[CS Bureau] CS Bureau meeting in South Africa?

[Robert Guerra]

Renate:

I would be free to attend the meeting in Cape Town. The issue is one 
of funding - for my travel and accommodation in Cape Town. I would be 
very grateful if you and/or others would be able to obtain funding 
for me to travel to the meeting from here in Toronto (Canada).

As you may know i have been travelling much the last several months 
on field work. This allowed me to contact and dialogue with numerous 
segments of civil society , particularly those working on icts , 
human rights and development. The discussion has been focused on the 
core mission of privaterra - namely human rights and icts - 
(security, information security and communications).

In regions that i have travelled to (central asia, moscow, berlin, 
budapest & boston) I have also made a point to discuss and seek input 
on WSIS. The most substantial discussions have been in Berlin (with 
german civil society, and the Canadian embassy), at the Canadian 
Embassy in Moscow, and at the recently held ICTs and Human rights 
conference held in Boston.

Being able to attend to attend the Cape Town meeting would allow me 
to not only share the comments and concerns raised, but also raise 
the - personal - concern I have about the ongoing issues of lack of 
transparency and organizational effectiveness of civil society 
structures at wsis, specifically that of the bureau. The many mails 
that have come as a result of the - issues - and lack of 
cohesiveness that seem to exist in the education and latin american 
caucus are , for me, very troubling indeed.

if that weren't enough - there is the  very grave concerns have come 
as a result of private communications to me from human rights 
networks about that the roles GONGOS are playing in the civil society 
process. We need, we must be more transparent, strategic, effective 
and prepared in the weeks and months leading to the next prepcom - if 
not, then it will end up being a larger fiasco then the meeting this 
past june in Tunis.

In summary - there indeed is much to discuss, much to plan for, and 
if funding could be obtained to have a well structured and effective 
meeting in Cape Town, then it would be great. I would be very 
interested in attending such a meeting, however could only do so if 
financial support (funding) could be made available to reimburse my 
flight and accommodation. Securing funding for myself and others 
would be a sign that there is indeed importance given to the bureau 
and the planned meeting.

I cross my fingers and hope for a positive reply.

regards

Robert

At 7:29 PM +0100 11/9/04, Renata Bloem wrote:
>TO CS Bureau
>
>Dear friends,
>
>Could you please tell us urgently who from the existing CS Bureau 
>could be free to come to Cape Town, South Africa, around the 6-8 
>December, if funding could be made available? The objective is to 
>have an in depth discussion on the role and way forward of the CS 
>Bureau.


-- 
###
Robert Guerra <rguerra at privaterra.org>
Privaterra - <http://www.privaterra.org>
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