[governance] On "ad hominem" and "twisting words"

[Norbert Bollow]

+1 to Daniel Pimienta's points.

Greetings,
Norbert

Am Sat, 10 Aug 2013 11:10:31 -0400
schrieb Daniel Pimienta <pimienta at funredes.org>:

> For the sake of balancing the growing counter of 
> +1 on Bertand's mail and preventing a group to 
> find unanimously the perfect guilty for the 
> turmoil on the communication flow during the last 
> months in this forum, I would like to express a -1 on Bertand's mail.
> 
> First of all, the process of slow deterioration 
> of the good spirit is NOT the product of one 
> person expression but the result of an 
> interaction with other person’s expression and I 
> do not think I have to offer names, if your 
> memory of the co-co's actions is neat.
> 
> Second, and much more important, what is at stake 
> behind this situation is NOT a mere question of 
> people style; in the background, there is a 
> profound issue of the role of civil society in Internet Governance.
> 
> I consider myself that a good provision of 
> "constructive provocation" is an intrinsic part 
> of my civil society role and I have been worried 
> for years in this forum to perceive a clear trend 
> of anesthesia of the discourse of civil society, 
> for the sake of allowing  multistakeholderism to 
> perform smoothly. I have been (and I am still) 
> quite worried that this trend will not transform 
> us (organized civil society) in the unwilling 
> accomplices of many bad actions performed in our field.
> 
> It is enough to see the sweetness of the IGF 
> statements in situation like PRISM, compared to 
> other groups, to assess this point.
> 
> The main reason I am more a lurker than a 
> contributor in this forum is to be found there 
> (and not in the fact that some discussion get 
> heated). The main reason why Funredes has 
> resigned recently from APC membership (without 
> loosing respect and good relationships) is also 
> to be found here (my analysis is that the price 
> to pay in silencing and smoothing our critics has gotten too high).
> 
> Is it not a risky game to accept to be so polite 
> that we loose our soul; shall we resist to such 
> level of politeness? I tend to answer yes at the 
> light of the evolution of the Internet.
> 
> What is at stake here and the fractures which are 
> underlying are not details of Internet history 
> and too much naivety may turned to become a crime 
> against virtual humanity; the role of ICANN, the 
> need to see the historical grab of US in Internet 
> governance evolve, the appropriate balance of 
> security and privacy, the implication of the 
> dominant economical model that –mainly- Google 
> has imposed based uniquely in advertisements and 
> the terrible consequences in our privacy and 
> comfort which are hardly evocated here, the 
> difficulty of the requirements on multilingualism 
> to get accepted in spite of a more accommodating discourse...
> 
> When in last IGF meeting, in Baku, I felt the 
> role of civil society was starting to blur and I 
> got quite worried to see ICANN implementing a 
> totally artificial (and super expensive) 
> economical model for domain names and the 
> appearing passivity of my civil society 
> colleagues. Our proactivity and capacity to 
> resist seemed to have decline so much.
> 
> As a mental reaction, I develop a cartoon in my 
> mind that I resisted to share at that time (in 
> order to keep polite and avoid embarrassing my 
> civil society colleagues) but I will now as a 
> reaction against the attempt to definitively shut up provocation.
> 
> I will, not only for this episode of apparent 
> consensus against one of the more provocative 
> civil society voice of this forum, but also 
> because I have been so disappointed that the 
> opportunity of the moment when the Balis's 
> meeting was jeopardized was not used to ask the 
> real questions for this group but instead to 
> demonstrate the typical homeostasis syndrome of 
> groups who must keep existing the same way just 
> because they have existed so far).
> 
> The cartoon is based on the Arab proverb that is 
> quite famous: the dogs bark and the caravan 
> passes (the trigger may habe been a wonderful 
> restaurant in the old town named Caravanseray :-)).
> 
> Imagine a long road heading to a big tower of 
> dollars, not so far away in the perspective. 
> Imagine a caravan named ICANN. Imagine a bunch of 
> dogs marked IGF which are barking between them 
> and around the caravan. Imagine the caravan does 
> not care at all and keep passing towards the big money...
> We can also use the image with US government in 
> the caravan and PRISM at the end of the road.
> 
> Sorry if my words will disturb many of you but it 
> feels so good to be provocative again. :-)
> 
> 


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