Greetings,

I have not been an active facilitator for Click4HP for some time, just a
behind the scenes observer helping out with problems of posting or
subscription options.  This recent discussion on the email petition
regarding women's rights in Afghanistan, is an echo of one that has taken
place on many list-servs and in personal emails for more than a year. And
with good reason - the situation for women in Afghanistan is appalling,
requiring serious attention and action.
I entirely agree that we all need to find ways to respond effectively and
with passion and concern to the terrible situation in Afghanistan.  My
concern is that using email to gather signatures for a virtual petition is
not enough, and may be more problematic than it is helpful.  On another
list-serv that I monitor, PAR-L, feminist columnist Michele Landsberg copied
a message from the Brandeis U. server that is the end place for all these
email petitions asking that people NOT use email to "act" but look at more
direct action.

Ms. Landsberg, in preparing to write a column about the Taliban, emailed the
source to ask for more information and received the following enlightening
reply:

This is a recording. A Brandeis affiliate with good intentions but bad
methodology started a chain letter last year.

Please do not redistribute it. Please do not write with further questions or
comments either to postmaster or to sarabande. The current rate of such
messages is around 2000 per day and increasing.

If you wish to learn how to do something productive about the status of
women in Afghanistan, please refer to the web sites run by Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch, and the Feminist Majority,
http://www.amnesty.org/ http://www.hrw.org/ and http://www.feminist.org/
respectively.

The latter is sponsoring a *real* petition which should be sent *only* via
physical mail or fax, where it might have some effect. Virtual signatures
are virtually useless at best, and at worst lull people into believing that
no real action is needed. The text you received was mostly plagiarized from
the real petition (without credit or reference), but is different enough
that it can not be accepted by the original organizers (regardless of how
the "signatures" were gathered).

For information on why Internet chain letters are never sanctioned by any
responsible organization, please refer to:

http://athos.rutgers.edu/~watrous/pbs-funding-chain-letter-petition.html
http://www.wish.org/craig.htm
http://www.nbi.dk/~dickow/stop-chain-letter.txt
http://www.cancer.org/chain.html
http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa021198.htm
etcetera....

A last comment - I was interested to note that I received an action alert in
email from friends asking for action about the Bell Canada telephone company
decision to lay off their directory information operators and "sell" the
service to an American call centre.  The email request for action asked
recipients to Telephone or to use an internet site to FAX their concerns to
the federal government and to the company officials.

Email is a very powerful communication and information exchange medium, but
it is not always a good way of acting on a cause. We need to use our tools
in different ways.

sincerely,

Alison Stirling
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

-
>> From:          David Burman <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject:       women's rights in Afghanistan
>> To:            [log in to unmask]
>>
>> This is for a very serious cause that touches humanity, mainly women.
>> Please take few minutes and give full consideration.
>> Please sign at the bottom to support, and include tour town. Then copy
>> and e-mail to as many people as possible. If you receive this list with
>> more
>> than 50 names on it, please e-mail a copy of it to:
>> [log in to unmask]
>> Even if you decide not to sign, please be considerate and do not kill
>> the
>> petition. Thank you. It is best to copy rather than forward the
>> petition.
>> Melissa Buckheit Brandeis University