[Wikimania-l] CD

[Florence Devouard]

I appreciate your concern Harel.

Warm thank yous

Ant

On 8/11/11 10:50 AM, Harel Cain wrote:
> We at Wikimedia Israel are not ignoring the stories told on this 
> thread, actually we're taking them very much to heart.
>
> We are now considering a strong letter of complaint to various 
> government agencies and a demand for formal written apology. Details 
> will follow once we have decided on our course of action.
>
>
> Harel Cain
> Secretary, Wikimedia Israel
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 11, 2011 at 11:07, James Hare <messedrocker at gmail.com 
> <mailto:messedrocker at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     On Aug 11, 2011, at 9:49 AM, "church.of.emacs.ml
>     <http://church.of.emacs.ml>" <church.of.emacs.ml at googlemail.com
>     <mailto:church.of.emacs.ml at googlemail.com>> wrote:
>
>     > On 08/10/2011 06:05 PM, Sumana Harihareswara wrote:
>     >>
>     >> [...]
>     >>
>     >> In both cases I was traveling alone.  And in both cases I was
>     myself, a
>     >> US citizen whose parents and name and skin color came from
>     South Asia.
>     >> I can't pass as anything else.
>     >
>     > This is simply racism and harassment. There can be no excuse for
>     that
>     > kind of treatment.
>     > If this is the way even a citizen of the western world is
>     treated, I can
>     > understand very well why there were (almost?) no members of the Arab
>     > world in Israel.
>     >
>     > I find it regrettable that next Wikimania is going to be in
>     Washington
>     > D.C. Airport harassment might not be as severe as in Israel, but
>     perhaps
>     > severe enough so that Arab Wikimedians are prevented or
>     discouraged from
>     > attending.
>     >
>     > Don't get me wrong, Wikimania in Israel was fantastic and D.C. will
>     > probably be, too, but we have to focus more on accessibility for
>     *all*
>     > Wikimedians.
>     >
>     > Regards,
>     > Tobias
>     >
>     > _______________________________________________
>     > Wikimania-l mailing list
>     > Wikimania-l at lists.wikimedia.org
>     <mailto:Wikimania-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
>     > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
>
>     While no one has the power to exempt anyone from security checks
>     (in fact, whenever former Secretary of State Colin Powell travels,
>     he gets the full check to show that everyone has to follow the
>     rules), we can coordinate with TSA, tell them about our conference
>     (including how tech-oriented some of the attendees are), and ask
>     them for advice to make the security check process as simple as
>     possible. My impression, though, is that while Israeli security
>     focuses on you as a person, TSA mostly focuses on your stuff.
>     Follow all their rules (take out laptop for separate x-ray scan,
>     only small bottles of liquid, etc.) and I think you will be fine,
>     but unfortunately I only have the perspective of a white US citizen.
>
>     I actually think the bigger obstacle will be obtaining a visa, for
>     those who don't live in visa exempt countries. As mentioned
>     earlier, we will do everything in our power to make the process
>     easier; we will even be looking into visa scholarships. It helps
>     that the US State Department knows what Wikipedia is and that they
>     have sent people to two Wikimanias, 2006 and 2011.
>
>     James
>     _______________________________________________
>     Wikimania-l mailing list
>     Wikimania-l at lists.wikimedia.org
>     <mailto:Wikimania-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
>     https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
>
>
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