Post by davidhr on Oct 29, 2013 8:13:49 GMT -5
Who would have thought that Lara’s illness and ability to perform would not be the lead story for her this past week? Instead, her concert in Uzbekistan exploded into the news when the Christian Association for the Abolition of Torture [l'Association chrétienne pour l'abolition de la torture (ACAT)] accused Lara of being ‘window dressing’ for a regime of torture. A sampling of the various news organizations picking up the story (thanks to Yann Perrot on the MZ FB site) can be seen at:
news.google.com/news?ncl=dcflDrAU5DJI7fM4e7Fijwn1KHMYM&q=Lara+fabian&lr=French&hl=fr
Here’s the (translated) article of last Wednesday from Le Figaro:
--------------------------------------------------
The French NGO ACAT today accused the Belgian singer Lara Fabian of serving as a ‘fancy window dressing’ for the "Uzbek regime torturer", by giving a concert in Uzbekistan on 27 October.
"Lara Fabian will give a concert in Uzbekistan this Sunday, October 27 as part of a festival organized by Gulnara Karimova, daughter of the Uzbek dictator. The ACAT, Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture, denounces this proximity with one of the most repressive regimes in the world", according to a statement.
According to the website of the artist, she indeed has a concert scheduled for October 27 in Tashkent before a series of concerts in Russia, where she is very popular. She also performed in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, a Russian Caucasian republic, at a concert in 2011, at the invitation of President Ramzan Kadyrov.
"In Uzbekistan, freedom of expression is reduced to zero, the most ordinary dissident is suppressed, opponents, journalists and human rights defenders are imprisoned and sometimes tortured to death", said Christine Laroque, head of Asia programs ACAT .
"While those who raised their voices for freedom die in prison, Lara Fabian will close this Sunday the annual festival Style.uz Art Week in Tashkent, an event created in 2006 by Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of President Islam Karimov to improve the image of the country and to promote the regime of her father, in power for nearly a quarter century", said the organization.
------------------------------------
Lara responded on Thursday with the following (translated) statement on her FB site:
------------------------------------------------------------
Dear all, I have just learnt by the press release of ACAT, relayed by the press, that the Cultural Festival in Tashkent for which I was due to sing on 26 October [sic:actually the 27th] was managed by the daughter of the president in place.
My immediate reaction was to write to my team in the countries of the East to know that, in these circumstances, I cannot ensure my performance that I therefore cancel.
I am shocked by the political melange and immediate response to which I became the object in the press on this subject, and am deeply hurt when I read "Lara Fabian, new showcase of the torturer Uzbek regime"...
I would like to remind people that for 25 years, I have always had at heart to pass along in songs, universal messages of love, peace and tolerance.
My career and my commitments reflect my values and I am shocked that one can think of me that I can endorse a regime that does not respect human rights.
This being so, I would like to say that I make a big difference between singing as part of a show which is directly managed by a member (or a relative) of a Government that does not respect human rights and to go make representations in a country that has a Government that does not respect human rights. In the first case, I will not because I do not sanction such a policy, or serve as a 'shop window' to his Government; in the second case, I just sing for human beings who suffer precisely the daily violations of human rights, hoping to bring them by my songs a little comfort, and make them live a moment of entertainment... For me, it is the difference between singing for the Government and singing for the people. Values that are mine are that I refuse to make the first choice, but I will continue to do the second, out of respect for my audience living in countries not respecting human rights.
Lara
------------------------------------------
In a follow-up, from www.uznews.net/news_single.php?lng=en&sub=top&cid=30&nid=24165:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
In an interview to Uznews.net Christine Laroque from the ACAT said that her organization is pleased with Ms. Fabian’s decision.
“This is the right thing to do,” says Ms. Laroque, “and we continue to work with Lara Fabian, (yet) she is planning a concert in Belarus in November.”
However, the human rights activist believes that the singer’s stance on singing for the people in a country that violates human rights is misguided.
“Who organizes such concerts, who has access to international stars? Only the people in power or those close to them,” says Ms. Laroque. “And who has money to pay for expensive tickets? The tickets, for instance, to Lara Fabian’s show in Tashkent were too expensive for an average middle class citizen.”
Style.uz art week has been held in Tashkent each autumn for nine years, and is Gulnara Karimova’s pride and joy – as well as yet another source of income for her already immense fortune.
The Style.uz art week allows her to receive large sums of money from festival sponsors – often through extortion or manipulation – so that she can then be seen as the star among the prominent people attending the festival.
This art festival is nothing but her own personal week-long ball and party.
While the participation of international stars is bought for a high price, most Uzbek artists are simply forced to participate in the festival.
---------------------------------------------------
A video dealing with stars who have participated in this festival, while also noting Lara’s change of heart, can be seen at: www.rtbf.be/video/detail_les-stars-et-les-dictatures?id=1864617
Here we have in a nutshell the weakness in Lara’s career push in the ‘Countries to the East’ – they are notorious for political and human values that Lara disagrees with. The first article noted her 2011 concert in Chechnya – Lara received a lot of criticism for that at the time. One would have thought that she would have learned to be more careful, as you only get credit for being naïve once. In fairness, probably few of the readers of this News Update really knew much about the conditions in Uzbekistan before this controversy, so maybe Lara didn’t either; and perhaps she was lured into forgetting about such issues because she has performed recently in so many countries where human rights are far from ideal, including of course Russia. One suspects that this will be a sufficient ‘wake-up’ call that she won’t make this exact same mistake twice.
However, the follow-up article above illustrated that the ‘eastern’ career path will continue to be problematic. Once Lara has been led to back down in the face of such criticism, it will only encourage future attempts, as we can see already: they noted her upcoming concert in Belarus – a dictator prevails there as well. And what will she do concerning her ‘gay marriage rights’ song in Russia? Lara made an effort in her response to salvage some of the ‘countries to the east’ concerts by drawing a distinction between performing for her audience as opposed to for the government. ACAT thought it was a distinction without meaning, as the very expensive tickets to her shows in such countries are primarily the provenance of those connected in one sense or another to repressive governments. Should these people be deprived of Lara’s music because of such affiliation? Should one sing only for those who are recognized to be ‘good people’? The audiences might be pretty small!
As to this last point, an interesting commentary by Charles-James McCearney appeared on the several of Lara’s fan sites. The relevant portion is reproduced below:
-----------------------------------------
However, the issue comes down to this, should she or any other artist, perform in countries infringing on human rights? Her answer is clear enough, but let me add my two cents. For starters, every country can be seen as infringing on human rights to a degree. For instance, OIP (Observatoire internationale des prisons) regularly points out France does not do enough to improve the dignity of inmates in its jails. Is it a violation of human rights? Yes. Should she or other artists stop touring France in protest of that situation? I think we all know the answer to this. Let's be clear however, that I am well aware that the human rights situation is, thank God, far better in France than in Uzbekistan which brings me to another point. In an article to be found at uznews.net, Human Right Watch a well known NGO does not ask Fabian outright not to come, but says she should "inform herself better".
-------------------------------------------------
While Lara has made her stance known as to where she will and will not perform, the line in reality is not so clear. It will be tricky for her to navigate these venues in the future, especially with all the attention she has received. Her fans understand that she does have very strong human rights values, and would never support the policies of some of these countries; yet that makes it all the more important that she not be careless, and give appearances to the contrary. As the NGO in the commentary above suggested, she needs to be more ‘hands-on’ concerning her future venues.
On a broader perspective: those who have followed Lara over the years know that these types of public relations upheavals are not uncommon. She has continually provided fodder for the press, deserved or not (as McCearney’s full commentary also noted, ‘Sting’ performed in Uzbekistan under similar circumstances, received a lot of money, and happily pocked it without repercussions…). The press of course is primed for Lara, at least partly because they know they can get a rise out of her which furthers the story. Apparently no high-priced public relations firm like the one she employed for ‘Le Secret’ tour can stop it from happening. On the positive side: maybe all the publicity will help sales! [Le Secret is still off the French charts].
Of course, Lara had a ready out for the concert in Uzbekistan, in that it fell within the time frame she had set for her recovery from her ear problem; the concert was supposed to occur on the 27th, and she said on the 21st she would need some 10 days of rest. She eschewed this excuse because she wanted to annunciate her principles, but ironically, it’s not clear she would have been able to go anyway.
And as to that ailment: one supposes that if her ear irritation were still incapacitating she would have been forced to cancel the concerts in St. Petersburg, beginning with the one tonight. And that concert is still going ahead (at least at the time of this posting); in the past 24 hours, Lara left the following message in English (along with a picture) on her Instagram site:
“Sitting in silence…a few hours away from tomorrow remembering why I do what I do...it is for you....see you tomorrow night dear all... Love .L”
The ‘sitting in silence’ probably refers to her continued recuperation from the problem that apparently resurfaces when she listens to the band through headphones while performing. It will be interesting to see whether there have been any adjustments in the Russian concerts to avoid her having to do that – perhaps by switching over to an acoustic setlist. That would obviously be a disappointment to those expecting to hear her new songs, although it still remains a strange anomaly for her to perform a concert around an album that is not directly available in that country (to my knowledge).
The health problems that Lara discussed in her Canadian interview are getting some play in the European press. An on-line article from Luxembourg recounted them, as can be seen at:
www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202473744869379&set=gm.656440391066743&type=1&theater
and ‘the Closer’ picked up the story, at:
www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151745551449053&set=gm.656605144383601&type=1&theater
As noted in the Canadian interview, anorexic problems never really go away, and in the long term, this may well be more of an issue for Lara’s health than the current ear irritation.
An article about Lara (prior to her recent health issue) in Chevny Saint Sauveur was posted by larafabianweb.com, at:
www.larafabianweb.com/images/scans/ogivestsauveurpresse.png
In it, Lara discusses her coming Carnegie Hall concert. She says (in translation): “It will be the first time in this hall. It is a room in which I dreamed to play one day.” And (the article continues), when asked how the affair was concluded, she retorted, “Very simply. My producers picked up their telephone and asked if there was a possibility to play down there.” One wonders then why it didn’t happen sooner, especially in conjunction with one of the English albums, instead of ‘Le Secret’ (which at least is available on amazon.com, although only as an import). [Interestingly, the Carnegie Hall website now says that tickets for this show are no longer available on line, one has to call ‘Carnegie Charge’…].
By the time of the next News Update Lara will have had scheduled the four concerts in Russia. We will learn (1) whether she actually gave them all; (2) whether they were really ‘Le Secret’ concerts with all the instrumentation; and (3) whether she sang ‘Deux ils, deux elles’, despite Russian law prohibiting the promotion of alternate sexual life styles. We’ll see what the balance of tricks and treats are in these shows surrounding Halloween
. One hopes that Lara likes a life of challenges, for she certainly has them coming up.
David
news.google.com/news?ncl=dcflDrAU5DJI7fM4e7Fijwn1KHMYM&q=Lara+fabian&lr=French&hl=fr
Here’s the (translated) article of last Wednesday from Le Figaro:
--------------------------------------------------
The French NGO ACAT today accused the Belgian singer Lara Fabian of serving as a ‘fancy window dressing’ for the "Uzbek regime torturer", by giving a concert in Uzbekistan on 27 October.
"Lara Fabian will give a concert in Uzbekistan this Sunday, October 27 as part of a festival organized by Gulnara Karimova, daughter of the Uzbek dictator. The ACAT, Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture, denounces this proximity with one of the most repressive regimes in the world", according to a statement.
According to the website of the artist, she indeed has a concert scheduled for October 27 in Tashkent before a series of concerts in Russia, where she is very popular. She also performed in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, a Russian Caucasian republic, at a concert in 2011, at the invitation of President Ramzan Kadyrov.
"In Uzbekistan, freedom of expression is reduced to zero, the most ordinary dissident is suppressed, opponents, journalists and human rights defenders are imprisoned and sometimes tortured to death", said Christine Laroque, head of Asia programs ACAT .
"While those who raised their voices for freedom die in prison, Lara Fabian will close this Sunday the annual festival Style.uz Art Week in Tashkent, an event created in 2006 by Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of President Islam Karimov to improve the image of the country and to promote the regime of her father, in power for nearly a quarter century", said the organization.
------------------------------------
Lara responded on Thursday with the following (translated) statement on her FB site:
------------------------------------------------------------
Dear all, I have just learnt by the press release of ACAT, relayed by the press, that the Cultural Festival in Tashkent for which I was due to sing on 26 October [sic:actually the 27th] was managed by the daughter of the president in place.
My immediate reaction was to write to my team in the countries of the East to know that, in these circumstances, I cannot ensure my performance that I therefore cancel.
I am shocked by the political melange and immediate response to which I became the object in the press on this subject, and am deeply hurt when I read "Lara Fabian, new showcase of the torturer Uzbek regime"...
I would like to remind people that for 25 years, I have always had at heart to pass along in songs, universal messages of love, peace and tolerance.
My career and my commitments reflect my values and I am shocked that one can think of me that I can endorse a regime that does not respect human rights.
This being so, I would like to say that I make a big difference between singing as part of a show which is directly managed by a member (or a relative) of a Government that does not respect human rights and to go make representations in a country that has a Government that does not respect human rights. In the first case, I will not because I do not sanction such a policy, or serve as a 'shop window' to his Government; in the second case, I just sing for human beings who suffer precisely the daily violations of human rights, hoping to bring them by my songs a little comfort, and make them live a moment of entertainment... For me, it is the difference between singing for the Government and singing for the people. Values that are mine are that I refuse to make the first choice, but I will continue to do the second, out of respect for my audience living in countries not respecting human rights.
Lara
------------------------------------------
In a follow-up, from www.uznews.net/news_single.php?lng=en&sub=top&cid=30&nid=24165:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
In an interview to Uznews.net Christine Laroque from the ACAT said that her organization is pleased with Ms. Fabian’s decision.
“This is the right thing to do,” says Ms. Laroque, “and we continue to work with Lara Fabian, (yet) she is planning a concert in Belarus in November.”
However, the human rights activist believes that the singer’s stance on singing for the people in a country that violates human rights is misguided.
“Who organizes such concerts, who has access to international stars? Only the people in power or those close to them,” says Ms. Laroque. “And who has money to pay for expensive tickets? The tickets, for instance, to Lara Fabian’s show in Tashkent were too expensive for an average middle class citizen.”
Style.uz art week has been held in Tashkent each autumn for nine years, and is Gulnara Karimova’s pride and joy – as well as yet another source of income for her already immense fortune.
The Style.uz art week allows her to receive large sums of money from festival sponsors – often through extortion or manipulation – so that she can then be seen as the star among the prominent people attending the festival.
This art festival is nothing but her own personal week-long ball and party.
While the participation of international stars is bought for a high price, most Uzbek artists are simply forced to participate in the festival.
---------------------------------------------------
A video dealing with stars who have participated in this festival, while also noting Lara’s change of heart, can be seen at: www.rtbf.be/video/detail_les-stars-et-les-dictatures?id=1864617
Here we have in a nutshell the weakness in Lara’s career push in the ‘Countries to the East’ – they are notorious for political and human values that Lara disagrees with. The first article noted her 2011 concert in Chechnya – Lara received a lot of criticism for that at the time. One would have thought that she would have learned to be more careful, as you only get credit for being naïve once. In fairness, probably few of the readers of this News Update really knew much about the conditions in Uzbekistan before this controversy, so maybe Lara didn’t either; and perhaps she was lured into forgetting about such issues because she has performed recently in so many countries where human rights are far from ideal, including of course Russia. One suspects that this will be a sufficient ‘wake-up’ call that she won’t make this exact same mistake twice.
However, the follow-up article above illustrated that the ‘eastern’ career path will continue to be problematic. Once Lara has been led to back down in the face of such criticism, it will only encourage future attempts, as we can see already: they noted her upcoming concert in Belarus – a dictator prevails there as well. And what will she do concerning her ‘gay marriage rights’ song in Russia? Lara made an effort in her response to salvage some of the ‘countries to the east’ concerts by drawing a distinction between performing for her audience as opposed to for the government. ACAT thought it was a distinction without meaning, as the very expensive tickets to her shows in such countries are primarily the provenance of those connected in one sense or another to repressive governments. Should these people be deprived of Lara’s music because of such affiliation? Should one sing only for those who are recognized to be ‘good people’? The audiences might be pretty small!
As to this last point, an interesting commentary by Charles-James McCearney appeared on the several of Lara’s fan sites. The relevant portion is reproduced below:
-----------------------------------------
However, the issue comes down to this, should she or any other artist, perform in countries infringing on human rights? Her answer is clear enough, but let me add my two cents. For starters, every country can be seen as infringing on human rights to a degree. For instance, OIP (Observatoire internationale des prisons) regularly points out France does not do enough to improve the dignity of inmates in its jails. Is it a violation of human rights? Yes. Should she or other artists stop touring France in protest of that situation? I think we all know the answer to this. Let's be clear however, that I am well aware that the human rights situation is, thank God, far better in France than in Uzbekistan which brings me to another point. In an article to be found at uznews.net, Human Right Watch a well known NGO does not ask Fabian outright not to come, but says she should "inform herself better".
-------------------------------------------------
While Lara has made her stance known as to where she will and will not perform, the line in reality is not so clear. It will be tricky for her to navigate these venues in the future, especially with all the attention she has received. Her fans understand that she does have very strong human rights values, and would never support the policies of some of these countries; yet that makes it all the more important that she not be careless, and give appearances to the contrary. As the NGO in the commentary above suggested, she needs to be more ‘hands-on’ concerning her future venues.
On a broader perspective: those who have followed Lara over the years know that these types of public relations upheavals are not uncommon. She has continually provided fodder for the press, deserved or not (as McCearney’s full commentary also noted, ‘Sting’ performed in Uzbekistan under similar circumstances, received a lot of money, and happily pocked it without repercussions…). The press of course is primed for Lara, at least partly because they know they can get a rise out of her which furthers the story. Apparently no high-priced public relations firm like the one she employed for ‘Le Secret’ tour can stop it from happening. On the positive side: maybe all the publicity will help sales! [Le Secret is still off the French charts].
Of course, Lara had a ready out for the concert in Uzbekistan, in that it fell within the time frame she had set for her recovery from her ear problem; the concert was supposed to occur on the 27th, and she said on the 21st she would need some 10 days of rest. She eschewed this excuse because she wanted to annunciate her principles, but ironically, it’s not clear she would have been able to go anyway.
And as to that ailment: one supposes that if her ear irritation were still incapacitating she would have been forced to cancel the concerts in St. Petersburg, beginning with the one tonight. And that concert is still going ahead (at least at the time of this posting); in the past 24 hours, Lara left the following message in English (along with a picture) on her Instagram site:
http://instagram.com/p/gBYfRXh86O#
“Sitting in silence…a few hours away from tomorrow remembering why I do what I do...it is for you....see you tomorrow night dear all... Love .L”
The ‘sitting in silence’ probably refers to her continued recuperation from the problem that apparently resurfaces when she listens to the band through headphones while performing. It will be interesting to see whether there have been any adjustments in the Russian concerts to avoid her having to do that – perhaps by switching over to an acoustic setlist. That would obviously be a disappointment to those expecting to hear her new songs, although it still remains a strange anomaly for her to perform a concert around an album that is not directly available in that country (to my knowledge).
The health problems that Lara discussed in her Canadian interview are getting some play in the European press. An on-line article from Luxembourg recounted them, as can be seen at:
www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202473744869379&set=gm.656440391066743&type=1&theater
and ‘the Closer’ picked up the story, at:
www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151745551449053&set=gm.656605144383601&type=1&theater
As noted in the Canadian interview, anorexic problems never really go away, and in the long term, this may well be more of an issue for Lara’s health than the current ear irritation.
An article about Lara (prior to her recent health issue) in Chevny Saint Sauveur was posted by larafabianweb.com, at:
www.larafabianweb.com/images/scans/ogivestsauveurpresse.png
In it, Lara discusses her coming Carnegie Hall concert. She says (in translation): “It will be the first time in this hall. It is a room in which I dreamed to play one day.” And (the article continues), when asked how the affair was concluded, she retorted, “Very simply. My producers picked up their telephone and asked if there was a possibility to play down there.” One wonders then why it didn’t happen sooner, especially in conjunction with one of the English albums, instead of ‘Le Secret’ (which at least is available on amazon.com, although only as an import). [Interestingly, the Carnegie Hall website now says that tickets for this show are no longer available on line, one has to call ‘Carnegie Charge’…].
By the time of the next News Update Lara will have had scheduled the four concerts in Russia. We will learn (1) whether she actually gave them all; (2) whether they were really ‘Le Secret’ concerts with all the instrumentation; and (3) whether she sang ‘Deux ils, deux elles’, despite Russian law prohibiting the promotion of alternate sexual life styles. We’ll see what the balance of tricks and treats are in these shows surrounding Halloween
. One hopes that Lara likes a life of challenges, for she certainly has them coming up. David
