Singapore authorities investigating Massive Attack

[CruCru]

There’s a thing on the BBC which says that Massive Attack held up the Palestinian flag and shouted “Free Palestine” at their concert. Supposedly Singapore are now investigating as they have some fairly strict rules on demonstrations and displaying another country’s flag.

I’m in a couple of minds about this. I think that Massive Attack have always been fairly political so perhaps this is to be expected. However the other part of me wonders why they were not told that this is a big deal in Singapore beforehand (they are due to perform in Seoul tomorrow - it’s not obvious whether they have been detained). The people who live in Singapore wouldn’t be able to do this stuff but there’s a good chance that this band will pay a fine and then leave the country.

Not so obvious to the many people who think it was funny/deserved/fake.

As for MA in Singapore, well Palestine isn’t a country (it doesn’t meet all the criteria for the definition of a country currently) so their defence would presumably be that they didn’t display the flag of another country.

Oh gosh - they were “surprised and disappointed”? They “did not imagine” that holding up another country’s flag “would violate any law”? This statement makes their management look very poor. Silly sods.

Take your argument to the UN 🤷‍♀️

To be fair, parts of the UK are awash flags of other countries so I can understand why Brits abroad wouldn't see this as an issue. Ditto flying of the UK flag across establishments in hot-spot tourism destinations for Brits like Spain, Portugal etc.

It's not backfired has it, that'sexactly what they wanted. Virtue signal and get free publicity.

Indeed but that's not a fashionable cause is it.

No, they didn't. That wasn't Kneecap. Jeez it's like talking to my nan, she takes multiple different stories smushes them together and comes up with her own outraged take. If it's so well documented type did Kneecap chant 'Death to the IDF' into google and come back with the 'well documented' story of BBC getting into trouble for airing it.

I can understand ordinary people not realising that showing another country’s flag would be a big deal. But this sort of thing is what a band’s manager is for.

I think that if an artist signs up to perform in a particular country, they need to keep on the right side of the laws of that country - even if they wouldn’t apply in the UK. No one in Thailand may criticise the Thai Royal family, no one in Singapore may wave flags of another country without permission, no one in Barbados may wear camouflage clothing, no one in North Korea … yeah, just don’t go to North Korea.

This thread was not intended to be about Palestine / Israel, more about artists who are happy to take money from people in a given country but then not to keep to their laws. I hope that the people who chanted “Free Palestine” along with the band didn’t get into trouble but there is a chance that some of them did.