[governance] FW: [IP] a 2013 resolution: defund the ITU

Thu Jan 3 15:54:11 EST 2013

The problem with these kinds of statements/positions (and it should be noted
that various folks in the US and some of their close allies have been making
these kinds of statements concerning the UN, UNESCO, and any of the other
agencies that aren't seen as immediately responding to and protecting US
interests narrowly conceived) is that even if the ITU were to be totally
defunded and disappear something somewhere would need to be created to take
on most of its international coordinating functions. The end result of this
kind of position would in fact be to further project the US's quite evident
anti-government political/governance disfunctionality into the global
sphere.

That being said, the creaky goverance/administrative systems of the UN and
various of its agencies need to be radically renewed to reflect the new
geo-political, technological and politico-cultural realities of the 21st
century rather than the post-colonial/post-WWII realities of the 1950's. 

M

From: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org
[mailto:governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org] On Behalf Of Lee W McKnight
Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2013 8:00 AM
To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org
Subject: [governance] FW: [IP] a 2013 resolution: defund the ITU

Well remember what I said about ITU carrying on...I still think it will, but
echos from Dubai may shake its budgetary formula. 

And according to Tony's spin, Hurricane Sandy. 

The attachment is interesting reading.

Lee

  _____  

From: DAVID J. FARBER [farber at gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2013 9:29 AM
To: ip
Subject: [IP] a 2013 resolution: defund the ITU

Begin forwarded message:

From: Tony Rutkowski <trutkowski at netmagic.com>

Subject: a 2013 resolution: defund the ITU

Date: January 3, 2013 9:10:09 AM EST

To: Dave Farber <dave at farber.net>

Reply-To: trutkowski at netmagic.com

Happy New Year, Dave.

More than a few people on the IP list
may have an interest in this post to the
State Dept's advisory committee list.  
Even if a reader doesn't resonate with 
my advocacy, the facts here are very 
interesting and difficult to find.

cheers,
tony

-------- Original Message -------- 

Subject: 

a 2013 resolution: defund the ITU

Date: 

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 08:55:04 -0500

From: 

Tony Rutkowski  <mailto:trutkowski at netmagic.com> <trutkowski at netmagic.com>

Reply-To: 

trutkowski at netmagic.com

Organization: 

NetMagic Associates

To: 

WCIT at LMLIST.STATE.GOV

What is not well known is that the ITU
depends on voluntary contributions.  Each
member elects to give the ITU some number (or
fraction of a number) of "contributory units"
each year.  A CU is currently equal to about
$300k/yr.  Thus the U.S. actually volunteers
to give the ITU 30 units or about $9 million
per year.  It is the only country other than
Japan to do so.  The difficult to find
official ITU contributions ledger is attached.

So all those G89 countries at the WCIT that
thumbed their noses at the U.S. and are
trying to use the ITU to regulate the
Internet and constrain information flow -
they contribute almost nothing.  
Incredulously, they get the U.S. to help fund
them to do that.  Most of them even get free
stipends from the ITU to go on Geneva
vacations to rail against U.S. interests.
That's going to increase as the WTSA-12
voted so many of them into the ITU-T leadership.

What is remarkable about the ledger is that 
you can readily see how over the past six years,
many other major countries and much of
industry have shut their wallets, and in a
great many cases simply walked out of the ITU-T. 
Yet the U.S. itself has kept paying the largest
contribution amount!  Indeed, as the others cut
back their contributions, the U.S. pays even
more to prop up the ITU bloated budget and the
fine lifestyle of the ITU staff.

With the 2013 Congress convening today, there
is the perfect opportunity to begin defunding
the ITU and send a message to those 89
countries and the duplicitous ITU officials who
helped them.  If the U.S. halves its contribution 
to fifteen units like many European countries 
have done, that's $45 million over ten years.  

Rather than flushing U.S. money down the ITU
rathole to fund the G89 over the coming years
to implement their extreme anti-Internet
agenda, give it instead to the communities
who were victims of Hurricane Sandy to
re-build their broadband infrastructure. 
Considering the WCIT Internet resolution was
unanimously adopted by Congress, that should
be a no-brainer.

Those companies who still remain as ITU-T
members can act here as well.  Renounce your
membership and join all the others who have
already left.

-t

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