December 22, 2004
Tabloids and visas
Just catching up with news from the UK. The country's home secretary David Blunkett has had to resign after admitting that his office did try to fast-track a visa application for his former lover's Filipino nanny. Inevitably, the whole story was kicked up in the first place by Britain's tabloid newspapers.
The ironic thing from an Ethiopian perspective is that the easiest way to get a UK visa in a hurry over here is to have a tabloid newspaper on your side.
A few months back, an Ethiopian woman called Birhan Waldu was all over the headlines. She was the small starving girl filmed in the 1984 'Live Aid' famine who miraculously survived and grew up to be a very photogenic student. Tabloid feature writers everywhere wanted a piece of her.
Bob Geldof and The Sun newspaper wanted her to fly out to the recent re-recording of the Ethiopian famine charity song 'Do They Know It's Christmas'. The only problem was that the British Embassy in Addis wasn't too keen to give her a visa. In the end The Sun phoned the UK Prime Minister's office who put a call through to the Embassy in Addis. The next day she had her visa.
While she was in London, the Oprah Winfrey show got to hear about Birhan. They wanted her to fly out to appear in a show. But, again, the only problem was a reluctant US Embassy. Once more the obstacle was overcome overnight after the Oprah Winfrey show put a call through to the White House. They called the Embassy and she got her visa.
Posted by aheavens at December 22, 2004 8:55 AM