  |
  |
I actually wanted to stay clear of this but had to get involved once I saw the “open letter” and the time line of tweets.
By this time most of you know that Lance Armstrong is in South Africa and that he has had some trouble getting into the country because his passport didn’t have any space for our customs to stamp it.
Now Aki Anastasiou of 702 wants Lance Armstrong to apologise for his tweets he made from the airport. Read his “Open letter to Lance Armstrong here”.
Now take a look at the following screenshots taken from the Twitter.com profiles of @akianastasiou and @LanceArmstrong.
Lance Armstrong
Nothing wrong with that tweet. Simply a statement of the situation... now
Aki Anastasiou
Take note people. If you ever have problems getting into the country... this is the man to call
Lance Armstrong
Once again Lance made a statement about how he experienced our service at the airport. He felt the immigration officers were poster boy material. Dear Lance, I feel that way about our government.
Aki Anastasiou
So here Lance is still in Aki’s good books
Uhm, ok, so Lance actually didn’t do anything wrong except for giving his opinion and now he receives free lessons via Twitter on international passport protocol. I hope they first do a book about this and then turn it into a movie.
Imagine it, Matt Damon as Lance Armstrong.
Finally Aki comes out with this...
Now I have a few questions Aki
Is Lance Armstrong the only person to make this mistake coming into SA? I would imagine that with South Africa hosting the Fifa thingy that we could learn from this and see how we can improve the process to handle problems of this nature.
No wait, we have Tweet Support on standby – I forgot.
Let’s assume that we have hundreds of tourist arriving and they also do not have enough space for a stamp on their passport, do we also expect of them to give South Africans and apology... or only if they tweeted about unfriendly service?
Sorry, I just find this whole incident interesting.
You work for a radio station that basically takes calls about bad service delivery and related topics, your hosts endlessly complain about services themselves and agrees on most complaints. I have seen some tweets where you yourself complain about service and now you want Lance Armstrong to apologise to South Africa?
Let’s label this tweet under #WTF
In the mean time Lance is tweeting...
Mmm, I wonder whether we should demand that he apologises for those tweets as well?
Subscribe to this comment's feed
written by Dissol, March 09, 2010
Actually, not quite true, I did follow the tweets of one of the Astronauts, and some of the information that was given, even if just how they cleaned their teeth was fascinating!!!
-
- +1
-
-
written by DBS, March 09, 2010
I have been advised in the US that I only had 4 blank pages left and they didn't need to put a stamp on it and that was leaving the US so someone screwed up
As for the officials from home affairs they are doing their job and at a time when I am sure they are on high alert for the world cup we can all expect greater vigilance ( sic)
-
- +0
-
-
written by Aki321, March 09, 2010
With regard to you above post which you asked me to reply...
I won't get into a sarcastic slinging match as you have done.
Let me at the outset say that I have been following Lance since he first started tweeting and have a tremendous amount of respect for him as a cyclist.
Your order of chronological events is correct. But you have left out a few details.
You left out the hundreds of tweets that followed insulting South Africans and our country.
These tweets came as a result of Lance's tweets.
After reading his tweet I did get in touch with home affairs and did try and assist.
But when I went to bed last night it was bugging me that his tweets portrayed South Africa in a bad light, and he criticized an immigration officer for doing his job. He also called him posteboymaterial (Google it and you will find the definition insulting).
Having traveled extensively, let me tell you that our immigration officials are very friendly compared to some other countries. This is what spurred me to write what I did. The point I was making is that rules are rules in which ever country you go to. Ever tried entering another country without the correct documentation?
Regards
Aki
-
- +0
-
-
written by The Source, March 10, 2010
I am not trying to create a slinging competition at all. If you gave all the details you gave here in your original posting then we might have been looking at a total different posting don't you agree?
In the same way you were bothered by tweets made by Lance, I was bothered by your tweet and posting - so let's call it even.
South Africans insulting South Africa is a great thing. It means that we are finally getting to a stage where we say - let's consider drawing a line. I would bet you that is the thousands we see on the news protesting about bad service delivery had Twitter, we would be seeing more negative tweets about South Africa.
Yes we can be positive about South Africa but that is not a reason to ignore what is wrong with it.
Poster boys however always seem to be doing their jobs. We have an opportunity here to go the extra mile and become an accommodating destination, but sadly we only stick to our jobs.
You calling Home Affairs is going the extra mile - that is a great example of what not only Lance should expect, but every tourist setting foot on our soil. I do not care about what happens when entering other countries. What happens here is what sets us above the rest.
Ordering a cup of coffee and getting a mug.
Nevertheless, appreciate your reply.
-
- +0
-
-
written by barrmar, March 10, 2010
Even though Lance was technically at fault (no space in the passport) he is entitled to feel the way he did. But why is he tweeting about it? That signals a great need to keep himself in the limelight.
-
- +0
-
-
written by thenack, March 10, 2010
If his comments caused other comments on twitter then we deserve it, if Zuma's mad-dog-libido causes other countries to criticise, then Zuma should change.
Why are all of you on twitter and not working?
-
- +1
-
-
written by thenack, March 10, 2010
Are you trying to spam? Please allow '30' seconds between posts. What? No, I am not trying to spam, I had an afterthough, how does more than one comment constitute spamming?
Who is Joe?
-
- +1
-
-
