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C a t M l l t News SUNDAY, AUGUST 4 - August 11, 2002
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C Nothing can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord. } ■Rom 8:39
Vol. 52 No. 16
A N e w D iv id e The preparation for yet another Summit, under the auspices of the United Nations, this time on what has been termed the "Information Society", got under way at Ge neva, Switzerland from July 1-5 with the First Preparatory Meeting.
Marc Furrer, State Secretary of Switzerland, Host Country of the 2003 World Summit on the Infor mation Society, pre-empted the question in many minds: “When I meet people, some o f them ask me: why another Summit? Isn’t it a waste o f time and money? I answer them very clearly: No, only in a Summit will we be able to find together solutions for the Informa tion Society. Only like that we find solutions which are politically rel evant, globally implemented and suitable for the civil society and the private sector..." The development of the "Infor mation Society" is well on the way
in some countries, but not at all in others. It is this which concerned the participants. Marginalization
His Exc. Msgr. Diarmuid Martin, Vatican's Permanent Observer at the Office of the United Nations in Geneva, quoted Pope John Paul ll's Encyclical "Centesimus Annus": Many people, perhaps the majority today, "“have no possibility o f ac quiring the basic knowledge that would enable them to express their creativity and develop their poten tial. They have no way o f entering the network o f knowledge and in te rcom m unication th a t would enable them to see their qualities appreciated and utilized. Thus, if not actually exploited, they are to a great extent marginalized. Eco nomic development takes place over their heads’.
Echoing similar sentiments, Marc Furrer again: “The new pov erty line is drawn this side o f the computer keyboard. You can tell the rich from the poor by their Internet connections. There are more internet connections in Man
hattan alone than in the whole continent o f Africa...”
Shashi Tharoor, UN UnderSecretary-General for Communications and Public Infor mation, added: "...the new divide in the world is not just between the high-tech countries and the lowtech countries, though that's bad enough: we also have the no-tech countries, and their prospects are grim".
Vatican Delegation Chief, Msgr. Diarmuid Martin, stressed the need for the Summit "to consolidate a vital column of the global develop ment architecture.
Communications technology has enabled the globalization process to proceed with rapidity. We must now ensure that it also enables the globalization process to proceed with equity."
Shashi Tharoor put it very succintly: “Dollar signs and GNP tables are no longer the only elements dividing the haves and the have-nots. The industrial revolution is passe(past); we are living in the era of the ‘information revolution’. But this is a revolution with lots of liberty (freedom), some fraternite (brotherhood) and no egalite (equality). Access to
information is increasingly vital for development and prosperity. "Communications technology needs to be managed to play a central role in ensuring that globalization leads to genuine integration and inclusion", he continued. Common international good
The principle of the common international good demands this equity so that these new divides can be bridged and eliminated. On this issue, Msgr Diarmuid pointed out that the principle applies in particular "to knowledge that is required to address urgent human needs, especially health.
When we are speaking of knowledge that is necessary for the very survival of people, then
"...the new divide in the world is not just between the high-tech and the low-tech countries, that’s bad enough: we also have the no-tech countries, and their prospects are grim”.
the Information Society, especially those who need to use the information and communications technologies for education or better medical help.” Vatican chief-of-mission, Msgr
as important in the area of communications as in any other sector of the economy.
Martin provided such a plan that
Msgr. Martin stressed: "In the so cial and economic realities of our contemporary world, access to
"sets out achievable goals for ensuring sustainable access to knowledge for the poorer countries, and for ensuring that such knowledge is effectively managed in the interests of the common good." The 10 -point plan
1 Identify the factors that have so far hindered inclusion and integration into the communications revolution. 2 Identify a programme of concrete steps to reverse such exclusion.
tempered by concern for the common good."
3 Propose new partnerships of collaboration to ensure the financing of that programme. 4 Put mechanisms in place to guarantee the management and to verify the implementation 5 Pay special attention to and invest especially in those areas that are particularly deprived, in termsof infrastructures 6 Be sensitive to the specific
Achieving results
needs of developing countries. 7 Invest in human capacity, to
Shashi Tharoor,
UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, the profit motive must be always
All participants stressed the need for the Summit to be a resultsoriented process.
Swiss Secretary of State, Marc Furrer said: “Perhaps this is the newest challenge for the United Nations: to work to bring access to information, and the empower ment it offers, to all the world's peoples.” Those who have no telephone, no internet — not only in their home, not even in their village nor in their neighbourhood — will not be satisfied with some nice general political statements of the World Summit on the Information Society. They will want concrete plans on how they can achieve access to
release the creative capacity of people that has been blocked by lack of access especially concerning education. Com munications technology is crucial to access education and to improve its quality. 8 Examine those factors that impede or distort honest and open communication. The distortion of communication - through subtle phenomena such as “spin” - by
powerful economic actors, or even by government itself, undermines the trust of citizens in institutions. 9 Establish new partner-ships of responsibility.
10 Set in place appropriate transparent legal and antimonopoly mechanisms which are
Honest Open Communication
knowledge is a key to an acceler ated path to development.
This may require, for example, identifying technologies appropriate to the particular situation of developing countries or helping those countries leapfrog intermediate technologies. Free and open communication and access to knowledge fosters freedom within the global society. It spreads knowledge that, in its turn, fosters creativity and choice. Honest and open communication is an essential pillar for the functioning of democracy. It is part of the ethical core of a true market economy. Good governance is not a magic formula imposed from above. It must not be allowed to become an ideology. Good
governance in the com munications sector must also be a results-oriented process. It involves putting into place those structures that will facilitate participation and solidarity in the service of the common good, and in enabling all persons to fully realise themselves and their capacities. Yoshio Utsumi, SecretaryGeneral of the International Telecom munication Union (ITU),summed up the need for the Summit to be results -oriented: “The real goal is not just to get more computers or more telephones, but rather to extend access to information, to guarantee the right to communicate and focus on how information and communications technologies can be used to achieve the broader
social and economic goals, such as the eradication of poverty.” Editor - from UN and Vatican Reports