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

[debbie golt]

There is a very interesting debate around this in Charlie Gillett's  Sound of
the World Forum including a corespondence between Charlie and Michael Winter -
who I feel for immensely as well as the musicians
 
http://www.charliegillett.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7742
 
and previously
 
http://www.charliegillett.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7473 
 
We got stuck with 2 very high profile visa difficulty issues when Les Amazones
de Guinee and Konono no 1 were unable to come here within a week of each
other
and these were for very high profile events
 
There are some new regulations coming in in UK soon which change things quite
a lot including waiving work permits for some tours etc etc  but the key
consultation document's apparently about 21 pages long.so loads will be hidden
unless very very scrutinised.
 
Thanks for this strand - deviations and all
 
Debbie
 
www.african-essence.com  (playlists,archive,competitions)
"C'est vachement bon" MO DJ - "It's really good"
Sponsorship Welcome! Send new afrocentric music/arts news to
outerglobe at yahoo.co.uk
www.resonancefm.com  104.4fm London RESONANCE FM Every THURSDAY 7.15-8pm
www.openair.org.uk  OPEN AIR RADIO - New Podcasts start this week -  
Previous Shows accessible 24/7 onsite inc 2 on STUDENT RISE
www.africaninternetradio.com  AFRICAN INTERNET RADIO Selected repeats
Every TUESDAY 10pm/WEDNESDAY 5pm
www.radio1812.net   archived UN International Migrants Day  24/7 access 
www.refugeeweekradio.net   Outerglobe special June 18th @ 7-8pm
 

--- On Wed, 6/25/08, Gerald Seligman <geraldseligman at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Gerald Seligman <geraldseligman at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [FA Worldmusic] immigration woes part 2: who will be next?!?
To: "FAworld music list" <fa-worldmusic at folk.org>
Date: Wednesday, June 25, 2008, 6:58 PM

A case like Papa Wemba's, in which, as Mark reports, he used artist visas to
smuggle in illegal immigrants for personal profit, has made it more
difficult for honest artists to get their visas. No one interested in an
equitable visa system should weep over Wemba's fate. He's earned it. As
for
Boy George, sure there are debatable issues, but with so many artists of our
own underrepresented in the debate, surely we can be a bit more selective.
Ol' Boy George has got the money to defend himself. Kasai Allstars and
Konono don't. The financial strain of the last-minute denial of their visas
and the cancellation of their tour might well spell financial ruin for
Michel Winter's Divano Production, one of the best, most committed,
longest-running agencies around.

Gerald Seligman
FA-Worldmusic mailing list
FA-Worldmusic at folk.org
http://www.folkserv.net/mailman/listinfo/fa-worldmusic