UN gets Netaid

elena spectra at elits.rousse.bg
Sun Oct 10 11:02:53 PDT 1999


Dear Chris, I waited 5 years (see my date in the header) (actually, I can't afford to wait in real time because the government's going to unplug us, using economic levers some time soon after Christmas).


>Anyway I thought marxists were supposed to be optimistic, to believe in
>historical materialism, and to believe in qualitative steps sometimes
>leading to qualitative ones.
My first knee-jerk reaction was that you yourself were being ahistorically-idealistic and rampantly sexist; but getting personal, sticking labels and calling names, doesn't solve any problem; or does it?


>
>This is a qualitative step that happened yesterday.
>
Precisely what I asked 5 years ago: I asked you, if you would mind explaining in what way this initiative will work for the benefit of the have-nots in the OTHER world The UN Netaid campaign, even if viewed most optimistically, seems a pathetic case of ethical surfing. Stay home, do good, feel better... I am not prepared to be optimistic about any road to heaven paved with gooF intentions - maybe, just too old for that. (Yet, sorry if anything in my earlier posts sounded cynical in any way; never intended to). Surely, reports of misdirecting any kind of relief funds, donations, etc have leaked over to your side. 10 years after the revolutions we had, it is also obvious that the NGO's (being dependent on foreign sources), mushrooming and dying away cyclically, are not contributing to anyone outside their own executive circles. It is little use to start a campaign like this without examining the distribution channels first - to guarantee that instead of promoting solidarity, they are promoting exclusiveness of the already-existing powers. On the other hand, though not institutionalised, East-Helps-East (actually, the action never had such a pompous name), surprisingly, did help in a very practical and focused way - a group of Polish activists (from & in Poland) launched a net appeal and collected old 386- and 486-PC's, modems and other such stuff to be dispatched "to poorer comrades in Eastern Europe" (quote from the Polish appeal). Coincidentally, the net-tribe in BG have problems organising ourselves to combat against the law soon to be passed by Parliament, which is to permit officials , among other things, to obtain from ISP's information about passwords, read subscribers' mail, follow their netactivities, etc. - packed in "fight pornography and terrorism". Even at the library, where I now use netaccess (mostly only e-mail at home), you are not allowed to delete the information about your surfing activities - which is used for statistics purposes. To ensure that less people will be able to use the net, another legislative act is about to increase the fee one pays for telephone services (that is, you'll pay more because of the duration of phone calls); a simple calculation: to have 60 hours of net access a month, one will have to pay 25 USD to the ISP (to be increased by at least 10% after Xmas) and about 40 USD of telephone bill (cf with c. 10 I pay at worst now) - all before VAT of 20%. Maybe BG is a particularly sick case, but I have got the impression that the situation in Russia, Yugo and Roumania, maybe Poland, is not much better. On a less than 100 USD salary that's impossible. Though, officially, the government boasts that they are doing everything to introduce "information society values" at all levels (like making MS platform obligatory and exclusive to study and use for programming by Computer Science students) and they are getting their pat on the shoulder from the EU and the UN (sic!) Eventually, access to information will be more efficiently restricted and rigidly controlled; and UN netaid (PC's, whatever) will be distributed accordingly. Do you consider this a positive move? Any help helps, but, in this case, I am afraid, we are not dealing with "help", but rather with a bargain, from which the have-nots internationally will hardly profit. Best wishes, Elena



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