Shuttleworth Releases a FAQ on Ubuntu, Canonical, et. al

[Duncan Lithgow]

Christoph Georgi wrote:
> Hi Norman,
> 
> Norman Silverstone wrote:
> 
>>On Tue, 2005-10-04 at 06:53 -0400, Zach wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I didn't see this posted to ubuntu-users, ubuntu-news, or
>>>ubuntu-announce, so I'll post it here.  I caught on Slashdot this
>>>morning a story about a FAQ our Benevolent Dictator, Mark
>>>Shuttleworth, has posted to the wiki.  In it he dicusses Ubuntu
>>>funding, binary compatibility, the color brown, Debian compatibility
>>>and many other things.  Definitely worth a read.
>>
>>
>>Indeed, a most interesting and informative read. Question - can a
>>dictator be benevolent or is there a contradiction of terms somewhere?
>>
>>Norman
>>
>>
>>
> 
> 
> sure, take a look at Singapore.. although it's not quite a
> "dictatorship", rather an "autocracy", it worked/works quite well,
> considering the welfare of S'pore (although not everything is working
> out perfectly..) Similarly, "Normadic" (???) societies are rather
> autocratic with the dictator (or autocrat) being benevolent.. but i
> don't want to get into political science here ;) -- still, it can work!
> 
> christoph
> 
> 
> ps. lets get the threat on the sounder :)
I think if you look a bit harder you'll find that in Singapore
* press freedom is restricted to getting a visa from the government
ref 1: http://www.serendipity.li/cda.html#s_e_asia
ref 2: http://www.cpj.org/ (search "singapore")
ref 3: http://www.freedomhouse.org/pfs2000/reports.html#sing
* unionists are sent out of the country
ref: (can't find the story I had in mind, a malasian mans work permit 
was revoked when it was found that he was organising unions at a workplace.)
* upon losing a job there is little (if any, I'm not sure) state help
didn't get around to searching for more on this...

So, I would say that Singapore is a corporatist state. Run by and for 
the interests of the super wealthy. That's my interpretation anyways

Duncan