Tall
and burly, with a handclasp like a steel vise,
Adama Samassekou doesn't seem to fit any stereotype
of a dreamer or visionary, but he is not at all
shy about admitting that that is what he is.
A former
education minister of Mali, Samassekou is currently
President of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) for
the UN-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society--which
he is quick to point out will be the first global summit
meeting of the Third Millennium. The summit is also
unique in UN history in that it is scheduled to have
two sessions, two years apart, held in two different
places.
Asked
how he would define the "information
society," Samassekou replied that, even
though much of the world is outside the digital
age and there is clearly a need to bring
it inside, defining the issue is a "great
problem" and "not just a question
of technologies."
"The information society," he
continued, "presents new possibilities
to develop education, health-all human activities"--and
to help achieve the UN's Millennium Development
Goals for the reduction of global poverty
and its concomitant evils. But, Samassekou
added, there is something more: "This
is a real chance for the world to rethink
relationships between nations and between
people. This is an opportunity to go beyond
the current 'culture of violence' and build
a new dialogue between nations--with more
listening to each other, more sharing, more
solidarity, a real society of community.
I think we can build a new world citizenship."
He
said the major stakeholders in the summit--national
governments, the private sector and civil
society--must each recognize the others as
partners. In contrast to other recent summits
that he said were "thematic"--dealing
with the environment, population, gender
issues--this one, he said, "is about
what kind of society we are building. There
is a huge potential here to make the whole
world happy," to create "a new
culture of peace and of love."
Of
course, Samassekou understands that not
everything
will be sweetness and light at
the summit. There are significant differences
of opinion, he said, about how free access
to information should be, about the security
of information, and also about the role of
the private sector and of civil society.
But the important thing, he added, is that, "We
must think about the new technologies not
as a goal in themselves but rather as a tool
for development, tools for human beings and
the development of our society. I would not
like the new technologies to kill our cultures.
Cultural and linguistic diversity is very
important."
This
summit, he added, "can magically
open the door to a new kind of human being-in
relationships and solidarity," a human
being less interested in competing with others
than in the "globalization of relationships.
We must preserve human dignity, we must learn
to respect one another." But he acknowledged
that his thinking is visionary. "I'm
dreaming," he said. "But let us
dream together. Let us build the world together.
Let us consider each other as the richness
of the Earth. When we dream together it is
already the beginning of reality. Can we
translate this vision into a project? That
is the challenge for this summit."
The PrepCom held its first meeting--at which
Samassekou was elected its President--this
past July. Its second meeting will be held
next February in Geneva and a third meeting
is scheduled for next September. The summit
itself opens in Geneva on December 10, 2003,
with a follow-up session to be held in Tunis
in 2005. Major support for the summit, Samassekou
said, has been provided by the host countries,
Switzerland and Tunisia. The International
Telecommunications Union (ITU) is the lead
UN agency cooperating on the summit, he said,
but he noted that all of the UN agencies
are taking part, with a special role being
played by the UN's Information and Communications
Technology (ITC) Taskforce.
Is
Samassekou concerned that his summit might
suffer
because of persistent reports
of "summit fatigue" among participants
in recent summits? Not at all, he said, explaining
that global summit meetings serve a purpose
that cannot be fulfilled any other way. "We
must preserve spaces in which to talk about
the future of the world," he said. "We
have no choice."
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