[Chapter-delegates] Pacific Islands Regional Advisor bannedfrom major World IT Meeting

[Gene Gaines]

Brava, Bravo ISOC, see below.

On Thursday, November 3, 2005, 2:36:41 AM, Patrick wrote:

> Jeffrey,

> I know this is common in Northern America and most probably other
> countries but it is not an universal behaviour.

> On the European continent,  private funding of electoral campaigns is
> generally seen as a form of corruption.

Personally, as a U.S. citizen, I regard both private funding and
special-interest group funding of electoral campaigns as
corruption. In U.S. elections, the funding has corrupted to the
point that vast sums are spent on attack ads that selectively
distort and misrepresent the opposing candidates' statements and
record. This changes the way that voters even view the
candidates and the reasons they have for voting for or in many
instances, against candidates. Result is corruption of the
entire process. One hears popular citizen talk of "The best
White House money can buy." and "The best Congress money can buy."
 ...
> In such a system, organized groups of concerned citizens can be heard by
> politicians. Add to that it is usually more helpful to brief the
> politician's staff with objective information rather than crying slogans
> at demonstrations. A good example of this is that ISOC was able to
> educate some governements at WSIS, to the point that many do not claim
> anymore they want a DNS root server in their own country, now that they
> know how DNS works.

I REGARD YOUR SENTENCE ABOVE AS A VERY IMPORTANT STATEMENT.
A HUGE ACCOMPLISHMENT FOR ISOC.
Yes, I am shouting.  Patrick, your statement made my day.

Gene Gaines
Sterling, Virginia USA

> Best regards,

> Patrick Vande Walle

> Jeffrey Sherman wrote:

>>Perhaps I'm being cynical here, but at least here in the US, a good many
>>(if not most) politicians are most interested in fundraising.  You have
>>to get elected first and then you have to get reelected at the end of
>>your term.  In order to do that, you need money - big money.
>>
>>It isn't just a matter of ISOC chapters not educating the politicians;
>>it is that the politicians don't really care about being educated...
>>they just want to please their corporate donors so they can stay in
>>office.
>>