[governance] Defund the ITU petition

[Koven Ronald]

This analysis is inaccurate.  The United States government did not willingly defund UNESCO. The USG had no real choice since there is a longstanding, very explicit law that any international body that recognizes Palestine as a state before there a peace treaty with Israel must be defunded. The USG tried to get a waiver to the law for UNESCO, but the Florida Cuban-American Republican Chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee refused to consider it. There is a new Chairman of the Committee in the incoming, newly elected Congress who may be more amenable. The Obama Administration has included US dues to UNESCO in its budget with a notation indicating that it favors approval of the appropriation.


Rony Koven



-----Original Message-----
From: Louis Pouzin (well) <pouzin at well.com>
To: governance <governance at lists.igcaucus.org>
Sent: Sun, Feb 10, 2013 10:40 pm
Subject: [governance] Defund the ITU petition


On Sun, Feb 10, 2013 at 8:54 PM, Carlos A. Afonso <ca at cafonso.ca> wrote:


...and let us remind ourselves that *we still need the ITU* !!


--c.a.



------------
C. A. Afonso

 



- - -

Hi,

The USG plays this defunding game with UNESCO when it does not like a vote of the UNESCO members. This is presently the case because Palestine was admitted as member in 2011. As was predictable UNESCO had to reduce its budget, partly in reducing staff, partly in cutting funds for development projects, that is reducing its global activities. Victims are primarily developing countries. Is the USG expecting that they will vote in US favour on the next occasion ?

When developing countries need funding, where could they get some ? China or Saudi Arabia are more than willing to "help", in return for some political and commercial deals.

Anyway, the defund-the-ITU petition collected hardly 3% of the 25000 signatures needed for taking off. A non event by world standard, but a success by US lobbies standards. They got unending publications references in Google, quoting over and again the petition propaganda. Of course the flop does not matter, the goal was massively funded noise.

Btw, one may appreciate Google's algorithm relevance, which makes the petition (and Google's own position) an overwhelming noise, while non aligned viewpoints make a tiny signal with only two references:

http://www.abiresearch.com/blogs/demystifying-itus-role-internet-governance/

http://www.internetgovernance.org/2013/01/28/lets-keep-this-dead-horse-alive-so-we-can-beat-it-some-more/

Louis
- - -





-------- Original message --------
From: Milton L Mueller <mueller at syr.edu> 
Date: 10/02/2013  17:28  (GMT-03:00) 
To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org,Bill Woodcock <woody at pch.net> 
Subject: RE: [governance] Defund the ITU petition 
 

Considering all the ways in which the US govt (involuntarily) collects tax monies and uses them in ways that oppose my interests, the ITU budget is a rounding error.
 
Cannot speak for Adam, but perhaps he was concerned about the hyperventilated and distorted manner in which the defund the ITU campaign is being carried out. The degree to which the US (and other countries) continue to financially support the ITU (and other UN agencies) is a legitimate topic of debate and discussion. Indeed, I would like to see a calm and pragmatic discussion of what people see as the future role of the ITU, and am perfectly willing to entertain “no role” or “a dramatically reduced role” as a debatable option. But let’s carry out the discussion in a less polarized way, and one that pays attention to basic facts about geopolitics and intergovernmental relations.  
 





 
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