The game is open. The debates for the writing of the text on Mechanisms of Financing started to slowdown. Several countries from the South and especially from Latin America, made proposals to change the tone of the document and resistance to changes was clearly felt. The original version was very marked by issues of infrastructure and technologies and the accent was on providing the facilities for future investments, however now more political questions arose. In front of this shift, the rich countries (of the Western Group) united and objected to the new text. Today Wednesday the game played by the richest countries (the U.S.A. and the European Union specially) became clear when facing issues they do not want to touch. Some delegates had said so before to anyone who wanted to listen. Governments are trying to make the writing process more difficult and therefore imply a failure of the negotiations so as to go back to the initial text of the working group headed by Ambassador Karklins. As the issue is being debated in the open the process seems to become more complicated. The strategy, then, looks to disqualify the current debate and push for a return to the initial text which responds better to these countries' interest. The Group of Latin America (almost in its totality) and many African countries countered that strategy by doubling their effort in supporting the president of the sub committee (Ambassador Giovanni of Argentina) to present 140 modifications to the text in discussion. There are several issues that are causing great discussions. A controversial subject is the "Digital Solidarity Fund" proposed initially by Senegal and supported by the African countries. In fact the DSF arises from an agreement between Europe and the African countries which were hoping to benefit from a few Euros. Paragraph 27 of the proposed text shows that the creation of "the Digital Solidarity Fund...." was welcome. Apparently everyone agrees to the creation of "A" fund, but not of "THE" fund. What came out was that this fund has already been created but no one is very clear on how it is going to work and who controls it. This is why clarifications are being asked to see who will control this fund and how. Meanwhile the paragraph will remain in brackets, although it has been agreed that discussions will take place in March in Switzerland. Another debate showed the strong position of the Brazilian delegation in strong support for free Software. Another subject that creates a buzz is the mention of "community radio". The concept was introduced in a proposal by Argentina and today supported by Brazil. Immediately the Delegate from El Salvador objected to the proposal. It is well known that the present President of El Salvador is a man of the AIR (Association the International of Broadcasters that represents the regional groups of private broadcasters). It is clear that several representatives of AIR are lobbying some governments to prevent any mention of anything resembling community radios. The day extended in long debates that concluded in several writing groups working through the night. They are many issues left unresolved. * Nestor Busso (ALER/CRIS/EED)