[New-imc] some questions for IMC Nepal discussions
boud
boud1 at wp.pl
Fri Jul 19 10:39:07 PDT 2002
<indymedia cross-post new-imc, imc-nepal, solaris at mail.sarai.net,
see the public archives at:
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-nepal/ >
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SUMMARY:
(1a) How would you plan to get information input and output to the site by
people *in Nepal*?
(1b) Would there be ordinary people *both* from govt-controlled areas
*and* from Maoist-controlled areas able to input and output to the newswire?
(2) How would ordinary people living in Nepal be able to participate
in decision-making, in editorial decisions, and in other coordinating
tasks?
(3) *use* the imc-nepal list to start networking with people who can make
practical comments about
(3a) The present internet access in Nepal, both in govt areas and
in Maoist areas
(3b) How to improve internet access in these areas (e.g. wireless
networks)
(3c) Do you support or oppose the Maoist policy of destroying
telecommunication towers?
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BACKGROUND:
One arbitrarily(!) chosen page (among many) with background:
http://www.asiapacificms.com/articles/nepal_maoism/
Dear stephen,
On Tue, 16 Jul 2002, Trickster Coyote wrote:
> Dear New Lists,
> My name is Stephen Mikesell, currently with IMC-Madison and a
> volunteer with WORT-FM in Madison and a friend of the person
> involved in starting the IMC-India. I worked in Nepal for 9 years
> as anthropologist and journalist.
Yes, it's clear you know a lot about Nepal, including from
the "historical materialist" point of view:
http://www.vedamsbooks.com/no15054.htm
: Class, State and Struggle in Nepal : Writings 1989-1995/Stephen
: Lawrence Mikesell.
: 1999, 326 p., figs., ISBN 81-7304-267-5.
[This makes gekked's request all the more relevant: where do
you stand with respect to the Maoists?]
> Over the last three months I have been coordinating the organizing
> of people for forming a new IMC in Nepal. I had set up an organizing
The problem is that we still don't know whether you want to set up an
alternative news site with good recent information coordinated by
Nepal expats and/or ex-Nepal-residents on what's happening in Nepal,
or an Indymedia collective. They're not quite the same thing.
The former could certainly be very useful, and i'm sure some of
the indymedia collectives would be happy to link to articles there.
But as i understand indymedia, we're after something much more radical.
We really want locals to run their own media, so that, for example,
progressive people in rich countries don't have to waste time over
struggling with each other about who best represents the oppressed.
Better that the oppressed speak for themselves.
> list a couple of months back, but we chose not to use it as none of
> us wanted to join the 100 or so journalists who have been abducted
> or killed by the government in Nepal, which has been under emergency
> in an insurgency war.
Well, you've already put your name, address and phone number on a
publicly archived list. [You could ask for this to be removed for
obvious security reaons, if you wish - best to do this offlist, just
email the new-imc list administrator you can find on the listinfo
page.]
Just to complete your comments on government abductions/killings,
let's remember that:
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/ASA310462002
: 19 June 2002
: The Maoists, who now control a sizable proportion of the country, have
: taken around 500 people hostage, tortured scores of people, sentenced
: people to death in "people's courts", and recruited child soldiers.
So there's risk both from government and from the Maoists to anyone
who is truly independent. Let's not romanticise too much about the
Maoists...
http://www.maoism.org/misc/nepal/worker2/worker2_4.htm
: ... the Party expresses Its firm commitment to wage relentless struggle
: against all forms of deviationist thoughts and trends including
: economism, reformism and anarchism.
But there are also nearly 70 people (including yourself) in
the following list who have already made their names public:
http://www.ucc.uconn.edu/~ser00003/NS_news3.html
Is it really that dangerous for all of these people to
write emails (possibly via aliases) given that they have
already signed a very public statement opposing Nepali
government legislation?
Please don't think we want people to put themselves at risks
they're not willing to take. But you can't just ask us to
help you set up a web site when there's no information at
all on discussion of things like
- non-hierarchy,
- consensus decision-making,
- locals having the main control of the site, even if via expat supporters,
- how openness is possible despite the security risks
In the Palestine case, people from existing IMCs physically
went to Palestine (on invitation of the locals - i'm talking
about when the collective was being set up - not the caravan
where some lack of communication occurred), and if you look
up http://lists.indymedia.org you'll see there are several
Palestine lists.
You could have a mix of some lists which are more open, some
which are more closed, but if everything is done by lists
which are completely secret (e.g. by your personal mailbox),
then i don't see how this could resemble an IMC.
> Now there is a core group including journalists, anthropologists,
> and medical doctors (including the president of Physicians for
> Social Responsibility) who feel they are ready for setting up the
> IMC webpage. All of them already have long experience publishing or
> writing for newspapers, magazines, and/or professional journals. All
> are progressive politically and have been involved in a variety of
> ways in struggle. They have had organizational meetings and are now
> ready for the next step.
You would make it much easier for people to understand if you said
whether these journalists, anthropologists and medical doctors are
people living in Nepal (and are they a mix of indigeneous Nepalese and
internationals?) or in the USA.
But i think you should also read about why some socially
progressive people feel that replacing a capitalist ruling class
by a "coordinator class" is not a good idea:
http://www.zmag.org/debateiso.htm
The above quote from the Amnesty International report clearly
claims that however much the Maoist "coordinators" may be supportive
of some human rights (job, food, housing), they're not doing terribly
well on other human rights.
However, here is a criticism of general Amnesty reports, claiming
that Amnesty info is incorrect:
http://www.humanrights.de/n/nepal/news/150401_success_ofd_ailekh.htm
Which is the whole point of why the best situation is to get as
close as possible to first-hand reports, and to have different
locals comment and correct in order to try to get some idea of
what the facts might really be...
IMHO, the sort of questions you need to ask yourselves and discuss
either on new-imc or imc-nepal, are something like:
(1a) How would you plan to get information input and output to the site by
people *in Nepal*?
(1b) Would there be ordinary people *both* from govt-controlled areas
*and* from Maoist-controlled areas able to input and output to the newswire?
(2) How would ordinary people living in Nepal be able to participate
in decision-making, in editorial decisions, and in other coordinating
tasks?
Of course, for security reasons, you could hide the details.
But with a bit of imagination, and if you have, say, half-a-dozen
people in the US/Europe/India who can have publicly known email
addresses and discuss this on imc-nepal, i'm sure it could be
possible. Having several people involved would also reduce the risk to
you personally. No need for martyrs here.
Surely among all the nearly 70 people following:
http://www.ucc.uconn.edu/~ser00003/NS_news3.html
there would be some people who could help?
My guess is that for (1a) and (2) there would be some
mix of personal travel/letters/telephone/internet, but there's no
point my hypothesising when i'm not going to be taking these actions.
We need to hear it from *you* (you plural)...
And i think the same bunch of people in "safe" positions, and with
good internet acess, should
(3) *use* the imc-nepal list to start networking with people who can make
practical comments about
(3a) The present internet access in Nepal, both in govt areas and
in Maoist areas
(3b) How to improve internet access in these areas (e.g. wireless
networks)
(3c) Do you support or oppose the Maoist policy of destroying
telecommunication towers?
If you support it, it would be good to say what sort of methods you
would hope to use to get media information input and output from
Nepal...
Just to help you, here are some guesses:
(3a) There are clearly lots of govt, NGO, etc. web sites, in govt
areas, e.g. including the ongoing struggle of the kamaiyas for real,
not just theoretical, freedom from slavery:
http://www.nepalresearch.com/human_rights/bonded_labour.htm
(3b) You really ought to contact and send cc:'s to imc-nepal
http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/solaris
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers/
http://www.bytesforall.org/
But at the same time, it does seem like internet access is
dominated by hierarchical, government-related groups - e.g.
the Nepal contact at http://www.bytesforall.org/ who has
an email address is <sangeeta at icimod.org.np> but the site
http://www.icimod.org.np/
seems all about giving internet access to hierarchical and
government elites... :(
But i think the Sarai people are a good bunch, and you
should certainly at least send an email to the solaris
list:
http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/solaris
(3c) i realise that it's risky to oppose the maoists head on
by opposing their policy of destroying telecommunications
towers, and that the government/NGO domination of the internet
makes it understandable why the Maoists feel that this is
necessary. However, communication is what IMCs are all about,
and i'm sure with a bit of creativity you could come up with a
way of answering this question which supports social
construction and communication...
BTW, what might be easier to start off with would be simply
to have a Kathmandu collective rather than a Nepal
collective - my guess is it's still in the hands of the
govt, and that most of the NGOs etc have offices there, and
that internet connections are relatively good there.
Get together some kamaiyas, other locals and maybe you
could get together a local collective... ?
That way you would not claim to be representing the
Maoist-controlled regions, though of course i'm sure
posts from there would appear.
Please take all of the above with the best intentions.
Creative solutions are possible, but it does require
some work and discussion, and i think a good deal of
the results can be posted and discussed on public
archives if a little creativity is used.
solidarity
boud
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