[Imc-africa] Re: SA Delegate to Dakar Conference

Sat Mar 6 12:54:25 PST 2004

To Glenda and Sphinx, Peter in Cape Town and I have been discussing how it is we send a member of our collective to Dakar. Having already submitted my name as the delegate, I now find myself committed to processes here in Joburg that would make leaving difficult. Others have indicated their availability - but moving as late on this arrangement as we are, how do we ensure that we receive the money to book a ticket early enough for an arrival in Dakar in time for the conference? We don't have the funds to book the ticket ourselves and need the ticket costs transferred. Our account (if of help at all) is: Independent Media Centre, chq acc.1944177272 at Nedbank, Parktown. There'd be a swift code but unfortunately I don't have it. Flights leave daily from South Africa to Senegal so we'd be hoping for a Monday evening arrival at the earliest.

no last gasp too late
nicolas

On Fri, 5 Mar 2004 06:55:12 -0800 (PST), African IMCs and the imc project in Africa <imc-africa at lists.indymedia.org> said:
>Dear South Africa IMC
>I am South African now living in Switzerland, have
>been a long time activist with the long apartheid
>struggle(1 of the founder members of the SA NGO
>coalition with Shirley Walters -Western Cape-Gen. Sec)
>and now continue in Switzerland with the Debt and
>Reparation Campaign in Switzerland-The role of the
>Swiss banks and apartheid, racism and people without
>papers.
>Just background.
>
>For just under 10 months the idea was booted in Berlin
>by a small group of non indymedia activist  who at an
>external conference held at the Berlin university-who
>later in the year launched a BOUNDRIES TO BRIDGES TOUR
>-  Depart Berlin October 2003 6-March 2004 Dakar. They
>constituted  a loose group, who called the conference
>Nomantology,  more or less around August/September
>2003
>Here people from the Ayslum Seeking  organisations
>were invited to take part on a panel discussion.
>This included someone from VOICE and KARAVAN - Shyinx
>being one of them.
>Shyinx, a member of Ambozonia/English speaking
>Cameroon IMC network-living in Germany, who is also in
>contact with the German  indymedia network agreed to 
>post the topic on the site and to open it for
>discussion. He took over the tasks to moderate the
>input from the Boundries to Bridges tour. 
>The Boundries to Bridges tour has at its main focus
>the question of boarder control of people moving from
>the north of Africa and Europe and its implications.
>I know this as I was at the conference and in much of
>the conference discussions directly with Shyinx.
>
>The whole issue of conflict seemed to have arose from
>my perspective from the time a proposal was put
>forward for finance.
>
>As Shyinx has taken on the role of co-ordinatation he
>put together a budget that in my opinion was far to
>unrealistic and not suffiencantly clearly detailed.
>But we all have our individual styles, experiences or
>lack of it.
>To have an idea is one thing but bringing it to
>fruitation is another.
>The idea as I understand it, within the indymedia
>context is a collective  sharing and division of
>labour.
>Shyinx in reality has slogged for months on
>maintaining this discussion and often found himself in
>rather frustrating situations and his responses are
>indicitive of this. 
>I think this occurred because many people were and are
>busy and did not have the same amount of time to
>invest in  reading all the emails flying to and fro.
>
>The other truth, to be said about this whole project
>is that the proper organising both at a conceptual and
>practical level was often confused and not seperated
>and so there always remained murky areas-which were
>sometimes concerved as lack of transparency.
>
>IMC hedged on the funding, a few people contributed by
>having parties and making small donations but not
>anywhere near enough to cover the cost of the proposed
>African delegates who indicated their willingness to
>attend.
>At first the African country's responses were
>enthusiastic but later the discussion did come up of
>just one delegate per country based on finance
>
>So Shyinx and or others sought other funder/s for the
>flights, accommodation, transport in Dakar and meals
>for the African delegation. How much? 
>(Unverteilung-Berlin-Germany)with what conditions.
>I in Switzerland raised Sfr.4000-00  (comedia) with
>clear conditions- part resourses and conference
>logistics.
>
>The details being:
>*  To contact the host of the conference- University
>Cheikh Anta Diop-our contact was Prof Aly Mbaye.
>He has provided the following:
>
>*  To provide the official letter of invitation for
>the African delegates for visa purposes
>
>*  Link to the appropiate department for official
>hosting
>*  Hall for workshops with out computers-Introduction
>and socialising
>*  Computer room with internet access for 30 -50
>people at a cost per hour per computer.
>*  Access to all departments students,student bodies
>and academic staff
>(full list with emails available on request)
>*  Our accomadation while we set up the logistics at a
>cost
>
>External:
>*  Meetings with  NGO's(to include the NGO coalition)
>working in the field-access to assess the alternative
>media and communication, as well as access  to
>alternative resourses including community base groups
>both urban and rural
>(full list with emails available on request)
>
>*  Meetings with international NGO's in the field of
>communication to access information of the position of
>the experience and condition as it stands in
>Dakar-Senegal (alternative media)
>(full list with emails available on request)
>
>*  Meetings to co-ordinating the local contacts that
>were made and of people who expressed an interest
>(full list with emails available on request)
> 
>*  Meetings to co-ordinate the arriving European
>people indymedia and non indymedia-Boundries to
>Bridges core group,Stuttgart,Dusseldorf,Lausanne and
>Caneries-Spain
>(full list with emails available on request)
>
>*  Devise and distribute  flyer on campus and via
>email
>(full list with emails available on request)
>
>*  Devise programme from the original posted on the
>site and its distribution English and French
> 
>The postion of the confernce to date is as follows:
>
>SEE OFFICIALLY POSTED PROGRAMME IN ENGLISH AND FRENCH
>
>Two sessions run per day:
>10:00 to 12:00
>and
>15:00 to 17:00(a repeat of the morning)
>Conference started inofficially on the 4 and 5th March
>with introduction and socialising. Attended by 40
>people 
>Run by Glenda,Maureen, Michaela  with introduction of
>Andrea, Chrissi and Julien (non indymedia except for 
>Glenda and Julien Indy CH) at first session
>
>At afternoon session Iken, Fabian and Sabina of
>Boundries to Bridges participated at introduction
>level.(they had just arrived)
>
>5th March 2004
>Introduction of INDYMEDIA -History, principals and
>booklet-summary
>repeat sessions
>Fabian and Julien
>
>7th March Boundries to Bridges tour film
>
>8-14th March Full content programme see programme
>Devised from the orginal posted onto site
>
>Inclusion and regrouping for programme with African
>delegates on their arrival
>Close of conference with indy party
>
>
>
>Details of logistics outside of the conference:
>
>Chrissi who has the funds from Shyinx  for the
>following, for the African delegating
>Accom finance ?
>Food?
>Transport to and from airport?
>Material? 
>(printing of booklet and other) the booklet is on CD
>in both French and English- 90 pages
>(in my opinion far to bulky for people to read and
>especially cumbersome for beginners -actually
>intimidating)
>
>We have secured two houses-(Aziz) alongside each other
>one for the African delegation  and one for the other
>group as we have agreed that it would be cheaper to
>share.
>We could mix ourselves up a bit on their arrival
>
>The group consists of the following:
>
>Fabian,Iken,Sabina-Berlin-Germany Boundries to Bridges
>Group (non indy)
>Andrea and Chrissi-Dusseldorf/Stuttgart-Germany(non
>indy)
>Julien,Maureen,Michaela
>Glenda-Lausanne,Genf+Zurich-Switzerland(indy and non
>indy)
>Rafel-IMC Caneries + Elena-Friend -Spain
>Azis-Journalist, Dapina-Video documentation -Dakar
>(non indy)
>Plus an extensive email network 
>(list available on request)
>
>Expected African delegates:
>(what selection criterea was used,we have no idea)
>Frank,Ofega-Cameroon-English(indymedia status?)
>Floriebert-Congo-forming
>Gilbert-Angola forming
>John,Grace-Kenya IMC?
>Jean Ntela Nkanga- Congo?
>
>THIS IS FOR IMC FINANCE
>PLEASE GIVE US DETAILS SO THAT WE CAN TALK
>
>*  We have been informed that IMC Finance has made
>money available and I have been mandated by the group
>to get into contact with them to establish the
>position and how we can access some of it as the money
>here is very tight.
>*  I have the mandate to establish a small working
>group linking all the relevant alternative media(ngo's
>and other) people in Senegal to the indymedia network
>to start the volcano while the small bush fire is
>started on the campus and in pockets outside......
>will keep you posted
>*  we have also mooted the idea of a
>www.africa.indymedia.org...... website open for
>discussion
>
>We are all excited and await the arrival and
>interaction with the others.
>
>Glenda/NeBe
>
>
>
>
> 
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>--- Peter van Heusden <pvh at wfeet.za.net> wrote:
>> Date sent:      	Wed,  3 Mar 2004 20:05:52 +0000
>> From:           	sphinx <sphinx at indymedia.org>
>> To:             	imc-africa at lists.indymedia.org,
>> pvh at wfeet.za.net
>> Copies to:      	nicolas dieltiens
>> <nicolas at red.org.za>,
>> 	southafrica at indymedia.org,
>> imc-sa at lists.indymedia.org
>> Subject:        	SA Delegate to Dakar Conference
>> 
>> > Dear pvh and imc-Southafrica! As you probably know
>> from all the mails I
>> > send to your lists, before for close to 8months
>> we've been involved in
>> > preparing for an indymeedia regional meeting in
>> Africa, Dakar-Senegal from
>> > the 1st to the 14th March2004. 
>> 
>> Hello Sphinx
>> 
>> I have seen emails about this conference on and off
>> (the IndyMedia 
>> mailing list manager keeps throwing my email off its
>> mailing lists, 
>> because of my over-eager spam filter). I have now
>> read up the recent 
>> posts via the WWW archive, so I think I am up to
>> date.
>> 
>> As I understand it, the current situation is that
>> funding has been 
>> secured for delegates from various places in Africa,
>> and that a group 
>> (Michaela, Maureen and NeBe/Glenda) from Switzerland
>> are currently in 
>> Dakar, with the Department of Economics at the
>> University there, doing 
>> initial preparations for this meeting.
>> 
>> I haven't had a chance to talk to the other members
>> of the Cape Town 
>> collective yet, I'll do that tomorrow.
>> 
>> However, I would like to state that we in Cape Town
>> know Nicolas - he is 
>> a good comrade from the Johannesburg IndyMedia
>> collective. I have read 
>> the exchange between yourself and him and think that
>> you are doing him a 
>> great injustice by the way that you describe his
>> emails... I can 
>> personally hear Nic's voice when reading those
>> texts, his slightly ironic 
>> tone, etc. The issues he raises are not personal
>> issues but come out of 
>> our experience as IMC-SAers.
>> 
>> IMC-SA is weak compared to other IMCs worldwide in
>> terms of financial 
>> resources (organising meetings in both Johannesburg
>> and Cape Town is very 
>> tough because the average South African cannot even
>> afford to move around 
>> their own city at will), but it is strong in terms
>> of its members' 
>> embeddedness in social movements. We draw our
>> membership from people 
>> engaged in broad struggles in post-Apartheid South
>> Africa. As I said, the 
>> points Nic raise, about organising IndyMedia being
>> something political, 
>> something not just technical, is 100%. This Senegal
>> thing has been 
>> discussed sporadically for months, yes. But surely
>> the low volume of 
>> emails should have said something? Clearly something
>> is happening in 
>> Senegal, but to what purpose - us IMC-SAers remain
>> confused.
>> 
>> Anyway, I'll email more in the morning after
>> discussing with other IMC-
>> SAers.
>> 
>> Peter
>> --
>> Peter van Heusden                    
>> pvh at wfeet.za.net
>> Tel: +27 (0)83 256 0457
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Imc-africa mailing list
>> Imc-africa at lists.indymedia.org
>>
>http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-africa
>
>
>
>
>
>
>__________________________________
>Do you Yahoo!?
>Yahoo! Search - Find what you&#8217;re looking for faster
>http://search.yahoo.com
>_______________________________________________
>Imc-africa mailing list
>Imc-africa at lists.indymedia.org
>http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-africa
>