Which forced marriage do you have in mind, Alex?<div><br></div><div>j<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Jul 6, 2012 at 5:03 AM, Alex Gakuru <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:gakuru@gmail.com" target="_blank">gakuru@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Deep down here in Africa many NGOs champion against forced marriages.<br>
But when forced marriages happen up there at ICANN who speaks against<br>
the practice?<br>
<div class="im"><br>
On 7/6/12, Nuno Garcia <<a href="mailto:ngarcia@ngarcia.net">ngarcia@ngarcia.net</a>> wrote:<br>
> I have said this once: The Olympic Committee has a budget that is bigger<br>
> than many nations' budgets. They can afford not to be for-profit. The same<br>
> goes for other organizations.<br>
><br>
> And some statements are pure intellectual arrogance.<br>
><br>
> Best,<br>
><br>
> Nuno Garcia<br>
><br>
> On 5 July 2012 23:16, Joly MacFie <<a href="mailto:joly@punkcast.com">joly@punkcast.com</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
>> But you are not disputing their facts, I take it.<br>
>><br>
>> j<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 5:58 PM, Michael Carson<br>
>> <<a href="mailto:mcarson029@comcast.net">mcarson029@comcast.net</a>>wrote:<br>
>><br>
>>> Alain,<br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>> I agree. This op-ed is just that - the opinion of two individuals.<br>
>>><br>
>>> Michael Carson<br>
>>><br>
>>> YMCA of the USA<br>
>>><br>
</div>>>> ------------------------------<br>
>>> *From: *"Alain Berranger" <<a href="mailto:alain.berranger@GMAIL.COM">alain.berranger@GMAIL.COM</a>><br>
>>> *To: *<a href="mailto:NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU">NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU</a><br>
>>> *Sent: *Thursday, July 5, 2012 3:55:09 PM<br>
>>> *Subject: *Re: NYTimes: International Olympic Committee - "elitist,<br>
<div class="im">>>> domineering, and crassly commercial at its core"<br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>> NPOC really welcomes national Olympic committees as Members because<br>
>>> they<br>
>>> are true notforprofit organizations...<br>
>>><br>
>>> Alain<br>
>>><br>
>>> On Thursday, July 5, 2012, Robin Gross wrote:<br>
>>><br>
>>>> As a commercial organization that tried to join NCSG, very relevant…<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> No Medal for the International Olympic Committee says the New York<br>
>>>> Times…..<br>
>>>><br>
>>>><br>
>>>> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/opinion/no-medal-for-the-international-olympic-committee.html?_r=3&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/opinion/no-medal-for-the-international-olympic-committee.html?_r=3&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print</a><br>
>>>><br>
>>>><br>
</div>>>>> ------------------------------<br>
>>>> July 4, 2012<br>
>>>> **Olympian Arrogance**** By JULES BOYKOFF and ALAN TOMLINSON****<br>
>>>> ****<br>
<div class="im">>>>><br>
>>>> Brighton, England<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> WHILE Europe roils in economic turmoil, London is preparing for a<br>
>>>> lavish<br>
>>>> jamboree of international good will: in a few weeks, the city will host<br>
>>>> the<br>
>>>> 2012 Summer Olympics.<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> But behind the spectacle of athletic prowess and global harmony,<br>
>>>> brass-knuckle politics and brute economics reign. At this nexus sits<br>
>>>> theInternational<br>
</div>>>>> Olympic Committee <<a href="http://www.olympic.org/" target="_blank">http://www.olympic.org/</a>>, which promotes the games<br>
<div class="im">>>>> and decides where they will be held. Though the I.O.C. has been<br>
>>>> periodically tarnished by scandal — usually involving the bribing and<br>
>>>> illegitimate wooing of delegates — those embarrassments divert us from<br>
>>>> a<br>
>>>> deeper problem: the organization is elitist, domineering and crassly<br>
>>>> commercial at its core.<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> The I.O.C., which champions itself as a democratic “catalyst for<br>
>>>> collaboration between all parties of the Olympic family,” is<br>
>>>> nonetheless<br>
>>>> run by a privileged sliver of the global 1 percent. This has always<br>
>>>> been<br>
>>>> the case: when Baron Pierre de Coubertin revived the Olympics in the<br>
>>>> 1890s,<br>
>>>> he assembled a hodgepodge of princes, barons, counts and lords to<br>
>>>> coordinate the games. Eventually the I.O.C. opened its hallowed halls<br>
>>>> to<br>
>>>> wealthy business leaders and former Olympians. Not until 1981 were<br>
>>>> women<br>
>>>> allowed in.<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> Even today, royalty make up a disproportionate share of the body; among<br>
>>>> the 105 I.O.C.<br>
</div>>>>> members<<a href="http://www.olympic.org/content/the-ioc/the-ioc-institution1/ioc-members-list/" target="_blank">http://www.olympic.org/content/the-ioc/the-ioc-institution1/ioc-members-list/</a>><br>
<div class="im">>>>> are<br>
>>>> the likes of Princess Nora of Liechtenstein, Crown Prince Frederik of<br>
>>>> Denmark and Prince Nawaf Faisal Fahd Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia. The<br>
>>>> United<br>
>>>> States has only three representatives, two of them former Olympic<br>
>>>> athletes.<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> Then there are the excessive demands that the I.O.C. makes on host<br>
>>>> cities. For instance, the host cities have had to change their laws to<br>
>>>> comply with the Olympic<br>
</div>>>>> Charter<<a href="http://www.olympic.org/Documents/olympic_charter_en.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.olympic.org/Documents/olympic_charter_en.pdf</a>>,<br>
<div class="im">>>>> which states that “no kind of demonstration or political, religious or<br>
>>>> racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other<br>
>>>> areas.” When Vancouver, British Columbia, hosted the Winter Games in<br>
>>>> 2010,<br>
>>>> the city passed a bylaw that outlawed signs and banners that did not<br>
>>>> “celebrate” the Olympics. Placards that criticized the Olympics were<br>
>>>> forbidden, and the law even empowered Canadian authorities to remove<br>
>>>> such<br>
>>>> signs from private property.<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> The I.O.C. also makes host cities police Olympics-related intellectual<br>
>>>> property rights. So Parliament adopted the London Olympic Games and<br>
>>>> Paralympic Games Act of<br>
</div>>>>> 2006<<a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/12/contents" target="_blank">http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/12/contents</a>>,<br>
<div><div class="h5">>>>> which defines as a trademark infringement the commercial use of words<br>
>>>> like<br>
>>>> “games,” “2012” and “London” in proximity.<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> Such monomaniacal brand micromanagement points to another problem: the<br>
>>>> I.O.C. has turned the Olympics into a commercial bonanza. In London,<br>
>>>> more<br>
>>>> than 250 miles of V.I.P. traffic lanes are reserved not just for<br>
>>>> athletes<br>
>>>> and I.O.C. luminaries but also for corporate sponsors. Even the<br>
>>>> signature<br>
>>>> torch relay has been commercialized: the I.O.C. and its corporate<br>
>>>> partners<br>
>>>> snapped up 10 percent of the torchbearer slots for I.O.C. stakeholders<br>
>>>> and<br>
>>>> members of the commercial sponsors’ information technology and<br>
>>>> marketing<br>
>>>> staffs. Michael R. Payne, a former marketing director for the<br>
>>>> committee,<br>
>>>> has called the Olympics “the world’s longest commercial.”<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> Most worrisome, perhaps, is that the I.O.C. creates perverse incentives<br>
>>>> for security officials in host cities to overspend and to militarize<br>
>>>> public<br>
>>>> space. The I.O.C. tends to look kindly on bids that assure security,<br>
>>>> and<br>
>>>> host cities too often use the games as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity<br>
>>>> to<br>
>>>> stock police warehouses with the best weapons money can buy.<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> Visitors to London, where the games are scheduled to run from July 27<br>
>>>> to<br>
>>>> Aug. 12, would be forgiven for thinking they had dropped in on a<br>
>>>> military<br>
>>>> hardware convention. Helicopters, fighter jets and bomb-disposal units<br>
>>>> will<br>
>>>> be at the ready. About 13,500 British military personnel will be on<br>
>>>> patrol<br>
>>>> — 4,000 more than are currently serving in Afghanistan. Security<br>
>>>> officials<br>
>>>> have acquired Starstreak and Rapier surface-to-air missiles. Even the<br>
>>>> Olympic mascots look like two-legged surveillance cameras.<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> Let us be clear: the concern about ensuring a terror-free Olympics is<br>
>>>> tragically warranted. In 1972, members of the Palestinian militant<br>
>>>> group<br>
>>>> Black September killed 11 Israeli athletes and coaches at the Olympics<br>
>>>> in<br>
>>>> Munich — after which the I.O.C. president notoriously insisted that<br>
>>>> “the<br>
>>>> games must go on” — and in 1996, a bomb at the Atlanta Olympics killed<br>
>>>> a<br>
>>>> spectator and injured more than 100 other people. Yet there is such a<br>
>>>> thing<br>
>>>> as excess — and surveillance and weaponry are not a panacea.<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> Security measures can also be counterproductive: London residents who<br>
>>>> learned that the Ministry of Defense was attaching missile launchers to<br>
>>>> the<br>
>>>> roofs of their apartment buildings can’t be blamed for wondering if<br>
>>>> they’ve<br>
>>>> unwillingly become a prime target for terrorists. And, symbolically, at<br>
>>>> a<br>
>>>> certain point it gets hard to square the image of the militarized state<br>
>>>> with the Olympic ideals of peace and understanding.<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> What can be done? The I.O.C. has acknowledged that the escalating scale<br>
>>>> of the games — “gigantism” — is a real issue. Competitions drenched in<br>
>>>> privilege, like the equestrian events, should be ditched (with apologies<br>
>>>> to<br>
>>>> Ann Romney’s horse Rafalca, who will be competing in dressage in<br>
>>>> London).<br>
>>>> Pseudo-historical events like Greco-Roman wrestling, concocted in the<br>
>>>> 19th<br>
>>>> century, could also go. Events with high start-up costs could be<br>
>>>> swapped<br>
>>>> for those requiring fewer resources. Why not bring back tug-of-war (a<br>
>>>> hotly<br>
>>>> contested event in the early 20th century) and add more running events,<br>
>>>> like trail running and cross-country?<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> Governance is another challenge. After the bribery scandal surrounding<br>
>>>> the selection of Salt Lake City to host the 2002 Winter Olympics, and<br>
>>>> under<br>
>>>> pressure from Congress, the I.O.C. created an ethics commission to<br>
>>>> monitor<br>
>>>> the bid process — but it reports to the I.O.C.’s executive board, which<br>
>>>> still has the final say.<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> Other measures worth considering are to streamline committee membership<br>
>>>> and to provide greater representation for the international sports<br>
>>>> federations that administer athletic competitions — though either<br>
>>>> approach<br>
>>>> would continue to pose accountability problems.<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> In these bleak economic times, the world could use a little athletic<br>
>>>> transcendence. Sadly, the arrogance and aloofness of the organization<br>
>>>> behind the spectacle are all too ordinary.<br>
</div></div>>>>> **<br>
>>>> Jules<br>
>>>> Boykoff<<a href="http://www.pacificu.edu/as/politics/faculty/jules-boykoff.cfm/" target="_blank">http://www.pacificu.edu/as/politics/faculty/jules-boykoff.cfm/</a>>,<br>
<div class="im">>>>> an associate professor of political science at Pacific University, is<br>
>>>> writing a book on dissent and the Olympics. Alan<br>
</div>>>>> Tomlinson<<a href="http://alantomlinson.typepad.com/" target="_blank">http://alantomlinson.typepad.com/</a>> is<br>
<div class="im">>>>> a professor of leisure studies at the University of Brighton.<br>
</div>>>>> ****<br>
>>>> ******<br>
>>>> **<br>
<div class="im">>>>> MORE IN OPINION (2 OF 19 ARTICLES) Op-Ed Columnist: Doughnuts<br>
>>>> Defeating<br>
</div>>>>> Poverty<<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/opinion/doughnuts-defeating-poverty.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fopinion%2Findex.jsonp" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/opinion/doughnuts-defeating-poverty.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fopinion%2Findex.jsonp</a>><br>
>>>><br>
>>>> Read More<br>
>>>> »<<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/opinion/doughnuts-defeating-poverty.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fopinion%2Findex.jsonp" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/opinion/doughnuts-defeating-poverty.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fopinion%2Findex.jsonp</a>><br>
<div class="im">>>>> Close<br>
>>>><br>
>>>><br>
>>>><br>
>>><br>
>>> --<br>
>>> Alain Berranger, B.Eng, MBA<br>
>>> Member, Board of Directors, CECI,<br>
</div>>>> <a href="http://www.ceci.ca" target="_blank">http://www.ceci.ca</a><<a href="http://www.ceci.ca/en/about-ceci/team/board-of-directors/" target="_blank">http://www.ceci.ca/en/about-ceci/team/board-of-directors/</a>><br>
<div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5">>>> Executive-in-residence, Schulich School of Business,<br>
>>> <a href="http://www.schulich.yorku.ca" target="_blank">www.schulich.yorku.ca</a><br>
>>> Treasurer, Global Knowledge Partnership Foundation,<br>
>>> <a href="http://www.gkpfoundation.org" target="_blank">www.gkpfoundation.org</a><br>
>>> NA representative, Chasquinet Foundation, <a href="http://www.chasquinet.org" target="_blank">www.chasquinet.org</a><br>
>>> Chair, NPOC, NCSG, ICANN, <a href="http://npoc.org/" target="_blank">http://npoc.org/</a><br>
>>> O:<a href="tel:%2B1%20514%20484%207824" value="+15144847824">+1 514 484 7824</a>; M:<a href="tel:%2B1%20514%20704%207824" value="+15147047824">+1 514 704 7824</a><br>
>>> Skype: alain.berranger<br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> --<br>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------<br>
>> Joly MacFie <a href="tel:218%20565%209365" value="+12185659365">218 565 9365</a> Skype:punkcast<br>
>> WWWhatsup NYC - <a href="http://wwwhatsup.com" target="_blank">http://wwwhatsup.com</a><br>
>> <a href="http://pinstand.com" target="_blank">http://pinstand.com</a> - <a href="http://punkcast.com" target="_blank">http://punkcast.com</a><br>
>> VP (Admin) - ISOC-NY - <a href="http://isoc-ny.org" target="_blank">http://isoc-ny.org</a><br>
>> --------------------------------------------------------------<br>
>> -<br>
>><br>
><br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br>---------------------------------------------------------------<br>Joly MacFie 218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast<br>WWWhatsup NYC - <a href="http://wwwhatsup.com" target="_blank">http://wwwhatsup.com</a><br>
<a href="http://pinstand.com" target="_blank">http://pinstand.com</a> - <a href="http://punkcast.com" target="_blank">http://punkcast.com</a><br> VP (Admin) - ISOC-NY - <a href="http://isoc-ny.org" target="_blank">http://isoc-ny.org</a><br>
--------------------------------------------------------------<br>-<br>
</div>