Akon in Sri Lanka

Well you all know that the International Rap star Akon has been refused visa by the Sri Lankan government. The "Official Reason" is that he has criminal charges against him, but as you all know it is not the reason. The real reason is that in one of Akon's music videos there is a scene where half naked girls are dancing in front of a Buddhist statue.

Click here to see the video for yourself. (Rated R)

Well my opinion is that not giving Akon the visa is bullshit. You cant blame him for the video. He doesn't film it. The director does. What the singer does is dance around lip sinking the lyrics while the director captures it on film. He was just doing what he was told to. So if you want to scream at someone it should be the director and the other thing is that its not even Akon's video. Its David Guetta's. Akon is just featured in the song.
































In western countries statues of the Buddha and Hindu gods are used as decorations, normally near pools and ponds(where there is water). Its said to bring peace and harmony to the garden. So the statue appearing on the video, in my opinion, was purely coincidence. Nothing else.

Canceling Akon's visa for a thing like is this is either stupidity or religious extremism, and the Buddha himself preached that not to go into extremes of anything and he never told his followers to worship a statue of him. Later on after King Asoka's reign only were statues of the Buddha made. He said that worshiping statues was pointless, that it wont help you attain Nirvana.

There is also some politics involved in this matter as well. The people who invited Akon to come are now nowhere to be seen. And those people are the Tourism Development Authority( I think thats their name)Anyway it was the government who invited Akon to come to Sri Lanka as a part of "Visit Sri Lanka Year 2011" and now they've screwed it up so they are trying to blame it on MBC studios(The media sponsor for the event). After the announcement of the visa cancellation a mob of about 100 people attacked MBC Studio complex in Pannipitiya. Several employees were injured in the attacks as well.

The actions of the government in this situation were useless. They spoiled the good name of our country. Now no one is gonna want come here after this.

I heard that Akon is going to be performing in the Maldives. So if u really want to see him live in concert go to Maldives. One more thing, the refunds for the tickets is not going to happen, so just let it go. I feel sorry for all the guys who bought the tickets, Its the governments fault. Not just the government's you have to blame the monks as well. They should've just kept their mouths shut without getting involved in this matter. They are just doing it to get a good name for themselves. Not all of the monks but the ones in the JHU(Jathika Hela Urumaya). Monks shouldn't be doing politics.

I don't think that tourism can be improved by doing things like this. We need change.