[Foundation-l] [Wikimania-l] Wikimania 2008 will happen in Alexandria, Egypt

[Anthony]

On 10/9/07, David Strauss <david at fourkitchens.com> wrote:
> George Herbert wrote:
> > One outside the US (and a few inside it...) might reply that the US
> > has been illegally holding terror suspects without trial and torturing
> > some of them, intercepting telecommunications widely both
> > internationally and domestically, and waging illegal war in Iraq.
>
> We're talking about Egypt, not the United States. Your assertion that
> few people in the U.S. are critical of U.S. policy is specious at best.
>
There were only two other countries where locations were being
considered.  The US was one of them.  It's completely relevant.

> > Gay and lesbian tourists from the US go to Egypt all the time without
> > being oppressed; I'm sure some of them are offended by the local
> > treatment of their peers, but they vacation in good health and safety.
> >
> > Westerners visiting Egypt are not, as a rule, bothered by the local
> > political issues.  Most of the factions in those agree that bothering
> > western tourists is a bad idea, and though there was a spate of
> > terrorism it seems to have receded and stayed away.  Alexandria was
> > also far from the areas which were affected by that.
>
> I'm quite tired of hearing people justify atrocities on the basis of the
> atrocities not affecting them.
>
No one is justifying the atrocities.