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

Tue Mar 4 17:14:22 UTC 2008

On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 11:33 AM, Gerard Meijssen
<gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
>  Where is your risk assessment to come to your conclusions? Mine says that
>  people that come to Wikimania hardly get into contact with the country they
>  are going to. Mine says that there is a real or perceived risk in any
>  country. I do not say there is no risk but i do say that the risk is
>  mitigated by how people behave when they are at a Wikimania. This gives many
>  risks less relevance.

I'm not saying anything specific about risk. What I'm most upset about
is your reference to the safety of the Wikimania conference goers as a
"special interest". Safety should be a primary interest. I don't need
to say anything about whether Egypt is a proper venue, or whether our
conference goers will be safe. Enough other people have said those
things already and there is no sense in my repeating them. People want
to know that they will be safe, and your dismissal of safety issues as
"special interests" runs counter to that desire.

>  When you are talking about "acceptable risks" you do not qualify when risks
>  are acceptable and when not.

You are quick to qualify such risks as "special interest", and equally
quick to dismiss these concerns as just personal concerns of a small
minority. Many people on this list have expressed concerns for a large
variety of reasons. It's short-sighted to say that any potential
problems should be left to individuals to mitigate, when there is the
potential for so many people to be affected. It's not an individual
problem, it's a group problem.

> When you ask for the cancelation of Wikimania I
>  fail to perceive what your motivations are, how you come to your conclusion.
>  In my understanding  you would only feel safe in an environment that does
>  not have risks for you.

I'm not going to Wikimania, so my hypothetical safety there isn't an
issue. For the record, I'm a straight white male who can pretend to be
a good Christian in a pinch, so safety is not a personal problem for
me in most places. My motivations here are based on the quick
dismissals of people's concerns. You and others have been very quick
to say that risks are personal, and that the attendees should be
concerned with their own safety issues. Few people are willing to step
up and say that the organization is going to take these issues
seriously. My point here is that if the people who are planning
Wikimania aren't willing to take safety of the group as a whole into
consideration, then those people likely aren't qualified to be
planning it and Wikimania should be canceled until a qualified group
of planners can be found. I want people to say "we as an organization
have issues regarding safety that must be considered", and to not say
"the safety of individuals is left strictly to the individuals, and we
the planners are not going to be concerned with that".

>  This ignores how risk is appreciated by others, or
>  what risks exist for others.

No. I want risk to be appreciated by all, even if the risk is small,
even if it only affects one particular minority. We are a group, and
safety issues should be considered as a group. It's not
everybody-fends-for-themselves at Wikimania. Group safety should be
paramount, and I have not yet seen significant evidence on this list
or anywhere else that it has been given any amount of consideration.

>  For your information I am not in the categories that you expect people to be
>  in.
>  Where you say that it can be argued that we do not have a Wikimania, I could
>  not disagree with you more. Let me choose my own "risks" and let me go to
>  Alexandria for Wikimania 2008.

I could care less about what your personal demographics are, or what
your personal risk assessment is. We aren't talking about you, or me,
or any other individual. We are talking about a very diverse group of
people with complex issues of race, religion, orientation and
politics. Some consideration should be given to the safety of all,
regardless of the particular conference venue, and regardless of your
personal feelings on the matter. You feel safe enough in Alexandria?
That's good. Now we need to make the effort to extend that same
feeling of safety to all the conference goers.

--Andrew Whitworth