You might be surprised, but I am with John on this. The essence of giving authonomy to the regions is exactly to allow them to organize in a way that they see fit to represent the individuals of the region at a certain point in time. Personally, I don't see anything wrong in the provision of having the two representatives coming from two different countries, which would mean almost automatically, as John notes, one from the US, one from Canada. But this is the point of view of yet another of those bloody Europeans, who do not understand the logic and culture of the new world. The important thing is, IMHO, that some provision for difference is stated (as John puts it: "To the maximum extent feasible, the selected individuals should represent the geographic and cultural diversity of the region."). Then, it is up to the region to see how, and I imagine this would be a rather dynamic approach, maybe changing over time. Cultural diversity is the key issue, rather than nationality. Maybe there is more difference between native americans (Eric Brunner, are you still around?), immigrants from Latin America or Far East, and WASPs, all living in California, than there is between a Canadian lawyer and a US lawyer. The real litmus test will be when we see the elected folks. Personally I would avoid setting rules, if they are perceived as imposed, and maybe external to the culture of the region. If nationality is not the ideal diversity factor in the NA region, I believe that it should be substituted by something that is more representative of the "geographic and cultural diversity of the region", as John puts it. But it would be a shame if we eliminate all provision for diversity, and we end up in electing two clones that make feel unrepresented a large part of the NA population. CHeers, Roberto
-----Original Message----- From: alac-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org [mailto:alac-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org] On Behalf Of John L Sent: 19 May 2007 17:50 To: Nick Ashton-Hart Cc: NA Discuss; alac@atlarge-lists.icann.org; na-als@atlarge-lists.icann.org Subject: Re: [At-Large] Geographic diversity in the NARALO
I would ask you all to consider the message that would be sent if North America were to adopt less diversity guarantees than any other region.
Um, that we're doing what the RALO process is supposed to do, making the RALO meet the unique characteristics of our region? Or is this a trick question?
I hope you're not saying that the RALOs are supposed to solve ICANN's historic PR problems.
R's, John
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