Hi Gabi,

We seem to agree on great deal actually.

You asked me to clarify what I wrote below in respect to acquiescent
leaders. Some members of the CSB certainly fall into this category.
People like Bertrand, I believe, would rather be in a governmental
delegation--or perhaps he is just trying to drum up customers for his
consulting business. But, what I mostly referred to here was the fact
that the Civil Society Secretariat of WSIS Phase 1, Alain Clerc and
Louise Lassonde were hired hands who did all sorts of things without
consulting with plenary, perhaps the most egregious being the
creation of "the families" and their initial invitation to only
certain individuals to consult on such things. This was no bottom-up
process. And, now, as I understand it, CONGO has received quite a lot
of money to provide CS leadership of sorts. CONGO may have been one
of the worst choices available because the entire existence of this
organization of NGOs depends on their maintaining a wonderful
relationship with the UN. Although I appreciate the hard work that
Rik P. does, he's simply not capable of taking an oppositional stance
that would truly make a difference because he is too much of an
insider and loves the UN too much. As a result, there is no way in
which he can represent a left-progressive organization such as Union
for Democratic Communications.

Regards,
Lisa


>
>
>>  Second, by referring to acquiescent leaders, I do not
>>  wish to imply that all of the leaders have been this way all of the
>>  time; however, I would make that claim in respect to the CS
>>  Secretariat,
>Could you clarify this? Do you mean the civil society bureau? As I
>understand CONGO (esp. Their head Renate Bloem) has an important position on
>the civil society bureau, but I did not think they were 'the bureau'- other
>members are the caucus chairs, members of the non-governmental liaison
>service and others. The Community Media Working Group does not seem to have
>a seat there (anybody know why?).
>
>>  whether it was the Phase 1 leadership or the present
>>  one, CONGO. Having CONGO serve as the secretariat may have looked
>>  like a good idea at the time, but one needs to be aware of those who
>>  love the UN *too* much.
>I absolutely agree. People who have much experience with the UN need to be
>brought in touch with grassroots. E.g. They have to be told again and again
>that many important parts of civil society (many of our media being a case
>in point) will never be NGOs, and surely will never get consultative status
>with the UN Economic and Social Council ("ECOSOC accreditation"). They tend
>to think they are civil society, forgetting they are merely the most
>priviledged part, and their job is actually to facilitate input from
>grassroots civil society.
>
>Look forward to more comments.
>
>Best,
>Gabi


--
Lisa McLaughlin, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Mass Communication & Women's Studies
Editor, Feminist Media Studies
Director of Graduate Studies, M.A. Program in Mass Communication
Union for Democratic Communications Representative,
World Summit on the Information Society

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