[Imc-africa] Fwd: Convergence-Based IMC

Mon Aug 28 10:33:35 PDT 2006

Hello Everybody
I am in contact with the people in Senegal and can
forward their info to you for further contact.
Dapina made a doc. film with Rafel. 
Rafel is very interested. he is productive and he can
translate ideas into concrete projects.
I am speaking to him soon and will ask if he sees
himself in Kenya in Jan. 2006.
I have new people in Cameroon/English speaking  who
are interested. They are not members of the indymedia
group-but it does not exist anyway-so we need to make
a link for purposes of sharing and coordination.
Julian is around and can be asked. Swiss indymedia
We diid not have Nigeria Indymedia people with us in
Dakar so we need to make contact with them. We have
Jean form the Congo.
The idea of renting a house is great but we need to be
sure we bypass all the unnecessary complications we
experienced in Senegal.
Finance-transparency, tasks sharing, role sharing and
clarity, inclusion of local people in decision making
etc. Also our challenge in Dakar was acknowledgement
by institutions like universities of the indymedia
people/activist and to be sure all expectations are
cleared or tabled  well in advance.
Our experience in Dakar taught us not to assume
anything.
First we must be absolutely clear we do not make any
promises to institutions we cannot keep.
We must be clear/transparent on what it is we will
bring with us in terms of human and material resources
We must be sure to have sustainable contact partners
within these institutions.
Our experience also taught us that state run/financed
organisations/institutions are finanly heavy
burocratic so we need local people who understand the
system to guide the process.
We need to plan well in advance to include as many
interested students as possible -most universities
have a prof/dept that is in charge of student
affairs-it is always helpful to follow coorrect
structures.
Our other experience was access to existing resources
like computer laborities in universities-these are
expensive.
external computer internet access is also very
expensive or not compatable to the needs of the
training facilities-Our School class room we hired
with comuters which were often down or too slow
or.......these are all realities in our countries.
Also the press is very important-we need to make sure
press statements are prepared in advance and include
the desires of all in the most appropiate manner.  We
need to develop a good relationship with press in the
host country and to act correctly according to the
ethics of our fellow activist in that sector. (We must
be sensitive to the sometimes oppressive experiences
that may threaten people well after we all leave)
As was experienced in Dakar most defnately, people
need to have a week at least to develop a team with
and among themselves. We must not underestamate the
dynamic of the cultural and country differences to
include language differences too.

Vital to such an event is qualified Organisational
Development support for teams, projects and
communities. 
We need to ensure small but important items are
available: flip chart paper/laptops, beamers, film
screens(white sheets woork well), cables, adapters,
koki pens/pencils make no assumptions, note paper and
so on.

When the budget is being put together for actual
indymedia activists this should be done with
transparency as this caused mistrust and uncertainty
the last time. We need to know exactly who is giving
how much and if it is specified on which item in the
budget it needs to be spent on. Who accounts for the
actual money and how far in advance will people know
that their tickets are being paid to avoid the whole
issue of visas etc....
I trust I am not been to perdantic but if we had
really thought through some of these issues last time
in Dakar we may not have needed to waste so much time
on the nitty gritty issues and could have concentrated
or energies immediately on the tasks at hand.

Warm regards
Glenda

--- sphinx <sphinx at indymedia.org> wrote:

> 
> John I'm forwarding your mail here because I see you
> wanted to copy the list but
>  typo-error in the list address(.com instead of
> .org) prevented your mail
> getting to the list.
> 
> Salut Mali! Est qu'll a un plan d'avoire une
> delegation de Mali au Kenya pour
> lee forum social mondial?.
> Je pense que ca sera un tre's bon posibilite' de se
> trouve dans un atmosphere
> tre's dynamic pour bien parler.
> A l'heure acquel ill na pas de'argent mais si vore
> group de Mali souhait envoye'
> les gens on peur essai de demande' ici et la. Et si
> on commence tôt on va
> reussi.
> Meilleurs Voeux.
> 
> ------(quick translation)
> I'm just asking the Mali group if they plan or are
> considering sending a
> delegation down to Nairobi.
> 
> 
> ----- Forwarded message from jonbwak at yahoo.com -----
>     Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 06:54:25 -0700  PDT
>     From: John Bwakali <jonbwak at yahoo.com>
> Reply-To: John Bwakali <jonbwak at yahoo.com>
>  Subject: Convergence-Based IMC
>       To: migudaattyang at yahoo.com,
> idiot at jaysand.com, petri at prometheusradio.org,
> hannahjs at prometheusradio.org, sphinx at indymedia.org,
> onyango.oloo at sodnet.or.ke
> 
> Dear Indymedia and Prometheus colleagues,
>   My name is John Bwakali and I work together with
> Oloo, Grace and others in
> Indymedia Kenya. I am quite thrilled about the
> prospect of convergence-based
> IMC during the World Social Forum that will be held
> here in Nairobi. I look
> forward to meeting you Judith and Grace anytime you
> will be in Nairobi so that
> we can unify our efforts. You can reach me on my
> cell phone 0720-792390. The
> idea of involving Maseno university is quite timely
> and strategic.
> 
>   To our international colleagues, we in Indymedia
> Kenya will rise to the
> challenge and do our bit to ensure that these ideas
> will find due and speedy
> implementation. It is great that our colleague Oloo
> is right at the heart of
> organising WSF and am sure that Indymedia Kenya will
> work closely with him.
> 
>   Concerning the logisitics of all of you who will
> be coming to Nairobi, one of
> the things we can do is what we did in Dakar - find
> a house that we can rent
> for that period so that we can all stay there,
> strategise...We can also put
> together a working group here to start tackling some
> of these issues. Oloo and
> I will meet sometimes next week to set the ball
> rolling.
> 
>   How are comrades in IMC Africa fairing? Angola,
> Senegal, Cameroon,
> Nigeria....I think WSF provides an opportunity for
> us to coalesce again and
> start talking and taking action.
> 
>   Have a great weekend.
> 
>   John Bwak
> 
> 
> ---------------------------------
> Want to be your own boss? Learn how on  Yahoo! Small
> Business.
> 
> ----- End forwarded message -----
> 
> 
---------------------------------
Dear Indymedia and Prometheus colleagues,
  My name is John Bwakali and I work together with
Oloo, Grace and others in Indymedia Kenya. I am quite
thrilled about the prospect of convergence-based IMC
during the World Social Forum that will be held here
in Nairobi. I look forward to meeting you Judith and
Grace anytime you will be in Nairobi so that we can
unify our efforts. You can reach me on my cell phone
0720-792390. The idea of involving Maseno university
is quite timely and strategic.

  To our international colleagues, we in Indymedia
Kenya will rise to the challenge and do our bit to
ensure that these ideas will find due and speedy
implementation. It is great that our colleague Oloo is
right at the heart of organising WSF and am sure that
Indymedia Kenya will work closely with him. 

  Concerning the logisitics of all of you who will be
coming to Nairobi, one of the things we can do is what
we did in Dakar - find a house that we can rent for
that period so that we can all stay there,
strategise...We can also put together a working group
here to start tackling some of these issues. Oloo and
I will meet sometimes next week to set the ball
rolling. 

  How are comrades in IMC Africa fairing? Angola,
Senegal, Cameroon, Nigeria....I think WSF provides an
opportunity for us to coalesce again and start talking
and taking action.

  Have a great weekend.

  John Bwak  

---------------------------------
Want to be your own boss? Learn how on  Yahoo! Small
Business. >
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