Dear All,
I recently sent a petition about the situation of Women in Afghanistan to
the CGF at the request of a colleague who felt very strongly about the
issues raised in the petition. I have since had two private responses from
CGF members, both of which raise different, if related, issues. I would like
to ask that list members take a little time to read through a couple of
comments which I have to make - I ask this because I know that there have
been many postings recently which have received the "glance and delete"
treatment. It is for this reason also that I want to raise a couple of
issues.
The first response to my posting was short and (not?) sweet:
"Why not raise the issue of what happened to the originator of this
petition:
she had her email account cut off. There have been serious attempts to
censor the petiiton in the academic world: I think it would be hypocritical
of you to avoid that issue.
Pt"
The second goes into a lot more detail about the fate of the petition and
others like it, and I include it at the end of the message for those who are
interested.
In response to the first, I wondered why my fellow critical geographer (Pt)
wanted to label me as hypocritical? I was not very pleased to be thought of
in that way, or to imagine that my colleagues around the world are prone to
such immediately unpleasant thoughts about me, or about one another, when we
make postings.
This brought to mind several spats which have been taking place on the CGF
recently, in which one or other person has accused another of some terrible
politically insensitive statement. There seems to be a lot of venom going
around. For me this is very strange in a generation of Geographers who have
specifically cultivated an open, engaged, respectful, yet critical attitude
to one another's work. This culture is very valuable, and has taken a long
time to emerge, to replace an aggressive and quite vitriolic form of
engagement which did used to characterise disciplinary interactions.
I would be interested to read responses on the CGF (please don't send them
to me personally) from those people, who, like me, may have felt silenced
(or drawn to the delete button) by the tone of the discussions recently. As
I understand it, this list draws together people with a broadly common
(although not undifferentiated) political and intellectual agenda. I feel
that the intellectual debate has been swamped by the accusatory style of
many "political" postings. Of course emotions run high when it comes to
politics; but then if people join the list because they feel that they share
some common goals, why are some people treating others on the list as the
enemy?
I personally would like to encourage a return to a respectful assumption of
a shared project, in which we are all eager to learn from one another, and
to specifically use our intellectual training and interests as geographers
to advance various progressive political concerns.
The second posting raises some interesting political issues about the use of
the internet for political purposes. I would be intrigued to hear responses
from fellow list members who might have studied, or been involved with,
movements which have successfully mobilised virtual political communities
through the internet. I feel saddened that sending an email (like writing a
letter?) might be a futile political act. Is the internet only useful for
the powerful? There is nothing more strengthening for local or national
movements facing persecution than to know they have solidarity from people
in other parts of the world. It would be such a shame if we were not able to
pursue this through the internet.
Thanks for your time.
Jenny Robinson
Dear Jenny,
This particular petition has received legendary status on the Web... As is
pointed out at http://snopes.simplenet.com/spoons/faxlore/afghani.htm
<http://snopes.simplenet.com/spoons/faxlore/afghani.htm> and at
http://www.hoaxkill.com/afghanistan.html
<http://www.hoaxkill.com/afghanistan.html> , signing this petition will do
no good whatever.
This is what the simplenet website reported about this particular petition.
N.B. also the warnings about sending e-mail chain letters generally - your
ISP could bar you from using their service. N.B. also, the futility of
e-petitions generally - hopefully this will be the last one posted here, but
I have my doubts...:
>
>Inquiries prompted the following auto-reply response:
>
>>Please read this message carefully, especially the next
two sentences. Do not
reply to this email. Do not forward this email to anyone else. Anyone who
needs a copy, already has one. Do not make things worse. Do not "help" by
forwarding this message to everyone who has corresponded with you on this
subject.
>>
>>Due to a flood of hundreds of thousands of messages in
response to an
unauthorized chain letter, all mail to [log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]> is being deleted unread. It will never be a
valid email address again. If you have a personal message for the previous
owner of that address, you will need to find some means other than email to
communicate.
>>
>>[log in to unmask] was not an organization, but a
person who was totally
unprepared for the inevitable consequences of telling thousands of people to
tell fifty of their friends to tell fifty of their friends to send her
email.
>>
>>It is our sincere hope that the hundreds of thousands of
people who continue
to attempt to reply will find a more productive outlet for their concerns.
There are several excellent organizations and individuals doing real work on
the issues raised. Some of them were mentioned in sarabande's letter. None
of them authorized her actions. We suggest that you contact them through
non-virtual channels to help. They all have web sites with information and
contact points. Unlike sarabande, they can channel your energy in useful
directions. Do not let this incident discourage you.
>>
>>Please do not forward unverified chain letters, no matter
how compelling they
might seem. Propagating chain letters is specifically prohibited by the
terms of service of most Internet service providers; you could lose your
account.
>>
>>Any replies to this message will be deleted unread. The
issue is closed.
>
>
>And there you have it. Though the petition was real, it never went
anywhere.
Signing it and persuading others to add their names is pointless-the
signatures aren't being collected. Even if they were, it's not at all likely
that an Internet petition would have any appreciable impact on anyone. It's
too easy to cook up lists of fake names and phony e-mail addresses and
festoon a petition with them for anyone charged with gauging public reaction
to give such documents any weight.
>
>If you feel strongly enough about this issue (or any other) to want
to get
involved, you should certainly do so.
>
>But remember, as with most endeavors, your results are likely to be
proportional to your efforts. Adding your name to an Internet petition is
quick, easy, and virtually useless. If you want to help, make a real effort
such as writing or calling your Congressmen or contacting humanitarian
groups to find out what you can do to assist their causes.
Sorry to disappoint you
Paul
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