O Little Town of Bethlehem

for music: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/o/l/olittle.htm

O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM ADVENT CALENDAR

EACH DAY IN DECEMBER A NEW WINDOW WILL BE OPENED!
WATCH FOR THIS ON-GOING LOOK INTO THE LITTLE TOWN OF BETHELEM

Compleanos a Fidel

I found this on a blog by SICUCH
Sindicato de Cantores Urbanos de Chile
http://sicuch-artistasurbanos.blogspot.com
La adhesión de personalidades norteamericanas al llamamiento La soberanía de Cuba debe ser respetada, respaldado hasta ayer por 13 683 firmas en el mundo, revela la consistencia de una elección ética que rechaza la política agresiva e injerencista de la Casa Blanca contra la Isla y el compromiso de estas autoridades con la mafia cubanoamericana del sur de la Florida.
Una de las voces que suscribieron el documento que denuncia la amenaza creciente contra la integridad de la nación cubana, Laura Whitehorn, actuó en correspondencia con una militancia que la ha hecho enfrentar durante las últimas décadas el racismo y defender las causas de los pobladores aborígenes de Norteamérica, la soberanía de Puerto Rico y el derecho a la autodeterminación de los pueblos, activismo que la llevó a sufrir prisión.
En entrevista con Prensa Latina, otro de los firmantes, el escritor y cineasta Saul Landau, calificó al plan de Bush contra Cuba "como la Enmienda Platt desempolvada, aquel engendro que Estados Unidos impuso al gobierno cubano en 1902 y que daba al gigante norteamericano potestad para intervenir en la Isla cuando quisiera".
"La nueva versión de Bush y su sección secreta —añadió— está remodelada para satisfacer las exigencias de los cubanos de la Florida, que le piden al gobierno una actitud más amenazante hacia Cuba. Se asemeja a la lógica leguleyesca de Al Capone."
Luego de conocer la declaración, la destacada cineasta e investigadora de los medios de comunicación, Deedee Halleck, se sumó al reclamo por respetar la soberanía de Cuba, al considerar que al hacerlo también proclamaba su respeto por los auténticos valores del pueblo norteamericano, ignorados por sus gobernantes.
La Halleck obtuvo celebridad por su documental The Gringo in Mananaland, premiado en los festivales de Venecia y Trieste, que desmonta los estereotipos de los personajes latinos en la filmografía hollywoodense.

Indymedia Failed???

It has been common in certain circles to call indymedia a "failed" experiment. Sort of like the way people talk about the Paris Commune or Bolshevik Communism. Or Christian love.
See "Death of a Citizen Reporter" at http://bracken.wordpress.com
After reading that discussion, I responded this way:

Curious to call indymedia “ultimately…failed”. Failed whom? Perhaps that failure is a function of the status of your local chapter. Sure, many of the indymedia chapters lapse into stasis when there are no "protests" or stuggles in crisis. Chicago? Dunno. But watch for Chicago to rev up around May Day!

But for literally hundreds of thousands of people world wide, local IMCs don't just cover "protests", but the indymedia sites are crucial sources of on-going information–an alternative to corporate and state propaganda. Photo from an Indymedia exhibit at the Berkeley Art Museum July-October, 2000.

I was in South Africa for three months at the beginning of the year and in that country indymedia has meant a way that widespread communities can communicate: Cape Town, J’burg and Durban movements have used indymedia to create a national presence for shack-dweller rights, anti-privatization of water and electricity and campaigns against police brutality. In Latin America, Uruguay, Ecuador, Argentina etc, indymedia has tens of thousands of readers every day. I listen to APPO, the Oaxaca radio station every night. (www.chiapas.indymedia.org) Many radio stations throughout the world have rebroadcast this stream.

In all the hype about “you tube” and “my space” there is little acknowledgement of the pioneering work of indymedia in video and audio posting. I guess this is only important when it promotes “My” and “you” and not “our”. In terms of "be the media", Indymedia got there first and continues to be a widely used global network, emphatically non-commercial.

Since there are so many decentralized servers maintaining the nodes, it is difficult to actually assess the traffic, but I would guess that if one were able to count the actual users, the indymedia global network would rival or surpass the trendy commercial "post yourself" networks. Certainly it is more diverse both ethnically and in terms of class. Indymedia does not limit itself to the individual computer. There is no other network that is so often “republished” in local papers and flyers and “restreamed” on local radio stations. The active indymedia groups are hubs that bring together people not only via the internet, but in real time, real space, creating not only virtual communities but warm bodies working together in a world that has become so terribly dehumanized and alienating. This photo is the San Diego indymedia crew circa 2001.

One of my favorite areas is the way that indymedia graphics have been printed and made into instant photo and graphic exhibits. This one is from the Argentine crisis, during which graphics posted by Argentina Arde were printed out at a local university and used for a clothesline exhibit in a city far from Buenos Aires. For a comprehensive look at how indymedia functions in one country see http://ithefilm.com

Not One for the Peta People

Today we went by Tovey's. He had prepared a goose for us. So we had a second Thanksgiving.

Gobble

Passing on While Watching Yourself on Public Access; Stories for True Believers #1

I received this amazing story from the public access list serve:

Doris Yvonne McQuay, 83, passed away Saturday, Nov. 18, 2006, at Coastal Hospice by the Lake in Salisbury. Born in Bozman, Md., she was a daughter of the late Daniel Seth McQuay and Helen Graff Fedder.

Doris was a major with the Salvation Army. Maj. McQuay was commissioned from the Salvation Army Training College in Atlanta in May 1953. Thereafter, she had a short appointment at the Mountain Mission in North Carolina. She was stationed in the Salvation Army's Homes and Hospitals for Unwed Mothers in Birmingham, Louisville, Richmond, Tampa, Fla., and Tulsa, Okla. She served at the Salvation Army Day Care Center in Baltimore and was the director of the Girl's Club in Winston-Salem, N.C., from 1973 until her retirement in 1985.

Maj. McQuay was a Christian comic and traveled to many Salvation Army senior camps throughout the eastern United States after her retirement, and appeared many times on a local Salisbury television station. She was the Salvation Army's Woman of the Year for the Salisbury area in 2005. She attended the Salvation Army Corp in Salisbury.

About the person touching others...
The Salisbury Television station mentioned was Public Access / PAC 14. About 3 years ago a local person handed me a VHS tape and said, "this is great you have to run it". The program was a 55-minute stand-up comedy routine. The video was a bit rough quailty wise but the Major was sharp as a tack and very funny. The response from the community was tremendous. The viewers could only identify her as the 'hat lady', the Major wore different hats depending on the story, cat n the hat, frog
hat (big mouth frog story), but they called to see it again and again. Major McQuay was widely recognized in person around town because of her appearance on access. Numerous stories reported to us of people stopping her in public - at the Walmart - and laughing just thinking of the video. I personally was approached one day when getting my oil changed about the Major, and how funny it was. I was wearing my PAC 14 shirt.

If I added anymore detail it wouldn't help 'paint the picture' as you haven't seen the video or met the major. But here's a few thoughts that might make a difference as you do what you do - leading up to holidays. About a week ago, after many months where the show did not air, I rcvd a call asking if I would play it. I did. The Majors sister reported to me that on Saturday, as the Major was passing, the local Salvation Army office called Hospice to let them know the program was running so everyone could watch - including the Major. The last thing she saw was her program and people around her enjoying what they saw. The Majors sister asked if I'd play the program again in her honor. I plan to run again over the holidays.

Here's the point - A program like this would have - NEVER - aired on any other televison station. Access made that possible. The gift given by this person through home-grown humor would NEVER had the opportunity to be seen - and appreciated - by so many. It made me feel good to think she was watching at the end... I think PAC 14 is doing all the right things for all the right reasons...we all are.

Mike Goodson,
Manager PAC 14
Power Professional Building Rm 132
Salisbury, MD 21801-6860
www.pac14.org
410-677-5014 677-3314 (fax)

Unfriendly Fire at DIA

Just got back from the New York Art Book Fair, the 30th anniversary of Printed Matter, where Deep Dish was invited to host a table in a section called "Friendly Fire". The use of that title is a bit confusing. Is this supposed to mean that those activists invited for this section are the victims of Friendly Fire or the ones who are seemingly "friendly" to the art world but whose fire is directed at the establishment itself? I would rather be a fragger than someone who makes "friendly fire". Fraggers were the GI's who offed their officers (often those who wanted to send their troops on suicidal missions.) There's an element of intentionality there. "Friendly Fire" is usually used to describe stupid mistakes in the midst of battle in which you kill your own side-- like the Pat Tillman incident. So I'm not really clear how we were supposed to represent Friendly Fire.

It's always interesting to see how activist art has to be "contextualized", identified, and located when shown within the "art world". I will post more on this later. Meanwhile here's a photo from the New York Times' article by Holland Cotter. The article actually included a positive reference to Deep Dish http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/18/books/18fair.html?_r=1&oref=slogin Liza Bear helped with the table and displayed some of her photos and her videos. Her work is at http://squaringoff.blip.tv

I haven't posted any videos myself yet. There are just so many programs up on archive.org from Deep Dish, anyone can see a great deal of Deep Dish work. Like twenty years worth! Or you can get to some of them from the Deep Dish web site: www.deepdishtv.org

World War 3 was there in force. Seth Tobocman, one of the WW3 collective, gave a powerful performance with music and graphics from New Orleans. This WW3 cover has a picture from the Esperanza Garden where Brad Will (see discussion of his memorial below) was one of the defenders who spent nights in a giant frog constructed as a lookout for anticipated city bulldozers.

Dale Wittig was one of the exhibitors at the NYC Art Book Fair. This is an old painting I have of his-- a series he did about Salvadoran refugees. At Dia he had a big selection of his handmade books. This is one with excerpts from The Possessed which is illustrated by images from gay porn. I will post some more graphics from the hand made books I got there, and some photos of the Deep Dish "booth". It was a lively fair with an appreciative crowd and hopefully one that will keep Printed Matter alive for another 30 years.

http://www.deedeehalleck.org
http://www.deepdishtv.org
http://www.joelkovel.org

CONVERGENCE AT SAINT MARKS

BRAD WILL PRESENTE
Today there was the memorial for indymedia reporter Brad Will at St. Marks Church.
Brad was in Oaxaca documenting the struggle there which has been going on since last May (and for centuries!). He was shot by para-militaries in civilian clothes. Neighbors say the killers are employees of hated governor Ulises Ruiz. Brad was an amazing activist not only in the NYC indymedia community, but in the forests of the Northwest, in Wisconsin, on the Lower East Side and throughout Latin America.

Tables of food liberated from supermarket dumpsters greeted everyone.

The service included a rendition of the blue grass song "I'll fly away" by Mark Read and others. Ann Waldman gave a touching remembrace of Brad at Naropa. Frank Morales, the associate pastor who is also a squatter told how Brad was the last person the snake out the drain in front of the church which gets full every time there is a big rain. That story inspired me when I left after the service to go to Deep Dish and clean out the refrigerator. The spirit of Brad was with me as I threw out twenty jars and bags of rotting food! Brad Will, Presente.

Brandon and Kevin and many others gave heart-felt tributes.

Dyan showed a wonderful film from various trips with Brad-- one even from the roof of a barrelling freight train. Aresh and other gardeners recounted his many efforts to save gardens on the Lower East Side. One touching detail was how he used to save seeds from destroyed gardens to plant in new ones. That's a great metaphor for his whole life--seeding the world with his energy and passion.
It was a true convergence of all the many friends of Brad: the tree sitters, the building squatters, the gardeners, the critical mass riders, the radio pirates, the indymedia reporters: all gathered, huddled and hugging on the steps, chairs and floor of the community sanctuary of East 10th Street.
Andy and Dyan moved Brad's little alter from his house to Saint Marks.

The insistant bells that rang every fifteen minutes from the St Marks steeple were a strong reminder of the presence of the spirit of this gentle saint. Afterwards everyone marched throughout the East Village.
Photo by Fred Askew. http://www.fredaskew.com/
Brandon lead the way.
photo by Fred Askew
When the march got to the contested community space of Charas, they liberated it! (for a moment, anyway.)
Photo by Rine
There have been many demonstrations of solidarity around the world. This one is from Italy.

see www.nyc.indymedia.org for more links.

PROTESTING PUPPETS IN TROY

THE BREAD AND PUPPET THEATER VISITED THE SANCTUARY FOR INDEPENDENT MEDIA IN TROY ON WEDNESDAY


They are protesting the burning of tires and sludge at the International Paper Company in Ticonderoga.




For a DVD with 10 years of Bread and Puppet in Vermont go to http://www.deedeehalleck.org/store.html

From an article in the Albany Times Union:
An independent wave: Artist groups are challenging the mainstream media
By DANIELLE FURFARO, Staff writer
TROY -- Visit the Sanctuary for Independent Media on almost any evening and you are bound to encounter something out of the ordinary. It could be anything from the Beehive Design Collective showing how to dismantle monoculture to an Australian-born Buddhist nun discussing her work with prison inmates to a presentation of Deep Dish TV's "Shocking and Awful: A Grassroots Response to War in Iraq."

While those who make partnerships with the Sanctuary have their own causes, their methods of reaching their goals are the same: They have delved into the possibilities of multimedia and are taking the reins to show off their work and in some cases, spread a message.

Since it opened last year, the Sanctuary has become a command post for an emerging community of artists, writers and educators finding its voice in independent media projects...

"World media is headed toward more and more corporate consolidation, and there are fewer people deciding what gets seen and heard," said Steve Pierce, who founded the Sanctuary with his partner Branda Miller. "As we depend on media to express ourselves, people have to organize themselves."...Pierce, Miller and High are professors at RPI, a wellspring for innovation in technology and culture. For years, economic development planners have tried to stop the brain drain of the region's university graduates. Participants in the local indie media scene say they have found the way to do just that.

When "talking about a healthy Tech Valley," said Miller, "it is important that we look at more than just the corporate models and look at the work of the citizenry."

FULL MOON IN THE CATSKILLS

Keel Deep in the Muddy Hudson

The Intrepid has always been the source of anger and sorrow for me. Driving down the West Side Highway I cringed on approaching it. Especially on a weekday when groups of school children could be seen on the deck, caressing the F16s, patting the anti-aircraft guns, awed by the spectacle of this death theme park. How many kids have been seduced by recruiters after a thrilling day on that deck?


I remember when it first came in. There were a few protests by the War Resisters League, a handful of anti-nuke people who marched around for a few days. I heard that Linus Coraggio welded himself to the anchor chain, but I don't know if that has been corraborated. (http://www.rex.com/artists/linuscoraggio/index.htm)

So today was a happy day. In an attempt to move the big monster to dry dock, 15 tug boats and the highest tide of the year tried to haul it from its moorings. But like Bush in Iraq, it's stuck! And they have to wait till mid-December for the next highest tide, at the time of the next full moon to try again to get out of the mud.

Maybe this could be a time to draw attention to the real use of this military PR ship. Stuck on the banks of the Hudson, perhaps its huge hulk would be an appropriate place to project antiwar videos, such as the Deep Dish series, Shocking and Awful (12 programs about the war and occupation--see http://www.deepdishtv.org).

Meanwhile, it's stuck in the mud. It couldn't have happened to a more appropriate symbol of the waste and horror of top-gun war.

FROM ATHENS TO MAPLE TREE FARM

INTERNET FORUM IN ATHENS
I just received this link to notes from Rik Panganiban about the Internet Governance Forum in Athens.

http://www.rikomatic.com/blog/2006/11/the_internet_go.html

His tourist pictures of the city and the forum are at http://www.rikomatic.com/photos/athens_06/index.html

Many of the people that attended the UNESCO meeting in Paris were going on to this meeting. (See below for my hasty notes from that meeting.) It sounds like the Athens meeting was more productive than what I attended in Paris. Much of the energy from the WSIS civil society groups has gone into organizing around the internet.

OPPORTUNITY FOR A FULL POWER RADIO STATION IN THE HUDSON VALLEY

Today I met with Dharma Daily to discuss the possibility of applying for a full power radio station for the Hudson Valley. There are openings coming up at the FCC and this region is one that actually has spectrum space for new stations.

On the way to Dharma's I passed Maple Tree Farm.


This is where the Videofreex created their Lanesville TV, a weekly micro tv broadcast to their neighbors in the Catskills. These pioneer broadcasts eventually led the FCC to adopt a rule-making allowing for low power TV. Parry Teasdale who was one of the Videofreex became a consultant to the FCC for this project. Michael Couzens, who had been a member of TVTV, was a lawyer for the FCC and helped to create the opportunity for micro broadcasting, not only of TV. but eventually this helped to open the door for micro radio also.

VISIT TO CRYSTAL CITY

Surrounding the Pentagon are two complexes of offices that constitute the Jefferson Davis Corridor. Jefferson Davis was the president of the Confederacy, the confederation of southern states that succeeded from the US and initiated the Civil War. Although the Confederacy and their president Jefferson Davis were defeated in the 1865, the name of the defender of slavery is alive and thriving in this Virginia mega-development, which has two parts: Pentagon City and Crystal City— the gleaming buildings that surround the military headquarters.


Eddie checks the map.

The buildings in Crystal City are not factories. These buildings are not for manufacturing weapons and hardware. This is not heavy industry. What they produce is paper, or increasingly pdf documents. They house the strategic planning offices of the Military industries. There is a reason they are within a short walk of the Pentagon, and there are many noon time meetings at the restaurants and bars of Crystal City. And the “revolving door” between the military and these corporations mean that ex-generals can continue to hang out at their favorite pub when after their retirement they go to work for the contractors they know and love.

One of the architectural problems of Crystal City is that the buildings are too close to the streets. Since the Oklahoma bombing and 9/11, the “security perimeter” now recommended is 80 feet. So the Crystal City buildings are obsolete. There have been discussions of creating “green zones” for military contractors: of actually moving their offices to within military bases to optimize their security. So some of the other offices of the war industries are close at hand in Virginia and Maryland. Again these are not manufacturing locations, but more secure offices which can coordinate the interactions between the corporations with the government.

PARIS: FROM PICKPOCKET TO UNESCO

BABETTE'S FILM LES MODELES DE PICKPOCKET
Written on October 28
Two years ago I received a copy of a film about the French filmmaker Bresson by my UCSD colleague Babette Mangolte called Les Modeles de Pickpocket. At that time, Joel and I started to watch it, but turned it off because we both felt that we needed to watch Pickpocket again (we had both seen it many years ago) BEFORE we watched Babette’s film. For months we tried to get a copy of Pickpocket. We searched the internet. We asked all our friends. We combed the shelves of Kim's Video. No luck. So somehow your film languished on a lower shelf near our VCR-- not forgotten, just in a state of limbo.

This weekend Molly and Shawheen came up with their latest netflick choice: PICKPOCKET! Hooray. Unfortunately Joel is not here (he's in the city lecturing at a conference), but the three of us climbed under covers and leaned against pillows (it is cold and windy in Willow tonight) and were transported to the Paris of Bresson and then when we had finished that, we put on Babette’s tape and we finished in Mexico! (the last scene takes place in Mexico with one of the actors, or a Bresson put it, “model” from the film). What a delicious combination! We all three really loved both Pickpocket and Babette’s documentary. What a lovely combination! A brilliant coda to a brilliant film!

UNESCO MEETING ON ACTION ON WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY DECLARATION
The UNESCO Building, which was designed in the 1950s as a modernist dream within a park and sculpture garden, is now a fortress behind a sort of bunker with layers of heavyduty steel fencing.

I happened to be in Europe for The Dictionary of War in Graz (www.dictionaryofwar.org) so I was able to attend the October WSIS meetings. The following is a report I did to some of the friends and colleagues who have worked with me on civil society issues within the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) and UNESCO.

I went to two days of the UNESCO meetings. The first day was on e-learning. The morning was mostly a showcase for a variety of educational corporations to stand up and identify themselves as creating software for e learning sales. There was also a rep from the International Chamber of Commerce. Rikke and Jane from Denmark were there, Marianne from EU(?), and also Divina from Paris and IAMCR. There was a very active youth delegate from Sweden-- a very tall young woman. But there were few other people that I recognized from earlier WSIS CS meetings, with the exception of the Tunisians.

A link about the meeting is here:
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=22549&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

There were people from the European Union one of whom made the first "public interest" statement I heard-- that e-learning should not mean just putting a CD in a machine or turn on a satellite and leaving. A woman named Rosalie Plaisir who is an IT engineer is working with educators in the French Caribbean working with ICTs for All.

There was someone from Nigeria who talked about the need for a national internet backbone and that they were hoping that the private sector would give reduced prices to universities. He said that African universities cannot deliver connectivity.
Alex Tukov (sp?) from ITU spoke about the difficulty of setting up exchange points in Africa.

There was discussion of setting up a clearing house at UNESCO on e-learning including things like ethics and technology.
There was a discussion about the MIT initiative for the $100 computer. The reporter (?) said that there are now MIT lap top programs planned for Malaysia and Kerala. The beta version is now out and they expect a million to be manufactured by April 2007. They have eliminated the wind up function. (:-( ) However there was also a statement that India does not want to go that direction (I don't understand how this meshes with the report of initiative in Kerala!).

There was a lot of discussion about "protecting" the internet from "dangerous content".
A UNESCO official talked about the collaboration of UNDP and GAID (Global Alliance for ICT and Development) in four areas:
education, health, entrepreneurship and participation.
The El Salvador gov rep made many interventions, but I never got any real sense as to what he wanted.

There were proposals from Tunisians, El Salvador and a few others to change the wording on the "action plan' but they were told by the UNESCO guys that this was not possible. The WSIS docs were now in stone.

The afternoon was more interesting. It was broken into eight groups with a variety of subjects. I chose research and development. We met for about an hour. My group had some young law students who talked about the need for e-legal protocols. The other reports listed the needs for access, etc. The government reps from Africa spoke of frustration about the lack of funds for implementation, etc. There was a feisty black woman from Canada, Carol something who was quite good.

Break Out Groups
This is the report I did as convener for research and development discussion group:
*********************************************************
We discussed priorities for research in the field of electronic education.
In no particular order these are:
-Need for gender equity in e-learning
-need for language and cultural equity-- this is a human right. We need systems which fit the cultural systems. (To impose new cultural forms can be a form of genocide.)
-Need for "e-legal" We need access to legal frameworks. Need for parity in issues such as privacy, intellectual property and free speech
-Need for research the history and on-going procedures of governance of the internet.
-Encourage set-aside and use of transponders for public interest for universities and independent producers. (obviously this is my point!!!)
-Comparative analysis of distribution and use of ICTs, equipment, etc. (For example what are the comparative results of "one laptop per child, vs community sharing at local ICT centers)
-Research where people gt their information. News? Human Rights? Civic engagement? education? Health?

We ended our presentation with a call for minimal intervention. The example of the "Hole in the Wall" experiment in India where youth were able to write without keyboard. The inherent intelligence and creativity of people must be respected.
The over all goal should be to use e-tools to reach beyond our current global situation and make the world a better place.
******************************************

This "breakout" was actually a useful, but very quick meeting. I was impressed with the level of interest and experience on the part of the members, once we were able to hear each other and not just the podium speakers. My sense was that the 7 other break out groups had similar positive experiences.

After these reports, we had to stop, as the translators had to leave and then, of course, the "Civil society" meeting would happen--without translators. Unfortunately there were very few of us there. Francis Muguet did a heroic job of trying to chair a meeting of at the most five people. There was some discussion about whether to ask for co-convening by the civil society, though people seemed afraid that if it was more than UNESCO, the commercial and gov entities would also try to co-convene so people sort of trusted UNESCO more than the "unknown". Marianne suggested that there be someway that newcomers get information about the history of the Civil Society work-- that all papers from Geneva and Tunis stay available and be recommended to newcomers. Unfortunately Rikke and Jane were unable participate as they had to leave early and couldn't to take part in this very short small meeting.

The next day the theme was media. This time Sean O'Siocru from Ireland and Steve Buckley from AMARC were there. And the familiar face and diminished voice of Ron Koven from the World Press Freedom Committee. There seemed to be great relief from UNESCO that at least a few civil society folks showed up. Otherwise it would not have been a "multi" stakeholder meeting!

Charles Geiger from UNESCO gave a lengthy report on the history of WSIS and the "action line"

Steve has posted a report on this meeting. As he discussed there was talk of meeting in May in Geneva.

UNESCO seemed defensive about the lack of funding for "action lines". One thing that was emphasized by the UNESCO people is that UNESCO only supports training programs, not setting up access centers. There was a request that they provide a list and mapping of the current training initiatives. Divina discussed initiatives and a publication about e-learning and wondered how to scale up the education initiatives to include journalism training, and for example training for trauma and danger-- there are more journalists being actually targeted throughout the world. We need to address the safety of journalists.

Charles Geiger recommended the World Information Society Report which he said was done by ITU UNESCO and UNCTAD (trade and development).

The questions always come down to who will fund any of the public interest actions.

My own intervention was to suggest that there be a mechanism similar to the DBS set-asides in the US to preserve transponders for non-profit, public interest use. Also that there should be a fund from orbital slot allocation. Is it not the ITU who allocates this?

There was a call for media literacy guides and information about freedom of information. Again the World Information Society Report 2006 was brought up.

Okendi (sp?) from the ministry of information in Nigeria says that they are doing workshops on Mass Communication with students. The training is focused on showing what is available already so they do not have to start from scratch.

Ronnie stated that the Council of Europe does not reflect reality. He opposed the harmful content concept.

David Lewis of EBU linked freedom of expression/censorship to dead journalists. Obviously they can't write anymore, he said. EBU is doing safety training. He suggested that the UNDPI (?) get the Security Council to pass a resolution to protect journalists and to prosecute people who kill journalists. He asked UNESCO to help facilitate this and set up various training mechanisms on safety.

Kurkman Alemdar from Turkey's national commission on UNESCO was troubled by globalization of media and said he cannot complain to UNESCO. That the overwhelming commercial international media networks were blocking out local information and culture.

Steve Buckley of AMARC talked about the need to have action lines which supported producers who worked on development themes and the need for research on the social impact of media. That we need measurement and tools. There is a special need for women's involvement and gender parity. AMARC will be a co-convenor of the action line.

A guy was there from the International Association of Television Archives who spoke of the importance of archiving self expression and that this can reduce international hostility and feed into cultural diversity actions.

A Tunisian spoke of the need for UNESCO to focus on resource mobilization as regards to media and also the need to explore appropriate technology such as solar power for transmission.

Hadda Eimer said that the discussions lack theoretical basis and WSIS in general is on the practical side, but need to explore issues of methodology.

The Council on Europe spoke of need for independence and pluralisty of media.

The rep from the Vatican (!) spoke of the need to have some way to identify if information on the internet is believable.

Divina spoke of the importance of research and freedom of expression. The need for production of qualitative paradigms of sustainability. We need to weigh the risks and promises of knowledge over protection.

Someone from Niger spoke of the use of radio to preserve diversity of languages.

Someone from Trinity 'College in Wales talked of the need to have ethical criteria for media professionals.

Someone from Tunisia said the lord gave us only one mouth and two ears, so we should listen carefully. (?)

UNESCO guy made a boo boo when he state emphatically that your (!) work needs to have vertical coordination. "Oh! I mean horizontal!" he apologized.

In a statement I didn't really understand, the El Salvador rep said that the issue of children was difficult to mediate so that we need a better name for the topic to reflect a balance. (This was another case of the UNESCO guys saying, sorry but we cannot change the WSIS text at this point!)

Someone from Stockholm University (I think the youth rep woman) said we shouldn't put research in its own box-- that it should be oriented to sustainability and development.

I suggested that for the May meetings that we work with people who have been active with the cultural diversity meetings.. that there is a great deal of overlap.

Francis on the issue of language suggested that official documents can be appended with working methods... that there should be rapporteurs for both on-line meetings and face to face.

Bishop Lagague (sp?) said that this meeting was serene compared to African heat.
(I was told that the registered participants were posted on the unesco web site, but can't seem to find that list. Does anyone have it?)

Francis said that the civil society process is not isolated, but is part of a larger process of renovation of the UN.

So after the official meeting, the civil society met, with many more people than the day before. This time facilitated very well by Divina and Francis. (Though again, without official translators.) We spoke of continuing the dialogue and I suggested having a separate posting place for civil society at which we could enter by area of interest-- i.e. research, communication rights, gender issues, indigenous rights, internet gov, media, community media, etc. Divina talked about not being reactive all the time, but to form our own priorities and take initiative. There was a consensus that UNESCO would actually appreciate that.

So the representation of CS was valiant but small. I am convinced that it is important to stay with this struggle. Although I am a bit troubled with the thought that my presence somehow legitimated this grand exercise in posturing and rhetoric. How to get beyond this? WE SEIZE!



I inclose a photo from a page from The Media Cookbook by Oleg Kireev, Russian author and film critic, who includes in his book a discussion of WSIS from the WE SEIZE initiative. The poster above was one made for the alternative center in Geneva during WSIS 2003.

Best to all my WSIS Civil Society coilleagues and please forgive this rather rambling report!
DeeDee

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