So last week soccer officials from South Africa were set to host a peace conference to discuss the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The point of the conference was to discuss separating politics and sports in next year’s World Cup, the first ever to be held in Africa..
Well, things did not go according to plan. Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, was denied a visa into the country because the government believed that he would cause negative publicity for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
However, that decision backfired on the South African government. Well since the Dalai Lama was not allowed to attend the event, others who were expected to attend refused. This ultimately led to the cancellation of the event.
Instead of lying about the situation, all the South African government had to do was be honest. Many believe that the cause of his denied visa was because of the politics of another country. China is responsible for thousands of jobs and millions of dollars (due to trade) in South Africa. Tibet and China have not been seeing eye to eye for quiet a while. So South Africa had no choice but to reject his visa.
As a PR practitioner what would you have done differently?
-Travis Francis
Politics are a crazy topic and it seems like no matter what politicians do, it's not right. I feel like that was pretty grimey for S Africa to deny the dali lama a visa into the country. That is blatant disrespect and is bound to cause negative tension and feelings. I might have kept the whole situation under wraps or not spoken about it at first...give people time to cool down and then talk about it.
ReplyDelete--samantha
I agree, I think that they handled this situation very poorly. As a PR practitioner, I would have been honest from the beginning. What I've learned over the years is that lies always come to the surface so why not be honest from the beginning to avoid trouble? But as Samantha said, politics are crazy and most of the time politicians don't do the right thing.
ReplyDeleteKiah
I believe that honesty is the best policy in all cases. I think that the situation was handled very poorly and as a PR professional, I would have remained honest regarding all of the details. It is so important to be honest, especially in the court of public opinion.
ReplyDeletePorsche
This situation is intersting because normally sporting events bring countries together. Perhaps this was not the proper action for South Africa to take. It seems that South Africa may have even felt backed into this situation.
ReplyDelete-Nicole Jackson