Sting has canceled his show in Kazakhstan after Amnesty international reported that several thousand oil workers went on strike because their salaries had been cut and their lawyer was imprisoned on false charges, according to Reuters
A declaration on Sting's website said that his performance would be ‘interpreted as an endorsement of the presidents' administration and surely will go against everything he has stood for, while supporting Amnesty and the fight for human rights, for the past 40 years.’
Oh really? So why the hell did he perform in Uzbekistan in 2009? Why did he attend the culture and arts festival organized by the dictator’s daughter and received more than £1 million to play there? Uzbekistan is probably one of the most repressive countries of the world.
At the time, the Daily Mail printed this statement issued by Sting:‘I played in Uzbekistan a few months ago. The concert was organized by the president's daughter, and I believe sponsored by UNICEF. I am well aware of the Uzbek president's appalling reputation in the field of human rights, as well as the environment. I made the decision to play there in spite of that.’
His decisions are so contradictory, I cannot find a rational explanation, either he got trashed so much by the press in 2009 that could not take another bite, or Kazakhstan did not pay very much,… or both.