Margaret Wente, Toronto Globe & MailWhat a relief that Nelly Furtado has decided to give away the $1-million fee she received for performing for the loathsome Gadhafi clan. Now that blood is running in the streets of Tripoli, other entertainers are rushing to follow her example. Mariah Carey says she feels "horrible and embarrassed" by her New Year's Eve performance for the Gadhafis three years ago, and although she has refused to donate her rumoured $1-million fee to charity, she's promising to give away the proceeds from a new single to human rights. "I was naive and unaware of who I was booked to perform for," she explained.
The same excuse cannot be made for other Westerners who've profited from cozying up to Moammar Gadhafi and his ill-gotten gains. In fact, an astonishing number of them wittingly or unwittingly participated in his rehabilitation....
It's nauseating enough to see fellow dictators (Hugo Chavez) and nutty Nation of Islam types (Louis Farrakhan, to whom Colonel Gadhafi tried to transfer $1-billion back in the 1990s) sucking up to the Libyan loon. It's even worse to see leading statesmen (Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Silvio Berlusconi, Nicolas Sarkozy) kiss him on both cheeks. Worst of all was the 2009 British deal to release the Lockerbie bomber on compassionate grounds. (The bomber allegedly had terminal cancer, from which he seems to have made a remarkable recovery as soon as he arrived back home in Libya.) It was a snub to victims of terrorism everywhere....
At least Nelly and Mariah, along with Beyoncé, Lionel Richie, Jay-Z and Usher -- who've also performed for the Gadhafi clan -- held out for decent sums of money. I suspect the intellectuals came far more cheap. Nor have they (so far) admitted remorse for their shameless behaviour as the Loon of Libya's useful dupes. Perhaps they mistook a taste for Western pop music and a little window dressing for a sincere desire for reform....
Go read the rest of it.