More on the Geneva Wankfest

Yesterday, I mentioned the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society, but I forgot to mention the Summit web site. There's not a whole lot of there there, unless you are a connoisseur of the art of bureaucracy and enjoy reading things like

Comments from the Civil Society Working Group on Content and Themes to the Draft Non-Paper on the Declaration of Principles from the President of WSIS PrepCom

Easy for them to say, I'm sure.

And speaking of the "Declaration of Principles," they seem to be on about the 15,000th draft because they can't get everyone to agree on which pointless verbiage to include. Check the latest draft out for yourself, but the following are some of my favorites. Bear in mind that the 'crats have coined a new acronym: ICTs are Information and Communication Technologies.

10. We affirm that development of ICTs provides enormous opportunities for women, who should be an integral part of, and key actors, in the Information Society. We are committed to ensuring that the Information Society enables women's empowerment and their full participation on the basis on equality in all spheres of society and in all decision-making processes. To this end, we should mainstream a gender equality perspective and use ICTs as a tool to that end.

"Mainstream a gender equality perspective"?

11. In building the Information Society, we shall pay particular attention to the special needs of marginalized and vulnerable groups of society, including migrants, internally displaced persons and refugees, unemployed and under-privileged people, minorities and nomadic people. We shall also recognize the special needs of older persons and persons with disabilities.

Yikes, don't forget the nomads! I wonder if they want laptops or handhelds?

14. We continue to pay special attention to the particular needs of developing countries, countries with economies in transition, Least Developed Countries, Small Island Developing States, Landlocked Developing Countries, Highly Indebted Poor Countries, [countries and territories under occupation], countries recovering from conflict and countries and regions with special needs as well as to conditions that pose severe threats to development, such as natural disasters, [and foreign occupation].

There are some whole new categories there that I didn't know existed! But there's no mention of Highly Indebted Wealthy Countries Who Piss Away Money on the UN.

And the text in brackets means it is under debate. You don't have to screw on your thinking cap too tight to figure out which of the usual suspects want the phrases above.

Of course there's also

[Note: the whole document is in square brackets]

Sheesh - I thought it was circling the bowl.

After the pontificating is over there's the punchline in the Plan of Action where the UN weenies demand cash and control of the Internet although it's sprinkled throughout a nice heap of silage. Or maybe manure. It's one end or the other.

Don't call us, Kofi, we'll call you.