[FA Worldmusic] immigration woes part 2: who will be next?!?

[Bill Smith]

To put this into perspective, I am aware of numerous European and
Canadian denials of visas\/entry for less serious criminal
activity/accusations than the two mentioned. My concern is the
bureacratic ineptness/procedure of the USCIS and the simple fact that if
your petition falls off someone's desk onto the floor, there is no one to
speak to about  their carelessness. That petition can remain on the floor
for months. The only way to inquire into that situation is to pay  $1000
to speak to the live, nude woman in the window. The USCIS calls that
personal touch Premium Processing. Bill
Smith                                     www.eyefortalent.comPOB
280786                                 650-595-2274San Francisco, CA
94128               fax  585-6810USA Skype
Bsmith178                           UK tel 44-20-800-29364-----------------------
Original Message ----------------------- From: "Mark D. Moss / Sing Out!"
<mark at singout.org>To: fa-worldmusic at folk.orgDate: Wed, 25 Jun 2008
13:10:31 -0400Subject: Re: [FA Worldmusic] immigration woes part 2: who
will be next?!? At 08:28 PM 6/24/2008, Timothy Bisig wrote:
>http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/06/24/boygeorge.visa/index.html
>
>will the madness never end?

I've just gotten my 6th press release about Boy George's visa
troubles, and I've got to say that I'm less than enthused by the
prospects of having our *very* real and serious barriers to cultural
exchange adopt this story -- or, for that matter Papa Wemba's visa
trouble following his conviction for illegal immigrant smuggling --
as any kind of cause celeb. I do get that Boy George is innocent
until proven guilty, but the charges against him ("imprisoning a man
in his home") certainly seem pretty serious, and I *can* understand
why he could be seen as legitimate cause to deny him the visa. (It's
certainly not "madness." Please.)

Doesn't taking up this argument empower the isolationists who can
easily brush this off with a chuckle and a simple "of course"? I'd
rather focus the discussion on the serious artists -- without pending
criminal charges -- who are being denied visas or who are being
extorted for crippling processing fees, etc. Is it just me? Or do
others agree that we lose every time we let the story shift to
examples where reasonable people likely couldn't figure out why
denying such a visa is a problem?
_____________________________________
Mark D. Moss / Sing Out!
P.O. Box 5460 (for UPS: 512 E. 4th St.)
Bethlehem, PA 18015
Ph: 610-865-5366 x203 (cell: 610-533-4506)
Fx: 610-865-5129 (efax: 215-895-3052)
Toll Free (orders only!): 888-SING-OUT
E-mail: mark at singout.org
Web: http://www.singout.org
_______________________________________________
FA-Worldmusic mailing list
FA-Worldmusic at folk.org

[demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type image/gif which had a name of eye-logo(27).gif]