Greece Manipulates Comments Process?
giganews
Support of MOU
http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2010/09/greek-embassy-urges-us-archaeologists.html
by Peter Tompa
I have been forwarded an email from Zoe Kosmidou, Minister Counselor,
Embassy of Greece, urging U.S. Archaeologists to join the AIA in supporting
the proposed MOU with Greece. This email seems to confirm suspicions that
foreign powers and the AIA do indeed coordinate behind the scenes to press
forward what many consider an anti-collecting agenda. And it appears to
working-- at least to a certain extent. As of Thursday, there were some 290
comments on the regulations.gov website about the Greek MOU. Perhaps 40 or
so were from archaeologists who supported it. The rest were largely from
coin collectors concerned about the impact of any MOU on their ability to
continue to collect, study, and preserve ancient Greek coins. The day after
Kosmidou's email, that number had jumped to some 440 comments. Many of the
new comments seem to have been posted by U.S. archaeologists who excavate in
Greece.
Some might find this troubling. Leaving aside the issue of whether a foreign
power ginning up grassroots support for its position is meddling in our
administrative processes for securing public comments, there also is the
real issue of possible intimidation. It's no secret that U.S. archaeologists
depend on the Greek government to issue excavation permits for their work.
It's also true that the Greek government can easily monitor the
regulations.gov website to determine who has written to support the MOU and
who has not done so.
This is not necessarily to say that there has been or will be any concerted
effort to intimidate American archaeologists who do not "toe the line."
However, the possibility is there and if one's career depends on it, one
might reasonably view any request from the Greek Embassy to support the MOU
as a suggestion not to be ignored.
Greek cultural officials should be questioned closely about their lobbying
efforts before CPAC takes up consideration of any MOU.
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COMMENTARY
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The comment submission window ends September 22.
Listreaders who don't like such meddling in what is intended to be an
opportunity for concerned US citizens (and individuals in other nations who
may be impacted by US cultural policy) to present their concerns, can find a
link to the online comments page (and the comment I posted) here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Unidroit-L/message/3670
If there is any difficulty in following the link there, here is one that is
guaranteed to work:
http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#submitComment?R=0900006480b3b3c\6
Everyone submitting comments should edit what they intend to submit down to
300 words before visiting the Government website. Have it ready in a notepad
or text processor to cut and paste.
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Posted to the list by:
Dave Welsh
Unidroit-L Listowner
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Unidroit-L