18 November 2005: Day 6, Cost of Accessing WSIS II

Had some conversations yesterday, and I thought I would
share what I have found out in terms of some cost of participating in this
event:

Registration fee: none

Hotel Amilcar (where I am staying): 26 dinar/night (Summit
price)

Taxi ride from Amilcar to Kram/Palexbo: 3 dinar (average)

Shuttle service: free

Coffee from machine: 1
dinar

Mineral water from machine: 1.5 dinar

Soda from machine: 2.5 dinar

Coffee from café: 2.5
dinar

Sandwich from café: 2.5 – 3 dinar

Meal at restaurant: 25
dinar (takeaway) or 35 dinar (eat
in)

SIM prepaid card: 10 dinar

SMS cost: 0.6
dinar (local) or 1.5 dinar
(international)

Cheapest stand at ICT4All Exhibition: 8,000 dinar

Rental of LCD projection screen: 500 dinar/hour

Cleaners’ wages (mostly, if not all, women): 8 dinar (morning shift) or 12 dinar (night shift)

Security guard’s wages (mostly men): confidential

Cost of non-normative expression: potential
eviction from Summit space or country (international participants), potential imprisonment (Tunisian) or potential harassment or violence (all)

There are more points of interest, like the cost of
decorating the stands (some have very elaborate screens, audio and visual
systems, nice chairs etc), printed materials, connectivity, erection of the
Summit and Exhibition space, colour-coordinated suits for staff and volunteers
etc etc etc. According to a source who wishes to remain anonymous, GL Events, a
company based in France sub-contracted to do work for the Summit, flew in 120
employees just to fix up audio-video infrastructure alone, and the first crew
came in 5 months ago. I am wondering how much the total cost of building up
these sprawling white tents cost, or hiring of the buses for the shuttle
service, the planting of the trees, the printing of the Tunisian President’s
picture to grace the streets…and I wonder how the payment for this eventually
trickles down to you, me and the countless people who have no idea of what WSIS
is about, nor have a chance to care.