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

[Dan Rosenthal]

If you and I disagree on what is obvious, and other people on this  
list do as well, you can hardly make generalizations about Alexandria  
as being a "brilliant" location, that extend anywhere beyond your own  
opinion. Alexandria was not a "brilliant" choice, in fact many people  
believe it was a very poor choice. Notice I'm not saying "it is a poor  
choice". The difference is in being able to differentiate one's  
subjective opinion from the objective facts, something I think you  
find it very difficult to do when you make statements like "It is for  
this reason that places like Taipei and Alexandria are brilliant."  
That is your subjective opinion that Alexandria is a "brilliant"  
location. Others think that it is a very poor location. It's  
"brilliance", if any, extends only to your own opinion. "So when you  
think the risk is too big, you do not go." Again, this is your own  
opinion. Others think different actions are appropriate to take when  
they see a risk. Your opinion only extends in this case to your own  
behavior, not anyone else's.

-Dan
On Mar 7, 2008, at 9:24 AM, Gerard Meijssen wrote:

> Hoi,
> We disagree on what is obvious. For me it is obvious that we need to  
> spread
> the message of our projects and about our way as wide as possible.  
> This
> means that we should go where we are weak but are building a  
> presence. Going
> to the places that you where we are already doing well is missing  
> important
> opportunities. It is for this reason that places like Taipei and  
> Alexandria
> are brilliant.
> Thanks,
>     GerardM
>
> On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 3:13 PM, Dan Rosenthal <swatjester at gmail.com>  
> wrote:
>
>>
>> On Mar 7, 2008, at 4:49 AM, Gerard Meijssen wrote:
>>
>>> Considering that the
>>> number of articles is slowly becoming more balanced and considering
>>> that
>>> even the English Wikipedia has contributors all over the world,
>>> there is no
>>> such thing as an "obvious" location to choose from.
>>> Thanks,
>>>   GerardM
>>
>>
>> Being that there is no "obvious location", Gerard, then there is no
>> reason to pick a location that has significant drawbacks. There are
>> many European, North American, even Asian locations that are
>> accessible to the vast majority of the world, in some cases probably
>> less expensively than Alexandria, (since places that are major
>> international airport hubs usually have the cheapest airfares, and
>> generally do not require a connecting flight ticket), that are more
>> free and open societies, without as intense worries about censorship,
>> terrorism, or implicitly supporting human rights violations. Toronto,
>> DC, New York, Berlin, Paris, London, Tokyo, Seoul, San Francisco,
>> Moscow, Vienna, Prague, etc.  If there is no "obvious location" to
>> choose from, why not any of these places that are safer, do not
>> require out attendees to pretend they are not gay or jewish, do not
>> discriminate against women, etc.
>>
>> -Dan
>>
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