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

[Anja Kovacs]

Dear Parminder, Norbert and all,

Thank you for your responses. As I think the same arguments are simply
being repeated, I will drop out of this debate here. I do want to make it
explicit, however, that this has not changed my stance and that I remain as
unconvinced of these arguments as before.

Let me maybe use this opportunity, though, to add two more points about the
process. Many might decide to keep quiet on the consensus call for the
proposed statement, but as so many people have expressed discomfort about
the statement during the past two days, I think it would be quite the
fallacy to think that 'consensus' has ever been reached on this even if
nobody stops this initiative. In addition, many of the arguments raised
against it are strategic ones, not substantial, and one strategy does
effectively undermine the other. In that sense it would be quite tragic if
civil society doesn't manage to come to a compromise on this issue: we are
effectively working against each other here.

I wanted to thank Mawaki, therefore, for his efforts to find an
alternative. If that could be a solution for all, we would be ok if a
communication would be sent directly to bureaucrats in the Brazilian
government, without public attention being drawn to that at this moment, to
simply note our appreciation of the initiative at face value and our
preliminary desire to participate, and to alert them to the fact that a
note with more substantial comments will be sent in about a week's time
when we have had the time to consider it in more detail - indeed following
this up with a broader and more public initiative next week. In that way a
flagpole could still be put in the ground.

Thanks and best,
Anja




On 13 October 2013 12:28, Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch> wrote:

> Parminder <parminder at itforchange.net> wrote:
>
> > On Sunday 13 October 2013 11:22 AM, Anja Kovacs wrote:
> > > It is for this reason (and because we believe letters in short
> > > succession do not add value, especially if they have nothing
> > > substantially new to add)
> >
> > Not true. This letter has little to do with the earlier letter that
> > we sent after Rousseff's UN speech. This letter specifically welcomes
> > an initiative that has taken the global IG world by a good amount of
> > surprise, and further specifically seeks a partnership role for civil
> > society going forward with this initiative. How can you say this
> > letter has nothing new to add?
>
> In fact if she liked hearing from us by means of our previous letter,
> she might miss hearing from us if we're silent now. Many politicians
> appreciate praise.
>
> Also, in regard to the potential concern of whether this letter might
> be problematic through being similar but smaller in scope to a letter
> that BestBits might draft, which would also address the topic of
> substantive content: That kind of letter that we have been discussing
> for BestBits is not something that would be intended to result in an
> immediate action of the President of Brazil who certainly has many
> other pressing concerns on her mind. It is not realistic to expect her
> to start working personally on the details of substantive content for
> this conference. Regardless of whether that letter is formally addressed
> to the President or someone else, it will not be the President who would
> act on it.
>
> By contrast, the presently planned letter is directed at hopefully the
> President of Brazil issuing the simple order “work with civil society”
> to the people who will be in charge of the details.
>
> Greetings,
> Norbert
>



-- 
Dr. Anja Kovacs
The Internet Democracy Project

+91 9899028053 | @anjakovacs
www.internetdemocracy.in
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20131013/fbe7fe08/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.igcaucus.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t