[FSUG-Bangalore] visit to Ambetkar Centre

[Nidhin Sasi]

< Briefly, the human beings in the so called slums do not have many other
rights, I do agree with you on that, but my analysis suggests that those
rights can not be and will not be available to us unless we free
knowledge.

  Freeing knowledge would ofcourse increase the conscious of the oppressed
about their rights, but would that automatically give them the basic rights?
Most of the denial of their rights stems from the fact that the resources
are still captivated by a minority in the society. Unless they fight for
those rights, these rights would always be alien for them though in the
process though there might be progress in their situation based on the
intensity of different struggles. ICT has revolutionised the world in such a
way that human beings if have access can attain most of the knowldge at
their finger tips and also establish communication with anyone in any part
of the world.
  But the denial of the basic rights would still cause them obstacles even
to freely pursue this available Free Knowledge. Though we see them laughing,
singing, playing in the daylight and among the crowd each of them might have
different difficult situations in their homes which are mostly connected to
their lack of accessibility of their basic rights.
    We can build good toilets and better infrastructure in their locality if
we go for fund drive, but would that give a solution to their numeorus other
problems they are facing ? Especially in a city like Bangalore with high
rates of inflation - what about the food costs, health costs, transportation
costs ? Most of the families at the average 3 or 4 children or more, and I
think AC3 kids are better off than children in many other areas.




<Even if I am wrong, we are not loosing anything by providing one of the
fundamental rights.  Right?


I completely accept your theory of what Free Knowledge is able to provide to
the deprived sections of the society, but would that be enough?
Can't we do extra if we can ?? Can't we use ICT which has far more
applications than we forsee to fight for their rights too ? Or is it that we
should only focus on Freeing knowledge and fighting for their rights would
end us nowhere ??? Can't we use this tool to its potential if it can be ??
If so HOW ???

On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 2:45 PM, Nagarjuna G <nagarjun at gnowledge.org> wrote:

> On Wed, 2008-12-17 at 13:43 +0530, Senthil Sundaram (sensunda) wrote:
>
> >
> > Dear dr nargarjun..thanks much for initating this dialougue.  I would
> > like to bring in another aspect of the debate.
> > as we talk about free ICT...we need to talk about free society - the
> > lack of toilets in the area - the wage injustice - lack of clean
> > water...so there is a rights approach as well - as the center exists in
> > a society which is not just - and we will be wrong in only speaking
> > about the encoding and decoding of the digital word - but not the
> > working class/caste/gender world .
> >
> > In some sense its the rights approach that has helped the
> > center..Sarasu's book "The future is ours" has glimpses of this.  The
> > peoples movements songs we sing..are also important part of the work -
> > as much as gimp.
> >
>
> We are workers and what work we do depends on what skills we have.  And
> what skills we have depends on what access we had.  Unless we are born
> rich, access to what we need is denied.  What free ICT does is to make
> that access possible by giving the right to access for more people to
> participate in active social life.
>
> If we analyze carefully how surplus gets generated, and look at the
> cause of it, we do realize that it comes from the worker's skills (This
> is of course from Marx).  Except for labor (unskilled work) the rest of
> the skills are controlled by the owners of the workers, by holding the
> tools we use in their custody, and by owning the workers (all the
> non-disclosure agreements workers sign when they join as employees).
> workers do not have the freedom to transmit the skills to others without
> permission from the owners.  If you look at this issue a little more
> closely, we see that the transmission of these skills actually requires
> the right to read and write, for learning a skill requires a right to
> interpret.  my suggestion is to support the transmission of skills using
> free ICT.  which will eventually help people to learn the skills they
> need.  ICT made the access almost zero cost.
>
> My theory is that the divisions that we see in the society are primarily
> due to lack of free flow of knowledge, because it is knowledge that
> creates the added value.  Rich may like to give away their material
> wealth often, but they seldom share their knowledge.  For them knowledge
> is the ultimate means of exploitation, that is their real capital. Stock
> exchange is another place where knowledge is frequently bartered.
> Knowledge ceases to be a means of exploitations once it is freed.  That
> is the reason why I consider freeing knowledge leads to free society.
>
> Take away the tools human beings use, take away the languages, songs,
> and paintings we use, what remains is a the brute animal with flesh and
> bones.
>
> Briefly, the human beings in the so called slums do not have many other
> rights, I do agree with you on that, but my analysis suggests that those
> rights can not be and will not be available to us unless we free
> knowledge.  Software being a small subset of that knowledge, but with
> huge exploitative potential, holding that in people's hands rather than
> in the hands of the MMCs or with Govt is a very important step.
> Therefore imparting this new skill will not deny them the other rights,
> in fact this skill will help them to gain control of the social
> process.
>
> One of the reason why I emphasize the need for entering into wikitrade,
> because it will take care of subsistence requirements as well as the
> flow of knowledge and eliminates the possibility of exploitative
> powers.
>
> All other rights are subservient to the right to read.  Right to
> information does not still give you the right to read, since the means
> of reading are held by someone else.
>
> Bottomline is: No one can compete with us in sharing knowledge (or
> transparency). This is our hack. By amplifying this in every social
> department we can achieve what we want to achieve.  I have very briefly
> outlined the logic in gnowledge manifesto presented in the first FSFS
> conference in Trivandrum.
> http://db.hbcse.tifr.res.in/gn/gnowledge-manifesto.html One day I will
> elaborate this into a full essay.
>
> Even if I am wrong, we are not loosing anything by providing one of the
> fundamental rights.  Right?
>
> Nagarjuna
>
>
>
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