June 22, 2000

Wherefore goeth Democracies and Those with Respect ; So goeth the People

Recently US State Department representative Dennis Ross described the US role in the Middle-East peace process, as one of "helping" and "important" to the process. However, he emphasized that the US cannot and will not intercede or interject itself in "decisions" which must be made solely by the "parties" themselves. To paraphrase, the process of shaping and decision making must be made by and for the "parties" directly involved and effected. This sounds great but why the procedural inconsistency for some democratically elected countries and not others?

The need is greater than ever in this high-speed global information economy to guarantee "Human Security" as a central strength of civil society, putting people first with "connectivity" to education, health care, job opportunities, information and other public services. There can be no doubt that the failures of access to basic quality education for all in the Americas is a major cause of child poverty and child labor. Despite the goal of the leaders of the Americas to put 100% of Americas children in school by 2010 there are still almost 30% of school age children in Latin America and the Caribbean without schooling and teachers at the start of the millennium!

The EDSAT-Americas project, includes representatives from 13 ministries. They represent the people, their representatives -- the "parties". They have authority for education, communications and other public service policies. These officials have demonstrated a political will and vision to develop a "regional cooperative initiative" in order to get out front of technology spending; political will to "even the playing field" for small and large countries struggling with growing technology and education demands; a need to change worker skills for emerging economies and train teachers, and a need to educate ethnic and indigent communities living in poverty, with little or no schooling, health care or access to information and resources.

It is our hope US bureaucrats will apply the same fair, respectful and even handed procedures with small and large countries in this hemisphere, as expressed for the Middle East. The wealthiest and strongest nation in the globe should be able to exercise help and support balanced with respect for sovereign nations' elected representatives. What is the alternative, if we hope to strengthen democratic institutions and open economic benefits for all people in the US, and elsewhere?

For too long now technocrats at the US State Department, Treasury and national security agencies, who strongly influence the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and World Bank, question the ability and expertise of small or large multicultural Latin American and Caribbean officials to assess their education demand and need. For too long the bureaucrats question the efforts of representatives of less powerful small countries to assess their demands and form a non-government cooperative to operate and manage hemispheric telecommunications to empower the people with connectivity to education, health-care and information.

The EDSAT-Americas Technical Planning Team is planning to establish cost-effective integrated common infrastructure for communication systems for access to equitable and affordable Internet services, other education and health care networks, and universal services.

In the interest of strengthening democracy and sustainable growth, US technocrats must recognize the right and importance of elected and appointed representatives of small sovereign states to shape and form multilateral initiatives to get out front of spending, put people first and connect equitable education, health care and other public services.

It is our hope that the US will step into the future of global communications with foreign policy procedures, which strengthen and respect democratic leaders and their institutions, in all developing countries with "consistent" procedures which respect and support the "parties", who represent sovereign Latin American and Caribbean states and communities and step up to their responsibility and authority to decide and shape public services which will affect their people, well into the 21st century!

National Education Telecommunications Organization/Education Satellite
Email: edsatamericas@netoedsat.org