Book at 01:40, 16 February 2008

2008-02-16T01:40:59Z

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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

User:Book/BlogEntry: 2008 February 16 04:33:42 EAT - Revision history

Book at 01:40, 16 February 2008