-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- Dave Hartley http://www.asheville-computer.com/dave -----Original Message----- From: Jay Fenello [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2000 6:38 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: The Source of Our Problems The Source of Our Problems by Jay Fenello Welcome to the second edition of Aligning with Purpose(sm), a weekly column dedicated to examining our society, with a goal of achieving positive and lasting change. This issue will explore some of the many problems we face today. By way of background, the problems I'm about to describe were experienced first hand through my involvement in the fight over Internet Governance. Instead of a world based upon legality, and fairness, and constitutional rights, I found one based upon power, and privilege, and decisions in smoke-filled rooms. But before we can address these excesses, we must first determine the source of our problems. Do they lie with our government, our press, our multinationals, our foundations? Or is it a broader problem with our collective morality? Our Government To find a resolution to the so-called domain name wars, Iperdome asked the U.S. Government to mediate the crisis (http://www.iperdome.com/releases/970429.htm). At first, the government appeared to be following its mandate to help resolve the questions of Internet Governance. But over time, it soon became apparent that the game was fixed. Despite all of the public comments, and despite all of the compromises in positions, members of the Commerce Department were working behind the scenes to implement a secret solution with corporate interests. So in effect, we had a public process for show, and a private process for decision making. And it wasn't just the Commerce Department -- Congress also got involved. They held some hearings, and they even threatened some actions. But in the end, money was the only thing that mattered, as each congressman took sides apparently based upon the size of their corporate contributions. But weren't laws being broken? Weren't government agencies there to keep things honest? Not according to the Justice Department. They have repeatedly refused to take any actions, nor even look into any of the alleged excesses. Our Press Given the takeover of the Internet by a small and secretive group of insiders, and the allegations of graft and insider dealings, surely our press would want to cover it? Expose it? Make a big issue out of it? Not based upon my experience. In fact, every time the U.S. Government made a decision favorable to the minority interests, the press would fall silent. And whenever allegations of corruption in the process were put forward, the press would ignore them -- even when it was part of the Congressional record: http://com-notes.house.gov/cchear/hearings106.nsf/768df0faa6d9ddab852564f100 4886c0/f21154b2e83a48d7852567b70050a597?OpenDocument Our Multinationals In trying to understand the contradictory actions of our government and media, one common explanation is the influence and control of multinational corporations. Senator McCain has called soft-dollars a legalized form of graft. And based upon rumors that IBM has invested over 100 million soft-dollars into their Internet Governance lobbying, it certainly could explain much of what's been happening. Same comments apply to our media. Today, due to a consolidation of media ownership, less than 10 multinational corporations control over 80% of all media outlets. And this situation is only getting worse, as can be seen in the CBS/Viacom and AOL/Time Warner mergers. Our Foundations If any segment of our society is dedicated to the greater good, and a potential counter-force to the multinational corporations, it presumably is our non-profit foundations. And yet, once corporate interests took over the Internet, the Markle foundation came in and has funded an attempt to implement a bogus membership structure. And many other organizations have jumped on the bandwagon, apparently due to the funding available from Markle. Our Morality IMHO, people are inherently good, and the problems I've been describing are simply part of the system. It starts with little compromises designed to climb the corporate ladder, or to get elected, or to get that pay raise. By the time you get to the top, everything is grey. In closing, these are just a small sampling of the many ways our system is broken. In the coming weeks, I'll be discussing these concepts in more detail. And to facilitate these discussions, I'll be clipping important reference documents to the Aligning with Purpose(sm) discussion list. Please join us. Until next time . . . Respectfully, Jay Fenello, New Media Relations ------------------------------------ http://www.fenello.com 770-392-9480 Aligning with Purpose(sm) ... for a Better World ------------------------------------------------ "The unexamined life isn't worth living" -- Socrates Copyright (c) 2000 Jay Fenello -- All rights reserved Permission is hereby granted to 1) redistribute this column in its entirety via email, discussion lists, and newsgroups, and 2) publish this column in its entirety on non-profit web sites. 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