Road to Perdition

Once again, this is a post I must write in English, so here we go.

Do you remember my rant in April? I had just seen the prices and just forgot about going to Jordan... If it had been in Amman and with the current prices (I am now living in a developing country... still Spain btw) I would have probably been able to travel.

But this is not what I care about right now. I took a decision and it belongs to the past. But now, I am running again for a post, this time as editor of Archaeologies with Gnecco (and only because of him). Because the post for Souther Europe Junior Representative is not open, even when the past elections a Senior won me, and now there is a girl that didn't run for anything and I (at least) didn't have the chance to vote for. There are also elections for President and other posts, and I hope someone else runs for it. I am deeply disappointed with certain things that have been happening during Claire's mandate.

Once of them is the organization of WAC-7, that I know is not her direct responsibility, but has been 'different'. I already complained for prices and venue. Now is time for the last initiative I saw today on the WAC mail list.

Getting WAC online costs another 15.000-100.000 $ - Yeah! Why? Well, apparently we need a crew of Australian guys to come and do it. Of course, the 15 do not ensure a full coverage and for that they need much more... Also it is not free access until the 100.000$. First question I ask is: Were there no Jordanians willing to do it for a lower rate? I am sure for the price of the plane tickets form Australia, you can record and stream the whole congress with a Jordanian company. Furthermore, I am sure there are associations in Jordania willing to do that, and more, just for 'fun' and the costs. At least there are some in Spain. But better of all, as my friend Lorna pointed out the other day... Who has access to watch it? Cause I have doubts in Botswana or Vanuatu they have the needed infrastructure, at least in Ethiopia I wouldn't have it.

I strongly disagree with this, and am not going to pay for it. If you want to, there is the link. I guess I am not going to be the ideal candidate for the board and I am going to loose my new attempt to be an active part of WAC. Just hope I am not the only one this time.

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Commodities: I just finished some corrections on the chapter I said. This month I publish two new books with my editorial. Both together cost 27€ that is less than half the price of the paperback version of a nice book edited by Joe Flatman in Springer. The bibliography of my chapter, with a 32% of open access references, costs near 3.000$. Something needs to change.