Date: Fri, 28 Mar 1997 11:36:04 -0800
From: dwalter-AT-ucla.edu (don walter)
Subject: Re: Fw: save the australian internet


>
>> On March 25, 1997, the Australian Parliament passed legislation that
>> threatens to shut down the Internet in Australia.

Yes, but what can a Yank (or a Norwegian) do to persuade the Australian
parliament that this isn't nice of them?  
I have no idea how long untimed Net access will survive in the U.S. or
elsewhere (since it has similar foes everywhere); preserving it will require
political action in each country, which may or may not prevail in any
specific country.  And then there is the point made one of our posters, that
the Net is an organ of economic oppression, since many countries are too
poor to have any at all (a biostatistician visiting UCLA made the point that
his country, Sri Lanka, has none), and many humans are too poor to own
computers, telephones and programs to Net with.
I think that all any of us can do, is set by very local opportunities and
situations; we'll just have to wait and see, and then try to do what we
can-- as with so many social processes...

Don Walter
dwalter-AT-ucla.edu