hello everybody, welcome to recoznet2. brought to you by the good people at Green.Net (check out their Jabiluka and other sites). much faffing about I'm afraid delayed everything - and the sign up direct from the website isn't quite ready - but otherwise we're all go. ideas for the website welcome, links yes but remember there are already some fabulous pages for links. for example the koori centre's list at http://www.koori.usyd.edu.au/register.html this list is about discussion and debate as it always has been. it will also hopefully be a centre for action and information but myself and Trudy Bray (your other list-manager) want to provide a space where everyone can feel free to contribute. don't think your ideas or opinions are uneducated, not valuable or will be harshly judged. we do encourage civilised behaviour on this list but, thankfully, don't expect too many problems on that score because that wasn't our experience with RecOzNet (famous last words). and of course any (polite!) comments on our managing or the list's purpose or direction are welcomed. Reading Bruce's last post to RecOzNet I was reminded how many general principles and thoughts from the rest of our lives are useful when we bring them to this work we're doing. When Roston saul talked of technocrats, and bruce drew the connections with his own experience in aboriginal organisations, I was thinking of what we in the area call AIDS Inc. the large organisations that run the services and the politics. I too have experience of being a 'dissenter' within these organisations and without. my agenda has often been to try to advocate for 'ignored' people living with HIV/AIDS, for example around issues like gender, poverty and access to complementary therapy. the word technocrat immediately rang bells for me. but I have also learned how we chip away at that. we have done it through grass-roots work, organising the dispossed if you want to put it dramatically. that's what we did with poverty and it got onto the agenda and some change (not enough) happened. it is also about beating them at their own game, through using the internet for example. through all this I have been very aware of the ethical basis for my actions as a HIV negative gay man. that awareness has done nothing but aid that work as I have learned to drop my unconscious prejudices and treat people like human beings. and I have learned (or rather reinforced) my experience that there is a difference between respect and kow-towing to silly ideas because of assumed tenderness! I value greatly this opportunity as a gay man to contribute and learn. I hope that the diversity of people on this list will grow. all experience is valuable in this work and we can all learn from the experiences of others. cheers Paul Canning -- |: Paul Canning [EMAIL PROTECTED] ® http://www.rainbow.net.au/~canning >Queers for Reconciliation http://reconciliation.queer.org.au ® *PoliticalGoo http://www.rainbow.net.au/~canning/politicalgoo >QAnnounce http://announce.queer.org.au/ ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."
