I don’t know why, but celebrities have this really bad habit of showing up as guests of renowned dictators for millions of dollars and then getting called on it every single time. The latest case is Kanye West, who’s come under fire for receiving $3 Million for performing for Kazakhstan leader Nursultan Nazarbayev‘s grandson, which … yeah, turns out that’s kind of bad. RadarOnline reports …
Human Rights Watch director David Mepham said the republic’s “serious and deteriorating human rights situation” “credible allegations of torture, the imprisonment of government critics, tight controls over the media and freedom of expression and association, limits in religious freedom, and continuing violation of workers’ rights”. Compounding matters, Amnesty International claims that “torture remains commonplace in Kazakhstan and the torturers are allowed to go free.”
I know this probably goes without saying, but if a deal seems too good to be true, nine times out of ten, it usually is. Seriously, “play a private concert for my grandson for millions of dollars” sounds exactly like the kind of set up that ends with someone waking up in a bathtub full of ice cubes minus a kidney. Except in this case it’s slightly worse because you just performed for a friggin’ dictator.