow enough to keep the work manageable. If we
>> move from evaluating the rights and principles, considering their
>> applicability and relevance&c, to actually doing everything where they
>> matter, we'll have all the worlds problems in our hands, and the group
>> could be renamed "do everything good -group".
>>
>>> ICT can potentially be used to make some of those who are rich and
>>> powerful today even more rich and powerful, while exploiting everyone
>>> else and increasing poverty and hunger as a side effect. On the other
>>> hand, ICT can also potentially be used to empower those who today live
>>> in unacceptable conditions to truly satisfactory economic and
>>> spiritual development. How can humanity choose the latter path of
>>> development over the former? By means of wisely choosing and
>>> establishing the right Internet Rights and Principles!
>> Yes. We should indeed analyze our rights and principles in
>> that light, all the way down to recommending courses of action in various
>> practical situations, but actually engaging in them should be left to
>> other organizations, which hopefully will adopt our work as their
>> principles (and indeed which may be composed of partly same people as
>> this group).
>>
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Dr Marianne Franklin
Reader/Convener of the Transnational Communications & Global Media Program
Media & Communications
Goldsmiths, University of London
New Cross
London SE14 6NW
United Kingdom
Tel (direct): #44 (0)207 919-7072
Fax: #44 (0) 207 919-7616
email: m.i.franklin at gold.ac.uk
http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/media-communications/staff/franklin.php
http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/pg/ma-transnational-communications-global-media.php