Using Your Fame for GOOD

Sometimes I get so fed up with people who have the means to communicate with people on a massive level (like celebrities), and they don't use it for good. Sometimes celebrities DO try to take on a humanitarian cause but fail to understand what they actually stand for, and sometimes it's just to puff up their feathers. I knew Don Cheadle was working to bring light to the situation in Darfur when I read his book Not On Our Watch along with John Prendergast. I didn't know that other celebrities were in on the project, too, such as George Clooney.

You can watch an interview that Clooney did with Pierce Morgan a few weeks ago (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UceKpupu1_g). After that came out, Newsweek wrote an article about Clooney's involvement in Sudan (February 28, 2011). The article A 21st-Century Statesman, written by John Avlon, did a good job capturing Clooney's thoughts about his involvement and how fame could be used for a good cause (http://www.newsweek.com/2011/02/20/a-21st-century-statesman.html). Here are some excerpts that I thought were good:

"In January, Clooney was back in South Sudan, directing his star power toward helping its people peacefully achieve independence from the northern government of Khartoum after two decades of civil war. With five years’ involvement in Sudan, Clooney has begun to define a new role for himself: 21st-century celebrity statesman."

"It’s an ambitious avocation: Clooney has been leveraging his celebrity to get people to care about something more important than celebrity."

"L.A. was half a world away, but the paparazzi were not far from his mind. “If they’re going to follow me anyway,” he was saying, “I want them to follow me here.”

"After witnessing more than 2 million people murdered—including the first genocide of the 21st century, in Darfur—South Sudan would finally be on the path to independence."

Check out the site dedicated to Not On Our Watch at http://notonourwatchproject.org/who_we_are

"Clooney’s high-wattage visits draw unwelcome attention to the head of the north’s Islamist government in Khartoum, Omar al-Bashir, who has been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. News of the satellite spurred Khartoum to issue a press release accusing Clooney of “an ulterior motive that has nothing to do with peace.” But to the world media, a press release is no match for the spectacle of Clooney in Africa."

Now, the satellite thing is a bit weird to me. But after what al-Bashir has done, who cares what his paranoia is.

“The truth is that the spotlight of public attention is lifesaving—whether it’s a genocide, disease, or hunger,” says New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. “Stars can generate attention and then generate the political will to do something about a problem.”

He remembered how his father, Nick—a newsman from Kentucky—had been furious when international stories were bumped by celebrity gossip.

Yes, yes, we hear it all the time. I get tired of celebrity status when it has nothing to do with the very important things in life, like saving lives.

"But he quickly learned the dangers of just dropping in on a humanitarian crisis: as a way of giving back to a refugee village where he and his father stayed, he donated money to build a well, huts, and a community center. “A year later, the next-door villagers—who wanted water and needed shelter—ended up killing some of the people to get to that well and to get to that shelter,” Clooney says, his voice trailing off. “It’s devastating. Your response is … to continue to try to help, but we have to be very careful—and sometimes helping is not throwing money at a problem.”"

"Still, after Clooney launched a media blitz to mark 100 days to the referendum, English-language newspaper, magazine, and website mentions of the Sudan referendum spiked from six to 165 in one month."

It's amazing how much attention a celebrity can generate when others fail. Politicians are "boring," and I think it's a great thing that Clooney is doing.

“My job is to amplify the voice of the guy who lives here and is worried about his wife and children being slaughtered,” says Clooney, summing up the opportunity and obligation of the celebrity statesman. “He wants to shout it from the mountaintops, but he doesn’t have a very big megaphone or a very big mountain. So he’s asking anyone who has a mountain and megaphone to protect his family, his village. And if he finds me and asks, ‘You got a big megaphone?’ and I say, ‘Yes.’ ‘You got a decent-size mountain to yell it from?’ ‘Yeah, I got a pretty good-sized mountain.’ ‘Will you do me a favor and yell it?’ And I go, ‘Absolutely.’?”

Amen, brother!