Badges! We Don't Need No Stinking Badges!
In the midst of a technology summit in an African country, Your ID badge can come with privileges and burdens.
Story and Photo By Shana White

I just came back from the World Summit on Information Society In Tunisia, Africa.   I was invited from Third World Rising to be apart of the Media Justice Delegation. Shots out to the group who I can say represented strongly. I can say that the trip was not what I expected.

To start, when we arrived, almost the whole airport was dedicated to the summit. Meaning they had signs and posters everywhere for it and students working for the event directing people on how to get to the summit. Well, it should have been obvious because the United Nations representatives, the technology corporations, non-government organizations, and grassroots just had to follow one another. Just a bit on the country, Tunisia is located in north Africa, the President is Ben Ali who I heard from some of the local say that he runs the country like a dictatorship.

Security is Tight as Hell

When we received our bags we were directed to go to a register booth. I didn't think much of getting badges and signing in but later on that week this badge was playing an important role, not only for getting into this exclusive, security-tight event but getting around, getting into our hotels and other places as well. There were huge tents about ten minutes from the airport that we were supposed to report to. The line outside didn't seem long at all, so I thought I we were all good getting what we needed, but that smile quickly changed once I saw the line inside.

It was hot and I was tired from the long flight here. To get our badges/ID's we had to fill out a form that required our passport information, the places where we were going to be staying, and emergency contact. That's it, but in just that little information, my home address was known, my mom's name was known, and they probably knew how much my car payment is.   I shouldn't be too surprise though -- if they were going to be any kind of “terrorism acts” this place could have been the perfect target given the high profile people that would be here. Which reminds me, there weren't any talks on the riots in France or the bombing in Jordon which occurred during the summit. But, none-the-less, security was tight as hell.  

After a few hours, we got to the hotel and got our rooms. I didn't noticed this at first, but throughout the week there were men dressed in suits with ear pieces on wherever we went. Our group coordinators gave us the run down of the whole week – how our workshops were going to go, what panels the other organizations was putting on and how the United Nations work, which to me was very complicated. The question I kept asking myself was, out of the whole world, why did the U.N wanted to have their summit in Tunisia?

The day the summit began, we all went outside to catch the bus and had to make sure we had our badges on or else we wouldn't be able to get on.   At the entrance, we came upon a line where we had to go through security check. It was just like at the airport – get in line put you bags in side the x-ray machine. But instead of using passports we used our badges. When I had to show security my ID, I thought that was it, but then they took it and ran it across this blank screen, then all of a sudden my picture popped up. In a way, I was kind of embarrassed, because my picture didn't come out that good. “Wow!“ I thought. What was that about?

As we walked in the long hallway we could hear people speaking different languages and smell the cigarette smoke from inside. We walked into what I would call tech heaven. Everyone had a laptop and took advantage of the wireless-internet. There were many different rooms where panels were taking place. I saw many UN officials coming in and out of their huge conference room. To be able to get in that room you not only had to have you ID but you had to have a certain color card that specified the day that color was allowed. I met a U.N security guard who was quite friendly, so I wondered if that was my “hook-up” to get in the closed tight meeting, but it never happened.

UN Badges Equals Free Stuff

Later on that week, some of the folks decided that we were going on a tour of the ancient city of Carthage and also go shopping into the Souks, the place where the shops are. That morning we headed out into three taxi. Our first stop was the old arena where they one had gladiator fights. When we got there we looked around and took pictures just like a regular tourist would. We met an elder there who took care of the place. He gave a little background about the place. He told us some background, and how the catholic church took over.   We left right after. We had two stops to go. We stopped off at one of the oldest Catholic church that had been turned into a museum. When we asked how much it was to get in a taxi they said it would cost about 5 Denars to enter, so we were debating if we should go in or not. But when we got to the ticket booth the guy said that since we had the WSIS badge it was free. And it was free to visit any other Carthage site. We were happy. We drove passed all these beautiful homes that had soldiers guarding them. One of them we passed the cab driver told us it belongs to Yassir Arafat's daughter.

After our tour we finally went shopping into Medena. From what I am told it is considered one of the oldest cities in the world. During the international shopping spree a woman there saw me and said that I shouldn't wear the badge because I could be potentially a target. When she said that I thought for a minute and told her that I don't think people have time for all of that, and plus people see this summit as a money-maker for them.

On our way back home we did the routine, and before we entered any taxi the driver would check to see if we had our ID.

Money and Power is the Same Even in Tunis

The tech expo, which was heavily promoted, wasn't to much of what I thought it was going to be. It looked just like all the other booths, except these booth were just so the big corporations can show off their latest gadgets like cell phones with a liquid battery charger that comes in the size of a pen. This was also a show of how much money these companies had. I talked to someone who had a high price booth and they told me that it cost then around 30,000. I'm not sure if it was Denars or if it was dollars. Either way it was still too much.

That day was also the UN meetings so I decided to go but I had to ask one of the members of my delegation if I could use their pass for the day. Now to get in this it wasn't the summit security guarding it, it was the United Nation Security. With my mouthpiece that I got, I made a friend and thought to myself I wondered if he would have gotten me in. But being a nice person, I am I didn't want to get him and myself in any trouble. To understand the lingo of the UN is very complicated. The group leads had to explain the whole situation in one day of how they were formed, why and different work they do. So you know just sitting in the meeting I had a difficult time trying to understand what the U.N was talking about. But this is what I got out of it. Some of the speakers I heard were from New Guinea, Kenya, and Costa Rica. I listened as hard as I could, and what I got out of it was: They thanked they the President of Tunisia and they talked about how they see how new technology be able to bridge the digital divide gap. They also recognized that they need to deal with their local problems first.

When the last day came around, we decided to have a dinner and last words about what our experience and expectations of the week were and what things stood out to us. I think all of us agreed that the authority of the badges surprised us. One guy named Anthony said that he wasn't sure if can go back on the plane with his because he probably was going to mess with the airplane's radar. I thought was funny.   Over all my experience was a good one because it was my first time in Africa.

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