On 10/11/07, Ray Saintonge <saintonge(a)telus.net> wrote:
Muhammad Alsebaey wrote:
Hey Aude and George, thank you for voicing that
opinion, it is exactly how I
feel. Another point for everyone to consider: If Wikimania was restricted to
being in USA and Western Europe, it's kind of a closed-membership club,
people from Africa, the Middle east and various other places will have a
hard time getting a visa there if they have a shot at that at all (I know
that a US visa requires that you prove beyond doubt you have ties with your
home country that will force you to come back after the conference, and that
you have a considerable amount of money in your bank account, which is
something hard to do for young people without established families.).
I think that
many of us look forward to visiting Alexandria and, if we
can make the time, the rest of Egypt. The press tends to blow the
occasional criminal or terrorist incident completely out of proportion.
The American media in particular attaches a far greater degree of
tragedy to the one or two Americans that die in such incidents then the
200 local individuals who also perish. I do not attach a lot of
importance to whether a country is "democratic"; that is not something
to be decided by outsiders I regret the concerns of the LGBT people,
but sometimes it is simply not possible to adjust to all the interests
of special interest groups.
I did not hear of visa problems at Frankfurt, but it affected many
people who would have liked to attend in Boston. AFAIK, unfortunately
and ironically, the only people that were kept from Taipei because of
visa issues were the Egyptians.
For the record, visa arrangement for Egyptians were perfect: The
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of R.O.C. promised those Egyptians would
be able to get visas on port. Unfortunately it was settled after the
Egyptians had given up to attend and had filled their schedule with
other local concerns. So ultimately there was no critical visa issue
in Taipei. No registered attendees rejected by the government of the
hosting place. It was not the Taipei case.
I expect that visa issues will continue to be a factor
in choosing
American hosts at least until after they have had a change of government.
As for
accessibility, visa issue was a big concern of us the jury,
particularly people who were involved into the 2006 conference
organization in Boston. And for enforcing free knowledge in a global
level, I personally this visa issue concern could be much more
weighed, even more than the geographical rotation (as announced, even
if we got rid of this category, the final result wouldn't be altered).
Immigration policy is also a political concern, but it directly
affects the conference and hinders our community members to share the
knowledge with us the rest.
Cheers,
Ec
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