Syndicate: Fw: RIKS/Kosova - a little help, pleas

[Andreas Broeckmann <abroeck@v2.nl>]

From: "Jo&Sanja" <jo@xs4all.nl>
To: "RIKS Publications" <kosova@ljudmila.org>
Subject: Fw: a little help, please
Date: Sun, 25 Jul 1999 21:59:08 +0200



>
>Pristina 24th of July
>Reporting Jo
>
>HIPPIES FROM HELL?
>
>People in Prishtina are still massively cruising the mainstreets of
Kosov@'s
>capital. Celebrating their liberation, relaxing after a hard days work of
>rebuilding their homes, or trying to get over whatever they have suffered.
I
>am not sure if the joy and energy many of them show on first sight is a way
>of repressing trauma, or a sign of true optimism. I can't stop asking
myself
>though, what are the dark sides of this situation.
>Although much less than in Bosnia and parts of Croatia, the level of death
>and destruction in Kosov@ is immense. Far more so in the countryside than
in
>Prishtina. The capital always gives you a distorted picture of reality in
>any country, but especially in these circumstances, where a massive
presence
>of military and civil international agencies creates a weird mix of
>expectations, manipulations and confusions. Meanwhile, 14 people were
killed
>last friday on a dirt-road not far from Prishtina. There are instances of
>the UCK openly threatening aid-agencies to stop helping Serbs. And of
course
>the Roma continue to be an easy target for Albanians with a desire to
settle
>scores. And nobody really seems to care enough to undertake serious action
>to stop it. The international agencies are still in the process of finding
>out where they've landed, carving out their piece of territory, competing
>for the best skilled locals, and of course digging bureaucratic trenches,
>from where they hope to sustain their own existence or make it on the scale
>of best performing agent of the year.
>
>Anyway, in the middle of all this a bunch of  crazy, dream-driven and
>extremely dedicated persons, is working like hell to realize a digital
>revolution, preferably before any of the above mentioned obstacles gets in
>the way and kills this darling. The taskforce, basically consists of Teresa
>Crawford, Paul Meyer and Ilir Zenku. Teresa is a project-manager doing
human
>rights stuff with The Advocacy-Project, Paul Meyer is a young lawyer from
>New York with a mandate of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to
>develop technology for post-crisis management and Ilir Zenku came to Kosov@
>after working for years as the Internet project-manager with OSI (Open
>Society Institute) in Tirana.
>While I was dreaming up RIKS in Macedonia, two months ago, as an
>Internet-based project to reconnect refugees, now returnees with the aim to
>reconstruct or even re-invent Kosov@ Society, the technical taskforce
>started to get together a complete Internet Network for Kosova: a satellite
>dish, microwave connections for UN, KFOR and Aid Agencies and for a
>free-access provider to serve the local community. First in Prishtina, and
>then to be expanded alover Kosov@, including USAID setting up nodes in 7
>cities. Whether or not this will materialize this coming month remains to
be
>seen. There are lots of loose ends and pitfalls on the way. But so far the
>response from the internet-wise part of Albanian society, which like the
>rest of Balkania is a people of engineers, has been tremendous. And
>international agencies may not really be aware that this project is of huge
>significance for Kosov@ and for their own practice, they tend to be scared
>of things they think may be beyond their grasp, or add so much to the state
>of anarchy and multi-layered administrative chaos reigning here. And thus
>they tend to stop it off or create obstacles. Although fortunately there is
>a circle, maybe a generation of aid-professionals who dig this piece of
>independent non-governmental action, and happily jump on this wild-card
game
>of adding digital freedom to sinister history and an opaque attempt at
>world-government. Is this a post-governmental project or is it not?
>
>To come now to the point: suppose that we manage to get the technical
>infrastructure on and off the ground, how can we create an environment for
>it to blossom, a culture of digital regeneration, a blossoming of events,
>projects, campaigns,. contests and conferences to give substance to this
>network? To create a human infrastructure of stakeholders, trustees and
>creative minds to keep the network out of the strangling hands of
>bureaucrats, politicians and commercializers. In other words how to create
a
>free-zone of connectivity, communication and content that will hold against
>the inevitable mechanisms that tend to occupy these zones.
>I am working out the idea of setting up internet-workspaces for local
people
>and projects to develop, present and project themselves and their future on
>the Internet.
>Of course the profits of the network should partly be channeled to
>non-profit providers and clients: universities and schools,
>community-services, creative subcultures and communicators in diaspora. Of
>course there is additional money to be generated from international donors
>and sponsors. But the hardest part is how to start up a climate for
>producing content, using it for creating this free zone and giving it
>sustainability through substance and dedication: the critical mass, as Paul
>calls it.
>I think we need people, projects and inspiration too from abroad. This has
>to know no borders.
>
>So I invite you to share this experience: come here to Prishtina, Prizren,
>Peja and Djakovo and see who is living and dying here. Come forward with
>ideas and projects that can be part of this enterprise to invent a Virtual
>Kosova of flesh and blood. We must create multimedia events, organize
>contests for networkers or architects (how to house hundred thousand people
>before winter), create wild and innovating websites, organize workshops,
>meetings and conference to release imagination and prevent stagnation. We
>can just do it: campaign for  countries without borders, a world without
>man-inflicted misery ( a dangerous dream I'm afraid) and a globe of free
>expression.
>
>
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>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>
mos ban luft, ban dashuri


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