NationStates Jolt Archive

My comment.. Its like "Dude where is my car?"

Visa denied to St. Michael’s speaker
Thursday, February 23, 2006
A Bolivian senator scheduled to speak March 6 at St. Michael’s College in Colchester has had her entrance visa withdrawn by the U.S. government.

Leonida Zurita, a peasant leader, was scheduled to speak at the college as well as at Burlington’s Unitarian Universalist Society as part of the upcoming “Winds of Change in the Americas” conference.

Zurita is a senator and right arm of Evo Morales, the newly elected indigenous president of Bolivia, according to a St. Michael’s news release. She also is a prominent member of the union of coca growers.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060223/NEWS/60223003

...
Surita Vargas was to speak March 5 at a Toward Freedom conference to be held at Burlington's Unitarian Universalist Church. On March 6, Zurita Vargas was scheduled to speak at the University of Vermont as part of its International Women's Day celebration and at St. Michael's College that afternoon.

Marta A. Umanzor, an associate professor in St. Michaels department of modern languages and lit- erature, said her students had coordinated Surita Vargas' appearance at the college. Umanzor said the students had looked forward to hearing from Zurita Vargas about indigenous Bolivians coming to power in their country as well as the role women might play in the new Morales government.

"We have to try to do something," Umanzor said. "I don't want to give up my hope. She is a very important lady."For more than a decade, Zurita Vargas has been active in both male and female peasant groups organized around coca cultivation. Zurita Vargas was recently elected an alternative senator in Morales' government.

University of Vermont officials also were dismayed that Zurita Vargas was prevented from traveling to the United States.
...
"She's seen as a labor activist," Rolley said of Zurita Vargas. "Her work is very grassroots and it's really critical."
...
"This is no terrorist," Dangl said. "This is a woman who's been fighting for human rights in her country for decades."

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060225/NEWS02/602250306/1007/NEWS05

Follow the story of Goverdhan Mehta.

He is a 65 year old eminent chemist scheduled for a conference in US and was denied visa. The state dept has then apologised and issued him a visa but he cancelled his trip.

I am told that science conferences are being increasingly shifted to Canada and other such international venues where visas are not a problem. If this trend continues, it will be a very bad thing for the US.

*popup alert*
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1428994.cms
US visa cleared, but Mehta refuses to go

The US embassy may have cleared his visa and US ambassador Mulford tendered an apology, but senior scientist and former IISc director G Goverdhan Mehta is adamant. He will not go to the US.

An upset Mehta, in a free-wheeling interview to the Sunday Times of India, said he has informed the University of Florida about the decision. "I am no longer interested in going.

They questioned my research during visa processing. The interview was humiliating. The embassy officials accused me of hiding things. They even said, I was not speaking the truth."

In the same vein, he added: "My research is engaged in public domain. I am appalled how the US officials can accuse scientists while they are seeking entry permits.

I have decided not to attend the next US assignment slated for March. I need time to recover from this shock. I am not saying I will never go to that country. I might if am a given an invitation and visa."

Mehta, who was to deliver a lecture at the University of Florida, was refused a visa last week by the US Embassy. They had allegedly suspected his involvement in bio-terrorism and chemical warfare.:eek:

The scientific community, in India and abroad, expressed outrage at the treatment meted out to him. What irked Mehta even more was the report from the National Academy of Sciences, US, which showed that at least 3,000 scientists have faced similar embarrassments.

"This shows there is flaw in the process. I believe procedures must be devised for free exchange of scientists across the world."

The incident is not a personal insult, but a generic one. "I hope this never happens to anyone again," Mehta maintained.

"This is no terrorist, this is a woman who's been fighting for human rights in her country for decades."And I rather think that's the point of DHS barring her entry.

After all, the plebs are grumbling enough without a muck-racker slipping in to engage them in critical thinking. Think of all the money spent trying to actively dissuade people from questioning authority. Think of... think of all the bastard lefty proles who might just start fighting for human rights in America - and just when it's being ripened for totalitarianism, too.

Tsk.

Homeland security's gonna have to drop this shit sooner or later.

The blowback from denying eminent scientists, 90 year old grandmas and high-ranking foreign dignitaries access to the nation, and furthermore insinuating that these people are terrorists, will not be pleasant. I know if I were in Evo Morales' shoes, this would sour my perceptions of Washington significantly.

The blowback from denying eminent scientists, 90 year old grandmas and high-ranking foreign dignitaries access to the nation, and furthermore insinuating that these people are terrorists, will not be pleasant. I know if I were in Evo Morales' shoes, this would sour my perceptions of Washington significantly.I will not be surprised if one of these days other countries are going to start their own terrorist lists.. Which will be very different from the US list..

These "Homeland Security" guys are totally full of it anyways :rolleyes:
But they probably just want the best for the people - no sane person would want to travel to the US, and if one actually plans to, they're just saving people the disgrace of actually doing it - all the better for them :D

It's true, my family background is academic, and America isn't a very popular conference venue any more, because for academics from many countries, getting a visa is if not difficult, then prohibitively time-consuming. It's like holding a conference in Russia - you are guaranteed that a whole section of the people you invite will get stuck in a bureaucratic tangle with no guarantee that their time will pay off.

Very popular venues for academic conferences (in the sciences at least) seem to be European countries such as France, Greece, Spain and Portugal, and increasingly Turkey. Often these countries have permanent venues with contract bookings with the world's univerisities. Lots of Americans travel to these, but from what I can see, world academics travelling to the US for conferences is definitely on the way out.

McCarthyism lives.

Well, all this going to do is make people move their conferences. Canada, Europe and heck even Asia will benefit if this goes on further. Blocking out people who aren't terrorists and the real terrorist still aren't being caught.

It has been a trend in science over the last five years or so that it is increasingly difficult for American labs to employ non-Americans. The thing with science is that each niche is very specialist and it is not a simple matter of employing another American scientist. It it a problem for the scientific industry in the USA.

It has been a trend in science over the last five years or so that it is increasingly difficult for American labs to employ non-Americans. The thing with science is that each niche is very specialist and it is not a simple matter of employing another American scientist. It it a problem for the scientific industry in the USA.

What is wrong with getting foreign scientists? The USA and USSR imported Nazi scientists after World War II, and there's a still alot of ex Soviet scientists who need jobs now.

It's true, my family background is academic, and America isn't a very popular conference venue any more, because for academics from many countries, getting a visa is if not difficult, then prohibitively time-consuming. It's like holding a conference in Russia - you are guaranteed that a whole section of the people you invite will get stuck in a bureaucratic tangle with no guarantee that their time will pay off.

Very popular venues for academic conferences (in the sciences at least) seem to be European countries such as France, Greece, Spain and Portugal, and increasingly Turkey. Often these countries have permanent venues with contract bookings with the world's univerisities. Lots of Americans travel to these, but from what I can see, world academics travelling to the US for conferences is definitely on the way out.

Turkey? Really? That's a surprise for me.

Anyways here more of this nonsense.

http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=276989&sid=NEW
Official Ali denied US visa: Deccan Chronicle
New Delhi, Feb 21: After humiliating two top Indian scientists by not granting them visas, the United States has meted out similar treatment to an official of the Union ministry of commerce.

The US embassy in New Delhi has not issued travel documents to Mr Ali Ahmed Khan, regional director of Council for Leather Exports, ostensibly because his name bore a resemblance to the names of certain persons listed on Washington’s purported alert list.:eek:

That’s not all. The officials of two Indian companies who were to accompany Mr Khan as part of a 25-member delegation representing India at an international leather fair in the US were denied visas too. “We were forced to call off our plans at the eleventh hour,” Mr Khan told this newspaper. Consequently, only about 21 members were headed for the US to participate in the fair, which is to be held in Las Vegas from February 21 to 24.

Add to this the strip search of former Indian defence minister, Mr.George Fernandes....I sometimes wonder where they hell do these immigration officials come from...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3892657.stm
The US has apologised to former Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes after he was body searched during visits to Washington in the last two years.
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Earlier this week, Mr Fernandes was reported to have said he would not visit the US again after what he called his "ordeal".

Ya know...if the BJP party comes back to power, it is very likely that George Fernandes would be a minister. It would be really interesting if he sticks to his "I am not visiting US" principle.