[Foundation-l] Concern for the safety of Wikimedians at Wikimania in Alex...

[Delirium]

Robert Horning wrote:
> Gerard Meijssen wrote:
>> Hoi,
>> Safety is not an absolute and it will never be. When you approach safety as
>> an absolute you will never achieve it. Me and you are more safe in the
>> Netherlands then we would in the USA and the statistics back me up on this.
>> This does not mean that a Wikimania in the USA can not be considered to be
>> safe enough.
>>   
> 
> I don't know how you are massaging these statistics or what Hollywood 
> movies are giving you the impression that America, as a country, is more 
> dangerous or less dangerous than Europe.  America is a big place, and 
> yes, there are some places I wouldn't travel without an armed escort.  
> But the comparison should be more like trying to compare the Netherlands 
> and Connecticut than all of America.

The specific example of Wikimania 2008, though, was deciding between 
Atlanta, Cape Town, and Alexandria. It's not merely Hollywood portrayal 
that Atlanta has quite high rates of violent crime, including random 
street crime against visitors, and pockets of high-crime areas spread 
out in ways that the unfamiliar visitor may not recognize. (I've lived 
there for several years and certainly wouldn't advise people not 
familiar with the city to walk around by themselves after dark.) Cape 
Town has rather high rates of violent crime as well, though not as bad 
as some cities in South Africa. With these concrete choices, it would 
take some sort of positive argument to say that Alexandria is the most 
dangerous choice for personal safety---I don't think it can be simply 
assumed.

-Mark