Re: [wg-review] Intake from the GA ML

[Joop Teernstra <terastra@terabytz.co.nz>]

At 13:02 7/04/01 -0400, brianappleby@netscape.net wrote:
>Dear all,
>
>Trying extra hard not to be overly cynical or paranoid, it is also a
reasonable assumption that the reason for the GA, Working Groups, ... to
exist is to offer a venting place for unhappy or concerned people to expel
their ‘negative’ feelings and emotions.   A classic ploy, in Communist
China before the Cultural Revolution, scholars and such were invited to
criticize the Party and institutions of government, they were invited to
participate in trying to make things better.  The real purpose was to draw
potential enemies out into the open so they could be easily identified and
watched or dealt with. 
>

Yep. Like the Iraqi Communist Party was legalized once for a year or so,
only for Saddam to get at their databases and eliminate the leadership.
I'm afraid that cynicism about ICANN, after the latest events, becomes more
widespread and respectable by the day.

>We will always be more vulnerable because we are out in the open and those
pulling the strings behind the scenes will always keep us guessing.   
>
>What is currently happening here is bottom-up efforts to promote positive
change.  All well and good and very, very noble.  It will also be the
salvation of the governance of the Net over the long term.  

Yes. We should never lose sight of that.

>The people are everyone’s constituency and the source of all power.  
>
>But frankly, I believe what we need to stop the dike from bursting, a
crisis of the short-term, is for top-down change in the form of dedicated,
educated US Congressional oversight with a splash of judicial-esque
judgement.  I think a permanent Congressional sub-committee needs to be
established who’s primary role and responsibility is to ensure that ICANN
remains faithful to the commitments it made when it was established and
that the stated ideals are maintained and the goals are achieved.  
>

I used the same dam bursting analogy  talking to Pindar Wong, who spoke for
the @large committee in Melbourne. He was aware, so  ICANN must be aware of
this crisis potential too.
This is why they have called on a heavyweight like Carl Bildt to act as
judge in the coming fight about @large representation. The Board is now
divided.  

>A blind man could easily see how far away ICANN has wandered from the path
which was set for them.  It is possible that the US Congress might even be
able to see it too?
>
Yes, the interim Board driven  ICANN has strayed. But the struggle for
control of ICANN's direction has only just begun.  The U.S. politicians
need to be sensitive to the other 40 -odd governmental players (the GAC)
too, not only to their six powerful Multinationals or their American
constituents.

We have to be watchful that handing the reins or the whip to U.S.
politicians, is not going to end the global character of ICANN or lead us
to even worse strife than we are now.  
After all, as much respect as we all have for the U.S. Constitution, we
know that democracy in the real world is about the rule of money as much as
it is here and now in ICANN.

But I much appreciate your thoughtful posting, even if it does give me that
slightly hopeless feeling.





--Joop--
Founder of the Cyberspace Association.
Former bootstrap of the IDNO (www.idno.org)
Developer of    The Polling Booth
www.democracy.org.nz/vote1/


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