[WSIS CS-Plenary] summit - expectations - who's coming...
Meryem Marzouki
marzouki at ras.eu.org
Mon May 2 11:01:26 BST 2005
Dear Francis,
Le dimanche, 1 mai 2005, à 17:48 Europe/Paris, Dr. Francis MUGUET a
écrit :
> Dear Meryem
>
> There are many wild rumors floating around in Tunis as you know full
> well.
This is exactly the reason why I commented and I asked for more
precisions. Disseminating the "news" that all Tunis and suburbs hotels
(an all in all capacity of about 19.000 beds, not rooms) are already
booked and suggesting that it may occur that extra people would be
lodged in Hammamet (60 kms from Tunis, 70 from the WSIS place) may well
have been a "good idea" with a twofold objective:
(1) disseminating the rumor that thousands of people have already made
their plans to attend, the message being "hurry up" for those who have
not yet done this. The expected result being to actually reach at least
part of the alleged current situation
(2) starting to have civil society accepting the idea to be lodged far
from the WSIS site
This is the reason why I recommend that people like you, who are told
by whoever - not necessarily officials, some people may well be "plus
royaliste que le roi", as we say in French - this kind of rumor, should
be a bit cautious before disseminating it in its turn as a factual
information (or understood as such: I'm by no mean saying that you did
that on purpose).
Regarding Sharon having been invited, the answer is "yes" to your 2
questions:
- Yes, Sharon has been directly and personally invited by President Ben
Ali
- Yes, Israel being one of the United Nations States, its Prime
minister or any other representative of Israel may attend a UN Summit
wherever it takes place, without any direct invitation by the host
country.
I don't want either to discuss this issue on this list, which is not
really the relevant place to do so. Those interested in my own opinion
may read it (in French) at:
http://www.alternatives-citoyennes.sgdg.org/num15/dossier-w.html
What I mentioned in my message is that this invitation has caused
important street demonstration in Tunisia and important repression as a
follow-up. And if Sharon himself - an important part of the problem, as
I see it, is Sharon himself, much more than an israeli representative,
given his personal record as a killer (I should say a butcher) - indeed
attend the Tunis Summit (as the israeli press reported), then we should
be aware of that and of the consequences on the situation in Tunisia
during the Summit, not only regarding security checks and blocking of
streets, but also regarding the final decision of Tunisian independent
civil society w.r.t. to boycott, and consequently the position of
international CS.
Best,
Meryem
PS. And no, Monastir is not only a tourist place (like in other
Tunisian towns, people are studying and working there...)
PS2. I'm not sure I like your statement about the tourist industry and
"what a big business opportunity that this WSIS is going to generate
!". After all, this has been exactly the same big opportunity for the
economy in Geneva for the 1st phase, as well as in any other big
international event organized anywhere, be it a UN Summit or the world
olympic games: all countries are fighting for that (e.g. Paris for the
2012 Olympics). I think there is a need here to make a clear
distinction between Tunisian authorities very bad records on human
rights (which indeed we should fight) and inappropriate - and somewhat
condescending - arguments like the one you made. Sorry to be so direct,
but sometimes it seems relevant to recall that Tunisia is not only its
governement...
> The information that I got was no direct information and as such,
> all what I informally posted on some group lists is an information
> that must taken with a grain of salt.
>> Hi all
>>
>> I share Robert's cautiousness. I attended a Council of Europe meeting
>> on April 6-7, where Mr Geiger has been invited to provide the
>> audience with news about WSIS and the summit organization. Recalling
>> that only 44 heads of States and heads of governments attented Geneva
>> Summit, Mr Geiger informed us that the Tunisian authorities were
>> expecting (at that time) the attendance of 50 to 60 heads of states
>> and of governments, and were very much hoping a good representation
>> of northern countries.
>>
> Interesting information.
>
>> I see that the level of expectations has been raising (i.e. has
>> tripled) between early April and mid-April, when Francis visited
>> Tunis and got this new information. This taking into account that
>> when the invitation of Ariel Sharon, Israel Prime minister, has been
>> disclosed - which has led to many street demonstrations and
>> repression in Tunisia
>
> The situation is quite tense when you speak with people in Tunisia
> about this issue.
> There is a question that you might clarify for us, since I am not
> well versed in politics :
> Was Sharon invited by the Tunisian government at the occasion of the
> WSIS ?
> or
> Is Sharon planning to come as the head of the Israeli delegation, and
> Tunisia has nothing to say about it
> since it is a UN summit ?
> I heard the two views in Tunisia, and I could not discern which one
> was correct ?
> Now, since I feel like walking over a minefield, lets be clear that
> I am not prepared to discuss on this list whether the fact that Sharon
> would come is a
> politically, ethically a good/bad thing.
> I never alluded to Sharon visit in my post to the Finance group (the
> one forwarded by Rik)
> or other groups. Now, in relation to the logistics of the parallel
> events, I agree
> that Sharon as well as Bush possible visits may create extra security
> checks
> ( in case of bombing threats ) and blockade ( in case of
> demonstrations )
> that would create some material problems
> that we must prepared to cope with. This is not going to be a tourist
> trip.
>
>> - the Tunisian authorities said that about 120 invitations have been
>> sent to heads of States/governments. This means that even non
>> directly invited heads of states/governments are planning to attend.
>> Good achievement indeed.
>
> May be this number of 120 jumped to 150, may be there is some
> exageration.
>
>> There are other detailed information in Francis message forwarded by
>> Rik (thanks for that, Rik, and BTW, Francis, was this visit
>> officially related to WSIS ?
>
> No
>
>> I'm certainly not willing to ask private questions about your agenda:
>
> This is the problem of forwarding a mail from one list to another.
> Rik left me
> no time to send this info ( as I intended ) to the plenary with more
> cautious words
> and cross-checking. One may express oneself more spontaneously and more
> jokingly in Group lists than on the Plenary list, and
> I would appreciate in the future that this kind
> of "scoop" reporting/forwarding shall not be reproduced, all the more
> adding
> some comments with the forward that should have been sent first on the
> list where
> it was originally posted.
> Jean-Louis asked me the same question on the Finance list
> with his direct and humourous way.
> Let me forward my own anwer ( translated from French ) to the plenary :
> ---------------
>
>>> Thanks Francis for this reporting ; I hope that the National Tourist
>>> Office of Tunisia paid for your trip ( friendly joke ).
>>
> In fact, it is almost the case ! (Note for plenary: joke, of course
> this was not the case )
> I went to Monastir within the framework
> of a scientific collaboration ( research on the structure of liquid
> water )
> the trip was paid by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs
> ( Note for Plenary : scientific cooperation, nothing to do with
> politics ) and my stay was paid by the Monastir Rectorate.
> Coming back from Monastir to Paris, I stopped in Tunis
> This is for the transparency of my financing, which in many cases,
> is from my own pocket, as you know full well.
>
> end of translated forwarding
> --------------
> Just for extra info, for those who might be under the impression that
> Monastir is only a place for tourists :
> the site of "Faculté des Sciences de Monastir"
> http://www.fsm.rnu.tn
> ( English visitors do not get a wrong impression, the site in English
> is rudimentary, only the site in French is complete and quite well
> made, French is the official language of Science Higher learning in
> Tunisia )
> and for those who might be under the impression that everything is
> known
> about liquid water http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/index.html
> which is a major scientific enigma yet to be understood, and
> very strangely enough not much publicized.
> The visit to the Foire du Livre in Tunis was quite interesting,
> roughly half of the books were in French, the other part in Arabic,
> and I bought there technical and science books there at lower price
> than in Paris. There was a booth about the WSIS and a WSIS-related
> digital culture exhibition in the Foire (see my pictures
> http://www.wsis-pct.org/kram-apr05.html
> ) and I spoke rather extensively with the people on both booths
> about the planned WSIS organization. I got the latest WSIS white
> T-shirt and a cap.
>> ), but just wanting to know if some WSIS CS people were invited there.
>
>
> No, but I took the opportunity to meet Tunisian people involved in the
> WSIS process.
>
>>
>> This detailed information relates to the organization. I noticed that
>> almost all Tunis hotels are said to be already booked, that 18.000
>> participants have already registered (these people are really far
>> sighted, specially since - correct me if I'm wrong, registration
>> forms for the summit are not yet available.
>
> My understanding, but again it is more a guess than a certainty,
> is that this number is related to the members of the state delegations,
> which are making their registration very early with other channel than
> the
> general public.
> Now the distinction between conference registration and Hotel
> reservations
> may have been blurred.
>
> Lets have a look at the statistics in Geneva, we had
> /
> Attendance/ Number of Participants Number of Entities Represented *
> States* 4590 176 *
> International Organizations* 225 50
> *UN Bodies* 620 37 *
> UN Agencies* 347 13
> *Non-Governmental Organizations* 3310 481 *
> Business* 514 98 *
> Guests* 471 *
> Media* 970 631
> *TOTAL* 11047 1486
>
> We can see that in Geneva the NGOs only comprise about 30% of
> the participants. We had about 7700 non-NGOs participants.
> If those 18,000 participants are mostly related to delegations, then
> it means that would
> be more high profile govermental attendance in Geneva.
>
>> They also are rich,
>
> goverments are filthy rich ! and large official delegations filled
> with non-essential bureaucrats are quite
> often customary in sunny spots on winter time !
> I would add that the Tunisia goverment is making a much stronger
> diplomatic campaign to have a very large
> diplomatic attendance than the more distributed Swiss government did
> for Geneva. In Tunisia, the WSIS is the *big event* as it can be seen
> to any person coming at the Airport.
>
>> if they made hotel reservation through the hotels proposed at
>> www.smsitunis2005.tn) and I'm pleased to learn where the US
>> delegation will stay.
>
> This, I cross-checked with other sources. The fact that the US
> embassy booked the whole Hotel in front
> of its location does not mean necessarily that President Bush will
> come,
> only that a high ranking US official would come,
> certainly of a higher rank than the Science adviser that was
> dispatched in Geneva.
>
>> However, I see that this leads the organizers to envisage the
>> accomodation of other participants in Hammamet and to bus them daily.
>> Although Tunisia is not so large, and the distance between Tunis and
>> Hammamet is only about 60km, I see this situation would really be a
>> problem for people lodging in Hammamet to fully be able to decide by
>> themselves of where and when they're willing to go.
>
> That's true, and this why I issued this warning for the parallel
> events organizers who must be on site,
> early in the morning, and stress the need of local organizers.
> Now, with the Tunisians, according to their long experience with
> their Tourist industry
> ( what a big business opportunity that this WSIS is going to generate
> ! ),
> a good organization should be expected.
> I was told that participants are to be welcome directly at the Airport
> (rather small, likely to be congested ? ) , badges, hotel bookings
> will be issued directly there.
>
> Now, I guess there are, on this list, quite a significant number of
> CS people from Tunisia,
> or that are coming back and forth to Tunis, and lileky to know a lot
> more that
> has been disclosed here. I would be good that those people would
> inform us from
> time to time of the evolution of the situation in Tunis in relationship
> with the WSIS preparation.
>
> Best regards
>
> Francis
>
>>
>>
>> Best,
>> Meryem
>>
>> Le jeudi, 28 avr 2005, à 21:43 Europe/Paris, Robert Guerra a écrit :
>>
>>> I read in an earlier post - perhaps it was Francis - where it was
>>> stated that some 150 heads of state would be coming to the
>>> summit.......
>>>
>>> hmmm.. i really doubt it. One must recal that during the first phase
>>> an equal # (or higher) was also envisioned, but in the end - the
>>> reality was quite different.
>>>
>>> I think it is way too premature to discuss which heads of state will
>>> be coming. At least now. Let's wait for PC3
>>>
>>> --
>>> ###
>>> Robert Guerra <rguerra at privaterra.org>
>>> Privaterra - <http://www.privaterra.org>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Plenary mailing list
>>> Plenary at wsis-cs.org
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>>>
>>
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>>
>
>
> --
>
> ------------------------------------------------------ Francis F.
> MUGUET Ph.D
> MDPI Foundation Open Access Journals
> Associate Publisher
> http://www.mdpi.org http://www.mdpi.net
> muguet at mdpi.org muguet at mdpi.net
>
> ENSTA Paris, France
> KNIS lab. Director "Knowledge Networks & Information Society" (KNIS)
> muguet at ensta.fr http://www.ensta.fr/~muguet
>
> World Summit On the Information Society (WSIS)
> Civil Society Working Groups
> Scientific Information : http://www.wsis-si.org chair
> Patents & Copyrights : http://www.wsis-pct.org co-chair
> Financing Mechanismns : http://www.wsis-finance.org web
>
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