[governance] [bestbits] Rousseff & Chehade: Brazil will host world event on Internet governance in 2014

Sat Oct 12 07:40:09 EDT 2013

Anja has a point... and so does Parminder. We wouldn't want this initiative
to set in as one of two leaders of two camps, with CS being only reactive
(as often) after the details of the initiative are defined, or even after
that narrative about the initiative is widely publicized. I have to say I'm
a little surprised, for all the energy and time we have spent debating
ourselves and against each others over the last too many months, and too
many other months before that, and again before, etc. we do not have at
this point a compiled list of critical questions, items, issues we think
are priorities that need to be addressed as part of international policy
for the global internet governance.

Ideally, the existence of such list would have helped address the two
perspectives: Put international CS on the map within a couple of days after
the news emerged and yet in a way that is even more substantive than the
initiative itself in its initial form. Imagine that! Maybe those high-level
leaders and their institutions would now be reacting to CS in the process
of moving their agenda forward on this.

And I shall add that exactly was the challenge put before us by the Indian
Minister we met in Baku. To paraphrase, he basically said and asked: You
(CS) know as well as we (Govt.) do that these issues are complex, and there
is no simple, one-sided solution. As the challenges of the internet
continue to manifest themselves, governments will always try to do what
they do best (at least from the standpoint of states), the best way they
know. But in the meantime what are you CS proposing? How can you help us do
what needs to be done without unwanted collateral damages (wrt the rights
of honest people, etc.)? (Or something along those lines.) I know there are
individuals among us who have been doing substantive work, including
research. But as a whole, we CS enjoy chatters. We always seem to want to
have a place at the table before thinking things through. And we put our
small money where our mouth is, that is, in chatters. And our energy in
contentious useless debates.

Now back to the main point: Could the following be a worthy solution? Send
a brief message of support to the initiative but at a lower level than the
presidency, in which we would also announce that a letter to the president
will follow within the next two weeks or so. The recipient for the
Brazilian government should be someone who has enough official credentials
to receive such communications on behalf of the government (starting with
Mr Daniel Calvacanti possibly all the way to the Minister) while avoiding
any official who might be on the opposite side to President Rousseff on
this issue in terms of the Brazilian domestic politics (for instance if
that were to be the case of the Minister, avoid this letter going there.)
Just an idea I'm tossing around... Not sure it really resolves any of the
problems underlining the two perspectives mentioned above.

Lastly, to those who want to further entertain the debate about whether
these leaders mean what they say, and by the way, what is it that is
entailed by what they just said, etc. I'd like to remind you that being
strategic is also sometimes to take someone's at his (positive) word and
gently push / help him along while keeping your skepticism to yourself. Of
course such skepticism will be useful in watching closely the other
person's moves and anticipating or getting ready for possible alternate
courses of action in case the other person in his actions defaults on his
declared intentions. But it shouldn't prevent us from moving forward at
first on the basis of an optimistic premise drawn from a probable /
justifiable / demonstrable meaning of what they've said. So we don't really
need to figure out whether anyone is being naive here or to sit around and
wait for anyone to dot the i's and cross the t's in this proposal before we
can move on it.

My 2, uh... cedies (Ghana currency, in my other wallet, which I can't use
where I am, so there you have it.)

Mawaki

On Sat, Oct 12, 2013 at 7:04 AM, Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro <
salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Oct 12, 2013, at 4:35 PM, Jeremy Malcolm <jeremy at ciroap.org> wrote:
>
> On 12/10/2013, at 1:07 AM, Anja Kovacs <anja at internetdemocracy.in> wrote:
>
> Also because we don't have to sit still in the mean time. There are other
> ways in which we can make evident to the Brazilian government that  we are
> interested in working with them on this and support this idea, including by
> communicating with them to find out more directly and by seeing whether we
> can work with them on this through the IGF.
>
>
> Also blogging about it.  Use your own organisational or personal blog if
> you have one.  If you don't, CircleID is a good choice.  Otherwise you can
> actually blog at igcaucus.org itself, or igf-online.net or igfwatch.org.
>  This (particularly CircleID) would have more reach than a letter anyway.
>
> Fantastic idea!
>
>     --
>
> *Dr Jeremy Malcolm
> Senior Policy Officer
> Consumers International | the global campaigning voice for consumers*
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