Ace,

I suppose we can say this is one of a myriad confluences of culture and politics?

I am following you closely. I think you should found an advocacy organisation in the form of a cultural clearinghouse. Think about it some more.

Meanwhile, thanx for sharing. I shall read the rest of the article later. Happy Memorial holiday.
Haruna.

-----Original Message-----
From: oko drammeh <[log in to unmask]>
To: GAMBIA-L <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sat, May 29, 2010 7:45 am
Subject: Fw: World music's great visa fear







Subject: World music's great visa fear







Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - World music's great visa fear

World music's great visa fear

Intimidating forms, biometrics, illegal immigration paranoia ? Robin
Denselow on why new visa rules might take Britain off the world
music touring circuit

Robin Denselow
Friday May 28 2010
The Guardian


http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/may/27/visa-border-agency-world-music


It was supposed to be a quick trip to relaunch the career of one of
the most successful hip-hop bands in Africa. Daara J, from Senegal,
have headlined at Womad, won a BBC World Music award and performed
alongside Wyclef Jean. Now a duo, renamed Daara J Family, and
with a new album to promote, they were scheduled to play at the
Jazz Cafe in London on Tuesday night before appearing on Radio 4's
Midweek the following morning.

Instead, N'Dongo D and Faada Freddy found themselves in Paris, unable
to board the Eurostar to London, because they had been refused entry
to the UK by the UK Border Agency. They had visas to enter Europe, but
not to cross the Channel. It wasn't through want of effort: their
attempt to get to the UK had involved a trip from their home town of
Dakar to Banjul in the Gambia, where they waited for three days at the
British High Commission before being refused a visa.

Faada Freddy is confused and upset. "In Senegal, we were told there
was no one to see us," he says, "so we had to travel to the Gambia to
get our UK visas. There we were told that the people who were
organising our London concert were supposed to have ?800 in their
account for us. So I asked them if they could ring the Jazz Cafe to
check, but they refused. It's crazy."

Back in the UK, their record company is furious. "They are making it
as hard as they can for black Africans," complains Ian Ashbridge of
Wrasse Records. "And now Daara J's UK career is in tatters, and their
album launch here is in the toilet."

He's not alone in complaining about the problems foreign musicians
have in getting visas. Jah Wobble says he hasn't performed live for
nearly two years because he is so furious at the treatment of the
Chinese artists in his Chinese Dub project, one of the highlights of
the 2008 Womad festival. "I wanted to bring them back in for more
shows," he says, "but the British consulate in China turned them down.
They thought they were going to stay in the UK, even though some have
careers in Chinese opera." Nick Page of the Ethiopian fusion band Dub
Colossus warns that "the world music scene will soon consist entirely
of EU passport-holding musicians."

Over the past year, there has been a reform in the way that the Home
Office issues visas to musicians. Like other foreign workers,
musicians now need a "sponsor", often an agent or a concert promoter,
who has been vetted by the Home Office and is charged ?400 for a
sponsor licence. The sponsors check on musicians while they are here,
pay their expenses in the UK if they encounter problems, and are given
sponsorship certificates to pass on to the musicians they want to
bring in. According to one sponsor, David Flowers, an agent who looks
after Tinariwen and the Buena Vista Social Club: "It's an instant
system, no questions are asked, and in effect it replaces work
permits."

The sponsorship certificate, though, is only the first step to getting
a visa. Under the new points-based system for issuing visas, musicians
must get 40 points. The sponsorship certificate wins them 30 points,
and they get the final 10 if they can show that their sponsors will
cover "maintenance requirements" in the UK. That is where Daara J came
unstuck. Looking through their "refusal of entry" papers from Banjul,
it's clear that they were awarded 30 points for sponsorship, but
nothing for maintenance (hence that demand that ?800 be available). So
had a box been left unticked on the form?

For its part, the Home Office says: "Musicians' applications often
fail because they haven't supplied enough evidence with the
application form, and often they leave it too late before applying."

The system has its critics ? not least because of its complexity.
Nevertheless, some of the main sponsors responsible for bringing
artists into the UK say there are benefits to this points system.
David Jones, of the promotion and production group Serious, who is a
member of the Home Office task force looking at visa problems, says:
"It's now easier 50% of the time, though there are still problems."

The biggest of those problems is the UK's move to biometric passports.
Once, musicians could send their agents across borders to get visas,
but now they have to apply in person, every time they ask for a visa,
so they can be photographed and fingerprinted. But in west Africa
alone,  there are no facilities to issue such visas in Mali, and the
service in Senegal is slow, so applicants are advised to go to the
Gambia, which is now the regional biometric processing centre (that is
why Daara J were sent there). One popular alternative for those
performing in Europe is to get a "Schengen" visa that covers the
continent (but not the UK), and then apply for a UK visa in Paris ?
but again that can be a time-consuming and costly process, and it
means musicians have to book their UK gigs and then hope they can get
a visa when they reach Europe.

But does all this really matter to British music fans? Yes. The
situation may have improved, but it's clearly still not fully
understood by many musicians or their sponsors ? in the case of Daara
J, someone seems not to have realised that by not ticking the
maintenance box, they were wrecking the band's chance of getting a
visa. And now many African musicians have to travel to other countries
to get visas, and then spend money waiting around in foreign cities,
there's a danger that some will simply not bother to come here. Why go
through the hassle and expense of getting a UK visa when it's easier
to get a Schengen visa and play across mainland Europe? There are
signs that is happening already. David Flowers points out: "Malian
stars like the Rail Band now refuse to play in the UK because it's so
complicated".

And despite the enthusiasm of some sponsors, there are concerns that
the expense and bureaucracy involved might deter others. "Without
maverick small operators, audiences will no longer get the chance to
discover exciting unknown groups from the non-EU world," argues Page.
Ashbridge agrees. "Would major African stars be here now if this
system existed in the past?"

And as for Jah Wobble? "I had to do  Chinese Dub myself," he says,
"because no one else would touch it with a bargepole. This new system
hits the small operator. I didn't become a bass player to be an unpaid
civil servant."


guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2010







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