I want to congratulate our dear comrade Marcelo Branco, general coordinator of the 10th Free Software International Forum. I greet the comrads of the Brazilian public institutions who are here. I see in front of me the Bank of Brazil and Serpro. I greet the foreign guests. I salute that child who is there, and must be thinking: what are we doing here and why her parents brought her here? One day, she will know. And I want to congratulate a special person who is here, which is Sergio Amadeu, [the guy who started the free software implementation in the Brazilian government] because now that the dish is prepared ... I also want to greet the comrad Tigre, our chairman of the Industry Federation of Rio Grande do Sul. Now that the dish is prepared, is very easy for people to eat it. But to prepare this dish was not a joke. I remember the first meeting we had, at Granja do Torto, which I understood absolutly nothing of this language that this people were deciding, and that was a huge tension between those who advocated for the adoption of free software by Brazil and those who thought we should do the sameness of always, buying, paying for others inteligence and, thanks God, prevailed in our country the issue and the decision of free software. We had to choose: or we were going to the kitchen to prepare this dish the way we wanted to eat, with the seasoning that we wanted, to give a Brazilian taste to our food, or we would eat what Microsoft wanted us to eat. Prevailed, simply, the idea of freedom. I wanted to say something here, the reason why prevailed, in my head, the matter of free software. You know that I was never a communist. When people asked if I was a communist, I used to answer that I was a mechanical turner. But I have exceptional colleagues who participaed in the armed struggle in this country comrads who are part of different political parties and ideologies of the world, all extraordinary comrads. I had an older brother who, his whole life tried to take me to the Communist Party, and my brother used to bring me, finished, all the documents wrote and produced 200 or 150 years ago. My brother wanted that I memorized The Manifesto, wanted me to read over and over again The Capital, wanted me to discuss all that, and I used to tell my brother: Frei Chico, all this was produced so long ago. Can't we start to produce something new from what is going on right now? When the Berlin Wall came down, I was happy because it would allow the youth to rethink and write new things, build new theories, because then it semmed that everything was already built and that we could not have anything different. The free software somehow is this, I say, it is giving people the opportunity to do new things, create new things, as there is no thing that guarantees freedom most than to ensure individual expression, allowing people to enhance their creativity, their intelligence, especially in a new country like Brazil, where the creativity of the people possibly is, with no disregard for other people, the people of greater creativity in the 21st century. Well, I think our government has done much, but our government could have done more. We are a very democratic government. I do not believe there is in the world a government thar exercises democracy and our government does. No way. I do not believe there is in the world someone that debate as much, discuss as much as our government. And because of this, things sometimes get complicated, isn't it Tarso? [Justice Minister, Tarso Genro] Sometimes we have to listen once, twice, three times, because as I am illiterate in this issue of the Internet... my sons are all PHDs near me. Because the Internet is a wonderful thing, Olivio [former Minister and State Governor] it is the first time that grandchildren are wiser than their grandparents. It is the first time. Previously, being an older person, gave you the right to impose yourself in everything, isn't that right? A kid could not raise his voice when you were in a meeting, as a kid you could not guess at the conversation of adults. Now it is different. You have two grown-ups standing in a conversation and a youngster around, and they say: "How do we change the TV channel?". Just put two remote controls that people can't function properly. And the eight years old boy goes and easily fix, poke, thrust, turn, rent house, pay the rent, pay the energy bill, the water bill.. So I think we're living in a revolutionary moment of humanity, in which the media no longer holds the power it had a few years ago, the media is no longer a selective space where those in possession of information have the power to destabilize a State, access to information is no longer a privilege. The night news show is old compared to the Internet, the radio program, if not live, if recorded, is already old compared to the Internet. The newspaper is dead old compared to the Internet, and is so old, that all the newspapers created blogs to cope with the internauts all around the world. Well, these things, these things we do not know where it will stop, we do not know. What I do know is that every time I talk with you, I keep imagining that if my generation was as smart and as creative as yours, we would already be much better than we are today, because the government engine is a complicated thing. It is full of defects, and rigid norms, you know, which come from the time of the Empire. And it is an effort to change these things, a bureaucrat, he has an instruction book, and the book only says what he can and what he can't do. If you present something new, is prohibited. He is not capable of saying: "Well, I have something new here, I will try to facilitate," no. He will say can or can't. And so it took time for the government to begin creating the conditions to reach this level. So, the free software brings to these kids the possibility to reinvent things that nedd to be reinvented. What do we need? Opportunity. You can be sure of one thing, conrads. In this government, it is prohibited to prohibit. In this government... What we do is to debate. The entrepreneurs know how much we discuss, without anger, without sorrow, without wanting to annihilate a competitor, no! We have to discuss, to strengthen democracy and bring it to its ultimate consequences. Because this country is still getting to know itself, because for centuries we were treated as if we were third-class citizens, we had to ask permission to do things, we could only do things allowed by the U.S., or by Europe. And our self-appraisal is high. We learned to love ourselves. We're discovering that we can do a lot of things. We´re discovering that nobody is better than us. Maybe equal, but not better: they don´t have more creativity than us. What we need is an opportunity. This law that is presented (repeats) doesn´t intend to correct abuses of Internet. To tell you the truth, this law achieves to censure. What we may need, fellow Tarso Genro, is to change the Civil Code, we may need to change something there. What we need to do is to charge the people who work with the digital issues, with the Internet. We need to charge, not prohibit or condemn. It is a police-like interest to make a law that lets people enter the house of others to know what they are doing, maybe kidnapping their computers. To act this way is not possible; it is not possible. So I want, my dear Marcelo, to talk to you today - I don´t know what my fellas fell. For me, today is a glorious day, glorious, because I have a special advisor, who takes care of the digital issues, Marcelo's friend, I have ... The government has ten ministers who talk about digital inclusion. Digital Inclusion is the most "sexy" word of government, you know? It is the most "sexy" word - everybody talks about it. So, I needed a coordinator who speaks in a language that I understand, and I have put the fellow Cesar Alvarez, a natural of Rio Grande do Sul, fan of the International soccer team, which will only draw with Corinthians soccer team in wednesday, for kindness of the locals. Olivio Dutra is a counselor and I asked him to talk to the Council of International soccer team: draw a zero to zero, for us is good, Olivio, no problem. But I, along with this coordination, we are trying to move forward. I just wanted to tell you one thing: pay attention, I have another year and a half in office; another year and a half in office. It is important that you discover what we have done and needs to be improved. And you need to discover what we still could not do and help us to do. Because the problem of government isn´t always money. Sometimes people have 500 activities, so news like those presented here are pushed to the end of the line. This is why we have coordination. And pay attention, fellas: if with all these numbers that Dilma puts here for you, with our intention to put this country inside the process of digital inclusion, to make the children of the suburbs (periphery?) have the same rights as the children of rich people, to have access to the Internet, an opportunity to access information, to transit freely throughout this world, which is the I nternet that helps us to achieve. Be sure of one thing, Marcelo: we do not know everything, we know only a part. Alone you may not know everything, know only a part. But if we add a little of what each one of you know, we can build an entire whole that is missing for us; and definitely, truly democratize this country so that everyone will be free and can do good things. Good people are the majority. Let's not be nervous because, from time to time, someone appears saying crazy things for granted. There's even a website proposing death to Lula. No problem, those who propose life are infinitely numerous. Infinitely numerous. So I wanted to say to you to get into that "Polish Corridor" and see this extraordinary manifoldness of boys and girls; I think all of them are less than 25, 30 years old; it is the fact that we can get out from here saying loudly and clearly: "Finally this country has found itself. Finally this country is having a taste of freedom of information. " Hugs and have a nice meeting all of you." [free software, free software] [gnu, gnu]