K'naan disappoints at World Peace Day 2010

My fingers are frozen from the cold air. I'm dressed up in (pretty spiffy if I say so myself) dancing clothes, ticket clutched in my fist.I am, like over three hundred of my fellow students at SFU, attending a charity concert for World Peace Day 2010, eagerly awaiting a performance by Somali-Canadian rapper K'naan.No other rapper has made a name for themselves in quite the way K'naan has. He's endorsed countless causes: blood diamonds in Sierra Leone, the disaster after the Haitian earthquake and many more. One would expect World Peace Day to be right up his alley.But after three hours, the event's co-ordinator took to the stage with a message."You can boo me for this. I deserve it...K'naan's not coming."He continued to say that the campus organization iVOW (I Vision One World) had raised just over $90,000 for this event. Of those funds, after security, set-up and various other expenses had been paid, $40,000 was to go to K'naan for performing. However, the organization came up $5,000 short, and K'naan pulled out of the deal at the next to last minute. 
On World Peace Day at Simon Fraser University, K'naan showed himself to be more concerned about the money than the message, more worried about getting paid than getting heard. Maybe he's been heard enough already, with his hit single "Waving Flag" going triple platinum in the Canadian Recording Industry Association's charts. The first page of youtube results for "K'naan - Waving Flag" total over 86 million views. A remix of it was Coca-Cola's theme for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
But once again, it comes down to the money. iVOW, a charitable organization, was $5,000 short of their target. Amid the celebrations and the other bands and musicians (a truly staggering lineup) who donated their time and energy to the concert so that iVOW could meet costs and celebrate a dream of world peace, K'naan failed to even show.
This Saturday, K'naan has a concert at the Malkin Bowl in Vancouver. Gates open at 5:30 PM. I'll be there, dressed in warm, comfortable clothes. And it won't be a ticket I'll be clutching in my fists. It'll be a protest sign.