[Imc-africa] condemnations

[Danielle Chynoweth]

Sphinx and all,

With all respect for Sphinx, Fabian, and others, I find calls for  
condemning people a diversion from our tasks.  There are hundreds of  
thousands of people coming to the WSF - they are scrambling, we are  
scrambling - and tensions run high right now.

I speak only for myself - I do not support such a letter of  
condemnation.  Let's focus on talking to people who will help us pull  
together and forget those who are clearly not going to help.

See all of you soon ...

- Danielle
- Urbana IMC


>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 21:05:20 +0100
> From: sphinx <sphinx at indymedia.org>
> Subject: [Imc-africa] IMC-Network response to the recent mails from
> 	the	Kenyan-WSF	Organzing Committee
> To: imc-africa at lists.indymedia.org
> Message-ID: <20070112210520.028f44xodqg4ock0 at webmail.zeromail.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Dear IMC-Africa, since indymedia got rolling in 1999 it has  
> developed from a
> single event action in Seattle to the biggest global volunteer based
> organization, with the presence of more than 100 IMCs in more than  
> 80 countries
> around the World.
> The one thing that has kept the network going has been both it?s  
> values and the
> fact that when any indymedia groups (Germany, Italy, Athens, UK,..)  
> came under
> attack we stood like one to defend our own. The same has been the  
> case when an
> indymedia activist becomes the target of any attack from whomever.  
> Indymedia
> groups around the World spread the Word on the situation and  
> mobilize the
> network to write protest letter and organize an appropriate respond.
>
> A few days ago Fabian wrote to express our frustration as a group  
> at the
> negligence with which the Kenyan WSF organizing committee handled the
> application for clearance letters of some African delegates.
> http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-africa/2007-January/ 
> 0106-9k.html
>
> In response some individuals from the WSF-Organizing Committee in  
> Kenya decided
> to attack Fabian accusing him of racism and patronizing.
>
> Background:
> First as indicated on the WSF website, asking people to contact  
> them if they so
> wish to and in line with the WSF charter of principles, I wrote to  
> them
> (December 22, 2006) in relation to our need for clearance letters  
> for some of
> our delegates coming from Africa and never got a reply.
> I then Called the WSF office in Kenya and asked to talk to  
> Professor Edwards on
> the issue, as had been informed by Vita (a South American volunteer  
> working at
> the WSF office in Nairobi).  After talking to professor Edwards, he  
> told me to
> send the mail to him again with the names and passport numbers. In  
> a follow-up
> call a few days latter the professor informed me that we will need  
> to send
> copies of the photo page of the passports of the delegates and pay  
> for the
> invitation letters.
> Fabian made the payments from the unverteilen funds and latter it  
> turned out the
> applications had some-how simply been forgotten and also Fabian was  
> not provided
> with enough information for him to make the necessary flight  
> changes in time to
> avoid charges.
> Angry at the seeming lack of serious with the treatment of these  
> invitation
> letter issues as well as the extra cost we have to bear for the  
> ticket change
> Fabian wrote this mail to John
> http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-africa/2007-January/ 
> 0106-9k.html
>  the mail below will indicate that the WSF organizers apparently  
> forgot about
> our delegates :
> http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-africa/2007-January/0106- 
> hg.html
>
> Our complains were forwarded to the WSF Organizing Committee.
>
> The response from those quarters has been amazing. Attacks on  
> Fabian for being
> for being patronizing and racist by Mr. Oduor Ongwen and seconded  
> by Njoki
> Njoroge.
> http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-africa/2007-January/0112- 
> vq.html
>
> http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-africa/2007-January/0112- 
> vq.html
>
>
> Obviously a look at the mail from Fabian does not in anyway portray  
> in any form
> or shape racism or patronizing. Thus the motivation for these  
> insults is root
> in bigotry at best and racism at worst.
> We cannot allow people from which ever organization to attack  
> indymedia
> volunteers and get away with it.
> For a network that has anti-racism as one of its core tenet I think  
> our response
> to these mails has to be adequate enough to discourage such  
> attitudes from other
> groups in the future.
>
> I thus propose the following:
> -That we write a proposal to the imc-process and imc-communications  
> list asking
> for a network wide consensus for the indymedia network to send an  
> official
> letter asking for an APOLOGY from the Kenyan WSF-Organizing Committee.
>
> If there is no apology:
> 1-we shall cancel our registration in the WSF-process and World  
> Social forum
> activity.
>
> 2-We shall write a protest letter to the World Social Forum  
> International
> Council asking them to condemn these attacks, which are totally out  
> of beat
> with the spirit and words of the ?WSF charter of principles?.
>
> Waiting to get your input on this;
>
> Sphinx
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