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

[Jeandré du Toit]

> do not deserve to be belittle, isolated or generally marginalized (which
> is what you propose) simply because they happen not to live in a country
> most agreeable to your personal beliefs.
> -- Florence Devouard

The economic, academic, cultural, and sporting boycott of apartheid
South Africa helped to bring down the apartheid regime.[1]

I put up freedom ratings for the countries for the early bids[2] which
was unfortunately moved to a talk page[3][4]. I didn't make any
comments on Egypt's very bad ratings because while *I* think
boycotting unethical governments (and the people who vote for them in
democracies) as much as possible is the ethical thing to do, I
understand that there is an argument to be made that more contact with
these regimes can lead to them becoming more ethical (where ethical =
Scandinavian level freedom, and less killing and oppression).

As for danger, Cape Town is the most dangerous place in South
Africa[5], a country with the highest[6] or 2nd highest[7] murder rate
in the world outside a war zone (about 8 times worse than the USA[7],
don't know about Egypt), and the most rapes[8]. (9)

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Apartheid_Movement
[2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimania_2008/Bids&diff=597060&oldid=596471
[3] http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimania_2008/Bids&diff=599680&oldid=599493
[4] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimania_2008/Judging_criteria#Freedom_ranking
[5] http://www.iss.org.za/pubs/CrimeQ/No.13/Matzopolous.htm
[6] http://www.financevisor.com/market/news_detail.aspx?rid=58195
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_homicide_rate#2000s
[8] http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_1838495,00.html
(9) I was attacked by a gang of 4 while walking from the Cape Town
train station to the proposed Cape Town Wikimania venue, CTICC, for a
book fair. Of course this could have happened in Alexandria or Atlanta
also, but the CTICC security guard said it wasn't her problem, the
South African police never even acknowledged my report, and South
African government ministers have said that people who complain about
the crime should just leave the country.
-- 
User:Jeandré du Toit