[Chapter-delegates] Statement: The Internet Society on Egypt's Internet shutdown

[Nabil Bukhalid]

Veni,

I agree to your comments and I here extend a word of support to Tarek kamel.
I first met Tarek during INET'93 and since then I followed closely the
advance of the Internet in Egypt.  Tarek is the father of the Internet in
Egypt and he assumed a pivotal role as a visionary, lobbyist, executive
decision taker and implementer. 

Knowing what Tarek stands for and being a little informed on Egypt Internet
infrastructure, I somehow don't believe that Tarek will order such an abrupt
Internet shutdown in Egypt. I, like Veni, feel confident in believing that
this was not his decision. Tarek is way smarter than that .....

I hope very much that Tarek and his family are safe.

Nabil Bukhalid,
ISOC Lebanon Chapter.

-----Original Message-----
From: chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org
[mailto:chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org] On Behalf Of Veni
Markovski
Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2011 10:10 PM
To: Anya Chambers
Cc: chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org
Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] Statement: The Internet Society on Egypt's
Internet shutdown

I'd like to add a few personal* words here about the former minister of 
ITC of Egypt, Dr. Tarek Kamel, former secretary of ISOC-Egypt.

I know Tarek for many years, and I find his position in this whole 
crisis as one that requires support from his other former ISOC Trustees 
and ISOC chapter presidents.
Tarek is widely recognized as the person who brought the Internet widely 
in Egypt - first as adviser to the minister of ITC, then as a minister 
himself. He has publicly and privately expressed support for the open 
development of the Internet. He is co-founder of ISOC-Egypt. As his bio 
on the ISOC web site 
(http://www.isoc.org/isoc/general/trustees/board.php?id=35) says for 
these early years of the development of the Internet in Egypt, "Kamel's 
work extended into liberalization issues such as a tax reduction for 
ISPs as well as a government/private sector partnership to serve the 
Egyptian Internet community. He has actively participated in the 
establishment of community centers in remote areas to bring the Internet 
to the have-nots."
As a minister, he managed to change the policies in Egypt to encourage 
not only wide Internet access in the country, but also to engage within 
the tough Internet governance debates in a very positive way for the 
global Internet community. I'd argue that thanks to his team, Egypt was 
one of the respected countries in the Internet governance debates at the 
IGF, but also at the ITU, including the recent ITU Plenipotentiary 
meeting in Mexico.

While we don't know the facts as who requested the shutdown, I feel 
confident in believing that this was not his decision. In a serious 
situation, in a country which is under severe internal and external 
pressure, rulers often do things, which are difficult to explain even 
days later, and certainly much easier to explan after a few years. I 
have lived through similar circumstances in Bulgaria, in 1989 and in 
1997, and I could tell you (as probably Khaled can share more recent 
memories) that situation changes dramatically within days, even hours.
I wish Tarek and his team, who have done so much good things for the 
Internet, to survive the crisis (revolt, revolution, changes - you name 
it), and continue to contribute for the development of the Internet in 
Egypt, the region, and the whole world. Certainly lessons will be 
learned from the action of the Egyptian government, and certainly we'll 
spend a lot of time reflecting on not only what happened, but what can 
be done to avoid such shutdown in the future.

One thing, which might serve immediately as a lesson, is that a myth 
being spread around in the last 10 years, that the Internet of a whole 
country can be stopped by actions of ICANN should come to an end**. It 
is clear now that the actions of one government are much more effective 
and can shutdown not only the Internet, but also mobile communications 
immediately. That should keep everyone alert on the perspective of 
having the Internet being governed by governments. Because, no matter 
what we think, so far the Internet has never been shutdown, even for 
countries that have been under UN sanctions, or even for countries, that 
have been at war with UN- or NATO-lead coalitions. And that's something 
we should see how to further study, research, and use in our chapters' 
work.

I hope that other chapter delegates, who have worked with Tarek, as well 
as Lynn and other key staffers, would support Tarek - I believe that now 
more than ever before he needs such a support.

_____
* - Personal means that this is not opinion of any of the organizations 
I am associated or affiliated with.
** - I have had presentations in the past in Russia / Eastern Europe, 
where I've been explaining how the Internet works, and what is the role 
of the DNS; for the purpose of this email I won't write more, but the 
ccTLD is not the vital link in providing Internet access to the users - 
the waves and cables are.

On 1/28/2011 14:38, Anya Chambers wrote:
>
> Dear all
>
> Please find below a statement from the Internet Society in response to 
> the recent events in Egypt:
>
> "We are following the current events in Egypt with concern as it 
> appears that all incoming and outgoing Internet traffic has been 
> disrupted. The Internet Society believes that the Internet is a global 
> medium that fundamentally supports opportunity, empowerment, 
> knowledge, growth, and freedom and that these values should never be 
> taken away from individuals.
>
> The Internet Society considers this recent action by the Egyptian 
> government to block Internet traffic to be an inappropriate response 
> to a political cris
>
>
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