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

[Li Robbins]

I find the tone of the Boy George coverage I've seen odd too. Which,  
for the record, I blogged about today at the CBC Radio 2's blog.   
http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/blog/

But I just touched on the issue in a general way. I know much has  
been written about immigration matters in this group -- but does  
anyone know of a comprehensive online source of info on this that one  
could steer/link others to?

Thanks,
Li
On 25-Jun-08, at 1:10 PM, Mark D. Moss / Sing Out! wrote:

> 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?
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