[Imc-finance] Re: Funding Nigeria-imc: 3 items to consider

[Sascha Meinrath]

Winters (et al.),

Thanks for your thoughtful reply -- I hope it has helped clarify the
concerns raised.  I just wanted to reiterate that IMC-Nigeria has never
received Global Indymedia funds.  A year or so ago Winters put out a
public call for financial help to get IMC-Nigeria off the ground.  At this
time there was a lot of discussion of having established IMCs partner with
newer IMCs to help them get started; thus, I brought this request back to
the Urbana-Champaign IMC membership as part of this initiative.  We held a
series of fundraisers and received a sizable donation from an individual
donor over a several month period.  These funds, which the UCIMC raised of
its own intiative, were sent to IMC-Nigeria.

All of this information is also freely available to anyone who asks for
it; and I would strongly encourage people to ask for clarification rather
than making assumptions about what happened.  We have had a series of
problems with misinformation being disseminated -- getting fiscal
information is as easy as sending an e-mail -- and would be much less
destructive to the trust and solidarity of our community.

If there are other questions about global funds, feel free to send me an
e-mail.

In solidarity,

--Sascha Meinrath
Urbana-Champaign IMC

On Thu, 21 Nov 2002, winters wrote:

>
> Hi all,
>
> I am very happy to respond to the mail below.
> I also highly appreciate the networking systems of our dear indymedia and
> above all the special commitments of different people from all over the
> globe irrespective of age, colour, knowledge, standards, religion etc.
>
> I hardly respond to mails like this especially when it directly attack
> persons' personality and integrity, I mean when such mails  breaks what i
> may refer to as official conducts.
>
> we are all bonded together as one big family through our collective believe
> 'indymedia's mission'. Hence we all volunteer to give our time and knowledge
> to it. Some of us have lost our jobs, gave all our savings and even our
> security  for this mission. Some of us have travelled from one continent to
> the other exchanging ideas and building co-operation between people of same
> minds , all to make indymedia  globally and locally work and reach people.
> Most time people that can go this far may be able to sacrifice all they have
> to the mission , but not their last asset- ' their integrity'.  Also, a new
> IMC  like Nigeria , working from global south may be able to  give all it
> takes to be strong , effective, reliable and also meeting global network
> demands , but may also not be ready to be rumoured around the globe as
> unreliable and non existing in any capacity. I have been opportune to travel
> to many continents of the globe and with my work in environment, social and
> community development , i have come to realise that just like all fingers
> are not equal , so also economic, social, and environmental standards
> varies from pole to pole. I have also come to realise that what is
> obtainable in the north may not be obtainable in the south due to different
> problems and  constrains like poverty, people priorities, societal values,
> resource availability etc.  I have always tried to to give equal measurement
> to all people especially when they are all not in same conditions. I also
> believe that tagging some IMC BAD or so even when they are doing their best
> may not be the best way to helping IMCs improve. I am sure no IMC in the
> globe can boast that they have reached perfection.... we are all working to
> achieve that. That i know is our goal. I advise we should be careful in the
> way we attack IMCs especially when you actually sit in one part of the globe
> and shot punches to another group on the other end. Most times  it doesn't
> help their growth . This kind of mails often kill projects and ideas even
> before they are conceived. We all need encouragements rather than
> condemnations to help us all volunteer more time and strength to achieve
> indymedia goals.
>
> Nigeria IMC this year got funding from our partner  UCIMC and we did have a
> good understanding between us before the funding came through. it was
> approx. $3,000. Which i Winters received for IMC Nigeria while i was on a
> visit to England. what we know and we are used to is when you are funded by
> a group you at the end of your organisation's accounting year send a copy of
> your account to the funding group or send account of funds sent to your
> group to the donor when they request for it. We have never at anytime
> recieved funding from IMC global . Or if we may ask , when we get
> independent funding from any source do we send our account to IMC global or
> send it to IMC lists? These issues are quite confusing. I hope there is a
> balance treatment in handling IMCs affairs globally. This draws our
> attention to the issue of question mark appearing in front of IMC Nigeria
> link in the listing pages of IMC Document website. Same question mark also
> appears for IMC South Africa. This page ( IMC Document
> website)http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/WebHome#_Africa_  there are
> links to all other IMC , but non to Nigeria and South Africa. Can some one
> answer this questions?
>
> As we all work to make indymedia reach out to all , we will be glad if
> volunteers and local IMCs are allow to do there work instead of getting
> condemnation for every little work done. little drop of water makes a great
> ocean. Rome was never built in one day.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Winters
> Nigeria IMC
>
>
>
> Petros Evdokas writes:
>
> >
> >
> > 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
> > Nigeria (therefore necessitating imc expenses and
> > funding):
> > a.  the group, as far as I know is not yet in the imc
> > network, so, most likely not eligible,
> > b.  it has not yet clarified its relation to lesbian-
> > and gay- liberation politics in the various political
> > position statements it has sent us,
> > c.  it has apparently good allies within the germany
> > imc groups, and the washington dc imc groups, so there
> > are many ways for our new Ambazonia colleagues to
> > become familiarised, trained, involved in our process
> > through direct, face- to face contact with solidely
> > active imc members.
> > d.  if there is a pressing political need to speed up
> > this process, and to make it a priority for us to
> > finance a meeting of Ambazonia imc contacts with Jay in
> > Nigeria, it needs to be demonstrated to us in political
> > terms we can understand.
> >
> >      ****
> >
> > I hope our colleagues from Nigeria-imc will want to
> > answer some of all these questions above.
> > Also, I hope our imc colleagues who know more about
> > other, previous,  imc funding to imc-nigeria, will step
> > forward with the information and share it openly.
> > These will enable us to help imc-Nigeria better.
> >
> > All of the above concerns are specifically related to
> > the current funding request for imc-nigeria, but the
> > concerns should apply to *all* the requests we receive.
> > I wish that our procedures here at imc-finance, can
> > expand to include these political/organizational
> > concerns and explorations in our dialogue at all times,
> > instead of just the sterile "yes" or "no" we are asked
> > to offer as mindless cattle.
> >
> > Your thoughts would be most welcome,
> > Petros
> > http://PetrosEvdokas.mainpage.net
> > ------------------------
>
>
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