[Imc-finance] Fwd: Re: [imc-ambazonia-contact] Funding Nigeria-imc: 3 items to consider
valentine V eben
vally_x at lycos.com
Tue Nov 19 14:00:03 2002
--
--------- Forwarded Message ---------
DATE: Mon, 18 Nov 2002 13:15:17
From: imc-ambazonia-contact-admin@lists.indymedia.org
To: imc-ambazonia-contact@lists.indymedia.org
This Frank reacting from Yaounde Cameroun, the other
Cameroon. I should congratulate Petros for his frank
talk. That reminds me of a column "FrankTalk" I ran in
a local newspaper back here in Cameroon. As frank as
my name or so I thought.
Petros has been very frank, for the first time
pointing out possible misconducts in indymedia. I'm
worried because my first impressions of indymedia were
those of an group of the most sincere persons, sincere
and open to a fault, to such a fault that they won't
tolerate those who mince words in traditional media
outlets because of editorial constraints, the reason
they go to such lengths in quest of the truth or in
helping others feel free to tell the truth.
Now to learn that records are sometimes not made
straight and no one raises a voice in protest or for
accountability, I begin to wonder whether it is not
another opportunistic group, where people feign
involvement to ideals only to position themselves for
"gold". I wonder whether there are any avenues to
goldmines through indymedia.
Petros is right to express concerns about general
silence from imc-ambazonia. But he should understand
that imc is not just one other media idea. It is the
extraordinary; and it takes understanding to know whow
to contribute to debates like I'msurely doing now or
to contribute articles to the website.
Valentine has been dying for that, lamenting our
non-participation. I've written back to him on
occasions to say it is not flooding the site that's a
problem, but understanding first the ideals of imc,
the true motivations behind imc, etc.
It is not news or comments that are lacking. By the
way I and Martin are newsmen, who surely have not been
able to publish or broadcast some nems item, because
it won't tally with editorial policy. So why not on
the imc-ambazonia website.
But please let me get to know what imc is and I'm
speaking here for myself, that for me it takes meeting
Jay, talking to him, asking him questions and hearing
others interact with him.
It doesn't matter where that happens - in
Yaounde-Cameroun, Victoria, Kumba, Bamenda,
Buea-Ambazonia, or wherever.
I want to meet Jay! And I'm preparing to do so. I'm
not waitiong for any funding from anywhere, fears of
mismanagement or not. Only too good if there is
assistance from somewhere, because, in spite of my
intentions, I really can't tell how I'll make. But
come Jay now or some time after, I look ,up to
meeting him or someone on imc mission, sooner or later
to begin to get into the mainstream of imc. Judge me
after that and, as the case may be, audit me.
Thanks, Petros for your thought-provoking frankness.
But I really wonder whether imc-Nigeria needed your
punches as hard as you gave them, if they have
explanations to your queries.
Why not wait for. Marcuss Sky mayn't have been an
appointed advocate.
Best regards.
--- imc-ambazonia-contact-admin@lists.indymedia.org
wrote:
>
>
> Funding Nigeria-imc: 3 items to consider
>
> In this article:
> o - the 3 items
> o - some further thoughts, and Alternatives
> ------------------------------
>
> Funding Nigeria-imc: 3 items
>
>
> In order to make informed, responsible, decisions
> regarding the funding of imc-Nigeria, we need to
> consider the following items in the list below. I’m
> very glad to see that our members of the imc-finance
> working group are now asking intelligent questions
> and
> making an effort to get clarifications, and I wish
> we
> had been doing this all along, for *all* of the
> funding
> requests! Here are the items to consider:
>
> 1. Nigeria-imc has received imc funding previously,
> in
> the recent past. This information is not being
> shared
> openly in the discussion, and it should be given
> some
> weight. The money that was given should be accounted
> for, the procedures should be examined, and we need
> to
> see :
> a. who were the recipients, what was the money used
> for?
> b. who were the recipients accountable to? Did they
> give a report on how the money was used? Did the imc
> group which approved the money, remain satisfied
> with
> that exchange?
> c. who are the imc people who funded imc nigeria in
> the past, who are they accountable to, and why are
> they
> not talking about this openly now? Shouldn’t this
> funding request be seen in the light of previous
> funding?
>
> 2. The previous time that imc-Nigeria requested
> money
> (it was for $20.000 !! ) I wrote this article about
> it:
> "[Imc-nigeria] Ways to help imc- Nigeria without
> money"
>
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-nigeria/2002-June/000091.html
> It was also published as a part of the imc-finance
> dialogue about it, here:
>
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-finance/2002-June/001335.html
>
> There was never any response to it, from anyone in
> imc-finance. Nor was there any resonse from anyone
> related to imc-Nigeria (except I received a very
> hostile letter from their supporter, Marcus Sky
> {IMC-UK nessuno}, who wrote to me supposedly on
> behalf
> of Winters, but I do not believe that Winters would
> have been so crude or crass, even if we had an
> apparent
> difference of opinion - so far, Winters sounds like
> a
> reasonable person who simply had questionable ally).
>
>
> Anyway, now would be a good time again, for
> imc-Nigeria
> to answer some of our questions related to
> languages,
> to community organization, to politics, etc. It’s
> not
> unreasonable for us to ask our Nigeria colleagues
> what
> exactly is happening with the imc group there. For
> example, even after my many questions on the group’s
> rhythm of activity and process, the group produced
> *one* article in the last six months (please see the
> imc-nigeria site for yourselves). This contradicts
> the
> claim we have read that supposedly "The IMC-Nigeria
> has
> been a well-established IMC for over a year."
>
> And the majority of posts from visitors on the site,
> are still from Europe and the US ( what makes this
> group Nigerian?) And again, since the answer to this
> question may re-surface as an excuse: since the
> internet hardly exists in Nigeria, its "mission-
> orientation" to being online, might be entirely
> inappropriate. It’s very possible that the
> country’s
> needs for Free (radical) Media might be better
> served
> by Indymedia activists working with *different*
> media,
> such as Radio, Video, Press, etc. But we don’t know
> this, and cannot judge this from a distance, only
> our
> colleagues in Nigeria have the familiarity with the
> issues and the autonomy to decide this. Except, it
> would be nice if they were open to *dialogue* with
> us
> about these issues, since they are asking us for
> funding. Why is the group not open to dialogue about
> these issues?
>
> Even the imc-Nigeria email list, was graciously
> managed
> for a whole year until this October by one of our
> most
> committed US- based comrades, Scott Lewis of the
> Bandwidth Coop, who is an internationalist American;
> it
> was not managed by any of the Nigerian colleagues.
> The
> current (new) manager of the list, is not in
> Nigeria.
> These also fly in contradiction to the claim we have
> read that supposedly "The IMC-Nigeria has been a
> well-established IMC for over a year."
>
> All these "problems" in publishing and
> communication,
> are not generated by a lack of money! They can be
> addressed by any group of activists who have an
> interest in organization, tangible politics, and who
> are committed to co-operation. It does not take
> money
> to organize. Why do we persist to keep on wanting to
> give money to groups (like imc-nigeria) without
> asking
> questions about organization, political orientation,
> structure, etc?
>
> 3. imc-nigeria seems to have a "special
> relationship"
> to funding requests. This is the third one I have
> seen
> in one year. This is remarkable for a group that has
> written six short articles in one year! (The
> articles
> are about one paragraph- long each.) We need someone
> who is "behind the scenes" in relation to imc
> finances,
> to explain to us why this situation exists, what is
> this special relationship, and why it keeps coming
> up.
>
> ****
>
> Some further thoughts and Alternatives
>
> I am very much in favour of Jay’s visit and imc
> contacts in Africa.
>
> If there is some compelling reason (I don’t see one,
> but it might exist), I would feel a whole lot
> better,
> to just give some of this money directly to Jay (a
> much smaller amount), and he can use it at his
> discretion for contacts, for getting around, and
> for
> doing imc work in Africa. It’s just plain and
> simple. I
> don’t know Jay, but I trust him because I have seen
> that he is open to dialogue, open to being
> questioned,
> open (and self- motivated) to being accountable.
> None
> of the other parties involved in this deal so far
> (either those listed to receive the funds, or those
> who
> have funded them in the past) are showing any self-
> motivated openness to democratic procedures. Without
> transparency we cannot have democracy among us.
>
> Also, our colleague Winters of the imc-Nigeria
> group,
> seems to have some relationship (physical presence?)
> with the UK. It would be so simple for Winters to
> co-operate with our imc colleagues there, in the UK
> -
> we have a lot of new, and old imc- groupings all
> over
> the UK - and this co-operation would also generate
> whatever "training" is needed, and it would benefit
> all
> of us, at no cost! Why even *think* to fly him to
> Nigeria just to meet with Jay?
>
> Regarding the effort to create an Ambazonia- imc,
> and
> its possible participation in a meeting with Jay in
>
=== message truncated ===
__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your site
http://webhosting.yahoo.com
_______________________________________________
imc-ambazonia-contact mailing list
imc-ambazonia-contact@lists.indymedia.org
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-ambazonia-contact
--------- End Forwarded Message ---------
__________________________________________________________
Outgrown your current e-mail service? Get 25MB Storage, POP3 Access,
Advanced Spam protection with LYCOS MAIL PLUS.
http://login.mail.lycos.com/brandPage.shtml?pageId=plus&ref=lmtplus