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Bill Gates Denied Visa To Nigeria
Xight notes a Gizmodo story that is a few days old but hasn't gotten a lot of play. It seems that Nigeria recently denied Bill Gates a visa to travel there on his recent trip to Africa. The initial denial was "on the premise that they required proof he would not reside in Nigeria indefinitely, causing a strain on social services and a general nuisance for immigration." The comments to the post are worth reading too.
"Bill Gates" isn't exactly an unusual name, and if he didn't submit the right paperwork, of course it gets denied; even if you're an evil, monopolistic overlord billionaire, you still have to prove your identity and your financial status. It's either that, or use the backdoors in Windows to approve the paperwork himself, which I guess amounts to the same thing.
(I suspect that his notoriety is kind of a nuisance for other people with that name, who probably have to deal with "stop clowning around, what's your real name" a lot. It's probably kind of nice that Nigeria treats the name as just a name).
On the other hand, maybe they just correctly reasoned through that Gates was retiring in 2008, that Windows is having problems, and that his company definitely is being an economic nuisance to Nigeria already.
As an American who actually worked in Nigeria for awhile a few years ago, I can tell you what the problem may have very well been; he probably didn't give the proper cash "donations" to the right people.
I actually had some problems with getting in myself that my employer had specifically prepared me to deal with, giving me a supply of local cash and instructions to use it liberally to ease my travel process. 500 Naira in the right hands turned the officials from meddlesome and probing to very welcoming in record time.
Most citizens of Africa and indeed, any "developing" country, have very difficult times obtaining US visas. The presumption of US visa officers is that you are an intending immigrant unless you show otherwise, ie, guilty unless proven innocent. Even if one provides paperwork like financial statements, etc, they are often thought to be forged, even if not. It all boils down to a quick interview of a couple of minutes at most where the officer has to review all documents and make a snap decision.
I guess Nigeria just wanted to give the US a taste of its own medicine.
-- Samir Gupta, Ph. D. Head, New Technology Research Group, Nintendo Co. Ltd., Kyoto, Japan.
Precisely the problem. If they let him in, he'll find out it was all diverted to greedy government officials and cut them off!
HexaByte - he's a square and a half!
Yeah, I tend to get grilled heading across the border. The US border guards seem to think my plan is to sneak in, and live in the US permanently.
Seriously. Dude. I'm already a citizen of CANADA. Don't flatter yourselves.
(note for the humour-impaired: I actually did consider the move before 9/11 - but today?? It's hard not to laugh at the border when they accuse me of this.)
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
Was Nigeria using signed ints to indicate an applicant's financial status? I could see Bill's balance causing an overflow and appearing in the negatives leading to misinterpretation...
You mean that recently-discovered MS-Excel math bug? Boy, wouldn't that be ironic.
Table-ized A.I.
...if you were planning on expanding an African-named Linux distro on the African continent. Ubuntu comes to mind. But Ubuntu could become a total non-starter in Africa due to the efforts of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
So maybe the Nigerians were just trying to nip that IT monoculture in the bud.
I'm in banking, used to work for the Professional Services division of one of the ratings agencies, and at that firm I was the only person willing to travel to Nigeria.
Even considering the people living there are doing the best they can with what they got - I have a lot of respect for the dignity of the ordinary Nigerians just getting on with life - it's a pretty crappy place.
My last two visits there THE POLICE tried to rob me, each time. And ordinary crime is far more pervasive and violent. Recently I read about an armed gang that raided a hotel lobby, fully knowing there would be business visitors checking in & out, with luggage, expensive laptops, mobile phones, cash and passports.
South and East of Lagos in the Niger Delta region, Europeans and Americans must travel with very heavy security, as abductions for ransom are appallingly common, to the point where we were issued cards with instructions for how our abductors could arrange payment. They aren't going to harm you, for many of the gangs operating there it's just a business! Killing is bad business. Returning live hostages yields cash.
Finally, there is a large North / South - Christian / Muslim divide, lots of tension that often erupts into violence.
If Bill Gates was really denied a visa to visit Nigeria, this was more than likely based on fears for his safety and how embarrassing it would be for Nigeria should one of the world's richest men be held for a Software Magnates ransom.
PS - While Africa's most populous country is hardly peaceful and not at all safe, I found it a strangely beautiful and compelling place.
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I went throught exactly the same thing when I went to Switzerland to study there for a year when I was a teen. They denied me a visa because they were afraid I'd stay there indefinitely. What I did was just stay there for two months at a time, then visit Germany for a few days to reset my turist-visa and come back. Every two weeks or so the immigration office would call my grandparents place (I was staying with them, they've been living there for like 30 years or something) and ask if we had any illegal aliens living in our house. They apparently still harrass my grandparents from time to time, even though both have changed their nationality to Swiss..
I kind of understand why this kind of thing would be a problem for a country like Switzerland, where in Zürich alone 20% of the population is of foreign descent, but how much of an incoming immigration problem does Nigeria really have?
`put a strain on already stretched social services in the Unites States while providing cheap untaxed labor to unscrupulous American businessmen.'
So let's get this straight: somehow these *illegal* immigrants manage to claim social security (which requires official proof of entitlement and is therefore unavailable to illegals) - *AND* they work for a living at famously low wages?
Hmm...
What makes it even funnier is that the son of the President of Nigeria, an overweight whiner named Dare Obasanjo, actualy works for Microsoft. Indeed, Billy boy consulted him before going to Nigeria to learn about the political climate there. (Nigeria is currently the most corrupt country in Africa).
Some background: Dare uses his father's political power as an excuse to act like an ass in the halls of the Borg - you may remember the amusing Flame War between him and Al Billings. (Al Billings is a whiner who can't get anything of value done (cf Netcaptor/Borgzilla/MSN Explorer), probably blames it on management, and unfortunately now does QA work at Firefox). Because he "isn't afraid to criticize" (ie shouts louder than everyone else) Dare Obasanjo has a reputation as being exactly the forward thinking kind of guy who might bring new revenue streams to Micro$oft, instead of what he actually is, a loudmouth frat boy type living off his father's name.
"No matter how lavishly overpaid, civil servants everywhere are convinced that they are horribly underpaid - but all public employees have larceny in their hearts or they wouldn't be feeding at the public through. These two facts are all you need - but be careful! - a public employee, having no self-respect, needs and demands a show of public respect." ("Friday", 1982)
If you have to pay, it must be the right amount, given in the right way. Corruption has its own protocol, which varies from place to place. I don't know, but in this case it could even be that Bill offered too much, too openly.
Oh, wow - this guy was my TA for CS2130 at Georgia Tech (his resume verifies that it's the same guy). He was the biggest ass-hat around, and single-handedly caused a lot of students to change majors that semester - they figured that if their future in the CS program was anything like dealing with that guy, it wasn't even worth it.
I didn't know he was the son of the Nigerian president, but I guess that helps explain it to an extent.
I used to work with a guy from Zambia, otherwise I would know nothing of Pan African politics, and he told me that Nigerians aren't trusted ANYWHERE in Africa. It's even reflected in the immigration policies of other countries. For example, if my friend from Zambia wanted to visit south africa. They'd give him a Visa good for six months, if a Nigerian wants to visit they'll give him a Visa for five days.
It's not just funny that they denied his Visa, it's a slap in the face that a country that is so universally distrusted.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano