JUBA, SUDAN—How do you get a long-suffering but little-known slice of Africa on the White House agenda and onto worldwide TV screens? George Clooney knows how.
Humble, self-effacing and dressed for safari, the Hollywood star and former Sexiest Man Alive has been a whirlwind in the scruffy, straw-hut capital of Southern Sudan as its weeklong independence referendum gets off the ground.
Clooney, who has been active in Sudanese issues for the last five years, is working to help the region avoid a backslide toward war.
In picking a cause and roughing it in a developing country, Clooney is hardly alone. Celebrities are shining their star power on the poor, the war-weary and the disaster-prone more than ever.
“Our job is trying to keep this on the front burner of the news,” Clooney said. “I’m the son of newsman. I understand how hard it is to keep stories on the front of news, and sometimes entertainment and news can be meshed together if you do it properly.”
Clooney has had two meetings with President Barack Obama on Sudan and has persuaded reporters from outlets like NBC, CNN and Newsweek to focus on the country. He says he doesn’t know how much his efforts help, but that every bit counts.
“It’s important as any other individual in the country or in the world to engage in life and in the world,” he continued. “You know, a celebrity is absolutely no different. I wasn’t a celebrity my whole life. I was an individual citizen for most of it, an unemployed citizen for a lot of it. . . . I don’t forfeit that just because I’ve happened to get lucky in my career.”
Whether it’s Sean Penn in Haiti, Ben Affleck in Congo, or Angelina Jolie’s work in more than a dozen countries, stars are bringing attention to those in need. Bono, U2’s lead singer, has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his aid work in Africa.
Clooney and Sudan activist John Prendergast helped launched the Satellite Sentinel Project, which will track troop movements in real time in Abyei, a north-south border region where the biggest threat of a return to conflict exists.
At least 36 people have died in clashes between Arab nomads and southerners near the border, leaders in the contested Abyei region said Monday. Southern Sudan’s military spokesman said 20 policemen were killed and 30 more wounded in two attacks by Arab tribesmen and militia.
Clooney and Prendergast wrote that they want to cast a spotlight on the hot spots on the border to help prevent Darfur-like atrocities.
The project is a collaboration among Not on Our Watch (a human rights organization), the Enough Project (an anti-genocide group), the United Nations, Harvard University, Google and Trellon, a company that builds websites. On the project’s site anyone will be able to see high-resolution images of the 2,000-kilometre border. If violence breaks out, the site’s backers hope its photographic evidence will put pressure on the UN Security Council or other countries to intervene.
Not on Our Watch, which Clooney founded with actors Don Cheadle, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon plus producer Jerry Weintraub and former Clinton State Department official David Pressman, provided the project’s $650,000 in startup funds.
“We have the ability to create deterrence,” said Clooney, now on his seventh trip to Sudan and its bordering nation of Chad. “You might not want to put tanks, helicopters or planes on the ground or in these border regions, ’cause we’re watching.”
“We are the anti-genocide paparazzi,” Clooney told Time magazine in another attention-grabbing interview.
Clooney’s meetings with Obama were a way for the actor to get Sudan on the front pages and for the White House — which has been deeply engaged on the independence referendum — to show it is active on the issue. And the 49-year-old actor hinted that he’ll be back to Sudan.
He said there are two tricks to bringing attention to a cause. The first is to pick one.
“And the second thing is to create a constant drumbeat, to keep doing it,” Clooney said. “You can’t just dip your toe in it and get out, you have to constantly come back and do it.
“Bono sort of led the way in terms of really being informed on the specific issue. Brad and Angie do it well, Matt Damon, I have a lot of friends who do it pretty well and really get involved. I see Ben Affleck doing it in the Congo now more and more. I find that people who pick a cause and stick to it, get to know something about it.”
Be the first to comment