Mia Farrow Ends Her Fast for Darfur
This hasn't gotten too much coverage in the blogosphere, but I just want to note her that at her doctor's request, actress Mia Farrow has just ended a 12-day fast undertaken to draw attention to the plight of Darfur.
She's right, what's happening in Darfur is so massively horrendous, and the response of the Western world so inadequate, it seems to call for some sort of large gesture. I'm only sorry people seem so very disinterested:
UNITED NATIONS, May 8 (Reuters) - Actress Mia Farrow, ailing after almost two weeks on a hunger strike, announced on Friday that British billionaire Richard Branson would take over her protest in solidarity with people in Sudan's Darfur region.
A Farrow spokesman said her health had deteriorated in the past few days and her doctor requested that she end the liquids-only fast she began 12 days ago to protest at Khartoum's expulsion of more than a dozen aid agencies from Darfur.
Farrow asked Branson to take over the fast, her statement said, adding that the British entrepreneur had accepted and would begin a three-day hunger strike on Friday.
"I'm honoured to be taking over the fast for the next three days," the founder of the Virgin Group said in a statement on his blog.
"We cannot stand and watch as 1 million people suffer. We all need to stand up and demand that international aid is restored and that the people of Darfur are protected and given the chance to live in peace."
Farrow's spokesman said last month that her doctor expected the slightly built actress could not fast for more than three weeks.
Farrow, who was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for the U.N. children's agency UNICEF in 2000, has been campaigning for years to raise funds for children in conflict zones such as Darfur, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Chad and Nigeria.
The International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in March, charging him with masterminding mass killings and deportations in Darfur in western Sudan.
Since then, Sudan has expelled 13 foreign and three domestic humanitarian aid agencies, accusing them of collaborating with the Hague-based ICC.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his latest report on the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, known as UNAMID, that the expulsions had put "over 1 million people at life-threatening risk" in Darfur.
really aware of what is going on in Darfur. Here's my rant against the media again, nuff said.
Kudos to Mia Farrow and Richard Branson.
n/t
I knew about it. I saw her on TV twice. I applaud her for trying to raise awareness, even if just I knew, all by myself, I got her message. Mission accomplished: one person at a time.
"If the US government enforced its banking laws like it did its park regulations, we wouldn't be
in this damn park in the first place." OCCUPY.!!
Odd thing was the web-ad at the bottom of article: how to get a flat stomach. nice.
From: USA
To: Africa
Sorry, no oil, no interest.
cc: South America
Africa does have oil.
The US stupidly placed an embargo on Sudan, so Sudan sells their oil to China. China does not care if Sudan systematically commits genocide.
Sometimes these embargoes do not work if the country in question has other options. Sudan had other options by selling oil to China.
Please learn about these current events before commenting on them. It is very easy to go to http://en.wikipedia.org/ and search on Sudan.
You got that one pretty fast Sitemonitors. :-)
"If the US government enforced its banking laws like it did its park regulations, we wouldn't be
in this damn park in the first place." OCCUPY.!!
As she posted the YouTube herself, you can go over and give her some love. The trolls are trashing her: "Hollywood diet" etc. Really sad.
"If the US government enforced its banking laws like it did its park regulations, we wouldn't be
in this damn park in the first place." OCCUPY.!!
the left continues to be comatose:
WASHINGTON — The top American general in Iraq said Friday that one-fifth of American combat troops would stay behind in Iraqi cities even after the June 30 deadline that the United States and Iraq had set for the departure.
The response of the left: ZZZzzzzzzz
the right are all up in arms about it?
just Dems.
Ann Coulter breaks her fast for wingnuttia. She hasn't had food for 6 months.
I don't think it's a matter of people not wanting the genocide to come to an immediate end. I think the fact that there has not been more of push on the part of concerned Americans is because it has been going on for so long, and no one is doing anything about it, and the media rarely reports on it and we are beholden to China. Also, no one countries efforts or rhetoric has been able to stop the governement's malitias.
And finally, this will sound crass and awful, but if you think about it, it may be embarrasingly true enough. We are talking about Africa. Few too people care or even think about the continent and its perpetual tragedies because they are so chronic and unrelenting. Famine breeds corruption breeds war breeds genocide breeds more of the same. It is a colonial waseteland (thank you Europe) and I wonder if it will ultimately be able to survive that legacy.
financing these regional wars. As long as it doesn't spread let them kill each other with our hardware. China is making money too.
I always wonder if the Israelis get rid of their old bombs every couple of years,bombing Lebanon in 06 or Gaza in 09. Do they recycle bombs or do you have to buy new ones?
I should ask Richard Blum.
Does that mean I'm not really a liberal?
I think what it means is that Mia Farrow doesn't have the level of celebrity anymore that it takes to make a hunger fast a useful publicity tool. And before anybody accuses me of accusing HER of just doing it for publicity - I'm not suggesting that she's doing it for personal publicity, but to bring attention to a cause that she feels strongly about. But if you can't generate media interest in what you're doing, then it may be a wonderful gesture, but a relatively meaningless one.
Now, if Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Anniston, or Madonna announced a hunger fast for Darfur, we'd probably see a ridiculous amount of media interest. Of course, on the down side, at least half of that attention would consist of people who would insist that they're just doing it for personal attention....
is that some Liberals use it or let themselves be used by it to justify more military intervention. Under Clinton there were people like Madeline Albright who wanted us to get involved in "humanitarian" wars. That was the scam used to justify our intervention in Bosnia. What it really turns out to be is one more excuse to continue cold war era war spending and intervention under the guise of humanitarianism.
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