Bonum Certa Men Certa

OSCAL, Open Labs, Mozilla & grooming women for Outreachy

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Apr 08, 2024

[Article 2.5 years old]

Reprinted with permission from the Free Software Fellowship.

Monday, 11 October is the UN's International Day for the Girl Child. The definition of Girl Child varies from country to country. In the law of Albania, the age of consent can be as low as 14 if you can convince (bribe) a judge that a 14 year old girl has achieved sexual maturity. Legal text.

What does it look like when children aged 16 and 17 make software for big corporations to use?

Today we find out

Here is a team photo from Ura Design, one of the Albanian companies using the hackerspace as a front for people trafficking. In the team we see a former Outreachy, Renata Gegaj beside a future Outreachy, Anja Xhakani.

Ura Design, Elio Qoshi, Renata Gegaj, Anja Xhakani, Ergi Shkelzeni, Anxhelo Lushka

Anja started with Open Labs when she was 16, we see a younger photo in her profile on the Open Labs forum:

Anja Xhakani

Here is a copy of the profile photo:

Anja Xhakani

She began dating the director of Ura Design, a former Open Labs board member and Mozilla Tech Speaker, Elio Qoshi, before turning 18:

Elio Qoshi, Mozilla Tech Speaker

Anja and other teenage girls follow the men around at OSCAL. They have to wear red uniforms, just like the women in the Handmaid's Tale and they have to stand so the men can sit with their laptops.

Anja Xhakani

Insurance company Munich Re admitted their salesmen from Germany were rewarded with a "sex junket" to Budapest. Women at the event were colour coded with ribbons and they were stamped each time somebody took ownership of them. In Albania we also find youngsters wearing ribbons and stamps:

Mozilla, branding women, children

When a 16 year old girl child comes to the hackerspace and hears about other women winning tickets to Brazil and Outreachy scholarships that pay more money in 12 weeks than most Albanian women earn in 12 months, the girl may want to look at their code and see how those women were selected.

Debian Community News recently revealed that the Github profiles of the six Albanian women already selected for Outreachy and Google Summer of Code (GSoC) are rather stagnant. When a 16 year old girl child comes to the hackerspace and sees this example, why would she be motivated to learn development skills and publish her work?

Anja Xhakani, Github

The FSFE have recently announced their Youth Hacking 4 Freedom program. The five month unpaid internships, disguised as a competition, have been denounced as child labor. FSFE targets the same group as the Albanian laws on statutory rape, youth between 14 and 18 years of age. Matthias Kirschner has written in the announcement:

we would like to encourage teenagers of all genders to join!

Here is the photo of the FSFE President Matthias Kirschner with young women at OSCAL in Tirana, Albania:

Matthias Kirschner, women, Tirana, Albania, FSFE

It is not only teenage girls. Ura Design and other Albanian companies used the Open Labs front organization to exploit the 16 year old sysadmin Boris Budini. Older IT professionals know what is really going on at Open Labs and refuse to work there for free so Elio and Redon have to scrape the bottom of the barrel looking for 16 year olds. Here is Boris Budini (16 years in OSCAL2018) with Mariana Balla (Fedora/Red Hat/IBM) and Redon Skikuli:

Boris Budini, Mariana Balla, Redon Skikuli

Chris Lamb from Debian appears to be completely comfortable with these people, another photo from OSCAL17 shows Redon Skikuli, Chris Lamb and Italo Vignoli planning to bring another event, LibreOffice Conference (LibOcon) to Albania so the developers can enjoy the Albanian hospitality:

Redon Skikuli, Chris Lamb, Italo Vignoli, OSCAL, Tirana, Albania

When men gain positions of power, they feel a sense of entitlement. There is nothing new about this.

Prince Andrew, Virginia Giuffre

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

Inviting the Founder of GNU/Linux to Events (It Only Costs His Travel Expenses) and Recalling the True Origins
It's reassuring to see belated recognition
The Microsofters Have Just Shared Privileged Trial Data With Microsoft
There are serious ramifications for liability accountability as Microsoft salaries sponsor these SLAPPs
Trolls With LLM Slop Are Disrupting Communications About Mass Layoffs at IBM
LLM slop to drown out the signal
 
Microsofters Have a Long History Trying to Take Down Techrights by Sending Threats to Webhosts
picking on women
Links 18/05/2025: Science, Censorship and European Commission Taking on Monopoly Abuse by Microsoft
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/05/2025: Šibenik and SFJAZZ Historical Archive
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 17, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, May 17, 2025
Links 17/05/2025: Microsoft Kills "Surface Laptop Studio" (More Canceled Products/Units), Groups Caution About Harms of Social Control Media
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/05/2025: Sympathy Algorithm and SSH on Alternative Ports
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Microsoft's Anti-Linux Propaganda and Cover-up, Slopfarms Clogging Up Google News
slop-tracking activities that observe googlebombing of "Linux"
AstroTurfing by IBM in thelayoff.com is Highly Risky (and Likely Outsourced)
Microsoft did this in Reddit (and got caught), so why won't IBM too?
Links 17/05/2025: Stabber of Salman Rushdie Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/05/2025: Happier on Gemini and Manipulating Reddit
Links for the day
ComEd and Microsoft: A Mess of Spaghetti Held Together By Circus Clowns
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 16, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, May 16, 2025
Links 16/05/2025: Microsoft Sacks Pregnant Women, People Fired on Their Birthday; Adobe Censorship Failing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 16/05/2025: "Repairing Our Way out of Commodity Fetishism" and Pre-librebooted Computers
Links for the day
[Video] IBM Shakes Hands of Prince Mohammed bin Salman
handshake of loyalty
The SLAPPs From Microsofters Distract From Serious Copyright Infringement by Microsoft and Apparent Business Crimes
Aside from other issues, such as strangling women
Enshittification is Everywhere: You Pay More, the Services Get Worse
"Enshittification" is a term coined by an online friend; I increasingly use this term to describe what's happening even outside the realm of technology (which it was adopted to describe)
Microsoft Reduces Office Space Ahead of More Waves of Mass Layoffs
"The Gerstnerisation of Microsoft"
Anti-Linux FUD Produced by Microsoft LLMs to Blame "Linux" for Microsoft's Own Failures
We call out some of the worst culprits
Gemini Links 16/05/2025: Hoking GPS, Grabovac, and Tanana
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 15, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, May 15, 2025