On Aug 11, 2011, at 9:49 AM, "church.of.emacs.ml"
<church.of.emacs.ml(a)googlemail.com> wrote:
On 08/10/2011 06:05 PM, Sumana Harihareswara wrote:
[…]
In both cases I was traveling alone. And in both cases I was myself, a
US citizen whose parents and name and skin color came from South Asia.
I can't pass as anything else.
This is simply racism and harassment. There can be no excuse for that
kind of treatment.
If this is the way even a citizen of the western world is treated, I can
understand very well why there were (almost?) no members of the Arab
world in Israel.
I find it regrettable that next Wikimania is going to be in Washington
D.C. Airport harassment might not be as severe as in Israel, but perhaps
severe enough so that Arab Wikimedians are prevented or discouraged from
attending.
Don't get me wrong, Wikimania in Israel was fantastic and D.C. will
probably be, too, but we have to focus more on accessibility for *all*
Wikimedians.
Regards,
Tobias
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While no one has the power to exempt anyone from security checks (in fact, whenever former
Secretary of State Colin Powell travels, he gets the full check to show that everyone has
to follow the rules), we can coordinate with TSA, tell them about our conference
(including how tech-oriented some of the attendees are), and ask them for advice to make
the security check process as simple as possible. My impression, though, is that while
Israeli security focuses on you as a person, TSA mostly focuses on your stuff. Follow all
their rules (take out laptop for separate x-ray scan, only small bottles of liquid, etc.)
and I think you will be fine, but unfortunately I only have the perspective of a white US
citizen.
I actually think the bigger obstacle will be obtaining a visa, for those who don't
live in visa exempt countries. As mentioned earlier, we will do everything in our power to
make the process easier; we will even be looking into visa scholarships. It helps that the
US State Department knows what Wikipedia is and that they have sent people to two
Wikimanias, 2006 and 2011.
James