[New-imc] Indymedia Baghdad? Kabul? (fwd)

[boud]

hi evan, crystal, everyone,

   evan: do you have any objection to crystal creating a mailing
list, e.g.

imc-baghdad

to get the coordinating work started? Maybe on the condition that
crystal submit an initial request form to show who the supporting
groups are (progressive Iraq expat groups or fascist or islamic
fundamentalist?), and that there are at least one or two expat
progressive Iraqis as list admins.

IMHO this is a reasonable minimum level of organisation to start 
off with.


IMHO, most of us with indy experience agree with your worries
about "the Prague precedent".  But at the same time i don't think we
should damp the enthusiasm of people whose utopian ideas go in the
right direction.

My feeling is that it makes more sense to start with just an imc-baghdad
mailing list rather than jumping straight into "Indymedia at
Large". 

Of the four places crystal mentioned, one (Colombia) is an already
existing IMC. Another is an organising IMC (Pilipinas). i'm on the
pilipinas mailing list, and so far crystal has not contacted that list
to ask the locals what concrete help they would like, nor to discuss
indymedia type organising with them, etc. (but she said she has
contacted IMC Colombia). This is not meant to be a criticism of
crystal and the Los Angeles radio Indy people, it's simply that i
don't think we should jump into a major new policy shift - even if
it's only creating one subdomain name - without being confident that
there is a well organised support group, using publicly archived
mailing lists, running non-hierarchically, etc etc., and seeing that
it really works, or is on the way to functioning.


On Sat, 22 Feb 2003 evan at protest.net wrote:

> As somebody who has been involved in organizing indymedia centers in
> places i'm not from i have to say i'm really worried by this proposal.
> 
> For example we rolled in to town and setup the Prague IMC. Then when then
> event was over there was  nobody left to really do the organizing. I think
  ...

> I personally would love to see some indymedia folks, perferably who spoke
> arabic and perferably who were iraqi or at least middle eastern
> themselves, go to Baghdad and help start an indymedia center. Also we
> might consider how we could cover issues and events when explictly don't
> intend to setup an organization. But this is a very different thing that
> what has been done by indymedia in the past and we need to think of it
> critically and throughly before we engange in such a venture.

IMHO, this could be done on a mailing list starting with a concrete
place e.g. imc-baghdad at lists.indymedia.org.  Assuming crystal and
others are really going to do the organising and facilitating
(synthesising, analysing, finding consensus, ...)  of discussions,
in English, Arabic, whatever languages are used on the list.


> On Sat, 22 Feb 2003, boud wrote:
> 
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > > Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 18:37:41 -0800 (PST)
> > > From: Crystal Allene Cook <c_allenecook at yahoo.com>
> > > To: new-imc at indymedia.org
> > > Subject: [New-imc] Indymedia Baghdad?  Kabul?
> >
> >
> > Proposal for Indymedia At Large
> >
> > Some Radio IMC and other folks here in Los Angeles, on the tail of
> > what has been created with electronicIraq.net and
> > electronicIntifada.net are interested in the possibility of
> > creating/moderating an Indymedia At Large.  Although we are still in
...

> > B) Our initial interests include At Large to: Baghdad, Kabul,
> > Colombia, and the Philippines, etc., stretching as far and wide as
> > U.S. Military Aggression.  We have begun dialogue with Voices in the
> > Wilderness (www.vitw.org), Iraq Peace Team, and ElectronicIraq. net
> > toward creating the possibility for an Indymedia Baghdad.  As a


crystal:

Have you got responses and good communication underway with 
VITW/Iraq Peace Team, humanshields.org and/or ElectronicIraq.net ?

It depends what other new-imc people think, but IMHO, if you think
something is feasible based on the responses you've received,
including contacts with at least a few progressive expat Iraqi groups,
then you should at least have one general contact and a tech contact,
preferably from the expat groups (or locals if there are Baghdadis
with internet access interested in Indymedia)
and other organising information and you should be able to submit the
form at the bottom of
 http://newimc.indymedia.org
making it clear that for the moment you are only "pre-organising",
that the main point of the request is to start a mailing list to
find out what can really be possible in practice.

solidarity
boud