Gaga saga is over

from the Jakarta Post

You may have heard that Lady Gaga was going to have a concert here in Jakarta next weekend.  That is until the conservative muslim clerics started calling her satanic and a bunch of other silly stuff, and threatened violence if she performed.  Okay, they weren't going to openly kill her or anything, but still pretty nasty threats.  It was a big deal [and long, it's been front page news for weeks and weeks and weeks] largely because it became a test of whether the government was going to defend the right to freedom of expression or cave to small powerful political/social forces.  It caved.  Fundamentalists here are few, but apparently loud.  The government let the drama go on so long that Gaga finally cancelled her tour.  And she said for the Jakarta Post, "There is nothing holy about hatred." 

From a financial standpoint, cancelling was dumb too.  52,000 tickets need to be reimbursed and Indonesia just lost the revenue from 12,000 foreign tourists that were coming in from all over the region for the concert.  The Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy [I LOVE these ministry names!] suggested improved communication in the future saying that Indonesia will remain an interesting destination for musicians. Ummm.. okay.  So maybe for James Taylor at least.  We'll see if Elton comes back. <sigh>