OPEN LETTER

Dear Youth Caucus leaders,

During recent weeks, I have been collecting my thoughts on how the work of the WSIS Youth Caucus throughout the two WSIS phases can be reviewed and learnt from. I have tried to make it known on my blog @ TIG that I think the YC, although very successful, was run in a way unakin to that of a typical UN Summit Caucus; i.e. open, consultative and administered fairly.

I have had this discussion with various members of the Caucus, and the argument is gaining momentum. People believe that the Caucus was unfair, elitist and cliquey, which although was an obvious success, is not the way to run something that is supposed to be open. I'm not going to make detailed commentary on why I think like this, at least not in this forum, but I will if there is a review. I was a co-facilitator for some time, and I feel I have had a closer insight into how the group was run; I believe it imperative that future UN Summit Caucuses can learn from the successes and mistakes of the WSIS YC, and an open review is the only way that can happen.

In my mind, the best thing we can do, as a group, is to appoint someone from the outside who has not been involved in the work of the Caucus or any of its supporting organisations or leaders. That person would be charged to write a report by consulting with the whole group and auditing the work of the Caucus from beginning to end. That report should then be published as a way to recommend to future Youth Caucuses how to/not to work. Surely it would be a fitting denouement to the work of the Caucus, and a gift to the global youth community.

I call upon you to make this happen, and I call upon every member of the Youth Caucus to do the same.

Kind regards,

Luke Cholerton-Bozier

Why is it that a comment I made, which was a fair, unoffensive point of view about someone's blog entry, was deleted?

This is absolutely ridiculous, and the funny thing is I jokingly said on the comment not to delete it. It's funny how some people cannot handle a hint of critisism, especially when I wasn't directly critisising anyone.

Since I posted my last entry, complaining about censorship, the same person has deleted a second comment I made which pointed out that I was being censored.

Wake up people! I've been an active member of this community for almost three years, and I'm not some crazy guy who posts crap and offends people.

MY POINT WAS BALANCED AND NOT JUST MY OWN.

After just four hours sleep and no breakfast, I finally got to the WSIS badging reception. Never in my life have I been in a queue full of such interesting people. The guy in front of our party was from Jordan, and apparently used to work for Queen Noor & Kind Hussein. Having Diplomatic plates on the car you're in really helps with the crazy Tunis traffic controllers, who seem to be keeping a tight rein over the flow of cars & busses. I only got that treatment for to get badged however, and back to Tunis centre; from there it was taxis and busses all the way (not the best way to get around - especially when you have to wait for an hour and be told that the bus you want is three different ones then getting the 'right' one which then drops you off miles from your hotel).

After actually getting through the Kram Palexpo perimeter fence and into the WSIS centre, I realised that the ICT4All exhibition must be at least twice the size of the ICT4Development equivalent at the Geneva summit. Lots of cool new technologies to play with. I'm mildly impressed by the organisation of the whole thing; it's like everyone in Tunis knows why you are here and wants to get you to the Kram centre; although in practice, half of them don't seem to know what the plan is (esp. with the busses). Oh well.

Tomorrow the real action starts, both with my British Council project and WSIS itself. I will report.

Luke

I just got to my hotel 45 minutes ago after two flights (London-Madrid-Tunis). The flights were okay but Madrid airport is horrible, and I have that wasted feeling when you spend a day travelling. Stupid really, considering that Tunisia is so close to Europe; that's what happens when you book too late I guess.

Tunisair is a cool airline; at least the food was - the two-hour delay in Madrid wasn't that cool though. Tunis is looking clean (cleaner than when I was here in August) and it's 21 degrees outside. Compared to icy cold in London, it's bliss (temporarily at least).

My hotel has free broadband Wi-Fi which is the most useful thing, and surprising seeing as broadband penetration is relatively low in Tunisia. Great.

Until tomorrow then...