[governance] Tunisia

[Norbert Bollow]

Parminder <parminder at itforchange.net> wrote:

> It is in this respect important that global civil society really knows 
> and focuses on what it believes in, what is it trying to achieve and who 
> all it aligns with. We seek democracy, equity, power for the people and 
> human rights. We basically seek more equitable distribution of power, 
> and we fight against undue concentration of power, which almost always 
> gets abused.

I'd like to wholeheartedly support Parminder's point about putting a
strong emphasis on these most important values.

In my thinking, the key aspect is that of freedom.

Is it good or bad to e.g. strengthen the police? In my view, this
depends on whether the specific ways in which the police would be
strengthened will increase or decrease the freedom enjoyed by
"ordinary people". These freedoms would be increased by measures
that have the effect of making it safe for everyone to walk in any
part of a town at any time of their choosing, day or night. The
freedoms would be decreased by giving the police any powers without
checks and balances that allow the general public to effectively
verify that the powers are not being abused, etc, etc.

I would suggest that these principles apply just as much in the
digital realm as they apply offline.

Greetings,
Norbert
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