<P>Bonjour Ralf</P>
<P>and many thanks for this "piece of journalistic anthology", especially for all those of us who weren't able to actually experience these events there.</P>
<P>Friendly</P>
<P>Jean-Louis Fullsack.</P>
<P>recouldn't <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #ff0000 2px solid">> Message du 23/11/05 23:56<BR>> De : "Ralf Bendrath" <BENDRATH@ZEDAT.FU-BERLIN.DE><BR>> A : "wsis-cs-plenary" <PLENARY@WSIS-CS.ORG><BR>> Copie à : <BR>> Objet : [WSIS CS-Plenary] WSIS: Secret police, hunger and booze. The aftermath of a world summit<BR>> <BR>> [Please note that by using 'REPLY', your response goes to the entire list. Kindly use individual addresses for responses intended for specific people]<BR>> <BR>> Click http://wsis.funredes.org/plenary/ to access automatic translation of this message!<BR>> _______________________________________<BR>> <BR>> Here's a nice, light-hearted report from a reporter's perspective on WSIS. <BR>> I've copied the first paragraphs below. I especially like the phrase <BR>> "Conference World - where human existence is put on hold". :-)<BR>> <BR>> Best, Ralf<BR>> <BR>> -------------------<BR>> <BR>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/20/wsis_blog_five/<BR>> <BR>> WSIS: Secret police, hunger and booze. The aftermath of a world summit<BR>> <BR>> By Kieren McCarthy in Tunis<BR>> Published Sunday 20th November 2005 22:00 GMT<BR>> <BR>> Secret policemen: you miss 'em when they're gone. It seems most people <BR>> shipped out of Tunis soon after the closing ceremony ended around 7pm. <BR>> When I got back to my hotel around 10pm, there was only one secret <BR>> policeman standing guard and he didn't even bother to inspect my badge.<BR>> <BR>> This morning, I only saw one who idly came to check out why a lunatic <BR>> Englishman was in the swimming pool. To Tunisians, the weather is almost <BR>> unbearably cold. To me, it feels like a cool spot during the summer. <BR>> Besides that swimming pool had been mocking me for a week. Unless I was <BR>> willing to get up at 5am or go for a midnight dip, I haven't had a chance <BR>> to get near it since the conference opened.<BR>> <BR>> These aren't proper secret police anyway, mere security. And I hope to God <BR>> the real ones weren't the men pretending to be journalists in the press <BR>> centre this week either. If they were, the Tunisians really have very <BR>> little to be afraid of. If MI5, say, were to decide to infiltrate a news <BR>> organisation, it would train the people up, make em at least able to <BR>> appear to do the job. Instead, Tunisian secret police appear to have come <BR>> direct from Tunisian secret police training school.<BR>> <BR>> Pre-requisite skills are the ability to wear a cheap suit badly, sit for <BR>> hours on end not doing anything except showing indirect interest in the <BR>> loudest and quietest people in any room, and to forget to maintain your <BR>> cover when outside of the immediate area.<BR>> <BR>> I asked one, in French, what he was working on, just for a laugh. He just <BR>> mumbled some in Arabic and stared at the keyboard as if willing it to <BR>> start typing something.<BR>> <BR>> Conference World - where human existence is put on hold<BR>> <BR>> That you can start to enjoy the fact people are being paid to spy on you <BR>> is a clear sign that you have entered Conference World™ - a self-contained <BR>> microcosm of madness where even the most ridiculous things become accepted <BR>> as normal.<BR>> <BR>> (...)<BR>> _______________________________________________<BR>> Plenary mailing list<BR>> Plenary@wsis-cs.org<BR>> http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/plenary<BR>> <BR>> </BLOCKQUOTE>