Re: Call for hosts for GUADEC 2009

[Richard Stallman <rms gnu org>]

    GNOME is People.  Do you have any evidence that the Moroccan *people*
    are opposed to the values GNOME stands for?

I think the Moroccan *people* are not the issue.

      "Those people have an oppressing
    regime, ignore them" is not a really compelling idea to me.

If the purpose of holding GUADEC in any given place were paying
attention to the people who live there, that would be a valid
response.  However, the purpose of GUADEC is for GNOME developers to
meet.  I don't think that the response relates to that.

Political endorsement of the government of the country where GUADEC is
held is not its purpose either, and I would not suggest choosing the
place to hold it by comparing the laws or policies of various European
countries.  (Thanks to the EU, they are all bad in the areas that most
directly relate to us.)

But there are some situations where you cannot ignore politics.
Recall how people ridiculed the holding of the WSIS conference in
Tunisia, a country that imprisons people for what they say on the
Internet.  Morocco may be a similar case -- I am not sure.