>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