I decided some time ago to not attend Wikimania (with deep regret, because I was excited that I might be able to make it this time around). My decision was initially based upon Egypt's restrictions upon LGBT people, and I will not financially contribute to my own oppression.
This most recent dust-up seems to solidify that decision in my mind.
With all respect - and I have a lot of it - for the members of the committee, I believe the jury erred in selecting Egypt as the home of Wikimania.
Philippe
-------------------------------------------------- From: "Chad" innocentkiller@gmail.com Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 1:26 PM To: "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List" foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Wikimania and the Muhammad pix
That's enough for me to say no to Wikimania. Has anyone talked to any of our Wikimedia friends in Egypt to see what's going on first-hand?
-Chad
On Feb 20, 2008 2:16 PM, Dan Rosenthal swatjester@gmail.com wrote:
It should be noted that Egypt has just banned 2 German Newspapers (Die Welt, and Frankfurter Allgemaine), the Wall Street Journal, and The Observer over posting the Muhammad cartoons, which was followed with demonstrations by university professors, deans, and students chanting "Jews, Jews, watch out, the army of Muhammad will return!".
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content...
This is really the kind of environment we want to host a Wikimania in? I'd have much more respect for people who BOYCOTT Wikimania in the name of free speech, freedom of the press, and journalistic integrity.
-Dan
On Feb 20, 2008, at 1:46 PM, Andrew Whitworth wrote:
On Wed, Feb 20, 2008 at 11:55 AM, Chad innocentkiller@gmail.com wrote:
Great idea. Let's sit down and discuss the issue some more. I'm sure polite civil discussion and a reassurance of NPOV will certainly make Iran feel better about the issue.
I'm not talking about more endless discussion, I'm talking about getting information together into a centralized resource. That's something that we haven't done yet, and we can't expect anybody to make good decisions on this matter without having all the information available.
--Andrew Whitworth
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