GlobalUnderstanding.org: Ball in their Court

Syndicat Internationale Werbemittel GmbH is the company presently in control of the domain name “globalunderstanding.org,” yet there is no web site hosted at that domain. Not yet.

Going to http://www.syndicat.de/, I see a nicely designed stencil-style font declaring “GOODBYE LIMITS.”


Yet, still, I am limited. For this company has not yet agreed to assign this domain to the Global Understanding Institute or the Global Understanding movement.

The Genuine Article

I do not mean to be angry or overly pushy. The company owns the domain. They can do with it as they see fit, within the bounds of law. They could throw up a site to get advertising revenue, much the same way some person in Queensland, Australia, who curiously uses an email address in the island nation of Mauritius, has for some reason decided to claim the domain name americanliverfoundation.org — to get ad revenue. Note this site is not the official site of the American Liver Foundation; that organization has to use liverfoundation.org. Their organization’s name is being squatted on.

At least Syndicat Internationale Werbemittel GmbH is not squatting on globalunderstanding.org. They are merely letting it lie fallow. In one of my calls to Munich, I heard something uttered about Greenpeace. Maybe that other organization is trying to get the domain also. Yet I was kindly told that since my organization is “political” they were leery of dealing with me.

On what planet would someone choose to register a domain named “global understanding” in the ".org" TLD and not expect it have anything to do with global socio-politics? I suppose a society solely comprised of linguists could use it. Even so, this movement, while having a political nature to it, is not a lobbying firm nor a political party. We’re a movement to help achieve a better peace for the world and to encourage us towards a better and more cooperative sort of politics, however each of us may interpret that concept.

So I am left somewhat perplexed as to their decision. I wrote a second letter and copied Karl John, of Hanoi, Vietnam. He is the man who founded this movement in 2006, independent of my own work on Razumijen at the time. I copied Karl to have a “witness” to the transmission of the letter. To ensure that it was polite yet clearly and firmly written. For now, I shall give Syndicat Internationale Werbemittel GmbH thirty days to put their actions where their banner slogans are. Shall we be able to say “goodbye limits?”

Stay tuned!