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

[Gerard Meijssen]

Hoi,
So who is terrorised? Who wants to sit at home and wait for a knock on the
door. A knock on the door that may never come. You are not coming and yet
you insist on determining for others what risk they take. It is clear to
everyone who is going that you are afraid for us. Thank you for wishing us
well. But please let us live our lives. Please leave it to the WMF to assess
the situation and consider what needs to be done. Please let this
information be private and take appropriate measures. But please let us not
have a concentration camp in Alexandria, let us have a Wikimania that is
inviting to its participants and to the journalists and other people that
make Wikimania what it is; an open inviting conference.

One question, can we blame you when there is no Wikimania this year? Are you
willing to take this blame, this responsibility?
Thanks,
    GerardM

On Wed, Mar 5, 2008 at 9:12 PM, Dan Rosenthal <swatjester at gmail.com> wrote:

> More tasteless than saying "If our conference goers die, we can spin
> it so that they're martyrs and its a positive thing for us"? Pot,
> kettle.... I like how nobody came out to say that Ray's offensive and
> tasteless remark was out of line, but the minute it's something not in
> favor of Alexandria, suddenly "OMG THIS IS TASTELESS!".
>
> As for solid info, there is plenty of evidence showing that there is a
> heightened risk, namely several country's embassies and state
> departments labeling travel in Egypt.....get this...."heightened risk".
>
> If people see the warnings, and choose to dismiss them, like Ray,
> that's fine. But that then puts the responsibility solely on them, and
> nobody else. For individual's that's one thing, but for that to be on
> the foundation as a whole (namely, if something were to happen, the
> foundation having "ignored the signs", the responsibility would be
> squarely on them), is a cause for concern.
>
>
> On Mar 5, 2008, at 2:58 PM, George Herbert wrote:
>
> > Dan, this is tasteless.  We still don't have any solid info or
> > analysis that
> > there's a heightened risk to be afraid of.
> >
> > -george
> >
> > On Wed, Mar 5, 2008 at 10:37 AM, Dan Rosenthal
> > <swatjester at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Yes, lets be thinking about how to spin the deaths of our conference
> >> goers as a "positive". I'm sure their families will be happy to hear
> >> that, especially if the foundation acted negligently in causing that
> >> death. That's something it absolutely should be worried about.
> >>
> >> -Dan
> >> On Mar 5, 2008, at 1:18 PM, Ray Saintonge wrote:
> >>
> >>> Andrew Whitworth wrote:
> >>>> On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 5:55 PM, Lars Aronsson <lars at aronsson.se>
> >>>> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> Andrew Whitworth wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> A single murder, or a single rape, or a single instance of any
> >>>>>> other violent crime would have a massive chilling effect on
> >>>>>> Wikimania, and possibly all of Wikimedia. We should never run
> >>>>>> this risk, even if that means we have to abandon Wikimania
> >>>>>> entirely.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> I think you are being ridiculous.  A single murder at Wikimania in
> >>>>> Boston or Frankfurt wouldn't have this all-chilling effect, and
> >>>>> neither will a single murder in Alexandria.
> >>>>>
> >>>> You're saying that a murder of a prominent wikimedian at a
> >>>> wikimania
> >>>> wouldn't have significant negative consequences. I may not be
> >>>> completely accurate here, but I doubt this possibility is
> >>>> "rediculous".
> >>> The negative consequences of having one of our own martyred would
> >>> not
> >>> turn people against us; it could certainly be spun into a positive.
> >>> Ifg
> >>> one of our people were the killer that would be a different matter.
> >>> Generally, however, I'm prepared to relegate either scenario to the
> >>> far
> >>> reaches of imagination.
> >>>
> >>> Ec
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
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> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > -george william herbert
> > george.herbert at gmail.com
> > _______________________________________________
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