<nettime> Multimedia Institute cancels grant with an agency of United States government

[Zeljko Blace <zblace@alu.hr>]

PUBLIC STATEMENT

Due to the war the USA wages on Iraq, Multimedia Institute reached a
decision to end the contract through which it was granted US$ 100.000 by
the United States government for its work on the development of the civil
sector in Croatia.


We would like to present you the reasons for this decision:

Late in 2002, Multimedia Institute received a two-year US$ 100.000
financial support from the US Agency for International Development (USAID)
granted through the Croatian civil sector development program implemented
by the Academy for Educational Development (AED). Through this program the
financier chose 10 NGOs it considered instrumental in ensuring the
sustainability of Croatia's NGO sector and civil society, and implicitly
in the development of democracy.

Government of the United States of America - disregarding international
law, subverting international decision-making forums based on the
international law, and disrespecting world-wide public opposition to the
war - wages war on Iraq.

As this is a war that is:
a) a precedent based on the pre-emptive war rationale,
b) being waged in disregard of legitimating processes of the international
community,
c) guided by corporate interests to control the natural resources,
we conclude that, because this action is incompatible with our mission to
support the public sphere and democratic deliberation processes, the
preconditions for the cooperation of our organization and the AED in the
development of civil society and democracy are no longer there, thus we no
longer accept the financial support by the US government and are
terminating the cooperation contract.

Reacting critically to the context of economic globalization, actors
world-wide place their efforts into creating conditions necessary for
political and social globalization. As Multimedia Institute considers
itself a part of this global public, with this act it doesn't represent a
position defined within national context, but rather reacts to the war in
Iraq that is determined by the new global order and is contrary to the
political globalization.

Here we wish to express our regret that despite the AED's commitment and
professionalism we are terminating our cooperation on this project.


***

Multimedia Institute (MI2) is a non-governmental organization bringing
together the critical public, and promoting innovative potentials for the
social and cultural action provided by new information technologies.

Through the development of a collaborative free software platform,
education in, advocacy and promotion of the tactical approach to
communication technologies and mass media, MI2 is introducing civil
society with ways of securing, by means and methods of socially engaged
networking, a greater public response and effect for its own initiatives.

By opening a public space for the promotion of civil initiatives - the
net.culture club MAMA, MI2 is directly working together with numerous
initiatives and organizations, as it is implementing its own projects
engaged in the critical transformation of public sphere.

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