[CREATE] Free as in Speech, and Vietnam?

[Stani]

On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 1:17 PM, Marcos Diaz <markos at nathive.org> wrote:
>> I don't believe boycotting a population because of its government very
>> effective
>
> The people is welcome, a territory with diffuse laws not, at least for me.
>>
>> Does Vietnam government actually have a track record for torturing in the
>> past years?
>
> If we consider hit and jail bloggers by write opinions on the internet as
> torture, YES
> http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2009/10/23/vietnam-blogger-and-democracy-activist-tran-khai-thanh-thuy-beaten-and-arrested/
>>
>> The further this thread goes, the more crazy things turn up.
>
> I agree, ignore that a government is trampling people rights and try to
> minimize this fact saying the world is not black or white is just crazy...

How is hosting the LGM in Vietnam forcing anyone attending the LGM to
ignore the human rights violations of the Vietnamese government? Maybe
you'll start reading about it and become more conscious of it. I have
had many exchange contacts with artist activists from non-western
countries. They always laugh with our 'superior' track record of human
rights. For them Western democracies are not innocent at all. Maybe in
their own country, but not in the world abroad.

For me free software is not about judging governments in the first
place, but above all about building communities. I think it would be
rude to exclude the Vietnamese or Asian communities from hosting the
LGM. As Dang Hong Phuc noticed the Asian community is not very present
in the Free Software movement, although they like to take part. We are
not going to change that from our comfortable broadband connections
remotely. Refusing them to bridge this gap, is not very ethical
either.

I agree with Cyrille, that hosting the LGM in Vietnam rather promotes
freedom, than supports human rights violations.