wikipedia

I have not written much here but have written lots of other stuff in recent days... as well as meeting lots of people. It is an enormous privilege of my situation to be able to listen to many different people and hear their stories and concerns.

I have written a 'letter to the editor', which may or may not be deemed fit for publication somewhere or other. I mentioned to someone that I had quoted the Wikipedia definition of 'Rule of Law' - something we lack around here in certain important regards. I was asked '"since when has Wikipedia been an authoritative resource". I replied that the Wikipedia is a wonderful example of the things that can be done by community, as distinct from things that can be done by an obsessive group of people tucked in a back room exercising power. Wikipedia has these three rules which are monitored by its devotees:

1. neutral point of view
2. verifiability
3. no original research

 For a delightful account of how the process of developing Wikipedia entries works, read this article in the New York Review of Books.

I have made some minor entries in Wikipedia, and made some additions. As mentor to some empowerment projects in Africa, I have been concerned to bring more knowledge of the 'real' world into the 'virtual world' where more and more people seem to live. As for example, needing to connect Amina's project and its arguments for support of women in the Congo to the mainstream of thinking about such things, I added a 'Status of Women' section to the Wikipedia entry for Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since I wrote that, someone else has added a photo and someone has linked to another, more substantial article on the same subject.

You will see in that article reference to a project by women in Bukavu. That links, via the Bukavu article in Wikipedia and more immediately via a footnote, to this project for which I have been mentor (Amina's project).

It will always be my intention to relate local government back to community. 

D

p.s. and when my youngest grandson was named Darliston, for the name of the town in Jamaica where his dad was born, Darli's mother Bindi and I sat down at the computer and put Darliston (the town) into Wikipedia. Someone out there will add flesh and bring that entry up to date sometime!  Small steps, recorded and added to, make the big picture reflect reality rather than run over lesser people and circumstances.