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<font face="Verdana">While I am more or less done with raising
process issues about BestBits given that there is such an almost
violent resistance from the 'responsibility holders', following up
on Guru's email, I cannot stop myself from observing how
perspectives can change when it is about 'us' - something which is
most unfortunate for civil society to do...<br>
<br>
Many civil society persons, including you Jeremy, if I am not
wrong, have been seriously objecting to how 1net has been
organising itself, and also seeking to become 'the' non-gov front
for the Brazil meeting... 1net's prime-movers or 'owners' can
also as well say - as you do - that, well, there are so many
urgent issues at hand (which is an indisputable fact), lets not
get into unnecessary process issues, we can always do it later...
that unknown, and never to come, later time...<br>
<br>
Civil society must always remain very vary of thinking of
themselves as somehow so morally superior that they are exempt
from normal accountability and transparency requirements.... All
serious CS kinds I know and respect always think that civil
society as the prime 'question asker' has to hold itself to much
higher standards than what it seeks from others...<br>
<br>
parminder <br>
<br>
</font>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On Monday 02 December 2013 11:56 AM,
Guru गुरु wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:529C2804.7090308@ITforChange.net" type="cite">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
Dear Jeremy,<br>
I am forwarding my earlier mail on your 'now is not the right
time' argument. <br>
Guru<br>
<div class="moz-forward-container">-------- Original Message
--------
<table class="moz-email-headers-table" border="0"
cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">Subject:
</th>
<td>Re: [bestbits] Best Bits MAG nominations for your
approval - URGENT</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">Date:
</th>
<td>Thu, 21 Nov 2013 16:39:17 +0530</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">From:
</th>
<td>Guru गुरु <a moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:Guru@ITforChange.net"><Guru@ITforChange.net></a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">To: </th>
<td><a moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:bestbits@lists.bestbits.net">bestbits@lists.bestbits.net</a>,
Jeremy Malcolm <a moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:jeremy@ciroap.org"><jeremy@ciroap.org></a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
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<br>
<br>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 11/21/2013 01:54 PM, Jeremy
Malcolm wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:E42888A1-42F3-4F46-986A-89E6E9480B74@ciroap.org"
type="cite">
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charset=UTF-8">
<div>On 20 Nov 2013, at 10:59 pm, michael gurstein <<a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:gurstein@gmail.com">gurstein@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:</div>
<div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
<blockquote type="cite">
<div link="blue" vlink="purple" style="font-family:
Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal;
font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans:
auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
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lang="EN-US">
<div class="WordSection1" style="page: WordSection1;">
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt;
font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span
style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-family:
Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Unfortunately
in the post-Snowden world “trust us” is not a
sufficient answer—only transparency and
accountability are.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt;
font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span
style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri,
sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt;
font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span
style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri,
sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">As long as
the Steering Committee is self-appointed through
murky procedures and as long as this
self-appointed (Interim or no) Steering Committee
chooses to act (and present itself to the world)
as though it has a mandate to act on behalf of the
BB grouping whatever that might be, there will
necessarily and quite reasonably be a lack of
trust and questions as to legitimacy.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Actually the only such questions are coming from
within; we are undermining ourselves, and to my mind
unnecessarily so. </div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
Jeremy,<br>
<br>
when questions regarding trust/credibility come from within,
even more reason to address it. Do you want to wait till
outsiders (who are perhaps relatively ignorant of the black box
nature of the steering committee working) raise this issue and
sink BB credibility completely? <br>
<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:E42888A1-42F3-4F46-986A-89E6E9480B74@ciroap.org"
type="cite">
<div>
<div> Snowden did not tar civil society with the same brush
as the NSA. We have presented an interim procedure for
democratising the steering committee in Bali, which
remains open for discussion and will be implemented soon
once finalised, but to rush its finalisation now at a time
when leadership is required would be pointless and would
simply remove us from some very important processes that
are rolling along with or without us.</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
you are making an assumption that this is binary - either we
engage with substantive issues or focus on process. Is is really
possible to separate the two so easily... What if BB's valuable
contributions are seen as tainted by 'murky' process later and
hence not given their due?<br>
<br>
regards,<br>
Guru<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
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