The MINUTES of the 37th CISS CONGRESS and 53 MISTAKES :
The PINKHASOV PINCHAS COMMENTARY
In front of me is a fresh copy of the Minutes ( or the Protocol ) of
the recently-held 37th CISS Congress proceedings in Rome, Italy.
Once again, I, a long-time and interested watcher of the international
deaf sports movement, am compelled to deal with the new and poorly-prepared
CISS publication - the Minutes of the 37th CISS Congress.
Last month, if you recall, I dealt with the unpleasant issue - the
dubiously-prepared publication of the 196-page and 202 mistake-filled
CISS 2001 BOOK authored by Lovett, Terry Giansanti and Jordan Eickman.
As you may know that the job to write, prepare, verify the facts and
review the Minutes is the obligation and responsibility of the CISS
Secretary-General. Although I was probably the first one who strongly
encouraged and pushed Donalda Ammons to be nominated to the CISS
Secretary General position in 1995 and again in 1997, now I must tell you that I
am ashamed to find out that Ammons was in some way unable to cope with
her duties as the CISS Secretary General. A clear example of my such
ashaming and,naturally, of our CISS image's humiliation was that Ammons ( the
first and only earned doctorate degree holder in the history to occuppy the CISS
EC seat ) produced an unprofessionally-prepared and inaccurately-written
report called the Minutes of the 37th CISS Congress. In these Minutes, to my
much unhappiness, I spotted over 53 errors, misstatements, omissions,
disputable facts, typos. In addition, to justify these Minutes' inconsistencies,
as a delegate for Uzbekistan, I had the first hand glimpse of the Congress
proceedings. There I also diligently kept my own record of what
actually went on at the Congress floor premises.
Most importantly, to back up and support my below-written comments and
facts, it will be safe to review one very relevant document - a videotape of the
Congress, which was produced by the host Italian Sports Federation of the Deaf (
or the FISS ) on the days of July 20-21,2001.
This ongoing Commentary of mine is three-fold:
- to advise each of you as to what went went wrong and what was
missing on
these Minutes pages and its one Exhibit, which was attached to the
Minutes;
- to request the CISS EC to disregard the Ammons-produced Minutes and
replace it with a new and revised Minutes before it is going to get
officially approved in front of the delegates at the next 38th CISS
Congress
in Sundsvall, Sweden, in 2003; and
- to make sure that the Minutes of the future CISS Congresses will be
produced in an accurate, precise, detailed and truthful manner ( it is
my
plain and straightforward belief that everything must be reported in
the
Minutes, i.e., as to what actually goes on in an important
international
forum like the bi-annual CISS Congress must be put on the written
record,
including the Minutes).
Now, let me explain, on a random basis, as to what went wrong with the
contents of the Ammons-prepared Minutes, including one Exhibit that
deals
with the list of delegates and nations participating at the Congress,
and my
rebuttals, comments and questions:
1. 61 countries and 122 eligible votes - how can these figures be
justified
if:
a) three nations ( Algeria, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan ) did not pay
their
annual
CISS membership dues before the start of the Congress; b) Turkey was
unlawfully listed on the delegate's status position at the Congress; c)
Iran
was placed on the Congress observer's status list?
Furthermore, why was Turkey placed on the list of the delegates in
spite of
the fact that by the Congress' convening time this nation, like
Norway,
was in violation of the CISS Constitution rule? The irony and
inconsistency
was that Norway, a Constitution violator, was on the observer's list,
on the
one side, while Turkey, also a similar-type Constitution violator, was
placed on the other side - the delegate's list? Also, why and for what
reason
was Iran labeled as a Congress observer?
The Minutes indicate that there were 61 nations at the Congress. Does
this
mean that on July 20, 2001, the first day of the CISS Congress in the
morning
or afternoon sessions there were actually the delegates from these 61
nations
participating? In the interests of the accurate statistical reporting
and
precise information - both for the historical purpose, was it not
possible
for the CISS Secretary General - the principal writer of the Minutes -
to do
it in a simple and clear format, for instance, like the one:
July 20, 2001, morning session: start time 9:00, 45 participating
delegation
nations;
July 20, 2001, afternoon session: start time 13:30, 51 participating
delegation nations;
July 21, 2001, morning session: start time 9:30; 54 participating
delegation
nations;
July 21, 2001, afternoon session: start time 13:15; 61 participating
delegation nations?
2. One minute's silence in honour of the deceased - the CISS Secretary
General apparently forgot to report in the Minutes of the death of
Gheorghe
Miclea ( he died at the age of 74 ), a very vital figure in the CISS
circles
- he was the former CISS EC member from Romania and the chief
organizer of
the XIII Deaflympic Summer Games in 1977. In spite of this huge
oversight,
the CISS Secretary General still found the room in the Minutes to note
the
death of 4 Austrian skiers, the two of whom - Sandra Mayr and Stefan
Mohr
-had nothing to do with the CISS as they never competed at the
Deaflympic
Games. Also, the Minutes failed to identify as to who Florian Gobel of
Germany really was. Gobel, by the way, also never was a Deaflympic
Games
competitor or official. While I am very sentimental and sympathetic in
honoring the memory of any deceased person, regrettably, I deem it
inappropriate to include the names of the dead - Mayr ( age 22 ), Mohr
(age
16 ) and Gobel ( age 17 ) - in the Minutes because these individuals
have
contributed nothing to the cause of the CISS.
Another significant mistake was committed in the Minutes was that the
incorrect surname spelling of the deceased person Erol Efrant ( it was
erroneously spelled as Erfant ). Before the Minutes report release, was
it
difficult for Ammons to consult Lennart Edwall, a widely-revered CISS
EC
member, the EDSO President and long-time friend of Erol Efrant as to
the
correct surname spelling for this gentelman from Turkey?
3. No mention was made in the Minutes that the two CISS EC members -
Ole
Artmann and Vojtech Volejnik - were present at the two-day Congress on
the-on-and-off record basis ( Artmann was busy outside by collecting
the
annual CISS membership dues/Games participation fee funds, while
Volejnik was
engaged in the registration-type work,which was also held outside the
Congress room ).
4. Scrutineers ( tellers or vote counters ) - there were the 3 persons
mentioned by their first and last names as scrutineers. But, missing
was the
fact as to where were these three scrutineers coming from ( from which
countries )? Additionally, absent was another person - from the
Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia - who also performed the scrutineering job duties during
the
Congress. This happened when one scrutineer - Jerald Jordan - chose to
unexplainably and mysteriously slip himself out of this job. These
events
went unreported in the Minutes.
Here is an unrelated development to this Commentary, but it had also
to do
with the Minutes write-up job assignment by Ammons at the previous 36th
CISS
Congress in Davos, Switzerland, in 1999.
For the factual historical record, that scrutineer Jordan, the former
CISS
President, also
performed his scrutineering work at the 36th CISS Congress. What was
unusual
there was that Jordan went above the head of Renzo Corti, the official
CISS
Vice President from Italy, who was entrusted to preside over the
elections
for the right to stage the XX Deaflympic Summer Games for the year of
2005.
The two cities - Melbourne, Australia, and Kosice, Slovakia - were
vying to
win the bid. Lovett, the CISS head and himself an Australian, ethically
and
wisely chose to hand over the election procedure duties to Corti.
The major precedent was that Jordan had the "honor" to announce the
election
results to the world, in which Melbourne deservedly won the bid to
host the
2005 Games. This act by Jordan was a basic international protocol
violation
when an inappropriately-dressed and minor figure like a scrutineer (
Jordan
) took the center stage at the Congress floor podium, while an
appropriately-dressed and major figure like the CISS Vice President
(
Corti ) was humiliated. These important events were never recorded
in the
Minutes of the 36th CISS Congress proceedings. Why?
5. Throughout the Minutes pages the CISS Secretary General used in
many
different and confusing ways such wordings which basically have one
and same
meaning:
Deaflympics
Deaflympic Games
Deaf and Winter Deaflympic Games
Summer Deaflympic Games
Deaflympic Winter Games
Winter Deaflympic Games
Winter Games
Deaf World Games.
6. A proposal by the delegation of Uzbekistan - the CISS EC must
approve all
posters of the future Deaflympic Games first before they are officially
released - was reported in the Minutes in an untruthful and
questionable
manner.
7. Compare the two statements:
a) regarding the new CISS EC-proposed Games participation fee: "CISS
must
work more and be more visible and travel more, with 2 CISS EC meetings
each
year";
b) the just-approved CISS Consitution has the following rule 10.4.6,
which
states that "the Executive Committee shall hold at least one meeting
per
year."
Are the two statements interrelated ones or do they make a sense,
are not
they? How many meeting/s is the CISS EC allowed to hold in one year?
8. There was a great deal of name misspellings printed in the Minutes,
especially in its one Exhibit. For example, the surname of a
long-time and
prominent CISS Congress delegate, Madame Isabelle Malaurie from France,
was
incorrectly spelled as Malurie.
Other delegates' name misspellings occurred in the following ways:
Canada - MICHAUD, Luc ( not Lue as was incorrectly spelled )
Belarus - CHISTYAKOV ( not CHYSTSIAKOU ), Sergei ( not Siarhei )
Bulgaria - NIKOLOV ( not Niklov ), Nikolay
Moldova - TELEVKO, Evgeniy ( not Evgeniv )
Poland - SZYBOWSKI, Zdislaw ( not Zdzistaw ).
In addition, the Minutes omit the fact that Renzo Corti, like Madame
Malaurie, was a candidate for the two different positions in the CISS
EC -
Vice President and Member.
9. In one Exhibit ( the list of countries/delegates or Attachment A )
there
were 62 nations listed as having their delegates, but in the Minutes it
reported 61 nations. There was no mention of the two vital facts
occurred at
the Congress: the presence of the two persons from Albania as the
observers
and the non-admittance of one individual from Indonesia - Harpalis Alwi
- as
a delegate because his nation did not pay the annual CISS membership
dues.
Also, the Minutes failed to record the presence of the many CISS
Technical
Directors in various sports, who attended the two-day Congress meeting
as
guests or observers. Where was respect and recognition shown to the
CISS
Technical Directors by the CISS Secretary General Ammons?
10. Incorrectly reported in the Minutes were the times of the start and
end
of the two-day Congress. For example, on July 20, the Congress
adjourned very
late, on or about 19:10 in the evening ( not at 17:00). In the morning
of
July 21, the Congress resumed its work on or about 9:55 ( not at 9:15
).
Also, the Minutes failed to report that there was a coffee break at
around
4:15 on July 21, when the CISS Legal Commission convened for a special
meeting to discuss the Pinkhasov Pinchas CISS EC candidacy matter at a
separate location.
In addition, the minutes prominently conceal the following facts that
occurred at the Congress floor podium premises:
- the controversial and hotly-debated issue of the CISS membership
status of
the two nations - Turkey and Norway;
- the notoriously sensitive and boastful remark by Lovett, "Of the 8
CISS EC
members, only Ammons and I ( Lovett ) know English well";
-the $5,000 penalty fee for a host nation that chooses to cancel or
withdraw
the staging of a World Championship on its home ground;
-the genuine and accurate description as to how Lovett handled the
Pinkhasov
Pinchas CISS EC election matter, including the highly-slanderous
representation by David Peters , a delegate of Australia, who brought
up at
the very Congress floor podium the baseless issue of the 4 foreign
passports
the CISS EC candidate Pinkhasov Pinchas possessed;
-the announcement by Ammons herself that this would be her last term on
the
CISS EC and that she would not seek for her CISS EC re-election in
2005.
Why were not the above items reported in the Minutes?Was there an
intentional
cover up? Was there a bias in reporting? Or, were these unreported
things
done in order to suit and satisfy the needs and policies of Lovett, who
single-handedly ran the show and controlled the Congress proceedings?
For
what specific reason did Ammons exclude these above-mentioned and
very
relevant facts in the Minutes?
Overall, there were many other things that were improperly reported in
the
Minutes but space and time do not permit me to go on further.
In lieu of the above-described unprofessional job done by Ammons with
the
Minues, I, the now-former admirer, lobbyist and supporter of Ammons,
would
like to disclose to you the following fact. Ammons is not only a very
privileged CISS official ( unlike the many CISS EC members, she does
not have
to struggle with English - the official language of the CISS since
English
is her mother's tongue ), but she is also a rare individual in the CISS
history who has not obtained a single delegate's elective vote for the
CISS
EC in 1995, 1997 and 2001 ( in these years, to her much fortune, each
time
she ran for the CISS EC election positions unchallengedly and
unopposedly! ).
Perhaps, such an easily convenient way to get "elected" to the CISS EC
made
her to be "a spoiled brat", who, as a result, performed several
CISS-related duties in an irresponsible and inefficient manner,
including the
one Ammons did with the Minutes? For the record, Ammons also did a
troublesome, distasteful and inferior job in editing the CISS Bulletin
issues, the publication of the statistical results of the XVIII
Deaflympic
Summer Games in 1997 and XIV Deaflympic Winter Games in 1999 as well as
her
errors-filled Minutes write-up of the proceedings of the 36th CISS
Congress
held in Davos, Switzerland. For these many wrongful acts, to date,
Ammons
has "luckily" been left unrepentant, unreprimanded and unpunished by
anyone
in the CISS hierarchy.
Intrestingly, after getting familiarized with the contents of this
ongoing
Commentary of mine, will Lovett, Ammons' supervisor-in-chief, still
remain
"lucky" and proud of her and her questionable CISS work? Does Lovett
still
remember one fact of his own: he was the one to publicly utter his own
words at the full-packed Gallaudet University Alumni Association
Luncheon
event on April 10, 1999, " I am lucky or I am very lucky to have
Donalda to
work with me as my CISS Secretary General"? How will the USADSF
Executive
Board Members - Dr. Bobbie Beth Scoggins, Jack Lamberton, Muriel
Strassler,
Herman Fuechtmann and Sam Sonnenstrahl - react when they learn of this
Commentary? Will these five able and fine sports executives and
fair-minded
and outspoken administrators of the USADSF be proud to know of the
inept work
performance done on behalf of the world's oldest disabled sports
organization
called the CISS by their America's sole nominee and representative on
the
CISS EC? Will these deaf American sports leaders denounce the work of
their
own chosen representative on the CISS EC or will they simply remain
indifferent and lukewarm?
Lastly, in spite of the many shortcomings as "an elected and
re-elected" CISS
EC official, Ammons found no time and no desire, for the sake of CISS'
image
and well-being, to correct her professional mistakes as a high-profile
and
well-visible administrator of the CISS. But, strangely, this year,
Ammons, by
lacking her diplomacy, tact and charm, found her time, energy and will
to be
the most vocal critic toward the deaf and non-deaf Italian organizers
of the
XIX Deaflympic Summer Games held in Rome. The Italian organizers,
including
Renzo Corti, Ammons' non-English-speaking colleague on the CISS EC,
were
widely blamed for the poor organization and mismanagement of the Games.
But, now who will care to know and realize as to what kind of work
did Dr.
Ammons herself do with a very important document called the Minutes of
the
37th CISS Congress?
***************************************
On the other front, many have been asking me and my legal team members
as to
what is going on with my lawsuit case against the three defendants -
Jordan,
Ammons and Lovett.
Well, since October 29, 2001, the defendants and I have been awaiting
for a
decision by the Judge in the USA District Court in Baltimore, state of
Maryland. Please be advised that the defendants are desperately
attempting
to avoid to litigate my Verified Complaint.
Moreover, through one major deaf newspaper, the defendants have been
able to
provide an outrageously misleading information to the world that this
lawsuit is against the CISS, too. That is not true! In order to paint
my
personal reputation in an awful manner, the defendants, through that
same
newspaper, among the other things, also found a way to defame the
plaintiff
by covertly or overtly introducing the negatively-reported Securites
Exchange Commission case information against me. However, this
internet-publicized SEC case has nothing to do with the sports or
sports
administration or the CISS! To support and justify this argument, one
time
ago in 2000, defendant Lovett himself admitted that my " SEC matter was
private and not relevant to my voluntary work with the CISS" ( see
website:WWW.DEAFSPORTLAWSUIT.COM EXHIBITS, Exhibit I )!
In spite of all these, the defendants, including Lovett, are
steadfastly
coveting to avoid justice. Namely, this troika of
defendants-co-conspirators
is very reluctant to contest my justified lawsuit by praying that the
Judge
will rule in their favor.
As of December 18, 2001, no decision on the defendants' Motion to
Strike
and Dismiss my lawsuit has been made yet.
Let's see and wait as to what the Judge will decide sooner or later.
In the meantime, I send to your family and each of you Merry
Christmas and
Happy New 2002 Year Wishes!
WWW.DEAFSPORTLAWSUIT.COM
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