It seems that a rumored deal to bring a soccer stadium to Queens is closer to reality, with the NY Times reporting what Bloomberg News, the Philadelphia Inquirer and other publications had noted: Sheik Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan is close to paying $100 million to bring professional soccer to Queens.If allowing a prince to invest in the US is unacceptable because of his country's anti-gay policies, shouldn't there be at least as much opposition to music artists playing in that country itself?
While Sheik Mansour, deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, has a personal net worth of $4.9 billion—a.k.a. money to burn—critics of the MLS stadium-in-Queens plan are pointing out his country's human rights failings. City Councilman Daniel Dromm said, "I was shocked to read in the New York Times that the Bloomberg Administration is negotiating to give NYC parkland away to Sheik Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, an oil billionaire that helps rule a country where gays or lesbians is a crime punishable by death. This is outrageous. This is also a country where gay and lesbian people could be subject to chemical castration. It is totally unacceptable. I urge my colleagues in the City Council and elected officials across the state to join me in saying that New Yorkers won’t do business with a murderous regime and we won’t sell, trade or giveaway our public assets to those who discriminate and participate in human rights abuses."
Yet this weekend Justin Bieber is playing in Dubai. Florence and the Machine follows a week later, a rock festival in June and a jazz festival every year. Other performers include David Guetta, John Cleese, Italian opera singers (sponsored by the Italian embassy) singing La Traviata, and the Wayans Brothers.
How come nobody calls for these artists to boycott Dubai? Indeed, why aren't artists themselves in the forefront of boycotting the UAE?
Funny how selective "moral" outrage can be, isn't it?
(I leave it to my readers to find any artists who boycott the one nation in the region that prioritizes human rights and yet play in Dubai, or Lebanon, without any qualms whatsoever.)
(h/t Ronald)