Privacy was Re: [governance] Who will be in Rio?

[Guru@ITfC]

Thanks Rui for a significant distinction between the prefered processes
within the different sectors - Business has functioned on a professed 'need
to know' principle, by which only the bare minimum required info is shared
both within the organization as well as with the outside world, while many
times, Govts have preferred lack of transparency which supports a lack of
accountability to the citizen/community.
 
Just wanted to share that in India, one of the landmark legislations in its
57 years of independance was the 'Right to Information' act, that was passed
in both the central (federal) and state (provincial) legislatures couple of
years ago. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_Information_Act
http://righttoinformation.gov.in/ , http://rti.gov.in/)
 
As per this act, any citizen/institution has a right to seek information
with the Govt/public institutions and the concerned office has to
necessarily part with the information sought. For e.g. Govt projects which
involve large spending on procurement of materials and on wages often
involve siphoning of funds through malpractices in such procurements. A
citizen can write and get the details of the 'payments' made to workers on a
project and in many many cases, it was found that payments were made to
people who did not exist or that people were paid lesser than what was
recorded. This act is seen a BIG blow for transparency and accountability in
public services/systems. Slowly more and more people and organizations are
taking recourse to its provisions for enforcing transparency.
 
Govt systems are also called 'public systems' since their dealings as well
as their information and other resources are for the public/community at
large. Businesses are not on the same plane in this matter of need for
disclosure and transparency (which is perhaps one of the key causes of the
Enron saga and its consequences in Sarbanes-Oxley etc) 
 
Of course, CS tends to be more on the extreme of openness and transparency
than otherwise.... (beyond the issue of the right of privacy of an
individual)
 
Guru
 
ps - of course this 'right to information' was not simply bestowed on Indian
citizens by the Govt. It was result of a hard fought struggle by a mass
community based organiztion - "Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghathan"
(http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/programs/ai/rti/india/states/rajasthan
.htm. Also pls read this inspiring story of MKSS work in fighting for
transparency in use of public funds
http://www.indiatogether.org/stories/ncpri.htm) 
 
 


  _____  

From: Rui Correia [mailto:correia.rui at gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 5:07 PM
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; KovenRonald at aol.com
Subject: Re: Privacy was Re: [governance] Who will be in Rio?


Perhaps good to remember that there are a few  elements that set us apart
from the other two sectors (business and government). One such is that we
are ALWAYS in favour of transparency/ openness/ access to information/
accountability, whereas the other two are demonstrably only so when
convenient (i.e. not in conflict with any other vested interest).

That being the case, to now want to participate incognito, would make us
loose a bit of our soul.

Having said that - and unless I missed it, has not been mentioned so far -
perhaps there is a need for privacy in some cases: we do know of members of
this caucus and other caucuses that are not as free to come and go and say
with impunity where they have been as the rest of us. Then again, not having
your name on a public list might be little comfort, when agents of the
regimes that they seek to outmanoeuvre are most likely to be present in Rio
and any other future event.

So, to be or not to be ... on a public list

[]s

Rui 


On 09/10/2007, KovenRonald at aol.com <KovenRonald at aol.com> wrote: 

Dear All -- 

I wholeheartedly agree with Norbert's take on the privacy issue and hope
that will be the last word in what has been perhaps the most amusing (a
euphemism to avoid offense to anyone) discussions in the leadup to IGF II.

Bests, Rony Koven


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Rui Correia
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2 Cutten St
Horison 
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South Africa
Tel/ Fax (+27-11) 766-4336
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