Hi all,
Just to provide a bit of perspective to the crime concerns, I had a look at the Australian Government's smart traveller page for travel advice ( http://www.smarttraveller.gov.au/zw-cgi/view/Advice/)
They mark nations and regions as green (normal), yellow (exercise precautions), orange (reconsider travel), or red (do not travel).
On their list, all proposed host countries - Mexico, South Africa, Indonesia, Tanzania and Tunisia - are marked "yellow". Some parts of Mexico, Indonesia and Tunisia are "orange" (see the site for specifics) but the host cities/proposed host cities are fine. So taking into account the fact that Italy withdrew, there isn't really a risk of any one host over another.
Regards,
Charles / User:Chuq
On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 8:28 AM, Andy Cruz y Corro andycyca@gmail.comwrote:
Hi Steven!
Thanks for your comments. I'm part of the WMMX bidding team and I happen to live in the Centro Historico area (only a few bus stops away from the venue). Even though it's anecdotal, I can say that *a good deal of my free time is spent in this zone and I've never experienced crime here*. I do take precautions, but they are nothing out of the ordinary (no flashing of valuables, hailing a cab after hours, avoiding dark alleys, etc.)
I will not say crime doesn't exist: it's a real risk, strongly considered when making our bid. As Ivan said, we don't want to take chances and will have additional support from the authorities (Ivan is our superstar in this regard). We believe the venue is safe and we're sure our guests will enjoy their stay here. The zone is safe for (part of) our team to live there.
That said, our team (myself included) are looking forward to your questions and comments. Rest assured we will do our best to make of this the best Wikimania experience for everyone.
Message: 1 Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2014 23:46:30 -0500 From: Ivan MartÃnez galaver@gmail.com To: Wikimedia Mailing List wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement regarding Host for Wikimania 2015 Message-ID: < CAPFTejNFYQH5xxZ-6J8gr23B4o1u9fyotZ-KjLGAH6ygLFRWLg@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Thanks to all for your kindly regards and comments :)
Steven, concerning to the public safety, our city are different from the known issues of the northern states of the country. In the link you quote for United States citizens are properly pointed for Mexico City: "no advisory is in effect". Also, the Centro Historico area (the venue are in the north of this Downtown area) is safe for tourism. But we will have in addition the special support and coordination with the Mexico City authorities for more vigilance and a special operative for reduce any
risk
to the minimum in the venue and their perimeter.
2014-04-21 22:55 GMT-05:00 Philippe Beaudette philippe@wikimedia.org:
On Mon, Apr 21, 2014 at 6:08 PM, Steven Walling <
steven.walling@gmail.com
wrote:
it would be comforting to hear how we've assessed the bid regarding the safety issue, and how we're going to be prepared in
case
the
worst (robberies, kidnappings) do happen.
Not a small concern. But, I should point out, one that we've dealt
with
before. We had laptops stolen in Argentina, and physical safety
concerns
in Alexandria, as I recall. I say this not to put a panacea of "oh,
there
there, it'll be fine" in place, but to assure people that this is
something
that I know that Garfield and Elle, and the rest of the WMF team
working
on
this will consider and keep in mind. :-)
pb
*Philippe Beaudette * \ Director, Community Advocacy \ Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. T: 1-415-839-6885 x6643 | philippe@wikimedia.org | : @Philippewikihttps://twitter.com/Philippewiki _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
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