[WSIS CS-Plenary] summit - expectations - who's coming...

[Meryem Marzouki]

Hi all

I share Robert's cautiousness. I attended a Council of Europe meeting 
on April 6-7, where Mr Geiger has been invited to provide the audience 
with news about WSIS and the summit organization. Recalling that only 
44 heads of States and heads of governments attented Geneva Summit, Mr 
Geiger informed us that the Tunisian authorities were expecting (at 
that time) the attendance of 50 to 60 heads of states and of 
governments, and were very much hoping a good representation of 
northern countries.

I see that the level of expectations has been raising (i.e. has 
tripled) between early April and mid-April, when Francis visited Tunis 
and got this new information. This taking into account that when the 
invitation of Ariel Sharon, Israel Prime minister, has been disclosed - 
which has led to many street demonstrations and repression in Tunisia - 
the Tunisian authorities said that about 120 invitations have been sent 
to heads of States/governments. This means that even non directly 
invited heads of states/governments are planning to attend. Good 
achievement indeed.

There are other detailed information in Francis message forwarded by 
Rik (thanks for that, Rik, and BTW, Francis, was this visit officially 
related to WSIS ? I'm certainly not willing to ask private questions 
about your agenda:), but just wanting to know if some WSIS CS people 
were invited there.

This detailed information relates to the organization. I noticed that 
almost all Tunis hotels are said to be already booked, that 18.000 
participants have already registered (these people are really far 
sighted, specially since - correct me if I'm wrong, registration forms 
for the summit are not yet available. They also are rich, if they made 
hotel reservation through the hotels proposed at www.smsitunis2005.tn) 
and I'm pleased to learn where the US delegation will stay. However, I 
see that this leads the organizers to envisage the accomodation of 
other participants in Hammamet and to bus them daily. Although Tunisia 
is not so large, and the distance between Tunis and Hammamet is only 
about 60km, I see this situation would really be a problem for people 
lodging in Hammamet to fully be able to decide by themselves of where 
and when they're willing to go.

Best,
Meryem

Le jeudi, 28 avr 2005, à 21:43 Europe/Paris, Robert Guerra a écrit :

> I read in an earlier post - perhaps it was Francis - where it was 
> stated that some 150 heads of state would be coming to the 
> summit.......
>
> hmmm.. i really doubt it. One must recal that during the first phase 
> an equal # (or higher) was also envisioned, but in the end - the 
> reality was quite different.
>
> I think it is way too premature to discuss which heads of state will 
> be coming. At least now. Let's wait for PC3
>
> -- 
> ###
> Robert Guerra <rguerra at privaterra.org>
> Privaterra - <http://www.privaterra.org>
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