Jacqueline Morris Interviewed by APC

Jacqueline Morris, a fellow Trinidadian and colleague of mine, got interviewed - and it can not only be called an appropriately titled, but even a reflection of Jacqueline I wasn't as familiar with: 'From Geek to the WSIS Gender Caucus'.

There's some great text bytes in here:

JK: So you got involved in WSIS when? Last year?
JAM: 2003. February.
JK: So just before the Geneva WSIS conference.
JAM: Prepcom 2

JK: How did you find it?
JAM: In comprehensible at first. Like this whole UN thing, you realise this whole content is a totally different language, mindset, culture. But by now, I kinda… I could not believe we sat down there and argued for 2 weeks over one paragraph and everyone was like, “Yes! We got the paragraph in!” and I was like, two lines! Six people came to Geneva, argued and carried on and lobbied straight for 2 weeks over two lines. Ok,
whatever, valuable use of time and money.
JK: How do you see it now, after being in the process for so long? Do you think it’s valuable or…? To have that, just set language there you know?

JAM: Yes, I think it is. Because what happens is, especially in developing countries, the UN has weight. So that if the UN says so, then it’s easier when you go back to your country and say “but the UN says so!”, and then they go, “okay”. Because it doesn’t actually do anything here, but it’s a good piece of paper to bludgeon. And you may get something like that in your local context and use it as a lobbying tool for local advocacy. Otherwise, I don’t feel that it does anything on its own.

That sort of goes with my experience with working with Jacqueline... I'm just less subdued about my impatience than she is, but it's always good to work with someone as pragmatic as Jacqueline.

Plus, my picture of her is better than APC's! :-D

Image at top is one of mine - taken at the Caribbean Internet Governance Forum in Guyana, 2005. You can see the original here.