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ON THE DOCUMENTATION OF THE SOCIAL FORUMS IN THE LIBRARIES (Part two)
These notes are a continuation of an article about the documentation of knowledge versus the documentation of social activities.[2] The article relates to the documentation of the process and events of the world social forum as well as the regional, national and local social forums. In this later part, I shall bear in mind the response from some librarians and social activists to the first part of the article.[3]. The theme of this second part is that we need to organize a documentation for the future on the basis of our documentation of the past.
PREMISES. OPEN SPACE AND CYBERSPACEThe social forum, in the form it was given by its founders, is a step forward on the road towards a world society. The 'open space' of the social forum is a sign of the 'globalization' of civic action. Global democratization ought longer to be seen as an abstract goal, or utopia, but as a practical task for the citizens to complete.[4] The part played by information in global democratization is crucial. To paraphrase an old saying: at the global level information becomes the continuation of war and politics by other means. H.G Wells said as much in his manifesto from 1928, which he called The Open Conspiracy (and later renamed to What To Do with Our Lives?): " Existing states are primarily militant states, and a world state cannot be militant. There will be little need for president or king to lead the marshalled hosts of humanity, for where there is no war there is no need of any leader to lead hosts anywhere, and in a polyglot world a parliament of mankind or any sort of council that meets and talks is an inconceivable instrument of government. The voice will cease to be a suitable vehicle. World government, like scientific process, will be conducted by statement, criticism, and publication that will be capable of efficient translation." [5] However, a 'world government conducted by statement, criticism and publication' presupposes world society. The library institution, old as the society itself, and the internet, still in its infancy, are two facets of the transformation of man into a writing and reading being with an external memory. Together, they form the foundation on which world self-government can be built . The birth and the growth of the 'open space' of the world social forum is a sign of the formation of a global society -- a society with a common library and a common internet. Those who remain mental prisoners of the present hierarchic system of military blocs and states are not able to build a common society. The little they have achieved in terms of diplomatic agreements, such as, for instance, the treaty on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, they have systematically spoiled. After 1945, traditional, inter-governmental diplomacy, has only managed to create "cold war", which could mean the end of mankind, and "war on terror", which means infinite war. Their infinite war on terror is just another way to kill us all. Hope, therefore, lies in 'citizens diplomacy'. The social forum is its current form. Precisely because the social forum is not a political party, or a social movement with some specified goals, (which is another way to say 'political party'), but an opening towards a common society of mankind, the social forum is a historical novelty. If the process which took off at Porto Alegre in 2001 would fail, the social forum would have to be re-invented later on. The citizens of the world need a common 'open space'. It is a basic necessity, like food, health-care and democracy. The conditions are in some respects more favorable today than at the time of Wells. The internet, in particular, gives a new point of departure for political thought and political praxis. With the internet, it may be possible, for the first time, to create a common human understanding ("an information"), which is not controlled and manipulated by Nationalist and military-industrial interests, or religious fanatics. Thus it may be possible to add a new dimension to the old idea of liberty, based on the separation of state powers. The internet can become an Informational Power, which completes the constitutional triad of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial Powers of the modern Nation-States. The peoples of the world need to install a global political system, in which the new informational power checks and balances the powers of the nation-states. The internet regulates itself to a great extent. This is why we call it cyberspace. Cyberspace means self-government by means of information. But the self-governance of the internet is not yet on a secure basis. It needs to be be further separated from the militaristic nation-states and the corporate interests, which threaten to turn information into exclusive 'intellectual property'. The solution to the problem of 'internet governance' is at hand. Internet governance is a librarian's task.
THE LIBRARYThe library is said to be the memory of mankind. [6] Let us accept this definition, although it may be a bit difficult to understand how mankind can have a common memory. What we do understand is that past knowledge and knowledge of the past are necessary in order to foresee and plan for the future. This is why past and present knowledge and events are documented and put on record. But how to prepare the memory of mankind for the future? The memory of mankind, that is, the library, has to be prepared in three ways. Or, rather it should prepare itself in three ways. The library, after all, is an independent institution. The following is primarily about what its professional staff, the librarians, have to do. Firstly, the librarians must continue with the activities that have made the library into the great and indispensable institution it is. Secondly, the library needs to continue with what at least some libraries have already started to do in order to be better integrated in their local communities. The current buzzword is "Library 2.0" (imitated after "Web 2.0"). Finally, there is a third item on the librarian's todo-list , which he or she has not really started to do yet. This is described as "government". RANGANATHAN AND HIS FOLLOWERSNobody has summarized the librarian's task more succinctly than the Indian mathematician and librarian S.R Ranganathan. (1892-1972). Erik Carlqvist, in his introduction to Ranganathan's classical writing Five Laws of Library Science, jokingly calls him the "law-giver" of the library. Ranganathan's five laws are: 1. Books are for use. 2. Every reader his [or her] book. 3. Every book its reader. 4. Save the time of the User. 5. The library is a growing organism.[7] In the age of he internet, Ranganathan's laws may be bit too bookcentric (i.e. fixated with one particular cultural archetype, the book). Therefore, Timo Kuronen's two supplementary laws are also worth mentioning: 6. Every reader his library 7. Every writer his [or her] contribution to the library [8] The above mentioned five "laws" already keep the librarians very busy. Kuronen's two supplementary laws give the librarians even more to do. Developing "Library 2.0" is indeed very much about using the Internet and the World Wide Web locally, to make the local public library as relevant as possible for the members of the local community. For instance, in order to give every writer in the neighborhood possibility to make "his [or her ] contribution to the library", the library needs to maintain blogs and wikis. The implication is that "the library takes up the case", as Norwegian librarian and journalist Anders Ericson puts it. Thus the librarian's new awareness for the needs of the local people translates into an ongoing documentation of current "issues". This activity comes close to journalism. As an example Anders Ericson takes the case of library blogs which document the debates and the historical background of a planned new civil airport in Rygge near Oslo.[9] A lot more is to be said about what librarians already are doing. Canadian library scientist Toni Samek, for instance, has written an an entertaining guide to socially active public librarianship, in which she describes the "prevalent manifestations of social action applied to library work", as well as many "specific forms of social action used in library and information work for social change". [10]
LIBRARY POWERIt was said that the library has not yet started to "govern" or to be a "government". This is not wholly true. The power of the libraries resides in their crucial role in the transmission of culture and knowledge. [11] Thus our libraries are governing us in many indirect ways which we may be more or less unaware of. The question is, should the library do even more than guaranteeing the historical continuity of mankind? Should the library more than hitherto start behaving like the government of a state and become more like a state power? The answer is yes. Of course, the library must not become violent like the state. It should not start building and modernizing its own atomic bombs like, for instance, the states of France and Britain. No, the library should govern exclusively by means of information. In this respect, however, the library has something to learn from the state. The modern state is organized around a limited number of "actionable themes", to use an expression from the World Social Forum. The various ministries or departments of the state are named after these themes. Those themes amount to nothing more and nothing less than rough classification of practical action. The state is, firstly, a brutal and violent apparatus for repression and even annihilation (those barbaric weapons of mass destruction!) But the state is also the home of government, which sets out to solve the main problems of the nation. What the library needs to do, in addition to all the things it is already doing, is to organize its information around the main problems of mankind. The 21 "actionable themes" of the world social forum, already quoted in the first part of this article, is a decent listing of the problems and therefore a good start. Is this a wildly unrealistic and far out Utopian proposal? Certainly not. What is needed is only a little bit of more courage from the side of the librarians to conspire openly against their state governments. It is difficult, because of the fact that the libraries are (mostly) dependent on the state governments for their funding. However, with global democratization comes global taxes, from which the libraries of the world society may be funded. The end of the era of Neoliberalism is in sight, the present financial system is rotten. A new system of world public finances is badly needed. The library ought to side with the people who want to build it -- the peoples of the World Social Forum. The library is not supposed to stay within any national borders, or to accept any limitations its information. The library is expected to deliver all the information without delay to all. The library cannot obey to any "Patriot Acts", because it has to stick to the principle of the Freedom of Information. We may conclude, again, that the library already is on the right track in what it is doing. The principle of the Freedom of Information is, since long, accepted by all professional members of the library community. It is just a question of keeping up the good work.
AN ADDITIONAL REMARK ON ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIESProfessional archivists often stick to the principle of provenance.: "One of the main principles of systematising archives is the principle of provenience [i.e. provenance - MB]. It means that the archive should be kept or brought back to the original order. To achieve this it is important to understand the organisation of the institution, the structure of the archives, the work flow and so on." [12] A related rule of the archivist is, or has been, that the uniqueness of the materials has to be respected This has gone hand in hand with the idea that records need to be archived only once, in one archive: "uniqueness... a record should, by way of principle, only be stored in one place, in contrast with books, which are preserved in many places in many copies [exemplar]. Therefore each archive is different." [13] However, after the advent of digital computers and networks the borderline between archives and libraries has become blurred. Henceforward, whole archives - small or large - can be scanned, copied and included in the collections of libraries. And vice versa: archives may keep copies of whole libraries together with their archived materials. The mutual extension and fusion of archives and libraries has not only become technically feasible. It is also economically possible. Furthermore, it is socially desirable. Yet archives containing the original 'physical' records and documents, and library buildings with collections of printed books and professional librarians, are necessary as ever. We want to keep "the originals", the printed book must stay, and the professional librarian remains as indispensable as the medical professional, the judge and the lawyer, and the engineer. However, due to changes in technology the library is also changing to be online and information in websites are much more easily accessible that any other in the conventional libraries for use on research papers [14] Above all, the internet needs to be anchored in a social institution. That institution must not be the nation-state or the business corporation. It must be the library. In the long perspective, the internet is just an extension of what Ranganathan called 'a growing organism'. (To be finalized after the European Social Forum in Malmö 17-21 September 2008 [15]). ENDNOTES[1] Leena Krohn is a living Finnish author. One of her many works is Tainaron. Mail from another city (A novel. Translated by Hildi Hawkins. Prime Books 2004). [2] See http://tinyurl.com/6bzwsj . The adress point to a page of the project "Librarians for informational commons and another Europe" at http://openesf.net and http://www.customwritings.com [3] Summary of the response received: Hilde C Stepansen sent me the "Proposal for memory plan for ESF2008 (by the Documentation workgroup, NOC ESF2008 July 13, 2008), from which I quote this sentence: "The information posted about an activity through the ESF2008 homepage, both outcome field or other data, shall be stored in such a way that it can survive even when the ESF2008 homepage no longer exists". -- In my opinion, the documentation on the social forum should be stored in public libraries and archives, which are maintained by professional librarians and archivists. Tord Björk supported my view that the social forum needs to become integrated into society via the libraries, but criticizes my opinions about the internet and the social forum. Hervé Le Crosnier, university librarian at Caen (France), wrote in a private email: "I think your desire to gain trained librarians to be full participants [in the social forum's process] with their own speciality is a very good point. Movement sometimes have "communication specialists", but never Librarians. May be because they aim at future in a pro-active way and never as an history continuum." Hervé here formulates the problem, which I am trying to address in this second series of notes. Francine Mestrum doubted that the "21 actionable themes" (which I listed and wrote about in the first part of this article) where never 'unanimously decided', but were instead "improvised during WSF Nairobi by organizing committee or someone else..." . Francine also wondered where to put 'social movements' and 'globalization' among the '21 actionable themes'. Ask the librarian! Michael Widerkrantz, who (at the time of writing) works on an eprints file archive for the European Social Forum, also commented on the '21 actionable themes': "It seems like a decent list. We might need to add subjects as we go along, I guess. For one thing, I find it difficult to include a text on, say alternative use of technology under any subject in this list." [4] The present author is a member of the Network Institute of Global Democratization (http://www.nigd.org). [5] From H.G.Wells: The Open Conspiracy [1931], in H.G.Wells on World Revolution. Edited and with a critical introduction by W. Warren Wagar. Praeger 2002, pp 70-71. The article in the English language Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Open_Conspiracy) links to the elecctronic text of Wells's book. [6] Thus Erik Carlqvist and Harry Järv have chosen the title "Mänsklighetens minne" (The Memory of Mankind) for their anthology on library history. See Mänsklighetens minne, Schildts 2008. [7] About Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science, see e.g. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_laws_of_library_science. For a Swedish translation of Ranganathan's writing, see "Mänsklighetens minne", op.cit, pp 593-672. [8] Quoted from Timo Kuronen's dissertation help in information science; see Kuronen, Timo: "English Summary", pp. 126ff in Kansalaiskeskustelun edellytykset ja mahdollisuudet tietoverkkojen aikakaudella, Acta Electronica Universitatis Tamperensis 31 , Tampere 2000. http://acta.uta.fi/english/teos.phtml?3809 ff. (ISBN 951-44-4814-6) [9] See "The Library Takes Up The Case- A Handshake For More Democracy, http://edufdaoduf.googlepages.com/librarycase (accessed 16 Sept 2008). [10] Samek, Toni: Librarianship and Human Rights. A twenty-first century guide. Foreword by Edgardo Civallero. Contributions by Kenneth D. Gariepy . Chandos Publishing 2007. [11] "Le pouvoir des bibliothÁ ques rÁ side enfin dans leur role crucial dans la transmission de la culture et des savoirs", as the editor of a book on the subject of library power has put it. See Baratin, Marc & Jacob, Christian eds.: Le pouvoir des bibliothÁques. La memoire des livres en Occident. Albin Michel 1996, p. 17. [12] Quoted from the article "Making archives accessible", (http://www.arkivverket.no/stavanger/konferanse/totalfina.html, accessed 14 Sep 2008). "Provenance is a fundamental principle of archives, referring to the individual, group, or organization that created or received the items in a collection", it is also stated in an article on the Wikipedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provenance#Archives) [13] Quoted from Valtonen, Marjo: "Arkiv och handlingar", in Mäkinen, Ilkka & Sandqvist, Katja eds.: Introduktion till informationsvetenskapen. Tampere University Press 2003, p 171. [14] Quoted from university essays source where students get much of their information university essay (accessed 13 Sept 2009) [15] This article (and its first part) is my contribution to the discussions in the ESF workshop SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, LIBRARIES, RESEARCHERS AND HISTORIANS in Malmö 18 September 2008 and the related workshop THE LIBRARY STRIKES BACK in the library of Malmö university 20 September 2008. Hopefully, delegates to the meeting of International Council of the World Social Forum, which takes place in Copenhagen some days after the ESF in Malmö, will also take an interest in these ideas.
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A lot of books have appeared, or are coming, about WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. I read one of them, namely, “WikiLeaks and the Age of Transparency”, by Micah L. Sifry (OR Books 2011, http://www.orbooks.com/our-books/wikileaks/). This author, who is a social entrepreneur and who seems to have some links to the risk capitalists, does in my opinion quite successfully present the WikiLeaks as an important and positive phenomenon in the development of the internet. As the title says, Sifry sees the Net as a movement towards “transparency”, which, of course, he links to global (although mostly only American) democratization and democracy. “Transparency may be the best medicine for a healthy democracy”, he writes, “but the problem with the WikiLeaks revelations from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, plus the State Department Cables, may well be that they expose too much”. One of Sifry’s peers, Clay Shirky, has compared WikiLeaks to the secret pact, known as “UKUSA”, which the USA, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand formed after World War II:
Wikileaks, too, has found a way to route around the laws of the singular states. Commenting more specifically on the role of Assange, Sifry arrives at the following conclusion:
The way of WikiLeaks leads to what one might call the dilemma of the ethical pirate, and which actually concerns not only news organisations. Big corporations like Google Inc., for instance, also must consider this problem. And so must certain institutions, e.g. the institution of the library. I have a dream about the librarians of the world acting like ethical pirates. Sifry does perhaps not have so much to say about how we shall continue on the road of WikiLeaks, but he surely points in the right direction when he says that
We should probably ask whether that “global town square” really differs from the “world social forum”. Will the the WSF and the internet be genuinely connected to each other by 2013? (About the WSF 2013, see Teivo Teivainen's message "World Social Forum 2013: Where? In Montreal?" at http://www.nigd.org/?p=75.) And which is the missing link between the WSF and the internet? You may have guessed my answer: the library. But then, how can the library be “as decentralized and uncontrollable as life itself”? Instead of contemplating eternally whether there can be such things as black swans, or ethical pirates, let’s do something together. Heikki Patomäki and others, including myself, are going to set up a Citizens’ Committee to support WikiLeaks and the the principle of public access to official records*. Today at 18 pm, at the Old Cable Factory in Helsinki, we shall discuss this at the AGM of the cooperative “Katto-Meny”, which, incidentally, is also the internet service provider of NIGD.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2039996,00.html#ixzz1GAyB5avG
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WSF BulletinJanuary 14th 2010 Special Edition World Social Forum 2010 starts with great event in the Greater Porto Alegre - Brazil Celebrating its tenth year of existence, the World Social Forum (WSF), will take place in 2010 in a decentralized manner, with at least 27 regional, national and local events throughout the world over the next period (see agenda on the WSF official website). Opening this process, the regional event "Greater Porto Alegre 10 Years Social Forum" which is going to happen from January 25th to 29th in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, will have over 500 decentralized activities in the cities of Porto Alegre, Gravatai, Canoas, Sao Leopoldo, Novo Hamburgo and Sapiranga. Given the importance of the date and the event itself, the presence of some heads of state is waited (Lula, Evo Morales, Mojica and Fernando Lugo), as well as several ministers and prominent politicians (Dilma Rouseff, Marina Silva, Heloisa Helena and Ciro Gomes) which have already expressed their interest in accepting invitations to activities during the event.
One of the core activities of the Greater Porto Alegre Social Forum is the International Seminar "10 Years Later: Challenges and proposals for another possible world" which will feature more than 70 intellectuals and social leaders around the world - many of whom have integrated the process of creation and construction of the World Social Forum (WSF) in the last ten years. See list of participants (in Portuguese). The seminar, held in the city of Porto Alegre, aims to examine the new challenges of alter-globalist civil society and to design future directions to be followed by the WSF. It also aims to provide a more systematic reflection on what has been done thus far, mistakes and successes, and the WSF institutional dynamics, becoming thus a moment of strategic thinking addressed to the activists most involved in the process. The activities will take place in the Legislative Assembly, in the Usina do Gasometro and in the Armazens do Porto, always in the morning
1st day, January 25 - World Social Forum – Examining the last 10 years 2nd day, January 26 - World conjuncture today buy essay Table 1: Environmental Conjuncture Table 2: Economic Conjuncture Table 3: Political Conjuncture Table 4: Social Conjuncture 3rd day, January 27 - Elements of a new agenda I Table 1: Common Goods Table 2: Common Goods Table 3: Economy and Gratuity Table 4: Good Life 4th day, January 28 - Elements of a new agenda II Table 1: State Organization and political power Table 2: Rights and Collective Responsibilities Table 3: New World Order Table 4: How to Construct Political Hegemony 5th day, January 29 - Systematizing big issues and contributing to the World Social Forum process
TOWARDS DAKAR 2011: the multiplicity of forums
The registration of participants can be made on the website http://www.fsm10.org. The registration fee is R$20,00 and it covers the material that will be provided in the accreditation. Registration for press coverage must be made on the same page. The press center for communication professionals is located at the Legislative Assembly. The registration of activities is closed.
- Sao Paulo: seminariofsm10@gmail.com, phone: (11) 9853-9950 - (Verena Glass) - Porto Alegre: fsm2010comunicacao@gmail.com, phone: (51) 3433.1233 / (51) 9317.0862 - (Luciana Borba) More information: "Greater Porto Alegre 10 Years Social Forum" official website: http://www.fsm10.org/ Seminar "10 years later" official blog: http://seminario10anosdepois.wordpress.com/
In order to receive the bulletin, send an e-mail to: gerente@forumsocialmundial.org.br with the word "SUBSCRIBE" as the subject. In order not to receive the bulletin anymore, send an e-mail to: gerente @ forumsocialmundial.org.br. Don't forget to write on the "CANCEL" on the subject spot. Suggestions and comments: fsmsite @ forumsocialmundial.org.br WSF Office - Brazil Address: Rua General Jardim, 660, 7th floor, Sao Paulo - SP- Brasil, Zip Code: 01223-010 email: fsminfo @ forumsocialmundial.org.br Website: http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br
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Kpomassé, Madrid, Prague and Greater Porto Alegre are the first cities to host Social Forums in 2010Kpomassé, Madrid, Prague and Greater Porto Alegre are the first cities to host Social Forums in 2010 Kpomassé, Madrid, Prague, Salvador and Greater Porto Alegre are among the cities that will start the celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the World Social Forum process in 2010. The calendar of events will start in Greater Porto Alegre, with the 1st Solidary Economy Forum and the 1st Solidary Economy World Fair, on January 22-24, in Santa Maria. Right after those, on the 25th, the Greater Porto Alegre 10 years Social Forum will start. In the same region, it will take place, on January 26-28 the World Forum on Theology and Liberation in São Leopoldo. Still in Brazil, Salvador will host the Bahia Thematic Social Forum on January 29-31. In the city of Kpomassé in Benin (Africa) it will take place on 28-31 the 2nd Atlantic Local Social Forum, whose main theme will be “the impacts of the world financial and food crises on African agriculture: citizen responses and alternatives”. About 1500 participants are being expected to participant. The first edition of the event, that gathered 1200 people, took place in 2008 in the city of Allada. Among the main objectives of the ALSF are “defense of positions and strategies by different organizations to struggle against the neoliberal economic policies effects and to consolidate the articulation among local social movements and the whole African Social Forum in order to fulfill the expectations of the 2011 Dakar WSF”. In the European continent two events will take place in January: on 28-31 it will be held the 2010 Madrid World Social Forum, at the E.P.A. Patio Maravillas. This will be the third edition of the event in the Spanish capital city. Among the themes which will be discussed are: global crisis and alternatives; the environment; energy and climate; Europe; Latin America, Asia and Africa; social economy and fair trade; education, health, social movements, feminism, migrations, trade union struggles, State and political struggles; historical memory. In Czech Republic, three cities will host the Czech Social Forum on January 20-30: Praga, Brno and Usti nad Labem. The program of activities will include seminars, workshops, demonstrations and cultural events during the evening. All over 2010, the World Social Forum process will take place in a decentralized manner with events and activities across the globe. The main objective of the events will be to sum up, from the analyzes and experiences of global civil society social movements and organizations, proposals to face the global crisis in all its dimensions – economic, environmental, political, food, energy, cultural etc. The convergence of all this process will happen in Dakar, Senegal, during the 2011 World Social Forum. Service: I Solidarity Economy Social Forum and I Solidarity Economy World Fair Where: Santa Maria and Canoas (Great Porto Alegre), Brazil. When: January 22-24th (Santa Maria), 25-29th (Canoas) Contact info: ecosol@fsmecosol.org.br Website: http://www.fsmecosol.org.br Greater Porto Alegre 10 Years Social Forum Where: Greater Porto Alegre, Brazil When: January 25-29 Contact info: fsm2010@yahoo.com.br Wbsite: http://www.fsm10.org World Forum Theology and Liberation Where: São Leopoldo (Great Porto Alegre) - RS - Brazil When: January, 26th-28th Contact: permanentsecretariat@wftl.org (FMTL Permanent Secretariat) II Atlantic Local Social Forum Where: Kpomassé, Benin When: January 28-31 Contact info: Yoro Bi Ta Raymond: forumsocialbenin@yahoo.fr / fosoloa@yahoo.fr Madrid World Social Forum 2010 Where: Madrid, Spain When: January 28-31 Contact info: comunicacion@fsmmadrid.org Website: http://www.fsmmadrid.org Czech Social Forum Where: Prague, Brno, Usti nad Labem - Czech Republic When: Januray 29-30 Contact info: Marek Hrubec - marek.hrubec@gmail.com Source: WSF TV at http://www.wsftv.net/
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While news about the two fire tragedies, first in a supermarket of Nairobi, and the in Rift Valley, reach us via the media and by email, we also hear about the Social Forum event, which took place in Kariobangi (Nairobi): Daniel Onyango reports: This year the World Social Forum will be taking place in Belem Brazil from 27 January to 1 February. As away of showing solidarity with the thousands of participants who will be attending the event, youths from Kariobangi Parish that was part of Nairobi 2007 World social forum have organized different activities in preparation to the global event. On 10 January 2009, the youths organized an environmental clean up in Korogocho slum where the residents are faced with environmental hazards that has affected thousand of people and claimed many life. There was a large turn out of community members and young people who joined there effort to make Korogocho a cleaner and safer place. With an aim of creating awareness on the importance of conserving the environment, the event also aimed at mobilizing the community to participate in the coming social forum and other activities scheduled to take place in Kariobangi, Korogocho slums. Other activities to take place include peaceful demonstration about human rights issues, Human rights workshop and seminar, Cultural performances and others.
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The most recent World Social Forum event ended yesterday in Belém, Brazil, without, as far as I know, any input from the world's library community. I hope to be proven wrong by public librarians who went there to do what Kay Raseroka suggested (no, adviced, or even recommended and requested) them to do. IFLA chair Kay Raseroka (at the WSF in Mumbai, January 2004) said that the librarians should all attend the Social Forums in order to document the Forums in their libraries. As for the public librarians in, say, East Africa, I can understand why they where not there. It costs a lot of money and effort to go to Belém, Brazil. And so it might be with librarians and library activists (like me) in other parts of the world. If they have jobs as librarians or library activists at all, they are not well paid, anyway. (The library activist is a pro, who earns his necessary cash working half-time in the greater library of the internet.) Reports from Belém
http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/world-social-forum-2009-a-generation-s-challenge
http://ipsnews.net/print.asp?idnews=45494
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The International Council of the World Social Forum met in Abuja, Nigeria between 30 March and 3 April 2008. Reports from the meetings are found on the website of the Network Institute for Global Democratization, which is a partner in the WSG Library project. Link: http://www.nigd.org/nan/nan-doc-store/03-04-2008/wsf-ic-abuja-2008 Greetings, -Mikael
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Some encouraging news from young friends in Nairobi: Hi, hope you are fine, we are fine too. Things are fine here, life is back to normal and people are smiling again though not all of us. I. is back to school again we tried to find some help and he is doing well, he is also attending piano classes and is doing really fine, S. too is fine attending computer classes too, i have been busy too working as a volunteer in a children center and attending the college too. We are waiting for R. to finish his high school this year and we pray he perform better. We wish you, your family and friends a happy Easter holiday Season's Greetings from me, too. In January 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005 Porto Alegre, the capital of the Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil, hosted World Social Forums (WSF). In January 2006, the city was host to the Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC). The following is a quotation from the address to the Assembly of the WCC, which was delivered by Yash Tandon, the economist from Uganda, who directs the South Centre in Geneva:
In my humble opinion, the IFLA and library associations everywhere in the world should do what the WCC and so many churches have done. In other words, they ought to join the World Social Forum. The library, being in its essence a public institution, is incompatible with a doctrine that postulates the privatisation of all public service, including schools, universities, scientific research and knowledge, public broadcasting companies, museums, archives and public libraries. In addition to being a public institution, the library is universal. Like the Internet, which is the most recent extension of itself, the library has no geographical or spiritual borders. It is Cosmopolitan; it speaks all languages. And, like the World Social Forum, the library strives to be an open space. Another world is possible! It is virtually there, in the library. - Mikael
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Yesterday and today I have in various ways tried to protest against the still on-going (since 5 years!!) war in Iraq, but I have also participated in the yearly meeting of the Network Institute for Global Democratization, which takes place via email, because the members of the NIGD are spread over the continents. Only some ten or twenty NIGD members (out of a hundred or so; these are mostly academic activist-researchers) take part in that "virtual" annual meet. The NIGD also has a posting list for all the members. Here is what I sent to the nigd-list this morning: Dear all, during the on-going yearly meeting of the NIGD, and more precisely while we are discussing our action plan (I use the present form, because the meeting is going on in the virtual time-space, which is called writing, or literature), Heikki (the chair of the meeting), has noted: "In 2008, however, I believe that the WSF process has already lost its momentum and that the time is now ripe for more far-reaching alternatives." In order not to disturb the proceedings of the annual meeting, I prefer to make my comment in this larger forum. In my opinion, the form which the World Social Forum was given by its first participants in Porto Alegre, is our epochal alternative. Therefore, if the WSF has lost its momentum, we need to build a new momentum. And if the WSF does not reach far enough, which is true, we need to solve that problem. I figure that the internet and the library are and will remain very important parts of the solution. The library, the internet and the WSF ought to have one and the same form. Warm regards, - Mikael PS Sven-Eric Liedman, the Swedish historian of ideas, constates that there is a whole family of form-words. Originally, these words denoted the outlines of the objects. However, as soon as we start to reflect on those words, form starts to signify something which is internal to the object of which it is the form. "The form also becomes, as Aristotle said, that which makes a thing into what it is " (Liedman: Stenarna i Själen. Form och materia från antiken till idag. Bonnier pocket 2007 p 15).
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One may of course doubt that self-government needs even to be given thought under the existing conditions of extreme inequality. I admit that my approach is to some extent futuristic, even Utopian, because I consider, in particular, the possibility of world (self-)government. On the other hand, the globalisation is already a fact of life, and world government (which is euphemistically called "global governance") is therefore a burning necessity. There are a number of recognized global problems which may only be solved through common action. These problems are actually quite well covered by the 21 Actionable Themes of the World Social Forum, around which our website is structured. But we have not made ourselves a clear picture of how we would like world government organized. At present, the most serious candidate seems to be world government by the USA. If we do not want that - and I do not want it - then what do we want? Before trying to give you my answer, let me quote from an old writing by H.G.Wells:
Much water has flowed under the bridges since ca 1930 when Wells wrote his blueprint for the world revolution. Yet it is very relevant and full of foresight, I think. The last paragraph of the above quotation, in particular, with its thesis about a silent form of government by publication, helps me to formulate my own thoughts about library power. Unfortunately, we now all live under some very negative general conditions, which Wells himself had foreseen. For instance, the permanent threat of the extermination of humanity in an eventual World War III, where the existing dreadful stockpiles of ever new ABC-weapons would certainly be used. But there have also been positive developments. The scientific research on the atom did not only lead to nuclear weapons and insecure nuclear power stations. Electronics, computers and the Internet where also made possible by that research. My opinion on self-government is founded on the more hopeful perspective, which has been opened by the Internet. The Internet is largely a self-regulating system beyond the control of the national governments. We observe an objective trend towards a Cosmopolitan world civilization where the members of the various nations are knit together through an Internet, which functions separately from their nation-states. Of course, the still prevailing hierarchical system of competing and rivaling nation-states with the USA (later on it might become another superpower) on top may bring about a final catastrophe of the type WW III even before the positive potential of the Internet has been realized. On the other hand, the Internet has already conquered part of the power that lies in the control of information and knowledge. The Net, which is often called Cyberspace, is the new public sphere of the world. It takes power from the traditional states and gives power to the globalised public. In the long historical perspective of human civilizations, the Internet is perhaps best understood as an extension of the library. An Italian librarian, paraphrasing his earlier Indian colleague Ranganathan, put it this way in a recent book: "una biblioteca é un ipertesto che cresce." The library is a growing hypertext. (http://www.bibliografica.it/catalogo/ridi-ipertesto.htm) Therefore, we need to develop a common intelligence and understanding (but not necessarily a common opinion) about the further development of the public library in this networked world. Let me hear from you again!
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Yesterday, the daily paper I subscribe to (Hufvudstadsbladet, a daily paper Swedish here in Finland) had a long article on languages in Africa in the form of an interview with Axel Fleisch who is the recently appointed professor of African Studies at the university of Helsinki. For once this article gives a positive picture of Africa. The great number and variety of African languages and dialects are seen as a richness. The South Africans are proud of being a "rainbow country" of different languages and cultures and consider themselves to be pioneers, says prof. Fleisch. Historian Basil Davidson was right, I think, in calling the Nation-State "a curse" (in The Black Man's Burden. Africa and the Curse of the Nation-State, Three Rivers Press. New York 1992). The system of Nation-States is obsolete and mankind has to get rid of it. Yet I am glad to read (here, for instance) that the main contrahents in the political struggle in Kenya have now reached a compromise and agreement on how to run the country in the nearest future. At the moment, there seems to be no alternative. Powerful circles in the USA may still believe that their Nation-State is called to govern the whole world, but they are thoroughly mistaken. World government probably will be a cybernetical (self-governing) system like, for instance, the Wikipedia. In so far as Cyberspace needs to be governed at all, it is a Librarian's task. Let's advance further in that direction. Julie sent me the link to Literacy Leads to Hope. This is a community library project in Thika which is supported by American Friends of Kenya, Inc. It looks nice, so take a look! Have you who live in Nairobi ever visited it? If you have your way in that direction, why not pay them a visit and write a page about it on this site ? We need to document these community libraries! The article about the community library at Majengo was the first. I am all for the establishment of community libraries, but community libraries have their limitations. Ideally, the community libraries should also be public libraries, but they are not, or cannot yet always be, that. What makes a library public? Traditionally (this actually means in the European tradition of political history after the French revolution 1789) public means belonging to the public sphere of the nation. However, the internet has created a new situation for the public sphere(s) of mankind. Or, let's say that mankind has taken a decisive step out from the national public sphere into the Cosmopolitan public sphere of the global networks. Therefore, we are now in the process of 'the separation of state from nation' (see A new Cosmopolitanism is in the air . Sociologist Ulrich Beck presents seven theses to combat the global power of capital.) What does 'the separation of state from nation' mean from the point of view of the public librarian? Surely, it does not mean that the public library should fly away from its local community to some distant transnational sphere! No, the public library needs to become even better connected to its local roots than hitherto. (This, by the way, may be the positive meaning of Library 2.0. ) But at the same time, the library needs to become ever better connected to the Internet. The Internet is the common public library of mankind which can enable the people to think globally and act locally. Warm regards, - Mikael PS A rainbow country is what the South Africans have called their land, but I would say that it is the whole world.
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Dear all, Julie asked what we think about the article by Rafael Uzcategui on "The crisis in Kenya and the hypocrisy of the WSF" (many websites, for some reason, provide links to the said article; see, for instance, http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=7410). I think Mr Uzcategui has very little to say although he needs so many words and uses such a bitter tone to say it. Does he contribute a single idea or thought on the crisis in Kenya? Does he present any solutions or courses of actions which deserve support? I do not think so. Mr Uzcategui accuses the WSF for not having "called attention to the crisis of the African country". In this particular case, as everybody knows, an unusual lot of attention has actually been paid by media, governments, organisations and individuals around the world. For the good and for the bad. But the WSF does not issue press statements and take stand on the crisis in Kenya. It is not meant to function like a political party or a government. It is thought to be like the public library, that is, a facility, which supports people who are active, reactive and proactive in taking stands. Agreed, this original idea of the WSF as an open space is also in crisis. It is in crisis because of types like mr Uzcategui, who cannot come up with anything else than empty rhetorics and vague echoes from the past. Unfortunately, they are legio. One may - to paraphrase Mr Uzcategui - of course describe some of them as people "who genuinely want change". Yes, they want, but they are not able to, because they are not capable of any new thinking. The original idea of the WSF as an open space is in crisis because the WSF process is not driven by a goal and a strategy. The goal, however, is really contained in the idea, it is to extend the open space and to make it prevail, because the open space is the democracy. But we can no longer have democracy and develop the democracy within the system of the national states, which is led by one or two hegemonic blocs. We must clear up our minds and get rid of that nationalist rubbish, be it Venezuelan, Finnish, Kenyan or of the USA. And mankind is certainly on its way towards Cosmopolis, because of the growth of education, science, libraries, internet - those are open spaces, and universalistic or Cosmopolitan by inclination, just like the WSF. The goal is to present the militaristic and corporative powers of the world with a fait accompli (a fact they can no longer change or undo): an open global space which no longer obeys to their orders, because it is no longer controlled by their information. That situation will come about and reach its point of no return when the participants in the process of the social forum, together with the library and information professionals of the world, have created the Cosmopolitan public library. We are already shaking the information monopolies of the nuclear states. It is a constructive task. And that is decisive. As long as we only mobilize against, and not for, our protests will remain weak and anemic. Winning movements are constructive. They have a common future to defend, and therefore they have songs to sing, songs against the wars and the injustice, in particular. Give the WSF process a goal and its participants will once again raise against the war in Iraq and avert the looming aggression on Iran. Sketch the contours of the possible other world, and people will finally raise against the spending of trillions on new weapons that threaten our species with extinction, which is what our nuclear governments are indeed doing in these days, if they are not just helplessly looking on while the nuclear governments are doing it. Our future, our goal, is what used to be our collective memory of the past. It is the common library - the common open space - built and shared with the free and open software. This new library becomes the cornerstone of "world government". It's regime is cybernetic, it is self-government based on the internet. The library and the internet are fusioning into one and the same common institution, which no longer serves the militaristic and corporate interests. The librarians are needed to maintain this new library; for instance, to keep the catalogue of names and numbers on the net (the task that the ICANN now takes care of), and, generally, to do what librarians are supposed to do: to preserve, maintain, and deliver all the information without delay to all the people. These tasks are a public service, but they can no longer be a national service. That, as many or most people already understand, is the meaning of the digital revolution and the internet. And this world information service can certainly not in the long run be taken care of by one or a couple of giant business empires type Microsoft, Yahoo, Google or Nokia. The Googles and the Nokias may come and go, but the library and the internet have come to stay. The structure of the common library of mankind tends to mirror that of a government in that it is built around vast areas of practical action. These areas correspond to the basic needs and problems of the epoch, they are like the national ministries. A couple of weeks before the Nairobi WSF in January 2007, the international council of the WSF came up with 21 such "Actionable Themes", which can illustrate the matter. They are: 1. Water; 2 Political institutions and democracy; 3. Peace and war; 4. Housing and human habitat; 5. Gender issues and women's struggles; 6. Dignity, human being diversity, discriminations; 7. Human rights; 8. Youth; 9. Food sovereignty, peasants and land reform; 10. Labor and workers; 11. Education; 12. Environment and energy; 13. Health; 14. Knowledge, information and communication; 15. Debt, taxation and public finance; 16. Migrations; 17. Trade and transportation; 18. Culture; 19. Transnational Corporations; 20. Children; 21. Alternative economies; (Quoted from http://www.wsflibrary.org, the pilot website of Kenya Library Association and NIGD.) The task of the WSF, the goal of its process, is to build the institution that serves all those who grapple with the actual and "actionable themes" of humanity - the future-oriented public library. Whether these brief remarks make any sense to you, I do not know. What I know is that much more needs to be said. I hope that, at least, I have succeeded in challenging the hypocrisy of mr Uzcategui. Warm regards, we continue! - Mikael
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ALA resolutions on the situation in KenyaAt the Midwinter Meeting of the American Library Association in Philadelphia last week, the ALA Council passed the following resolution on the situation in Kenya. Below that you will also find the resolution passed by the Social Responsibilities Round Table of the ALA which represents the position of the round table, not ALA. - Thanks to Al Kagan, African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration at the University of Illinois Library (USA), who sent these documents via a Yahoo Group for progressive librarians.
Resolution on the Crisis in KenyaWHEREAS, hundreds of people have been killed and injured, and thousands have been displaced by the current violence in Kenya generated by the controversy surrounding the December election results; WHEREAS, the Kenyan government has recently curtailed freedom of the press and broadcasting and the right to assemble and demonstrate peacefully and non-violently; WHEREAS, the American Library Association has endorsed Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (policy 58.4) which covers freedom of the press and freedom of expression - rights which the Kenyan government is now denying its citizens; WHEREAS, the American Library Association opposes any governmental prerogatives that lead to the intimidation of individuals or groups and encourages resistance to such abuse of governmental power (Policy 53.4); WHEREAS, the American Library Association recognizes the vital importance of free and open elections; WHEREAS, the Association of Concerned Africa Scholars has issued a call for an end to (1) the widespread violence by the principal Kenyan political actors, (2) restrictions of the right to assemble and demonstrate peacefully and non-violently, and (3) recently declared restrictions on press freedoms; THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the American Library Association calls for an end to the violence in Kenya, a return to press and broadcasting freedom, and the right to peacefully assemble for the people of Kenya.
SRRT Resolution on the Crisis in KenyaWHEREAS, hundreds of people have been killed and injured, and thousands have been displaced by the current violence in Kenya generated by the controversy surrounding the December election results; WHEREAS, the U.S. media plays up the ethnic or "tribal" aspects of the current crisis at the expense of the deep political and class aspects of the conflict; WHEREAS, the Kenyan government has recently curtailed freedom of the press and broadcasting and the right to assemble and demonstrate peacefully and non-violently; WHEREAS, the U.S. government has a close military relationship with the Kibaki Government, and has played a central role in building up Kenya's military and internal security organizations; WHEREAS, the American Library Association has endorsed Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (policy 58.4) which covers freedom of the press and freedom of expression - rights which the Kenyan government is now denying its citizens; WHEREAS, the American Library Association opposes any governmental prerogatives that lead to the intimidation of individuals or groups and encourages resistance to such abuse of governmental power (Policy 53.4); WHEREAS, the American Library Association recognizes the vital importance of free and open elections; WHEREAS, the Association of Concerned Africa Scholars has issued a call for an end to (1) the widespread violence by the principal Kenyan political actors, (2) restrictions of the right to assemble and demonstrate peacefully and non-violently, and (3) recently declared restrictions on press freedoms; THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Social Responsibilities Round Table of the American Library Association joins with the Association of Concerned Africa Scholars in calling for an end to the violence in Kenya, a return to press and broadcasting freedom, and the right to peacefully assemble for the people of Kenya.
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Wow, Loyce User:Loyce, you made it! I mean the [http://www.wsflibrary.org/index.php/Proposals_on_Women_from_WSF2007 Proposals on Women from WSF2007] , which you have now added those to our WSF Library. It would be fine if you could tell in some detail how you made it. What was easy, what was difficult, what more needs to be done etc. This might be helpful to all of us. One thing I would recommend is to mention about some of the proposals (the most topical, or important, in your own view) on the main page for the actionable theme "Gender issues and women struggles". Today we pray for Kenya. Tomorrow is the World Social Forum Global Day of Action (26 January 2008). I just proposed to the group "Information for Social Change" (http://www.libr.org/isc/) to make a link to Esther's analysis on the situation in Kenya (see User:Obachi) on our site, - as a minimal action. There are so many millions of people who want to be part of an action for a change in the situation. For instance, an action to get rid of the nuclear arms. But they don't know how to link up with it. Yet. And therefore our criminal political elites can continue to tell that they reserve the option of preemptive nuclear strikes for themselves. (See Pre-emptive nuclear strike a key option, Nato told , The Guardian 22 January 2008). Yes, they are ready to kill us all for their own sake. So we might need to pray for mankind, too. And then, when we have made our prayers, let's do something together! --- More blog, also blogged via http://www.nigd.org/blog2008: Global Action. What do NIGD Members Do? by Mikael Böök ? posted at 2008-01-25 14:32 last modified 2008-01-25 14:32 I feel compassion with T (his lumbago) because migraine has struck me today, so you will not see me at Kolme Seppää�in Helsinki. Will try to be active on the net instead in between the headaches. The deficiencies of this global action day are partly due to deficiences in our understanding and use of the internet. Paradoxically, we could not have the WSFs and this global day of actions without the net, either. "We" are not only the hundred thousand social activists of the WSF. We are hundred millions of people. But we have not yet learned how to make our will effective through the net. We need to build the net as the cosmopolitical library of mankind, that is, as a global institution governed by librarians. Our world is actually moving fast in that direction, towards the institution of the global cosmopolitical library. Just look at Google, for instance. It plays a quite dominating role on the net, nowadays. However, imagine a Google taken over by the librarians, that would already be a long step towards our new institution. Google, originally a visionary project of two bright young guys who loved to play with free and open software, rapidly became another playing field for venture capitalists. However, information is a peculiar good, as was constated by economists already years ago. Capitalism just cannot be built upon the accumulation of information. The Google model of information Capitalism, which is built on revenue from advertisements, will crash with the first economic recession. The headache strikes again, aarrrgh. Hav a good action day! warm regards - Mikael
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My Kenyan friends are sending SMS and - in case they can access the internet at all - email which are as worrying as the news reports in the media. Or even more worrying, because often it is difficult to know whether the media are actually speaking of real people made of flesh and blood. "Can't do nothing here as theres no thing and the roads are blocked" (seen in the inbox of my phone, yesterday). And even: "Hi, the tension is so high and we have been denied access to basics needs here and the situation is getting worse, people are killing each other like flies it is so bad. Please pray for us" (from an email 2nd January). I can pray, but I am afraid it will not help to "pray for Kenya". We need to pray for the unity of mankind - for humanity - and not only for the unity of the Kenyans. And then, when we have prayed, what can we do? We can continue. We can go on with the linking of the World Social Forum to the libraries. In situations of extraordinary turmoil and stress, such as the situation in Kenya after the elections 27 December 2007, the right thing to do is precisely to continue patiently to work towards the possible other world. On the WSF Library website, the next task consists in creating / improving the main pages of the 21 Actionable themes. The pages are there, the base of the structure is in place. he proposals from the Nairobi WSF are waiting to be followed up. (The proposals from the Nairobi WSF are listed here: http://www.wsfprocess.net/2007p )
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This petition is now online at http://www.petitiononline.com/kenya08/petition.html Call For Urgent Resolution of Kenya Electoral Crisis We the undersigned call on the ODM and PNU leaders to urgently seek a resolution to the current electoral crisis in the country and restore peace and harmony in the country through leadership. We express our concern at the deteriorating situation in Kenya following what has been widely acknowledged as an impressive election turn-out. We commend the Kenyan people for their dignity and courage but also express our condolences to the families of those who have lost their lives and to the many who have been injured in the course of needless violence over the last few days. This is a time for Kenyans to be patient, dignified and to look for solutions that are in the best interest of the majority. We regret the chaos which has caused loss of life, destruction of property and general unrest in the country. The contested outcome has marred the prospects of democracy and peace not only in Kenya but also in Africa. The cloud which hangs over the conclusion of one of the most fiercely-fought elections in Kenya's history is regrettable. We believe that peace should be regained as a matter of urgency so that a free and fair outcome can be reached. We believe that this is not the time for provocative actions, but a time for demonstrating leadership through bringing the contending partners to the table. This crisis can be resolved by the players in disagreement using conciliation and arbitration mechanisms as a matter of urgency to plan a peaceful resolution of the crisis. If necessary, this could be done with the involvement of others such as the African Union and others, such as those who acted as election observers. We urge the contending leaders to act within the spirit of democracy and seek to heal the wounds that have been opened by recent events and to do so in transparent ways. We are aware of the betrayal that many may feel in what they consider to be an electoral injustice. We ask them to engage in the process by seeking explanation and accountability and to be guided by their own sense of civic responsibility. We call on the PNU and ODM leaders to seek conciliation and resolution of the current crisis for the sake of the country. We call for mechanisms for mediation and conciliation to be put in place urgently to give voice to all grievances that have arisen from the present situation in which there can be no winners, only losers. We welcome the mediation processes that have been initiated We call for an immediate ending of violence by the security forces and all other parties. Whilst we recognize that the security forces have a role to play in maintaining peace and order, we condemn the disproportionate and excessive use of force by the security forces against unarmed civilians that has been manifest over the last few days. We call for an independent transparent review of the whole electoral process and its outcomes so as to resolve any differences between contesting parties. This should include reviewing the results of the election and all reported irregularities, especially those related to the disparities in the tallying of the final results. We call for a swift formation of an independent and credible Judicial Commission of Enquiry by endorsing the call by the Electoral Commissioners who have called for one. We urge the international community to be patient pending the outcome of such a proposed review process. As it is Kenyans who have to live with the consequences of a Mwai Kibaki or Raila Odinga government, the international community can only follow the recommendations of an independent review before declaring the elections free and fair. We call on those who wish to see a peaceful democratic Kenya, especially in the African Union, to support initiatives that can bring this crisis to a swift conclusion by facilitating dialogue and reconciliation. We are deeply concerned by the gagging of the media, especially as this has only fueled suspicion and encouraged speculation in an already highly volatile situation. Freedom of expression has been one of our greatest democratic prizes won by Kenyans during the last few years and we cannot afford to go backwards. We call for an immediate and unconditional lifting of the reporting ban so as to ensure that Kenyans are able to keep abreast of what is happening. We commend the Kenyan press for the work they have done to keep information flowing. It is precisely in the time of crisis that a free and independent media is essential to ensure a democracy that is based on information not speculation. We urge the international media community to support the Kenyan press during this time and continue promoting the right for a free and independent press especially during such a period. We call on all peace loving people to join us in calling for a swift conclusion to the crisis so that Kenya can return to normality and people can continue their lives without fear and anxiety.
The Call for Urgent Resolution of Kenya Electoral Crisis Petition to Leaders of PNU and ODM was created by Wangui wa Goro, Firoze Manji, Mukoma wa Ngugi, Ronald Elly Wanda, King Omoga, Cenya Ciyendi and written by Firoze Manji (firoze@fahamu.org).
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Click here for the Christmas card from Mikael
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Librarians activate themselves in the European Social ForumAt a European meeting Last week-end, a network was formed to plan and prepare library related activities at the the European Social Forum 2008. The next ESF happens in Malmö, Sweden, 18-21 September 2008 http://www.esf2008.org/ - http://www.fse-esf.org/ The Purpose of the Librarians' network is to extend the forum process to the public libraries and to combat funding cuts and privatization of the public library service. The directive on Public Lending Right (PLR) is being introduced by the EU to transform the library into a commercial institution. For the ESF 2008 the network is planning a conference on the significance of the PLR, called Non pago di leggere ('I won't pay for reading', or 'I won't stop reading') and a grassroots librarians' workshop called The Political Library. The network has a mailing list lib-esf2008@sympa.kaapeli.fi, which is open for subscription at http://sympa.kaapeli.fi/
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Jo Labadie, Detroits's anarchist labour leader, donated his personal papers and library to the University of Michigan in 1911. This was the beginning of a great collection of documents on radical history (The Labadie Collection. http://www.lib.umich.edu/spec-coll/labadie/ ). Elaine Harger, a member of Progressive Librarians Guild (USA), contacted Julie Herrada, its curator, about the possibility of depositing materials collected by librarians during the first US Social Forum (Atlanta 27 June- 1 July 2007) at Labadie. Julie Herrada's response was positive, and so the leaflets, brochures, booklets etc. were dispatched to Detroit when the post office opened on Monday morning after the USSF. Discussions have started on whether the physical documents, which were gathered by seventy East African librarians during the Nairobi WSF in January, should also be deposited with the Labadie Collection. Julie Herrada likes the idea, and so does Roberto Savio, the chair of the WSF's Communications Commission, when asked by email.
For natural reasons, the staff of Kenya Library Association, who managed the documentation work on the ground in Nairobi, is more hesitant. We need to know which role we must play in the archive and how we can benefit from it being so far, says Esther Obachi, the secretary of the KLA. Esther Obachi has recently published the first printed manual for librarians who participate in Social Forums with a view of contributing to its documentation in libraries and archives. The booklet is called "Creating a knowledge Base from the World Social Forum. A manual for Library and Information Professionals" (published by KLA, PO Box 46031, 00100 Nairobi, Kenya).
Preserving physical documents from the social forums for posterity is a goal of NIGD's library project. ( About NIGD's library project, see http://www.nigd.org/libraries .) An open question is the potential role of librarians and libraries in the ongoing processes and activities of the social forum(s). The library should take up the cases, says Finnish library activist Mikael Böök. He proposes that libraries proactively start to keep track of the thousand of activities started by participants in the social forum. Wiki-powered websites like http://www.wsflibrary.org/ should provide a Civipedia of ongoing social forum workshops and this project should be run by librarians, says Mikael Böök.
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A world social forum consists of thousand and one activities. And the catalog of the on-going first US Social Forum here in Atlanta also mentions hundreds of activities: workshops, seminars, lectures, discussions, brainstormings, etc. These hundreds and thousands of activities of the social fora need to be documented in libraries and archives so that information about them can be transmitted to future generations of social forum participants, and to posterity. Here, the librarians undoubtedly have a very important role to play. However, the social forum activities as such should also be present in public libraries throughout the whole world. In other words: both the the documentation of the activities and the activities themselves should be accessible and available in the library. But what does it mean to say that the activities themselves should be accessible and available in the library? It means that the librarians should maintain webpages about those activities. The webpages should be of the easily editable Wiki-type, like in the Wikipedia. Wiki-techniques and wiki-pages are suitable when documenting ongoing activities, because: "The information is often very dynamic, meaning that some facts are prone to change quickly and need to be updated." (quoted from Guzman, Manuel & Verstappen, Bert(2003): What is Documentation? - a manual from HURIDOCS, accessed via www.huridocs.org, and quoted here just a little bit out of its context). But before starting the documentation of the activities themselves, a very basic problem should be given some careful thought, and a viable (if not final) solution. Librarians would probably call this problem the problem of classification. In short, in order to organize and present the hundreds and thousands of activities in the social forum process, we must agree upon a common classification scheme. A classification of activities is not a classification of knowledge. Take the list of ministries of a modern state, or the table of contents of a political programme, e.g. the would-be political programme called "The Bamako Appeal", to quote an example from our own social forum context. Or imagine what the main headlines in a programme of a "world government" would be like. That should give you an idea of what the classification of the activities of the social forum must be like. The International Council of the World Social Forum actually came up with a classification of the activities some months before the Nairobi WSF in January 2007. I am referring to the the 21 'actionable themes'. For the list of the 21 actionable themes plus some viewpoints by the librarians and library activists who participated in the Nairobi WSF, see http://www.wsflibrary.org/index.php/Actionable_themes . The problem is, however, that these '21 actionable themes' did not become established. They were not taken seriously. Now, librarians happen to be a group who takes a serious, professional interest in the problem of classification. We would probably have no libraries at all if they did not. Nor would we have what is called 'civilization', but that is another story. The point which I obviously would like to make here is that we, who want to take the process of the social forum a step further, have to civilize ourselves. We need to have real libraries and thus we must cooperate with the librarians, who understand the necessity of classification and serious information management. This will help us to navigate the ocean of social forum information. Obviously, it is also essential for the continuity of the process, and for the understanding of the nature of the social forum as an open space. The openness of the open space is an ideal, a core value of the ethic of the public librarian. The librarian is supposed to deliver all the information without delay to all the people. The librarian must have an open mind and be intellectually free. The open space is the space where the intellectual freedom reigns. We will remain divided on many political, economical, cultural, religious and scientific issues. That is another way of saying that we must by all means guarantee that the social forum lives on as an open space. And that we simply cannot do without public libraries and public librarians if we want to keep it open. The librarians themselves also need the social forum, because as long as the librarians serve the political systems which we have to day, they cannot really be free. In order to liberate themselves, the librarians must proceed to build an independent worldwide public library system. With whom shall they build this necessary institution? With the NATO? With the Commission of the EU? With the government of China? With UNESCO? Or with the World Trade Organisation, which grew out on of the effort of transnational industrial corporations and banks to make all our "intellectual property" - the accumulated knowledge of the human race - tradable? (In their book "Information Feudalism", Drahos and Braithwaite tell the story of the birth of the WTO from the marriage between intellectual property and international trade - and that is a story, which every librarian and social activist need to know.) No, that institution, the independent, cosmopolitical public library system for the people, will never be built by the corporate-led governments of the national states and their international organisations. It is simply incompatible with the so called Information Society of today. The library is the mildest and kindest institution, which helps to fulfil the information needs of everybody. But it can give a hard blow to the imperialisms and dictators of this world, if the librarians decide to raise from their subordinate position together with the peoples of the social forum. - - - The envisioned WSFLibrary of activities, has to be built on the internet with the digital networking tools of the internet. As somebody wrote a long time ago: mankind always takes up only such problems as it can solve; and this problem of how to build the cosmopolitical public library is one of those problems that can now be solved, thanks to the internet. The quality of the networking tools have matured over the last decade. They are are now available to librarians everywhere as FOSS (free and open source software) and in the form of relatively affordable hardware and internet connections. - Some, like Alfredo Lopez in his excellent essay "The Organic Internet" (May First, 2007 - by the way, this is a book and an author whom I met at the US Social Forum in Atlanta), think that the internet in itself is a vast social movement, the biggest which mankind has ever seen. I think they have a good point. However, I also think that the internet itself should be put in a long historical perspective. "The library is a growing organism", wrote Indian library scientist Ranganathan. The internet is the latest branch on that old tree. The library of the printed word has swiftly adapted itself to the technical revolution of the internet. It must now go further and take the lead as an organizer and producer of social information on the internet. Firstly and foremostly: librarians must no longer accept that their webpages, the webpages of the libraries, follow rules and apply technical solutions which are dictated by others than the librarians themselves. To sum up: let us continue to build (because we have already started) our envisioned WSFlibrary together on the internet, and in the public libraries. It should become a "Civipedia" of activities towards "another world". Without that library, we will not be able to take the alterglobalization process (the global justice movement) further. The social forum process should extend to all communities which have a library and the public librarians should become involved in the course of their daily work. Last, but not least: The social forum opposes the Neoliberal globalization, which passes through global financial deregulation and the establishment of the most unjust and protectionist global intellectual property regime (the TRIPS). We oppose the information feudalism. We demand debt cancellation and abolishment of the tax havens. We want to introduce a global levy on the speculative money trade in order to finance the necessary public service, such as the public library service.
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We had a workshop at the US Social Forum. Ten people attended. I think 80 percent were librarians, and by the way, this workshop, like many other of the USSF workshops, was held in a public library. The Auburn Avenue Research Library, in our case. 10 percent of the participants were a Veteran for Peace, and the resting ten percent were library activists - myself among them. Two Danish students and a film-maker from Arizona also showed up at the workshop at a later stage. Eileen Harger from the Progressive Librarians Guild, a nation-wide network that publishes the "Progressive Librarian", chaired the meeting. The PLG brings up many important issues for debate and resolution within the American Library Association. The ALA, unfortunate coincidence, finished its yearly conference in Washington just yesterday, so some of the PLG activists went there instead of coming to the USSF. The ALA has some 70.000 members, and some of their conferences have more participants than the USSF, although I do not know how many we are here at the USSF. Maybe 15.000? That is a figure I have heard. Elaine was seconded by Melissa Morrone, a public librarian from Brooklyn and an activist of Radical Reference. Melissa has prepared a little survey with questions for social activists, such as "Do you use your library for anything related to your activist work? If Yes, in what manner?". I have so far conducted only one interview with Melissa's form in hand. The guy I asked said No. He does not use his library. He uses the internet instead.* Dr Kathleen de la Pena McCook, who is a library scientist teaching at the university of South Florida, spoke about the role and the duties of libraries for human rights, especially the human rights of the immigrants (in the USA). The library is, or should absolutely be, a place where the immigrant can go and feel welcome, and find the needed information! (This is an example of issues that are discussed in the PLG and the ALA, too). I, as a library activist, tried to explain why the library and the social forum need each other and belong together. I believe some people are starting to understand this now. Although many still believe that the library is a marginal thing, which comes after water, food, peace, health etc. Just as an experiment of thought: start with the library, and everything else will follow. We are collecting materials from the USSF in a box near the media center. It will of course be more like a sample than the full documentation. Hopefully, other librarians will follow the example at other social fora. With the help of the accumulated library science we will ultimately develop and refine our methods. The social forum process will get the memory and the continuity it deserves. I still have a dream that world society will get a world library. To be continued. - Mikael * I think the internet, too, is a library and, off the record, told him so.
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It is 3.22 am, an unusual time to blog for this writer. Yesterday I travelled from Stockholm to Amsterdam, and from Amsterdam to Detroit, where I find myself now, because my flight to Atlanta had been cancelled. I am thinking of what I am going to say at the US Social Forum which starts in Atlanta at 1 pm today. I quote http://ussf2007.org/ :
Well, maybe I am going repeat that "the library is the last outpost against the consciousness industry", because that still seems to me to be true although I now realize that I would actually want the library to be the first outpost against the ongoing stealing from the mind (see Ch 4, in "Information Feudalism. Who Owns the Knowledge Economy", by Drahos and Braithwaite, 2001). But I have to stop here . The battery of my laptop is empty, and they had no adapter for European power cables in this hotel. Good Morning!
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Yesterday, which was a rainy Saturday in Southeastern Finland, I started building a collection of "evaluations" of the Seventh World Social Forum, Nairobi, January 2007. Why? Because I wanted to "evaluate" the event myself and thus needed to read what others have thought and said. Another obvious reason is that wsflibrary.org should have such "evaluations" and make them available to its visitors and readers. A third reason, connected with the first one, i my feeling that the process of the social forum has reached a crossroads. As can be seen from the results of my efforts sofar - presented in the table of contents below - one of the "evaluators", Walden Bello, has also given this title to his contribution.
Comments on the evaluationsOne of the evaluation criteria is whether one thinks that the form of the social forum represents a historical novelty of universal and lasting importance, or just one more movement on the surface of the ocean. The concept of the 'open space' is of course not new in itself. What might be a new thing, however, is this form of global meeting and process, both face-to-face (e.g. at the WSF in Nairobi) and by means of telecommunications (e.g. the internet), which strives to become world society. Walden Bello is in doubt about the durability of the WSF. He suggests that the WSF might already be at the end of its life-cycle: "After the disappointment that was Nairobi, many long-standing participants in the Forum are asking themselves: Is the WSF still the most appropriate vehicle for the new stage in the struggle of the global justice and peace movement? Or, having fulfilled its historic function of aggregating and linking the diverse counter-movements spawned by global capitalism, is it time for the WSF to fold up its tent and give way to new modes of global organization of resistance and transformation?", Bello writes. What those "new modes of global organization and resistance" would be like, Walden Bello does not tell. Nor does he highlight the presumed choices of the WSF from here onwards. He does, however, mention in passing, that "the WSF�s not taking a stand on the Iraq War, on the Palestine issue, and on the WTO is said to be making it less relevant and less inspiring to many of the networks it had brought together." Does Walden Bello mean that the WSF must finally "take stand" on these issues, or perish? - The sheer opposition between "ideas" and "actions" can never be the real choice. We just need both. The response to Bello by Chico Whitaker is in Spanish, which I can only read with some difficulty. I interpret the title of the response, Las encrucijadas no siempre cierran caminos, to mean: "Crossroads do not always block the passage". Chico Whitaker certainly supports and defends the form of the social forum as an open space, which does not in itself "take stands" even on the most pressing issues of the day or even of the present historical period (cf. Iraq, Palestine, WTO). Thus he essentially says that the social forum must live on in its present form. Pointing to the growing number of local social forums", Whitaker estimates that the process is still in a dynamic phase. The problem, according t him, has to do with the (insufficient) communication between the social forum and the rest of the world via the mass media. How to eliminate this problematic lack of communication? Chico Whitaker affirms that communication is a duty of every participant, and not only the task of a special Communications commission. Very true, but not very clarifying. I especially appreciate the analysis by Sally Burch and Irene Leon. Take, for instance their observation: "The principal thematic innovation of the Forum in Nairobi, is without a doubt its thorough exploration of the issue of HIV-AIDS highlighting various socio-economic problems related to tackling this affliction, from which about 39.5 million people in the world are suffering, of which two thirds are in Sub-Saharan Africa." For me this is, again, a reminder of the dimensions of the world social forum. Neither Walden or Chico mentioned this thematic innovation, which for Sally and Irene was principal! Nor would I have even known about it if I had not read their evaluation. The analysis by Burch and Leon is perhaps the most balanced and comprehensive of the evaluations selected, although it seems to be the first to have been published (in February). Onyango Oloo's self-critical reflections, on the other hand, are the most interesting document of how the Nairobi WSF was organized and why it came to be like it was. It remains to be seen whether Oloo, who returned from a long exile in Canada in order to become the co-ordinator of the Kenya Social Forum and one of the main organizers of the WSF event in Nairobi (although he was ultimately to be completely marginalized from the later function), will be able to continue his existence as a leading social activist in his homeland.
The "collective contribution" expresses, in my view, a somewhat imbalanced evaluation of the Nairobi WSF. Critique is much wanted and needed, but the achievements that can be build upon should also be spelled out. The collective, however, puts the finger on two crucial points. Firstly, "A change is certainly necessary at the level of the International Secretariat" (unfortunately, it does not say more precisely what change). Secondly, "We support the necessity of adopting a set of rules in order to avoid the serious mistakes of the 7th WSF repeating itself." In short, the administration and "the rules" of the WSF are out of date.
Anyway, one evaluation of a WSF cannot be enough. We need several evaluations and they will necessarily not only be different and contradicting each other, but also bring news and open new perspectives to each other.
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Can you patent wisdom? This the title of an opinion article by Suketu Mehta in International Herald Tribune May 7, 2007 [1]. Quotations:
Yoga means union. Yoga is fun. Yoga-patents are not.
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In Finland we have spring-time and nice weather. Many social and environmental activists are happy about the victory we won yesterday when the City Council of Lovisa voted against selling a piece of land to the German energy giant E.ON for a new nuclear power station. I live just ca 15 Km Km from Lovisa myself. Yesterday, we also celebrated the memory of the victory against Nazism 9 May, 1945, and the "Day of Europe", in commemoration of the Schuman Declaration of 9 May, 1950. The appeal of the then foreign minister of France, Robert Schuman,"led to the 1951 creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), first of the European Communities and predecessor of the European Union." (Wikipedia)
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