[Foundation-l] Reply to Mark

[Ray Saintonge]

For unclear reasons my reply below was blocked. I am thus re-sending it.

Mark Williamson wrote:
>>  If you are afraid, just do not act. If you fear terrorism in Egypt, 
>> just
>>  do not come. We'll meet in other places, at other times. There is
>>  nothing wrong in being afraid, but respect the fact others may have
>>  other fears and other priorities than you. There will be other
>>  wikimanias as well. There is a long future in front of you.
>>     
> Probably the most important sentiment here. Although I strongly
> disagree with WMF holding Wikimania in Alexandria, I have to agree
> with Florence that there will be other Wikimanias in the future, and
> it is time to put these issues behind us for now.
>
> Yes, perhaps the selection did not give enough weight to certain
> issues. Yes, Egypt is not the most safe country for certain groups of
> people, of which I count myself a member of several.
>
> So we can just not go to Wikimania, or we can decide that the benefits
> for us outweigh the risks. It is a tough decision, but we will have to
> make it. And if we don't go this year, we can show up next year, or
> the one after that.
Thank you for being realistic  At some point a decision has to be made, 
and we can't afford to look back on the decision with regrets.  We can't 
build a good conference if the organizers' time is so taken up by 
rear-guard actions.  The Toronto people could not have been very happy 
when Boston won with a late bid.  The Turin people were upset when they 
lost to Taipei.  I personally favour Buenos Aires for 2009, but I'm not 
going to make an issue of it if another city gets that Wikimania.

Ec