[lac-discuss-en] Agreeing with your blog comments about vote

[Carlton Samuels]

You should assume that this is an issue of some interest to me, especially
given the real issue of being in a region where language rights is of
moment.

In any minority situation, it is strategically more advantageous to go for
the biggest space available, in hopes for the cumulative effect.  And so it
would appear that direct suffrage, meaning the direct ALS vote to elect
occupant of Board seat #15 would be a good thing for the Caribbean.

Drill down however and the matter is not so cut and dried. In fact, all
shades and shadows.  The more I think of it, the more it appears to be a
case of where you front load.  Let me turn devil's advocate.  So the rule
is equal protection for ordinary internet users. Let's have a practical
examination, shall we.

There are just over 540 million - one half billion, over 25% of total -
internet users in China.  Do they get the vote?  And do they get the vote
under the proportionality principle?  And if so,  who represents them?  And
how do we know for sure the putative representative has the mandate?

Now, to the candidate list.  So we have devised criteria against which
candidates may be evaluated as fit to serve. And to be perverse, let us
assume we have been careful to eliminate the possibility of bias.  How do
we decide when the criteria is complete and fit to purpose?

Let us further assume our process separates those who define the criteria
from those who would evaluate the candidate against the criteria.  All bias
aside, let us assume we have 100 candidates qualified.  And they all are
from among the class internet users.  By what right would any be excluded
from the vote?

Let me throw in something else and refer a sordid chapter of history.  At
the height of the land rush to colonize the rest of the world, the then
European powers of Spain and Portugal had quite a tussle deciding which
'acquisition' could be definitively 'ours' and 'theirs'.  They went to the
Pope to have the matter adjudicated. So by the 'papal bull' of 1493, the
Pope at the time declared any land to the west and south of an imaginary
line 100 leagues west of the Azores Spanish, everything else for Portugal.
  The Pope was careful to make sure it was understood this related only to
'non-Christian' lands.

Totally shut out, the French king, a member of the ascendant Bourbon
family, was naturally outraged at being slighted and is alleged to have
grumbled, "am I not a Christian and a prince?"  Also explains why in the
sea of Spanish speakers around, Brazil is Portuguese-speaking.

-Carlton

==============================
Carlton A Samuels
Mobile: 876-818-1799
*Strategy, Planning, Governance, Assessment & Turnaround*
=============================


On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 9:09 AM, Vanda UOL <vanda at uol.com.br> wrote:

> Dear Avri ( sorry to send to all 3 addresses I have from you, don't know
> which is the best one!)
>  After carefully read your blog about elections/vote , I do agree the
> system is not the best.  I hate excuses  as people is not capable to vote,
> since from this region we are tired to hear such excuses from dictators
> trying to explain why they need to continue to govern....
> Nothing is less democratic than to decide that people can not vote and use
> several reasons to support such theory.
> Wider suffrage may be difficult to control and to have it in a proper
> manner will cost too much. But to have each ALS to vote I see no big deal.
> We already vote for all positions representing the region, both inside the
> Ralo or to seat at ALAC, so what is the problem to vote for the seat 15?
> Not the same number of representatives from each region? Can be solved
> with a adequate weight for some region's votes. The seat 15 is there to
> represent the users in general, so the users must be able to choose their
> representative. Allowing only ALAC plus the chairs can be easily driven to
> this or that person.
>  What I see as relevant is a candidate to be submitted to a huge process
> of debate about candidate's knowledge and capacity to represent all
> regions, but this can be done with a interview  to each candidate by each
> Ralo.
> I also see  a limit, based on curriculum vitae, of candidates - may be
> around 3 - to such position to not have a whole year of interviews.
> Anyway, count on me to try to change the vote rule, specially because we
> will enter the process to substitute Sebastien ( he entered when I left Oct
> 2010- since the start point changed he got 6 more months added to the 3
> years term a- starting on june 2011. - june 2014)
>  There is also another movement to have all member to leave and enter at
> the same time (good for the nomcom since give the clear view what have been
> chosen by SOs before the decision, allowing the group to select a more
> balanced board). If this happen, I am in favor to end Sebastien term in
> december this year, which give us small amount of time to question the rule.
>  So let's work.
>  All the best
>
>
> Vanda Scartezini
> Sent from my iPad
> _______________________________________________
> lac-discuss-en mailing list
> lac-discuss-en at atlarge-lists.icann.org
> https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/lac-discuss-en
>