Aging rocker and political activists--not necessarily in that order, normally--Sting has come under fire recently for performing a private concert for the daughter of the dictator of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov. Karimov’s regime has been classified by the United Nations and the European Commission on Human Rights as having one of the worst human rights records in the world. Dissent is quelled by force and torture ad murder is common to intimidate political activists and religious practice. Oh, there is a lot of suspected financial corruption as well, so one has to wonder where Sting’s fee--a hefty hunk of change, no doubt--originated.Human rights groups have urged Sting to donate his fee to Amnesty international. He has remained silent on the issue. Worse yet, sting and his managers were aware of karimov’s abyssmal record on human rights before agreeing to the private show.
What happened? Sting has fallen from his days of human rights and environmental activism. He has won a number of awards for his humanitarian efforts. As recently as 2001, he received a prestigious human rights award from Chile, a country in which decades of brutal dictatorship still haunt people’s memories. This does not count the environmental organization the Rainforst foundation UK, which promotes peaceful coexistence with the indigenous people of the Amazon. Sting has fallen quite far from performing ati-Pinochet songs in Spanish for Amnesty International like he was once famous for.
He is not alone, either. Many Progressive entertainers have embraced the kind of dictators they used to rail against. Uniting against South African apartheid, Band Aid for human rights I Latin America, performing in Moscow to ease Cold War tensions has given way to Sean Penn claiming Jugo Chavez’s critics should be jailed, Johnny Depp openly displaying his Che Guevarra pendant while promoting Pirates of the Caribbean , and Lindsay Lohan performing for Muommar Qaddafi’s son. (No lie.) Keepo in mind how many of these entertainers/activists have been harsh critics of the United States.
(Depp despises the Unitedstatesso much, he moved his family to France in order to avoid our ’corrupt” culture. Hestill takes al the millions he ears from the culture he so loathes, however.)
I am not really surprised. the world appears to have turned upside down these days. Fickle entertainers who embrace whatever fa cause is currently popular cannot be couted on to make the best of choices anyway. I will go along with American Idol’s Simon Cowell on this one: “Any man who, at the age of sixty, calls himself Sting, is an idiot.”
