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