Fwd: Re: [bestbits] Best Bits MAG nominations for your approval - URGENT

[Guru गुरु]

Dear Jeremy,
I am forwarding my earlier mail on your 'now is not the right time' 
argument.
Guru
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Re: [bestbits] Best Bits MAG nominations for your approval - 
URGENT
Date: 	Thu, 21 Nov 2013 16:39:17 +0530
From: 	Guru गुरु <Guru at ITforChange.net>
To: 	bestbits at lists.bestbits.net, Jeremy Malcolm <jeremy at ciroap.org>



On 11/21/2013 01:54 PM, Jeremy Malcolm wrote:
> On 20 Nov 2013, at 10:59 pm, michael gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com 
> <mailto:gurstein at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>> Unfortunately in the post-Snowden world “trust us” is not a 
>> sufficient answer—only transparency and accountability are.
>> 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.
>
> Actually the only such questions are coming from within; we are 
> undermining ourselves, and to my mind unnecessarily so.

Jeremy,

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?

>  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.
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?

regards,
Guru
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