Please Jennifer Lopez, don’t mention Jane Fonda next time you are asked about your role models. Pop diva J.Lo got quite the ovation from the 75-year-old actress when she received her star on Hollywood boulevard Walk of Fame last week, but was the ex-political activist aware of her latest move?
Lopez just performed at Turkmenistan leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov’s 56th birthday bash this past Saturday. She was the first major western star to visit this isolated country, which was once part of the Soviet empire, and where is the problem? A small detail, Turkmenistan has been described as ‘one of the world’s most repressive regimes’ by Human Rights Watch, as the country discriminates against ethnic minorities, harasses journalists human right activists and lets them rot in jail for years.
According to Wikipedia, any opposition to the government is regarded as treason and punishable by life imprisonment, and the police commonly use torture to obtain confession. All mass media is controlled by the state, the internet is heavily regulated and only available to a small fraction of the population, there is obviously no access to Twitter, Facebook and other social media, a state religion is imposed on all religious communities, video games, car radios, operas and ballets are banned, long hair on men is forbidden, and the previous president ordered the closure of all libraries outside the capital.
You get it, this guy is a true dictator and Lopez is accepting the invitation? Of course she probably has received a lavish sum and will stay at this $2 billion dollar Caspian Sea resort, but does she really need the money? According to Vulture, ‘she reportedly made quite an impression, “[dancing] with half-naked backing dancers” and later donning traditional Turkmen clothing to sing “Happy birthday, Mr. President” for an “enthusiastic” crowd of government officials, ambassadors, and CEOs of state-run companies.’ She is an idiot.
Many news outlets are reporting that her entourage was busy tweeting stuff like this:
‘The Turkmenistan Breeze feels amazing at night Kidz! I wonder were all my Turkmenistan followers are!? Hit me up! — J.R. Taylor (@Didntinviteme) June 28, 2013’
Taylor is Lopez’s choreographer, and apparently he had no idea there is no Twitter in Turkmenistan! This is why Lopez and her entourage are a bunch of uneducated and greedy idiots, not even able to check the background of the country before stepping in, but what’s new? Lopez would not be the first one to accept money from a dictator, remember Beyonce, Mariah Carey and many others performing for Gaddafi? And J. Lo is no better and she doesn’t even watch 60 Minutes.