Nathan, we are not complaining about the cultural political "accommodations" that participants would naturally need to subject themselves to, WHERE EVER the conference would be! We are speaking about the very access to the conference. And I disagree, once such cultural/political accommodation requirements become excessive (such as asking women to wear full face veil for example), then these excesses should be a sufficient reason to look for an option that has a more moderate, open, accepting, and enlightened cultural/political identity. You come to the matter under discussion from without; no one said anything about the cultural/political accommodations that we will still need to adopt when in Haifa. And your statement "If some simply can't make it to Israel, then I hope they can make it to the following event." is arrogant, inconsiderate, and lacking in all Human empathy. It is exactly for such statements, and the rationale and spirit that resides beneath and within them, that I am bringing this issue here. Those "some" that you refer to are being "prevented" from making it to Israel, and not necessarily because they choose so. And those "some" are being thus prevented just because they happen to possess a specific national identity. I do not fall in this category, although I am not entirely excluded from it, yet, i wished this awkward condition encompassed you and embraced you like an over protective mother!
I do not think that it's a disaster to have a wikimania conference without Arabs in it. Actually i don't think it's a problem at all. And if i personally was Syrian or Iranian or Lebanese, etc, I would not have made the fuss because I am this or that. It's only that i don't think this situation is intentional, and therefore it must be unnecessary! That's why I systematically point to the beginning of it, the process of decision making, and find validity and purpose in reconsidering its results and correcting its errors.
You could reconsider your position, or you could continue to think, and primarily feel, that the positions of others don't matter! But in any case, you will always be the vigorous and energetic Nathan who is himself more fit to survive!!
--
Maysara
"All that is necessary to right action, is right judgment." _Rene Descartes
On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 6:01 AM, Nathan
<nawrich@gmail.com> wrote:
On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 10:45 PM, Maysara Omar <
maysara.omar@gmail.com> wrote:
And now I ask you, what is YOUR position?
> :)
Wikimania in Egypt, we can also do so in Israel. Just like Wikimedians
had to make accommodations with the cultural and political situation
in Egypt, so must they do so in Israel. That accommodations must be
made is not sufficient reason to undo a decision already announced and
planning already begun. The bid team in Israel has said they will
provide whatever assistance they can, and I'm sure they will. If some
simply can't make it to Israel, then I hope they can make it to the
following event.
Nathan