[CREATE] Free as in Speech, and Vietnam?

[agnez..]

Hi,
as I know a specialist on Asian human rights questions I just forwarded 
her your concerns and asked her opinion.
Here is her answer. Please let me know if you want me to ask for more 
precise matters or help in contacts.
cheers
agnez
> Hi Agnez,
>
> sure I have some time to answer your question.
> It's a coincidence you ask me this now cuz I am at an ICT camp, with many
> people from Vietnam as well. There is a small organisation called FOSS
> Asia who hold FOSS open days, to encourage people to use free software
> etc. I could bring you in touch wtih them if you want.
> On HR. Well it depends what your reasons are for questioning whether it's
> appropriate to hold such an event in Vietnam. Yes there are many HR
> violations and there is no civil and political freedom in Vietnam. There
> are no independent NGOs, no political parties, lots of surveillance,
> censorship etc. Then again, there are few countries in this part of the
> world I could recommend. Right now, Indonesia may be best in terms of
> freedom of speech, but it's probably just the best of the worst.
> In terms of your own security and the sensitivity of the seminar, it
> should be okay. However, as an American journo who works for Vietnamese
> newspaper just said to me, if you want to avoid too much hassle from
> government (you would have to let them know you hold this seminar) you
> shoudl work together with local media/groups. I assume you guys choose
> Vietnam beacsue there are links with your communities there?
> It's up to your own judgment really I would say. I agree with comment
> below that even holding something in the US can be controversial, seeing
> what they do abroad. Maybe it's good to expose people in Vietnam to your
> projects, whcih don't seem to be political actually.
> Let me know if you need some contacts. I can get them for you this week,
> while I am here.
>
> cheers, T
>    


On 06/08/10 12:37, P Papadeas wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 8, 2010 at 12:39 PM, Tor Lillqvist<tml at iki.fi>  wrote:
>    
>> I don't want to be a killjoy, but doesn't the Human Rights situation
>> in Vietnam leave much to be desired? Do we care? Should we care? (For
>> some value of "we".)
>>      
> I took some time to look for any info concerning the situation and I
> found some resources about your concerns.
> Presumably the Wikipedia article is far from cited
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Vietnam) and the only
> major incident was about the "lawyer case". The propaganda against any
> country that does not follow the Western way of political activity has
> gone way to far imho...
>
>    
>> If visiting the US is a problem for political/privacy/whatever reasons
>> to some people in the community, would the same people have a problem
>> visiting Vietnam?
>>      
> As far as I am concerned,  every country that hosted an LGM has some
> serious implications on the word "freedom" ("peace-keeping ops",
> "software patents", "privacy" etc). Literally every country in the
> world has a political-social situation that in majority rejects our
> views on freedom (this time software and media freedom)
>
>    
>> I know I wouldn't feel comfortable in a conference about one kind of
>> freedom (the free software kind) that would (presumably) be sponsored
>> by a government that is not that interested in more basic and
>> universal kinds of freedom.
>>
>> But I am not really an expert... and I might be convinced that gaining
>> more information about one kind of freedom will eventually help
>> improving other freedoms, too, in a country.
>>      
> That could also be the case too... by rejecting countries based on the
> majority-view of the Western Culture we end up *not* being universal
> and blocking the empowerment of people around the world...
>
> Vietnam may have some issues... as every other country in the world
> has more or less.
>
> Friendly,
>
> ~π
>
>    
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