INTERNET "AN IMPORTANT TOOL FOR CREATING OPEN SOCIETY"

By BRENDAN McNALLY

PRAGUE, The Czech Republic

     The Internet, says billionaire philanthropist George
Soros represents "a new idea" which will complete what he
calls the "unfinished revolution started by the collapse of
the Soviet empire in 1989." Speaking before the Internet
Society's fourth annual convention in Prague, Soros termed
the Internet is "a prototype for an open society."

     "The internet is a self-organized system dominated by
users where there is lots of spontaneous self-generating
activity without central control," said Soros. "Democracies
themselves are not enough, because they run the risk of
becoming dictatorships of the majority.

     "Open societies recognize that nobody has the monopoly
on truth. It is perhaps something that only people who have
lived in a closed society can understand."

     According to Soros, the collapse of the Soviet system
started a revolution which was never completed.  "Yes, the
closed society of Communism has collapsed and dogma is dead.
But the "new idea" which historically follows the collapse of
old regimes never arose. Here it's been a stillbirth," said
Soros.

     The blame partly lies with the open society of the West
whose people, Soros says, did not demonstrate either enough
belief in themselves and their system or the willingness to
make the material sacrifices needed to support Eastern
Europe's transition to democracy.

     Since 1989, Soros says, these countries have been going
in the wrong direction. "Almost as soon as they were freed,
they began breaking down into smaller territorial units. The
organizing principal has been into emerging national and
ethnic identities. For this to work the nation has to be in
danger. If it isn't it is necessary to create such a danger."
The result, says Soros are the civil wars and ethnic
cleansing currently going on in Bosnia and the former Soviet
Union.

      "The Internet is a tremendously important tool for
creating open societies among the new democracies of Eastern
Europe. In computer networks you have both the material
infrastructure and the inspiration in direction. That's why
one of my organization's primary objectives is the foundation
of computer networks and to make computer communications
broadly available within the region of Eastern Europe."

     Soros, whose accumin in business and investments made
him a billionaire after fleeing his native Hungary for the
United States, has set up numerous philanthropic and cultural
foundations in Eastern European countries following the
collapse of communism in 1989. These foundations have
sponsored a number of programs to establish computer networks
and train computer users. Among the Soros Foundations'
Computer netwroking enterprises was a project to bring
personal computers to schools in Romania. Another established
a fiber optic link between Estonia and Stockholm. Currently
there is a project underway to bring a fiber optic "backbone"
into Moscow. He says he is hoping to get financial backing
for the project from the U.S. government and the European
Union.

      For all his interest and vision about the connectivity
of computers into a global network, Soros admits he is
himself computer illiterate.

     Remarked Soros: "My situation reminds me of the old
jewish story of the man who applied for a job as a Shammas,
(a rabbi's assistant) in Katowice Poland, but was turned down
because he was illiterate. He felt so ashamed that he left
Poland and emigrated to America. There he started out selling
newspapers, anything to make a living. He had a knack for
businesss and one thing led to another and after twenty years
he'd become a very rich man.

     "At one point his accountant came to him and suggested
he make his company public.

     "I wouldn't know how to do this," the man told his
accountant.

     "Don't worry about that," said the accountant. "I've
drawn up all the necessary papers right here. Just read and
sign." The man shrugged and finally admitted "I can't read or
write." The accountant was dumbfounded. "I can't believe it.
You've become such a successful businessman and you can't
read or write. Imagine what you might have become if only you
could."

     "What I would have become was a Shammas in Katowice,"
the man told the accountant."

--- Courtesy network MCI