[governance] A Perspective on 2011

Fri Dec 23 17:42:51 EST 2011

Dear All,

2011 has been a tremendously volatile year with natural disasters such as
the Tsunamis, cyclones, earthquakes and flooding. The Tohoku earthquake
claimed 15, 842 deaths and is recorded to be the most expensive natural
disaster in world history. Damaging three nuclear reactors, as a nation,
Japan is still rebuilding and coming to terms with what hit them. The
floods in Thailand and Brisbane, Australia shook their countries. The
European Financial Crisis continues to rear its head and threaten economies
in a time where economies have increased in their dependency on each other.

Shaking the Internet community and perhaps in premonition of how the year
was going to turn out, the Egyptian government ordered service providers to
shut down all international connections to the internet. The rise of the
Arab Springs revolution from within Egypt, Tunisia and the fall of
Gadaffi's stronghold in Tripoli and Libya has triggered changes in social
consciousness, communities and societies where the world as we know it can
never be the same again. The impact that it has had in triggering worldwide
movements and social consciousness from Occupy Wall Street to countries all
around the world have led Governments to feel threatened about the
potential impact that such movements can have over nations and regions and
we are seeing strict laws emerge all over the world to clamp down online
democracy.

The creation of elite armies to hunt down dissidents on the internet as is
in the case of Syria and Iran and the alleged mistreatment of Ai Wei Wei by
the Chinese Government.

Then came versions of copyright infringement laws as trademark lobbyists
all over the world attempt a global clamp down on online copyright,
trademark and intellectual property infringements online from New Zealand's
three strikes law, to US SOPA etc. Censorship has been redefined.

Freedom of expression on the Internet is under siege. It was encouraging to
see the culmination of consultations in Frank La Rue's report to the Human
Rights Council. It was predicted that the Report would form key reference
to how countries should treat online content.

We saw challenges to extra territorial jurisdiction when a New York Judge
issued orders ordering all RIRs around the world to comply following what
was declared as the largest Global Botnet investigations.

It was heartening to see the Burmese government relax censorship on online
content and whether it is because they fear sanctions, is another story.

One thing is certain, we are living in unprecedented times in human history
and the challenges in internet governance are many. This year's Internet
Governance Forum in Nairobi saw continuous dialogue, debate happen in more
ways than one. This year also saw a record number of remote participation
from the remote hubs to the global Internet Governance Forum.

It is to this end that  I would like to congratulate each and everyone on
the list on the most excellent work rendered this year. May we continue to
share our learnings, experiences and resources.

For those of you who celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas! For those that
don't celebrate Christmas, Season's Greetings and Happy Holidays! if you
want to escape the cold winter, please come and visit Fiji for a swim with
dolphins. ;)

-- 
Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala

Tweeter: @SalanietaT
Skype:Salanieta.Tamanikaiwaimaro
Cell: +679 998 2851
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