[Imc-communication] taking a critical look at where we are.

[Claudio]

On Thu, 2005-05-19 at 01:24, pina at riseup.net wrote:

> So what? why did you guys have to have the preference to use the
> belgium.indymedia.org url???? Cause you guys saw it first? the others
> collectives are also planning to use for a sindication project who is
> going to be national, as i understand...
> This has just reach the point that is becoming extremally anoying...
> I agree if what bht said... I´m starting to thiking that maybe no one
> should use this url...
> pina
> indymedia sao-paulo (brasil)

Hi Pina,

Let me explain my point of view:

A nation-wide collective (in this mini country of 10 million people) has been using the url since 2000. Some people, however, like to give the impression that our collective is a Brussels collective, this is not true. We are a national *and* bilingual (French and Dutch) project made by people from all belgium. 

I am from Antwerp (the 2nd biggest city) and not planning to move to Brussels in the forseeable future. The same for imc-activists from other provinces. With internet and the *very* small distances within Belgium*, this is not problem at all.

The syndication project is a new project. I welcome it and I aknowledge his right to exist.

What I fail to see is why an existing url should be used for the project. be.indymedia.org (be is the internation country code for our country) is free and they are free to use it, or whatever name they use (besync like their test site, be-local, belgique (french), belgie (dutch), etc ...).

We are not claiming anything, but being an imc since a while. Working hard. Check our site and you'll see we are pretty active. I don't find it fair to give up what we have built for a new project.

Discussion of what indymedia could and should be happened within the belgium collective in the past. The people that wanted to turn our imc into a syndication project and close the national imc didn't get a mayority and left. So be it. 

But it is wrong to force a collective to a direction when the mayority within that collective decided to follow a different strategy than the syndication idea. In this context, a syndication project is not a neutral idea, but a strategic decision.

I personally have no problems that other nation-wide collectives would cover the same area. It happens within the collective already (sf & indybay, qc & manilla, by example), and it will happen again. Like said before, we are open for mediation and solving the url thing may be a possible outcome.

Here you'll find the mediation idea's we as a collective agreed on:
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-process/2005-May/0518-d6.html

My 2 cents and thanks for your efforts in finding a solution,

Claudio

* I find the size of Belgium a very relevant matter in this discussion.
A rough idea of the size of Belgium: it is 30,528 square km, roughly 8 times smaller than your state Sao Paulo. Belgium is an industrilised country, road and trains everywhere. 
This are the distances with the train (faster with a car) from Brussels to the biggest cities: Brussels-Antwerp: 35 minutes, Brussels-Ghent: 35 minutes, Brussels-Liege: 1 hour 5 minutes. Hours can be checked at http://www.nmbs.be (the train company). 
I remember the Brazilian busdrives I took recently: Brazilia-Bello Horizonte, Rio-Salvador ... 20 and 26 hours if i remember correctly. My bum still hurts :)