Raptorman
07-05-2008, 08:17 PM
Imagine this in your neighborhood.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hUluguSFEKSl5RVF9QPX2mF5iQWwD91MC9GO0
Bushmen denied visas to build mud-huts in Va.
2 days ago
STAUNTON, Va. (AP) — Three West African bushmen recruited to build a mud-hut village at the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia have been denied visas because officials say the men were poor, didn't speak English and failed to convince them that their visit only would be temporary.
Museum director John Avoli said museum officials were heartbroken.
"They were denied because they were considered poor dirt farmers who lived in mud huts and can't speak English and supposedly have no business in America," Avoli said.
Debra Heien, a U.S. consular official in Nigeria, said the men were barred from visiting Virginia because one was unable to describe the building project and another improperly filled out his form. She described two of them as unable to make a living.
"Should the applicants decide to apply again, they must make appointments using our on-line appointment system," she wrote in a letter to U.S. Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va.
But the whole point of recruiting the bushmen — who would, of course, be poor farmers with no English skills — was that they built and lived in mud huts and so possessed the skills to construct a real Igbo compound, he said.
snip
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hUluguSFEKSl5RVF9QPX2mF5iQWwD91MC9GO0
Bushmen denied visas to build mud-huts in Va.
2 days ago
STAUNTON, Va. (AP) — Three West African bushmen recruited to build a mud-hut village at the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia have been denied visas because officials say the men were poor, didn't speak English and failed to convince them that their visit only would be temporary.
Museum director John Avoli said museum officials were heartbroken.
"They were denied because they were considered poor dirt farmers who lived in mud huts and can't speak English and supposedly have no business in America," Avoli said.
Debra Heien, a U.S. consular official in Nigeria, said the men were barred from visiting Virginia because one was unable to describe the building project and another improperly filled out his form. She described two of them as unable to make a living.
"Should the applicants decide to apply again, they must make appointments using our on-line appointment system," she wrote in a letter to U.S. Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va.
But the whole point of recruiting the bushmen — who would, of course, be poor farmers with no English skills — was that they built and lived in mud huts and so possessed the skills to construct a real Igbo compound, he said.
snip