[Imc-beirut] what to do now

[blue.pi]

Dear Petros, 

maybe we should clarify a bit about the process that leads us now to close 
down. 

The last time that indymedia beirut was functioning the way it should be was 
almost a year ago. In the spring of 2006 the last proper meetings were held 
and the last features were written by people in Lebanon for the indymedia 
Beirut website. 

When the war started there hadn’t been any activity for about three months 
– that was at the time nothing to worry, because there had always been 
longer periods when nothing happened, because people were travelling, other 
projects demanded their attention etc. However, during the war, activity did 
not pick up even though to the outside it might have seemed that way. During 
the war, Imad who was then in Barcelona and I who was then in Berlin kept 
the website updated. We were able to do so with articles that had actually 
been written by former indymedia activists, but these activists had written 
them for other websites, where we collected them. They did not consider 
themselves part of indymedia anymore, most of them had even left the 
mailinglist. 

When Imad came back after the war he had the plan the revive indymedia and 
we had a little revival get-together with everybody when I was there for a 
visit as well. But as Imad has stated now: Nothing came out of it. 

So despite all our attempts we must realize that indymedia Beirut has not 
been functioning as a collective for almost a year now. 

Taking your concerns into account, I think I should describe the situation 
as it is to imc process also mentioning that there are other activists known 
to us who are interested, but don’t want to maintain the website at the 
moment. In my opinion, they should not need a full new process. However, it 
is very important to freeze the website (which has already happened 
according to our tech support Zapata), and this needs to be explained to the 
network in my opinion. Otherwise we might have all kinds of rumors a couple 
years from now like we have with imc Palestine, where everybody tells a 
different story about what happened. 


A note to alessandro: 

>I agree with blue about the language problem, english is good for the
>rest of the world, i don't know if it is so good to try a shared
>communication that is addressed to the libanese people living in
>lebanon.

I think it’s not so much a problem to have an English website for 
Lebanese, as most of them are multilingual and there are some very good 
sites and blogs only in English (while indymedia tried to be bilingual). I 
think the problem is only the combination with the open posting policy plus 
being in a very interesting spot of the world. The result was that people 
from around the whole globe posted “best of” all articles about Lebanon 
and the Lebanon. And in all of this “best of” it was almost impossible 
to find anything from the ground. 

Btw. the term Middle East is the same as in Arabic (sharq al Awsat) – as 
far as I know because it corresponds also with the Arab/Islamic view of the 
world: Just that the West is traditionally not Europe but the Maschrak in 
North-Western Africa. 

Yours,
blue 


Petros Evdokas writes: 

> blue.pi wrote: 
> 
> 
>> If no one objects I will send an email tomorrow to imc process about Imc 
>> Beirut being in "sleeping mode? I guess we can call it that, no?
>  
> 
> 
> Friends, 
> 
> Please do not send an official note from the Beirut-imc group yet to say 
> to the rest of the network that the group is folding. 
> 
> If a combination of new/old volunteers is assembled to continue the work 
> now, or in the near future, with the blessing of the current group, then 
> there will be a good sense of continuity and there's no need to involve 
> the wider network. 
> 
> If you send an official note now saying that the group is folding, then 
> any new group of volunteers will have to go through the new-imc work group 
> to get approved - things there are not very functional in this period 
> (there is a lack of volunteers, and only a tenth of the activity of 
> previous months in the new-imc work group), and Lebanon's needs will not 
> be serviced easily. 
> 
> Also, imc-process (our "unofficial/ official" decision making body) has 
> hardly been functioning and my understanding is there is a strong tendency 
> among the admininstrators and some of our liaisons there to misunderstand 
> what is being said (there are also various power-blocks involved in 
> competitions which are locked into that arena). 
> 
> 
> I'm in favour of delaying the announcement, and discussing among us 
> various options for refreshing and rejuveting the group and website. 
> 
> Please give consideration to this proposal, at least please let's discuss 
> it a little. 
> 
> Thanks,
> Petros
> _______ 
> 
>  
> 
 


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