[Foundation-l] Partecipation in Wikimania 2011

Thu Aug 12 12:02:48 UTC 2010

On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 04:43:13AM -0700, Mariano Cecowski wrote:
> Osama, I'm afraid your view is very self-centric.

Maybe it isn't. Maybe it's also what the people at ar (and probably at
fa/id/ms) think.

> We Southamericans have a really hard time getting into USA; and I'm
> sure many couldn't go to that Wikimania because of visa problems.

Good to know, but it isn't about the US here and I don't think we
should be discussing this right now right here.

> many couldn't go to Thailand because because of economic
> reasons.

For that there is a scholarship. The economic reason isn't something
to take too seriously for one host because, as far I know, many of us
won't be able to go anywhere outside their country without the
scholarship.

> And some didn't go to Egypt because of religious
> issues.

Refusing to visit a place for religious reasons is personal-dependent.

> There is always something that will prevent some people to
> assist to a Wikimania; that's why we rotate the host!

Right, but it's only an issue if that's true for so many people for
meaningful reasons. When it was in Egypt I was told that half of the
attendees were Arabs. They *want* to come so they shouldn't be
ignored.

> I can't believe people complaining about getting the visa in their
> passports that will later prevent them to visit an Arab country; 20
> bucks and an hour standing in line and you have a new one!! (unless
> you live in Cuba, or Northern Korea).

I dunno about this. Yaroslav was talking about losing the passport.

-- 
Osama Khalid
English-to-Arabic translator and programmer.
http://osamak.wordpress.com | http://tinyogg.com