Peter Trei <
petertrei@gmail.com> wrote in news:
56410742-9ebc-4f09-8d94-a2a5dbcb2513n@googlegroups.com:
On Tuesday, February 14, 2023 at 12:40:42 PM UTC-5, Jibini Kula
Tumbili Kujisalimisha wrote:
Charles Packer <mai...@cpacker.org> wrote in
news:bQHGL.1199559$GNG9....@fx18.iad:
On Mon, 13 Feb 2023 15:35:58 -0700, Jibini Kula Tumbili
Kujisalimisha wrote:
Gary McGath <ga...@mcgath.com> wrote in
news:tseccv$28m55$1...@dont-email.me:
Chengdu is coasting toward being a failed Worldcon. The bid
for Saudi Arabia has been withdrawn. But there's a bid for
Cairo (PharaohCon) in 2026.
Egypt isn't as barbaric as Saudi Arabia or as systematic as
China in its human rights violations, but the country has
some major issues. I've written a bit about it on my blog.
https://garymcgath.com/wp/worldcon-in-egypt/
Egypt is at least familiar with the concept that if you're
not nice to tourists, you don't get any more of their money.
My nephew and his wife toured Luxor last fall. My sister
showed me the videos he took. He's a cinematographer, so I
asked her if he had arranged to have the site cleared of
crowds so he could show his wife alone posing at the temples
and on the grand staircase of the hotel they stayed at. No,
she said, there really was nobody else there.
Tourism has a ways to go to recover from the pandemic. Africa
seems especially hard hit, between that and various unstable
political situations.
The Luxor Massacre is still a problem - 67 people killed, mostly
tourists.
26 years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxor_massacre
"The massacre marked a decisive drop in Islamist terrorists'
fortunes in Egypt by turning public opinion overwhelmingly against
them. Terrorist attacks declined dramatically following the
backlash from the massacre."
For a while, Egypt's response to terrorist attacks was to surround
the building they were in and shoot it with machineguns until the
adobe caught fire.
The current regime is authoritarian to say the least.
The current regime didn't exist in 1997.
The State Department says 'Reconsider travel'
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/trave ladvisories/egypt-travel-advisory.html
Which they say about a lot of countries these days.
All of which is to say that that incident is one of the ones that
thoroughly familiarzed Egypt with the concept mentioned above: If
you're not nice to tourists, you don't get their money. They don't
always *follow* that principle, but they *are* familiar with it.
Which is a step up on Saudi Arabia.
--
Terry Austin
"Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, only with more asshole."
-- David Bilek
Jesus forgives sinners, not criminals.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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