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Control of South African Internet
(Hacktivismo, June 20, 2002)
mixter writes "This one comes straight from slashdot..."
In an end-run around the South African government's plans to seize control of the .za domain , administrator Mike Lawrie took pre-emptive action and moved the primary .za zone file offshore. Revealing their naivete, parliamentary committee chairman Nkenke Kekana accused him of destabilising the net! Then again, the opposition think he's a hero. :-)"
In a nutshell: South Africa's parliament wants control of the .za domain. Such a move would give the government complete control over its country's domain name infrastructure, right down to determining who gets to have new domains and who gets to keep existing domains.
Bravo to Lawrie for having the balls to make such a pre-emptive and protective move.
posted by LoZo 4:39 PM
Africa is forced to take the blame for the devastation inflicted on it by the rich world
(George Monbiot, The Guardian, June 25, 2002)
It is traditional, when empire celebrates, that its vassal states come to pay tribute and beg for deliverance. This time, the African leaders who will be admitted to the summit on Thursday are prepared to suffer the final humiliation by blaming themselves for the disasters visited upon them by the G8. . . . Nepad accepts that colonialism, the cold war, and "the workings of the international economic system" have contributed to Africa's problems, but the primary responsibility rests with "corruption and economic mismanagement" at home. Few would deny that these have played a significant role, but nowhere in the document on which the plan is based is there any mention of the far more consequential corruption and mismanagement by the nations to whom they are appealing. . . . Nowhere is any context given: that Africa's deficit is merely one component of a vast and growing global debt, affecting consumers and nations in the rich world as well as nations in the poor world. The US, for example, owes $2.2 trillion: almost as much as the entire developing world's debt put together. No mention is made of the debt-based banking system which has caused this crisis, and which ensures that the only way debts can be discharged is through the issue of more debt. . . . This system granted the rich world complete economic control over the poor world. The power that nations wield within the IMF is a function of their gross domestic product: the richer they are, the more votes they can cast. The World Bank is run entirely by "donor" states. These two bodies, in other words, respond only to the nations in which they do not operate. . . . Self-determination is an admirable goal, but without control over economic policy it is bombast.
posted by LoZo 5:20 PM
