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In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

Thomas Jefferson - 3rd president of US (1743 - 1826)

The following post is related to free software, but you may find political statements in it that you might disagree. You have been warned.

I was born in Argentina in 1978, during a dictatorship. As such, I'm part of a stolen generation. Dozens of thousands of people were killed, and hundreds of babies and children were stolen and given to people linked to that dictatorship. I'm one of the lucky enough to have been raised by my biological parents, but that doesn't make me blind to what happened around me. Now, we could just say that was a brutal regime with a desire of violence per se, but that's not true at all and it leaves the root cause completely out of the equation.

As in most social and political problems, you should follow the money trail. Under that premise, you might find that the nations of the south cone (Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay) were the testbed for a brutal implementation of economic capitalism, which would ultimately lead to the government by corporations which we enjoy (or suffer) today in most modern countries. Small countries like mine are specially vulnerable to big corporations willing to strongarm governments into implementing policies to fill their pockets (certain seed corporation testing genetically modified soybeans without authorization and obtaining a waiver after the fact, software and medical patents royalties via international treaties, etc. There are more examples than I could enumerate in one blog). The fact is, we suffered a dictatorship to enable corporations to make more money than they would have made in a normal government, and the economists involved in it came back years later to finish their work and ensure the status quo.

As much as everybody would decry and denounce the political crimes, the economical ones have caused a lot more harm in the long term, with increased poverty, worsening education and health services, and very real victims in increased illiteracy, hunger, child mortality and overall decrease in life conditions for a big share of the population, which was mostly blind to the theft being perpretrated at gunpoint first and then behind excuses like "being a modern country" and "opening us to the capitalist market".

Milliions, billions of dollars were trasferred from regular people to the hands of a few, and over the years many promised to stop this, only to play the same game once again.

How is this related to free software from my point of view? First, it is developed by people. Even if it is largely funded by companies, not one company controls it, and its organic growth and evolution routinely escapes their control. It is a realm where you, me, us can regain control on what we do. If the future is the information society, then software is the new "means of production", and free software offers the opportunity to regain for use by everyone without being controlled by a single entity.

Then, working in the development of a personal finance manager, I can help people ease their financial strains. Any way I can find to make KMyMoney offer better information, a better insight on what's going on, a way for someone to control the budget and manage his/her income and expenses in a better way and move a little closer to break even or even to financial freedom, is a little victory to me, and to the whole team.

For personal reasons I have always refrained from entering politics, but using and developing free software is my own little personal political statement. Because the freedom I enjoy today has cost a lot of lifes, but it will not be complete until people are really free, not only politically but economically. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I owe that to all those who have come before me. It's my little homage to those who fought with real swords for freedom, to those of my generation who weren't as lucky as I was, to those who oppossed the gross theft we suffered.

So, besides my belief in technical superiority, a big love for the community I have encountered here, and the pleasure I find in developing and doing all the things I do for free software, this is one more reason why I'm here.

Disclaimer: since I know the kind of feelings this type of posts might ignite, the comments will be heavily moderated.