Reasoning against .cat

[jorge luis lado gual <jorgelado@xxxxxxxxx>]

1) APPROVED STANDARD PROBLEMS
 
Everybody knows the TLDs are set up according to ISO 3166 standards, 
and, so far, Catalonia is not one of the countries or territories 
included in ISO 3166.
 
Catalonia could never be one of them since (a) it is not a 
internationally-recognized state (any State Department will acknowledge that) 
(b) 
it is not a territory enjoying a pecculiar status within its own state 
such as the Aland Islands in Finland, the Bouvet Island in Norway or the 
French Artic Territories in France -Catalonia is no island, by the way. 
 
.cat cannot be admitted since TLDs must consist in TWO letters, not 
three. Given that .ct was rejected by the ICANN, the .cat initiative seems 
another attempt to get what they were not allowed to obtain before, on 
the same (wrong) basis.
 
2) ICAAN's REPUTATION, SEPARATISM AND TERRORISM 
 
 .cat is a danger for the ICANN itself. ICAAN has not a legitimacy 
gained  by means of votes, but a reputation gotten by means of good 
practice and due diligence. Recognizing .cat would mean several national 
governments troubled (to a lesser or greater degree) by separatist issues 
would distrust ICANN and eventually block the use of such TLDs by 
technical means (specially phone and cable telecommunications). In the end, 
they would rebuke ICANN's authority and create another organization. 
 
Just remember the long list of states that would be involved, only in 
Europe: Spain (Catalonia and the Basque Country), UK (Northern Ireland), 
France (Corsicans), Russia (Chechenians), Turkey (Kurds), former 
Yugoslavia (Macedonians, Serbs), Cyprus (Turkish occupation), Italy 
(German-speaking counties), Belgium (Flemish), the Netherlands (Frisian); 
therefore, the whole European Union itself would support a "new" ICANN. Not 
to mention the separatist conflicts in Africa (Somalia, Congo, Nigeria, 
Western Sahara), Asia (Irak, India and Pakistan in Cachemir, China, 
Indonesia, Philipines) or even the Pacific (Solomon Islands).    
 
Besides, DOES ICAAN WANT TO BOOST WORLD TERRORISM? Some of the 
separatist conflicts quoted above have been backed by terrorist groups (ETA in 
Spain's Basque Country, IRA in Northern Ireland, Chiite Islamic 
religious terrorists in Irak, Chechenian Islamic religious terrorists in 
Russia, Islamic religious terrorists in Indonesia -remember Bali? and so 
on). Creating TLDs in those unpeaceful and non-democratic conditions means 
ICANN would indirectly be fostering those terrorist movements since a 
TLD means some kind of international recognition. (Bin Laden would be 
quite happy about that).
 
CONCLUSION
 
Culture, politics or religion are not criteria to be followed. (What 
would be next: ".veg" (veggie)? ".con" (conservative)? ".bap" (Baptist)?) 
 
I insist, ICANN's reputation has been achieved by its technical 
standards, good practice and due diligence. Approving .cat would mean ICAAN's 
reputation (and maybe its own existence too) would be in stake. 

                
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