This is a big issue and I think should be looked into more seriously. Similar challenges were faced by participants from the Global South selected to attend the CC Summit in Toronto early this year.
This should inform future selection for all conference venues as it allows for poor representation of the Global South at international conferences. Cheers, On Thu, Jun 22, 2017 at 10:13 AM, Gnangarra <[email protected]> wrote: > These issues are a symptom of the closed processes that have occurred > firstly with Montreal and next year with middle eastern attendees to Cape > Town . Acknowledging that the change was because of the amount effort put > in by unsuccessful bidders was said to be wasted its showing that some > things need to be opened for community discussion before decisions are > made. > > That it may be better for the WMF to require applicants to first obtain a > visa before being confirmed for the scholarships in the future. > Perth/Australia is another place that visas for attendees wouldnt have been > a big issue. > > On 22 June 2017 at 17:43, cs <[email protected]> wrote: > >> That’s one of the reasons why I proposed Bangkok, Thailand, for 2019 - >> apart from its extremely tolerant social cultures and very low cost, >> while being a very modern hi-tech city easily accessible by direct >> flights from most parts of the world. Almost everyone can enter the >> country for at least 15 days without even a visa. Thailand only makes >> it difficult for people wanting to stay longer (years) in the country on >> the pretext of being tourists. >> >> It’s a shame for the visa refusals, but perhaps this will open up the >> possibility to some refused scholarship applications. >> >> Kudpung. >> >> On 22Jun, 2017, at 16:23, Bodhisattwa Mandal <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >> Hi, >> >> The main topic of discussion among the scholarship recipients from global >> south this month is the high visa rejection rate by Canadian embassies from >> these countries. >> >> This year, we had 7 scholarship recipients from Bengali community, 4 from >> India and 3 from Bangladesh. Already 3 out of 4 scholarship recipients from >> Indian part of the communities got their visa rejected, others are waiting. >> Although I am hoping for the best for all the scholarship recipients, but >> may be news of more rejections are coming soon. >> >> Wikimania should be organised in a visa friendly country, and not in >> those countries where global south citizens are not allowed to enter even >> for a 6-days conference. Otherwise, a global community is not truly >> presented. >> >> Best wishes, >> Bodhisattwa >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimania-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimania-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >> >> > > > -- > GN. > President Wikimedia Australia > WMAU: http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/User:Gnangarra > Photo Gallery: http://gnangarra.redbubble.com > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimania-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l > > -- *Felix Nartey* *Cofounder/Director Finance & Admin* *Open Foundation West Africa <https://openfoundationwestafrica.org/>* *+233242844987 | +447440959477* *Skype:Flixtey*
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