[Foundation-l] Concern for the safety of Wikimanians in Alexandria

[Gerard Meijssen]

Hoi,
Thanks,
    GerardM

On Wed, Mar 5, 2008 at 10:45 PM, Mike Godwin <mgodwin at wikimedia.org> wrote:

>
> At Sue's request, and in response to the expressions of concern on
> this list, I've been looking into the question of safety for attendees
> at this summer's Wikimania in Alexandria.   I did not have any
> presumptions one way or the other regarding what the likely answers to
> this question might be.
>
> Primarily by consulting sources I have in DC and in the security
> industry, who helpfully pointed me to online sources as well, I think
> I can walk through some basic issues for those who are wondering
> whether attending Wikimania in Alexandria poses unusual or exceptional
> risks.
>
> The short answer is this:  while there are some parts of Egypt that
> might be problematic for Wikimanian travellers, travel to Wikimania in
> Alexandria appears to be not a threatening prospect in particular.
>
> I'll spell out some of my reasoning below.
>
> 1)  If you research Egypt, you'll find that points of greatest tension
> involve the Egypt/Israel border (places like Gaza), which are
> emphatically not where we're going to be.
>
> 2) Many countries, including the U.S.A., routinely post updates for
> their citizens regarding risks associate with travel.  In the U.S.,
> there are "travel alerts" (concern about relatively short-term
> threats) and "travel advisories" (concern about longer-term, more
> systemic threats within a particular destination country).  Currently
> (as of today), there are no "travel alerts" associated with any Middle
> Eastern destination -- there are of course many "travel warnings"
> regarding countries whose relationship with the USA is tense. (Take
> Pakistan, for example.)  Egypt, however, currently has no "travel
> alerts" or "travel warnings" associated with it.
>
> Travel warnings:  <http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_1764.ht
>  >
> Travel alerts: <http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/
> pa_1766.html>
>
> 3) Despite how it may look to outsiders, the Egypt and Israel get
> along pretty well, under the circumstances. (You can blame/thank Jimmy
> Carter for this.)  There are border tensions, but, as I have noted, we
> are not going to be situated at the border.
>
> 4) There is a useful general links for how the USA and other nations
> view the risks associated with travel to Egypt:
>
> <http://www.allsafetravels.com/CountryPage.aspx?countryid=149>  (a
> multi-country listing)
>
> See also
> http://www.usembassy-israel.org.il/publish/press/state/archive/1998/april/sd2408.htm
>   (an old alert from the US State department, but it gives you an
> idea how much things have calmed down since 1998).
>
> 5) Here's a recent report from Ha'aretz regarding border tensions, but
> one of the things you should take away from this article is that Egypt
> and Israel are actually discussing with each other how to respond to
> border problems. And, as I said, we won't be on the border.
>
> 6)  Want the fullest possible warning of what can go wrong for
> Americans in Egypt?  You can find it here:  <
> http://www.travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1108.html
>  >.  But note how much this document references the Sinai and the
> border, which is where we won't be -- we'll be in Alexandria (a city
> of six million people on the Mediterranean Coast), or in transit to or
> from an airport (probably in Cairo, I'm guessing).
>
> 7) How to register with the local consulate if you're an American:  <
> http://www.travel.state.gov/travel/tips/registration/registration_1186.html
>  >.
>
> 8) Now, everything I've said with regard to safety talks primarily
> about Americans (that's most of the data I could put my hands on in a
> hurry) and, more importantly, assumes nothing about whether we'll be
> prominent as Wikimedians (or whether the protest against images of the
> Prophet on Wikipedia are going to be generating ongoing conflict).
> But it should be noted that there are Muslims everywhere, not just in
> the Middle East, and it can't be assumed that anyone who's not in
> Alexandria as a Wikipedian is necessarily any safer than if they're in
> (to take an obviously relevant example) Amsterdam as a Wikipedian.
>
> I can't give anyone any assurance that the images-of-the-Prophet issue
> won't heat up, or that the political situation in coastal Egypt will
> remain stable, but the evidence we have now suggests that the library
> at Alexandria is a reasonably safe and stable place to hold a
> conference, in my view.
>
>
> --Mike Godwin
>
>
>
>
>
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