Dear Andrea,<div>Thank you for a lesson in being more careful about what I write, and particularly about how I choose quotations.</div><div>In fact although both replies were triggered by the article that Imran shared with us, neither was intended as a direct comment on either the European Commission or Commissioner Kroes. This time my attention was attracted by the words<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"> "the power of the Internet, and social networking in particular, in building freedom and democracy" -</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height:20px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"> I should have isolated them from their paragraph.</font></span></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height:20px"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height:20px">However I am very glad that you replied, because in your reply the people themselves get the attention they deserve which is more often concentrated on the technology.</span></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height:20px">Best wishes</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height:20px">Deirdre<br>
</span></font><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 15 December 2011 10:16, Andrea Glorioso <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:andrea@digitalpolicy.it">andrea@digitalpolicy.it</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Dear Deirdre,<br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="im">On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 2:25 PM, Deirdre Williams <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:williams.deirdre@gmail.com" target="_blank">williams.deirdre@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div>Please help. The reporting of the 'Arab Spring' is confusing and sometimes contradictory. Unarguably it happened and continues to happen. Contradictory is the overwhelming credit given to technology for what happened, while at the same time it is being reported that the technology is being interfered with, blocked or just plain switched off. </div>
<div><br></div><div>Is the emphasis on technology simply dust thrown in the air to distract onlookers from the tremendous power of the human will when focused towards an objective? Do you remember the Rose revolution in Georgia and the Orange revolution in the Ukraine? Those were attributed to mobile phones (wonderful advertising for at least one company :-) ) Back then Facebook was only just beginning.</div>
<div><br></div><div>It angers me when I hear reporters use the cliche, at the sites of disasters, that people are digging, moving rubble 'with their bare hands'. Human beings use the tools that are available to them. If there is no tool they use their own bodies. The tool helps; it may help a great deal, but without the tool the human will continue. Without the human the tool is useless.</div>
<div><br></div><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Kroes said that the Arab Spring had been the wake-up call to governments around the world to recognize the power of the Internet, and social networking in particular, in building freedom and democracy.</span><div>
<font color="#333333" face="'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:15px;line-height:20px"><br></span></font></div><div><font color="#333333"><span style="line-height:20px"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">This is from the Computerworld article - thanks Imran.</font></span></font></div>
<div><font color="#333333"><span style="line-height:20px"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Deirdre</font></span></font></div></blockquote><div><br></div></div><div>One thing that I learned while working at the European Commission, and particularly since Monday morning :), is that one should not necessarily believe that what is reported by a newspaper is 100% what has been said on a particular topic.</div>
<div><br></div><div>If you look at the speech (<a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/11/866&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en" target="_blank">http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/11/866&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en</a>) that Neelie Kroes gave at the Ministerial Conference on Internet Freedom on Friday 9 December, where she gave a first announcement of the "No disconnect strategy", you will see passages such as:</div>
<div><br></div><div>"<span style="font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10px;line-height:10px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">I have personally met many of those on the frontline: activists fighting for democracy in their countries. And let me say, it was a refreshing and often humbling experience. </span><span style="font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10px;line-height:10px;text-align:justify;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">These are people</span><span style="font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10px;line-height:10px;text-align:justify;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">, often young people, fighting for the most basic rights you can think of. Sometimes risking their lives; I met them on condition of anonymity, such are the dangers they face every day. </span><span style="font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10px;line-height:10px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">[...]</span></div>
<p style="margin-top:0cm;margin-bottom:0.212cm;text-align:justify;font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:9px;line-height:10px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><br></p>
<p style="margin-top:0cm;margin-bottom:0.212cm;text-align:justify;font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:9px;line-height:10px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span><span style="font-size:9px">I acknowledge that </span><span style="font-size:9px">the Internet and ICT are only part of the solution. [...]</span></span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0cm;margin-bottom:0.212cm;text-align:justify;font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:9px;line-height:10px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="font-size:9px">To </span><span style="font-size:9px">build a house with solid foundations, we also need the rule of law, democratic governance, open and inclusive societies, competitive markets, an independent media sector and economic growth. [...]</span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0cm;margin-bottom:0.212cm;text-align:justify;font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:9px;line-height:10px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="font-size:9px"><span style="font-size:9px">Because, even with ICT, even with everyone connected, democracy would still not magically spring from nowhere. [...]</span></span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0cm;margin-bottom:0.212cm;text-align:justify;font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:9px;line-height:10px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="font-size:9px">These are the main strands of the policy </span><span style="font-size:9px">we need to undertake – technological tools, education, intelligence, and cooperation. [...]"</span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0cm;margin-bottom:0.212cm;text-align:justify;font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:9px;line-height:10px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Similar concepts were expressed during the press conference on Monday.</p>
<p style="margin-top:0cm;margin-bottom:0.212cm;text-align:justify;font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:9px;line-height:10px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">On the basis of the above passages and (for what it is worth) of the words of a Commission officer who has been and is very closely involved in this initiative (that would be me - but I don't want to give the impression I'm doing this alone, as several colleagues have been and are working on this), I hope you can rest assured that human beings remain the central concern and basis of our action. ICT can and should be a tool to empower them to achieve what we sometimes take for granted in democratic states.</p>
<p style="margin-top:0cm;margin-bottom:0.212cm;text-align:justify;font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:9px;line-height:10px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Best,</p>
<p style="margin-top:0cm;margin-bottom:0.212cm;text-align:justify;font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:9px;line-height:10px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Andrea</p>
<p style="margin-top:0cm;margin-bottom:0.212cm;text-align:justify;font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:9px;line-height:10px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="font-size:9px"><br>
</span></p><div><br></div><div> </div></div>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br>“The fundamental cure for poverty is not money but knowledge" Sir William Arthur Lewis, Nobel Prize Economics, 1979<br>
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