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.).
On 10/10/07, George Herbert george.herbert@gmail.com wrote:
On 10/10/07, Aude audevivere@gmail.com wrote:
In this thread, I see people raising the issues regarding the Egyptian government. As we know, it's not a democracy and the Egyptian people
did
not choose the government. The government there is more repressive, but
not
so much so (like Burma) that we can't have Wikimania there. To penalize Egyptian Wikimedians (and those from Jordan and other nearby places),
for
what their government does is not cool with me.
Exactly. To penalize the Egyptian Wikipedians who put together a wonderful proposal seems unreasonable.
These are the people we want to be supporting and encouraging.
-- -george william herbert george.herbert@gmail.com
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