Thanks for the thoughtful comments. My replies below

>>> karen banks <[log in to unmask]> 08/22/04 06:59AM >>>
>i doubt very much whether meryem would consider herself to
>be foward as an african representative (and i think we should
>check before submitting)

I have sent her a note. No reply as yet. I know very little about
her and made the suggestion based on others' suggestions.

>also, i'm afraid we have no arab state representation..
>nor representation from sub-saharan africa, the pacific,
>etc etc..

The list is not complete. If you know people who fit those bills,
please put them forward.

>i just don't think regional representation is going to work,
>based on geo-political criteria [snip]
>do we need to segment the names so much? it seems to rather
>highlight gaps and anomalies overshadowing the qualities of the
>people themselves..

This is an important comment. You are right, in some ways
it highlights the gaps, and in some ways, that does indeed detract
from the qualities of the individual names. On the other hand, that
is not all bad, it was partly the motivation for proposing it. If we
did just submit 10 or so names it is almost certain that most of them
would be from Europe and North America, where we are more
networked and there is a greater wealth of transnationally active
NGOs to draw on. This method forces nominees from
those "expertise and activist-rich" areas to be subjected to the
same "scarcity of slots" as all other regions.

>why not just submit 10-12 names with a
>preamble articlating the motivation for proposing these people..

We may have to revert to that. Do you agree, however, that
as a first pass, this template sets a worthy goal? That we should
try to fill all those slots with at least one name?

--MM