[Reader-list] Richard Stallman in Calcutta

[Yogi]

So I met Stallman last year.. and I think he is the kind of person who
would relaly enjoy it if you question the govt. in front of him.. I
would say even bring along a video camera and ask someone to tape the
session while you are questioning the CPM(I) leaders.. and later maybe
you can hand it to some news channel.

on a different note....

I am really surprised by the fact that despite all this noise about
India and its large number of programmers; open source movement in
india is non-existant. This is a sign that all these programmer are
nothing more than coding monkeys.. who do not understand anything more
than whats immediately before their eyes.

Even some of my so called smart IIT friends still think that Microsoft
is the greatest thing which has happened to india, because they
brought computing the common people... but I ask them ... at what
cost? A cage is a cage... even if its made out of gold.

I think Indian government needs to ban the use of proprietary software
from all educational institutes.


On 8/14/06, V Ramaswamy <hpp at vsnl.com> wrote:
> Richard Stallman in Calcutta
>
> Today morning, I read in the newspaper about a public symposium on free
> software in Calcutta, on 16 August. Dr Richard Stallman, president of the
> Free Software Foundation, will be speaking.
>
> Wow! Was I pleased! I must attend. He is one of my heroes. And now that I am
> blogging and self-publishing on the internet I feel even closer in spirit to
> Stallman.
>
> But that gladness was immediately marred by reading the name of another
> speaker. This is a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), who is
> a member of the upper house of India's parliament. He is often on
> television. I dislike everything about him.
>
> The CPI(M) likes to be associated with and patronise "progressive" concerns
> and movements, and personalities. Thus, I once attended a lecture by Prof
> Noam Chomsky in Calcutta in 1996. Nelson Mandela was given a public
> reception in Calcutta in 1990. Prof Amartya Sen had been felicitated after
> his Nobel Prize in economics. Last year, Hugo Chavez addressed a public
> meeting.
>
> But having worked in slums in Howrah and Calcutta since 1996, I have been
> exposed to the reality of what the CPI(M) is about and like at the
> grassroots. This is quite sordid and ugly, and very far away from the
> associations with Chomsky or Stallman.
>
> It made me seethe. I decided I would attend, and when the time came for
> questions from the audience, I would give a scathing knock to that pathetic
> politician. I would say that it was most inappropriate for him to be on the
> same platform as Richard Stallman, as his party's conduct in the state of
> West Bengal, which it has ruled since 1977, demonstrated only systematic
> disregard of transparency; mis-information, dis-information and witholding
> of public information; the party has been about its own empowerment rather
> than people's empowerment; it has patently failed in providing basic
> education to the people; it has disavowed pursuit of total literacy;
> decentralisation has meant distribution of corruption; it has used people's
> ignorance and lack of information to manipulate them; and it has bred a
> culture of cynical middleman-ship, a form of extortion, which has seeped
> into the fabric of the state's people.
>
> So if Microsoft is Mr Enemy - so is Mr CPI(M), and no one should be fooled
> by the pathetic politician's puny pseudo-progressive platitudes.
>
> Truth must be told. The cat must be belled. The bluff must be called. The
> naked emperor must be exposed.
>
> But I began to wonder whether it would not be lacking in taste and grace on
> my part to do this, especially when Richard Stallman is a guest, and has
> probably been invited by some govt agency. As a citizen of Calcutta, I am
> proud and honoured that he is speaking at a public programme in my city.
> Wouldn't my sharp attack on the politician discolour such an important
> occasion?
>
> Could this be done gracefully?
>
> On Richard Stallman's personal home page(http://www.stallman.org/), he
> quotes Mahatma Gandhi:
>
> "You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and
> decrees. An evil system never deserves such allegiance. Allegiance to it
> means partaking of the evil. A good person will resist an evil system with
> his or her whole soul."
>
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