AltInst: Seeking Help & Advice

Dear David and Arun-Kumar:

My name is Sondlo Leonard Mhlaba (formerly of Zimbabwe). I recently
completed a phd in Law, Policy & Society at Northeastern University here
in Boston. Along with serving on ICANN's Membership Implementation Task
Force/Task Group for Africa, I have a special interest in using the
internet as an organizing tool around problems of governance for
international institutions such as the UN, World Bank, IMF.

I have formed an organization to promote these governance ideas. It's
called: The New Franchise Institute located at
www.NewFranchise.Org.

Our mission, as I see it at this point, is to develop and promote
governing systems for international organizations which (systems) have
built-in incentives for member states to govern themselves in accordance
with international norms. I call the approach the Incentive-Based
Franchise (IBF) System.

As you know, the current UN structure has 5 countries out of 0ver 150
with veto power over the world's decisions; the same 5 countries out of
over 150 have the exclusive right to own nuclear bombs; and 4 of the 5
countries are Eurocentric, and predominantly of one religion. On the
other side of the equation, countries with under a million citizens have
the same vote in the UN general Assembly as China or India with a
billion people. In other words, the structure is not "democratic."

The New Franchise Institute hopes to raise these questions through the
internet and get the network community to help come up with practical
proposals and have the power of numbers to cause leaders to listen to
us.

Right now I am looking for help. 1) a way to make as many people as
possible aware of this fledgling effort; 2) to interest up to 50 people
(hopefully) from all the regions of the world and major languages to
serve on NFI's Advisory board, and help us to build bottom-up support
for change.

NFI will be incorporated as a US-based non-profit, membership
organization. It is my hope that member, and advisory board members
will help shape our strategy to change the way the UN and related
institutions are governed, and thereby make them more credible in their
international roles.

Any ideas, or suggestions you may have will be greatly appreciated. For
more background on NFI, please visit
http://www.NewFranchise.Org (excuse some typos, etc. We are still
building the site.)

Thank you.

Sondlo

email: DrMhlaba@NewFranchise.Org

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Received on Tue Jun 6 17:07:17 2000