[Coral-List] Categorization of Coral Scientists

[jahangir vs]

Dear Ulf and others who are concerned about the issue,
I think that is a critical subject which is also tied with the philosophy of ICRS. In ICRS you want "To address this disconnect, a theme of the 13th ICRS will be “Bridging Science to Policy” with specific goals focusing on: 1) Improving trust and communications among scientists, policy makers, managers and stakeholders". I think an important stage in "BRIDGING science to policy" is to make governments and policy makers to respect people who dedicate their lives NOT to money but to understanding laws of nature! I believe that today, in reality, they do not respect scientists and their words. Instead, they created a framework for scientists to work inside it, and offer some of us pleasure! If they really wanna make sure that someone like me will go back to the country of origin after the conference, they surely can apply better strategies other that refusing the visa application! I believe that they are disrespectful and their behavior mean that they do not care about us and what we say! Yes, I agree that a response to this can be offsetting conferences holding in US, but I believe that it is much better if conference managers and GIANTS (famous scientists) negotiate with governments to alleviate this kind of problems, and make them respect scientists by reforming visa regulations. Surely, it will not be easy but there is no other easy way out of this entanglement!
Jahangir 

 

    On Saturday, April 16, 2016 2:32 AM, Ulf Erlingsson <ceo at lindorm.com> wrote:
 

 You have a very good point: Conferences should NOT be held in the U.S. nor anywhere where participants have to pass the U.S. on route, because the border control authorities in the U.S. are incompetent and frequently make huge mistakes. For instance, the most famous author of Sweden was changing plane in USA on the way to South America, was apprehended on terrorism suspicion and sent back to Sweden (he's the author of bestsellers that also deal with terrorists). 


Ulf Erlingsson

On 2016-04 -15, at 11:44 , jahangir vs wrote:

To Whom it may or may not concerns,
I am a researcher who has investigated on coral reefs of the Persian Gulf over the last five years. ICRS committee invited me to present some parts of my researches, and generously offered me the travel grants. Unfortunately, my US visa application was rejected by a US embassy officer in Ankara, Turkey, today (the reason was that the embassy officer was concerned that i may not come back to my home country after the conference). I spent my money and traveled from Iran to Turkey to get interviewed in the US embassy, but in less than two minutes, the officer rejected my application without any further conversation. He only gave me a peace of paper in which was wrote that i am probably not firmly attached to my country of origin. It is so frustrating... The officer asked me if I am a university lecturer, and I answered no! Then, he rejected me! He did not know and did not want to know why I am not a university lecturer! Do you? In the ICRS website it is written: "The Symposium will bring together an anticipated 2,500 coral reef scientists, policy makers and managers from 70 different nations in a forum to present the latest research findings". I would say we must add this phrase: "...except the researchers who are not firmly attached to their original countries". Are you all attached firmly to your countries of origin? 
Shouldn't we think about another way of "conferencation" when some "thirldworlders" face with such barriers? I think live video conference perhaps can work for people like me! I would appreciate any comments. Virtually, can we hope about survival of corals in this unfair environment?
Or we must pray together instead: May God bless Syrian children, when he stopped sleeping on the job! May US embassy bless scientists, when Democracy is fixed! May you protect the corals from us!...

Best wishes for you whatever your categories are.Jahangir VajedSamiei

The Gulf is the hottest Sea on earth, but for sure is not the Sexiest one! 
 
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