DiscussionDo you know that poem...
First they came for the XXX and I didn't speak up because I wasn't an XXX. Then they came for the YYY and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't an YYY. ... At last, they came for me and then there was nobody left who could still speak up.
Do you know of Microsoft's pact with the Chilean Ministry of Economy?
The Chilean community reacted, FSFLA is working (even if not in a publicly-visible way, I must say), but, as far as we could see, Brazil did extremely little.
Well... What now, that it's upon us?
The agreement with the Brazilian Ministry of Labor and Employment is very similar to one of the points in the agreement in Chile: training of teachers and students in a professionalizing program (First-Employment Program) in using Microsoft's monopolist platform. Digital inclusion in the proctological sense :-/
According to one of the news reports:
the multinational will invest 4 million reais over one year
[...]
The agreement signed yesterday will provide NGOs, under the National Program to Stimulate the First Employment (PNPE), with resources to qualify 980 thousand youngsters. PNPE, henceforth renamed to ProYoung, will have a 2008 budget between 450 to 500 million reais.
As in (in reference to NGO Oxigênio's slogan), Microsoft plants a seed of 4 reais per student, society kicks in with another 450 to 500 reais per student, and Microsoft reaps alone the fruits of extending the monopoly and technological dependency in the long term?
Could we perhaps make pressure NGOs and the government to demand the 4 million reais in cash, instead of in training material that is already finished and software licenses that don't really cost anything, to be able to invest in actual formation, instead of tacking up and blinkering teachers and students, not to mention the stirrup for Microsoft to step upon to mount on them?
Join us at softimp/ms-brasil!
Last update: 2007-08-27 (Rev 2033)