Hotshot singer-songwriter, actor, activist and philanthropist Sting (known to his mum and dad as Gordon Sumner) can add “money grubbing hypocrite” to his impressive resume.
Hypocrisy in the entertainment industry? Say it ain’t so!
Sting has come under fire by human rights groups for performing a private gig back in November of 2009 for the daughter of the president of Uzbekistan. (Doncha love how dictators and dictators-in-waiting use the title “president?” Oh, I’m sorry Mr. Penn; I didn’t mean to upset you. Please don’t call for my imprisonment; I have two kids and a cat to worry about.)
Rocker STING has been urged to donate concert cash he received after performing for the daughter of Uzbek dictator President Islam Karimov to charity by critics opposed to the private show.
The former The Police star, an avid human rights campaigner and environmental activist, has come under fire for playing the secret gig in Tashkent in November (09). Protesters claim Sting should have rejected the offer to sing for Gulnara Karimova, whose father rules a country with one of the world’s worst records for human rights abuses.
Karimov has been criticised repeatedly by the international community and non-governmental organisations like the United Nations and the European Commission of running a brutal dictatorship, violently suppressing political activism, free speech and religious worship with torture.
Karimov’s administration has also been embroiled in allegations of financial corruption.
According to the above report, his management team ignored pleas to cancel the performance even after being informed of Karimov’s abysmal track record.
No idea how much he earned for this little shindig, but I doubt he comes cheap if this tour rider from back in 2000 is any indication. “Cheap wines will not be accepted.” Guess he doesn’t drink Franzia.
What’s more interesting than his paycheck, however, is the fact that Sting received a prestigious human rights award from Chile back in 2001. Other humanitarian honors and efforts include:
- Taking part in the Band Aid charity song “Do They Know It’s Christmas” in 1984
- Being chosen to present the 2nd Annual Reebok Human Rights Award in 1989
- Involvement with Amnesty International, including performing during their 1988 Human Rights Now tour and sending out a recent plea on their behalf for support of people being suppressed in Iran
- Founder, along with his wife Trudie Styler, of the Rainforest Foundation in 1989, whose mission statement is “The mission of the Rainforest Foundation UK is to support indigenous peoples and traditional populations of the world’s rainforest in their efforts to protect their environment and fulfil their rights to land, life and livelihood by assisting them in:
1. Securing and controlling the natural resources necessary for their long term well being and managing these resources in ways which do not harm their environment, violate their culture or compromise their future.
2. Developing means to protect their individual and collective rights and obtain, shape and control basic services from the state.
Sting’s not alone in this little habit of performing for and hanging out with dictators and their families. Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Lindsay Lohan, Jon Bon Jovi, Usher, BET founder Bob Johnson, supermodels Miranda Kerr and Victoria Slivstedt and Mariah Carey have all participated in par-tays for the family of Muammar Gaddafi, that cuddly son-of-a-gun dictator in Libya.
Perhaps, though, we shouldn’t be too quick to criticize. After all, “homes in New York, Los Angeles and London, together with Lake House, a Jacobean mansion and 800-acre estate in Wiltshire, and a magnificent Tuscan villa” must cost a pretty penny. We can’t expect him to live off of piddly record royalties – why, just one song, “Every Breath You Take,” earns him a mere pittance – nearly $2,000 a day. That probably doesn’t even cover the electricity bill for one of his homes, let alone all of them. And if this report is correct, he spent nearly $12,000 for a live Christmas tree for his Wiltshire estate. Hey, money doesn’t grow on trees! (ugh, pun intended)
Lest we forget, Sting grew up in a working-class environment. It might just take a lot of money to make him forget that “I was one of these kids that thought, ‘I actually don’t belong here. Either in this family or on this street or in this town… I thought I was an orphan that had been, you know, sort of misplaced. I was kind of in the wrong environment. I just felt this wasn’t for me. and I was plotting to escape from a very early age.”
And perhaps he should also be congratulated for not just sitting back on his laurels and enjoying the good life. He’s still working hard, like his milkman father did. Attaboy!
Nope, Sting is just a working class schlub like you and me, trying to earn an honest buck in an uncertain world. So if he happens to earn it by singing for the daughter of a guy who has been accused of boiling dissidents alive, so be it.
Someone has to take one for the team.
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