[Localization] Alaa Abd El Fattah - off-topic?

[Chris Leonard]

Dear Localizers,

I want to apologize for what some may be consider an off-topic post and try
to explain why I believe it actually is relevant to this list.

It is with deep concern that I read about the recent and ongoing detention
of Alaa Abd El Fattah (@alaa) by the Egyptian military authorities after
his return to his homeland.

http://boingboing.net/2011/10/31/free-alaa-again.html

http://aliquidnovi.org/egyptian-tech-entrepreneur-unlawfully-detained/

I do not know Alaa personally, but I have chatted with him as he was, until
recently, a frequent presence on the #pootle channel on
irc.freenode.netwhile he was living in exile in South Africa. Alaa has
been one of the
major contributors to the development of Pootle and the Translate Toolkit
produced by translate.za.org, tools we all depend on to perform our
localization work.  I feel I owe him a debt beyond bug reports and that the
least of repaying that debt is to make others aware of his situation and to
let you all know that a member of our community is in need of your support.

Regards,

cjl
Sugar Labs Translation Team Coordinator
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