[Imc-africa] Re: [New-imc] Travel Stipend for Indymedia Organizer / Indymedia Growth in Africa Project

[Sascha Meinrath]

Hi Petros,

I appreciate your concerns -- hopefully they are all addressed below.

On Thu, 9 Oct 2003, boud wrote:

> hi sascha, petros, everyone,
>    i suggest everyone interested discuss this issue with
> African Indymedia people (or others who feel they can
> validly comment) on
>
> imc-africa at lists.indymedia.org
>
> since it is not (right now) a new-imc issue.
>
> On Wed, 8 Oct 2003, Petros Evdokas wrote:
>
> > Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2003
> > From: Sascha Meinrath <sascha at ucimc.org>
> > Subject: [New-imc]  Travel Stipend for Indymedia
> > Organizer:
> >         Applications due by Nov 1, 2003.
>
> > I am writing to let folks know that the
> > Urbana-Champaing IMC (UCIMC) is
> > soliciting applications for a travel stipend to an
> > Indymedia Organizer who
> > is willing to help with the Indymedia Growth in Africa
> > Project (IGAP).
>
> > http://brainstorm.ucimc.org/ucimcWiki/igap
>
>
> > ---------------------------
> >
> >
> > Sascha and other imc friends and colleagues,
> >
> > I believe in the good intentions of yours and everyone
>
> > 1. Trust.
> > Right now, the "global south" and thirld- world
> > countries (whether we have an imc group or not) view
> > anything like this with mistrust. Western, and
> > specifically, US/ UK- based activists, must do a *hell
> > of a lot* of trust- building before anything like this
> > is not viewed as a "benign" intervention.
>
> On the wiki:
> http://brainstorm.ucimc.org/ucimcWiki/igap
> it is said that at least one individual from each of
> IMC SA and IMC Nigeria are involved in the project.

The UCIMC has a several-year history working with IMCs throughout the
world and has been working with specifically with IMC Nigeria since 2001.
Given that the initiative for the project came from all the stakeholders
involved, I don't think there's any problem of trust.

> However,
> (1) the imc-sa mailing list has secret archives:
> http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-sa
> (see
> http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/NewImcMailingListIssues
> for arguments for/against secret archives etc.)
>
> (2) nothing has been said on the imc-nigeria mailing list
> since Jan 2003:
> http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-nigeria
>
> So there might be a problem of transparency here.  i agree
> with petros in the sense that more transparency (use of
> open mailing lists) might help build up more trust among
> African activists.
>
> i am a bit curious as to whether IMC Ambazonia and IMC
> Estrecho-Madiak are interested or have been consulted. In
> any case, some IMC Ambazonia people use the imc-africa
> list, and i'm cc-ing imc-estrecho in case it doesn't yet
> have a liaison on imc-africa. So now everyone is hopefully
> in contact.

The answer is very simple -- when the grant was being written, the only
two established IMCs were Nigeria and South Africa.  Had others been
well-established at that time, they would have been asked if they wanted
to collaborate on the project.

> > 2. Consensus.
> > This is a decision which is absolutely political, but
> > being promoted (disguised ) as a financial transaction.
> > A project like this can only be part of a global
> > IndyMedia policy if there is a global consensus (or a
> > severely heavy majority globally, among us) to back it
> > up. Do we have that among us?
>
> As i understand it, this is a horizontal cooperation
> between one IMC in N America and two existing IMCs in
> Africa.  As i understand it, it's not claiming to be a
> global indymedia project, and it's not trying to avoid
> the new-imc process - on the contrary, it asks the
> "candidate" to have experience in starting new IMCs
> and in going through the new-imc process.

I also completely disagree that this should be a Global Indymedia
decision.  This is a project taken on by an individual IMC and no
different than many other projects that many other IMCs take on.

> > 4. Evaluation.
> > Whe isn't this project aimed directly and specifically
> > at African IndyMedia activists?
>
> See above - we could also ask why *criticism* of this project
> is not directed to the imc-africa mailing list?
>
> > but who happen to be steering the imc boat without
> > realizing the depth of the waters. The depth can be
> > learned, and there are maps.
>
> Nice metaphor :))
>
> i suggest everyone interested get together on imc-africa
> and sort things out there.

I think it's easy to overproblematize this project.  The idea behind the
IGAP project is extremely simple: 1. transfer resources and equipment to
areas in Africa where they're direly needed; 2. get someone who is highly
experienced with the Global Indymedia and New-IMC process to help out any
interested groups to become IMCs; 3. share skills among Indymedia
participants and provide media production training to interested folks;
provide funding for folks to do Indymedia organizing in Africa; and create
information that can be disseminated to possible funders about what needs
exist for Indymedia growth in Africa.

Given these goals and the fact that the folks we've been working with in
Africa are all highly supportive, I'd be really confused if anyone has a
problem with the project.

In solidarity,

--Sascha Meinrath
Urbana-Champaign IMC