I don’t like Sting, have never liked his music a bit, but the story I have just read in the Guardian really tells what a hypocrite asshole he is. It's kind of old news but it is worth writing about it again.
Sting accepted between £1m and £2m to perform for Uzbekistan dictator’s daughter, and this does not look pretty for the Police frontman.
The Uzbekistan regime has been condemned by the UN, Amnesty International for horrific acts, like boiling his enemies, slaughtering his poor people when they protest, and conscripting armies of children for slave labor.
And to add to this terrible picture, Uzbekistan is an ecological disaster. After decades of cotton intensive production, air and water pollution has reached new highs and the Aral Sea, who used to be the 4th largest inland sea on earth, has shrunk to less than 80%, having all kinds of dramatic consequences, like animal and human deaths.
How did this happen? Sting, this supposed human rights and ecology warrior playing for the glory of such a nightmare?
As I said, it is old news as he traveled there in October 2009 to headline Gulnara Karimova's (dictator Islam Karimov’s daughter) arts festival. Nobody knew, until some reporters at the Guardian found out in 2010, forcing Sting to release a statement:
‘I played in Uzbekistan a few months ago, the concert was organized by the president's daughter and I believe sponsored by Unicef."
Unfortunately for Sting, the Unicef was quite surprised to learn this.
He added: ‘I supported wholeheartedly the cultural boycott of South Africa under the apartheid regime, because it was a special case and specifically targeted the younger demographic of the ruling white middle class.
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. I have come to believe that cultural boycotts are not only pointless gestures, they are counter-productive, where proscribed states are further robbed of the open commerce of ideas and art and as a result become even more closed, paranoid and insular.’
Yes sure, and how much did you get paid already?
The Guardian is reporting that the tickets for his concert cost more than 45 times the average monthly salary over there, and is also showing a picture of Sting sitting side by side with Gulnara at a fashion show.
Craig Murray, British ambassador to Uzbekistan even wrote on his blog:.‘This really is transparent bollocks. He did not take a guitar and jam around the parks of Tashkent. He got paid over a million pounds to play an event specifically designed to glorify a barbarous regime. Is the man completely mad?’
‘Why does he think it was worth over a million quid to the regime to hear him warble a few notes?
‘I agree with him that cultural isolation does not help. I am often asked about the morality of going to Uzbekistan, and I always answer – go, mix with ordinary people, tell them about other ways of life, avoid state owned establishments and official tours. What Sting did was the opposite. To invoke Unicef as a cover, sat next to a woman who has made hundreds of millions from state forced child labor in the cotton fields, is pretty sick’.
Well he knows what he is talking about, he is living there, and there’s nothing to add, it is so despicable I want to vomit! Not too long ago, it was revealed that Beyoncé, Usher, and Mariah Carey were paid extravagant amounts to perform for members of Gaddafi's family, so I suppose it never changes… Was Bono invited too?