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Dear openDemocracy reader,

Thanks to our readers, funders and donors, openDemocracy is nearly ten.

In May it will be a decade since openDemocracy went live, warning we needed a better governed world. Then came 9/11 and the start of a decade that only served to confirm our fears.

Before Christimas we launched a special appeal for support. We want to raise £100,000 in 2011. So far we've raised almost £10,000.


Democracy – the unfinished story

Back in December we talked about the unfinished story of democracy. Then came Tunisia and Egypt.

openDemocracy exists to track and explore these democratic moments, not just the ones that capture the world's attention for a few weeks, but the unfolding story of democratic experience in every corner of the globe - engaging our readers, writers, bloggers, observers in a global conversation about how we should govern ourselves.

Rights, equality, better government – these are too important to be left to a single body, or a set of organisations or “the media”. This year we want to

· expand and deepen debates on human rights – the stories of their origins, of the tension between universal rights and specific identities, and the extension of human rights from equality before the law to greater equality in fact, taking economic and social conditions seriously

· add more coverage of India, Burma and south east Asia
· add more coverage of rights and democracy in African countries
· find ways to get our coverage to more places where people don’t have access to the internet all the time
· provide more of our important articles in other languages such as French, Spanish and Arabic
· and in our tenth annivesary year bring together authors & readers to look to the future in 2011.

All of this is possible with your help. Together we can shape ideas and improve debate and understanding where it really counts.

I'm suggesting £10 for every year we’ve been publishing. The amount is your choice, please give what you can here.

Thank you for your support,

Julian Stern
Executive Director
openDemocracy

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"We need publications like openDemocracy. The way it extends serious, broad-based discussion and analysis of what is happening across the world, and makes this accessible, is simply vital."
Mary Robinson, Realizing Rights, The Ethical Globalization Initiative and former President of Ireland

**openDemocracy is owned by a non-profit foundation, read more about the openDemocracy Foundation and its directors here.