[Fsf-friends] IT sector

[CK Raju]

On Sun, Sep 21, 2008 at 10:59 PM, Mani A <a.mani.cms at gmail.com> wrote:
> All of the non-left State Governments in India and the Central Govt
> are essentially being run by the big business and apart from the usual

.. could have been true at some point of time in history, Mani,
definitely not now.

Its pointless to blame other governments, because they don't declare
themselves to be followers of any particular ideology. There is no
common concern in outlook of most such governments.

But wherever governments have been formed based on support from
citizens after claiming to be representing a certain form of ideology,
the trouble starts when those in power (a) stop listening to sensible
messages coming from citizenry, (b) starts identifying themselves with
the causes of elite corporates, (c) uses intellectual resources to
compete with other political establishments/individuals, (d) design,
develop and attempt to execute policies and projects discreetly, and
(e) uses organised might to bulldoze counter-opinions.

Most people would be silent if, for instance, left-front rechristens
itself to "neo-liberal revolutionary front for individuals" - because
then there is no confusion - whatever then the new organisation does
conforms to its ideological outlook - building individuals and not
communities, helping corporates and not societies/communities,
engaging in amusing/entertaining people deviating them from engaging
with any political concerns. Its precisely this outlook that
necessitates allocation of resources which currently antagonises
ordinary people - resources like space, public funds, state's
bureaucratic machinery, intellectual support to justify actions or to
divert public attention etc

> form of struggle, what can be done is to have the FLOSS operating
> system (along with required s/w for Panchayats) in place... so that
> adoption can start at the lowest level. I do not see why this is not
> done already. Surely the ones sitting in villages will find it more
> difficult to do all the adaptation themselves. The community model is
> always mighty.
> ... and above mistakes in policy.

Ordinary people are enlightened ones. They understand pretty fast.
What you said is most apt. Go out and speak. Only an extremely
vigilant community can help itself now.

Best wishes and regards,
CK Raju