George Clooney got a White House invitation last night. Clooney met with both President Obama and Vice President Biden to discuss the ongoing genocide in Darfur. The Fox News guys are probably hyperventilating right about now. Clooney just got back from a trip to the Sudan-Chad border, where there’s still on-going debate as to his security detail and whether he was traveling officially as a UN Messenger of Peace.
The White House blog has the story up, calling “Eye on Darfur”. Clooney is talking to the press about how Obama will soon appoint a special envoy to Darfur. Honestly, I thought President Bush had already appointed an envoy to Darfur, so, from my perspective, this really isn’t that newsworthy. But it is! Because it involves Clooney and President Obama! Actually, it is interesting – President Obama personally assured Clooney that Darfur would be made a bigger priority in his administration than in the previous administration. The Guardian has more:
Barack Obama to appoint senior Darfur envoy, says campaigner George Clooney. The Hollywood actor hails ‘huge policy step’ on Sudan conflict after conversations with president and Joe Biden.
The Barack administration is preparing to appoint a “full-time, high-level” envoy to address the conflict in Darfur, according to the actor George Clooney, who met the president and Joe Biden in Washington on Monday to lobby them on the issue.
Clooney said Obama and the vice-president had told him the envoy would report directly to the White House, and would be appointed following a foreign policy review currently taking place “at the senior-most levels”. “They assured me, and wanted to assure the rest – whoever else is listening – this is high on their agenda,” he said. “This is a huge policy step for us.”
Clooney has campaigned for several years for greater US activism to end the conflict between rebels and Sudanese authorities in Darfur, which may have claimed 300,000 lives and displaced 2.7 million people, according to United Nations estimates. The international criminal court is due to decide next week whether to issue an arrest warrant for the Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, on war crimes charges.
“This isn’t about needing American dollars. I understand that it’s a very difficult time,” Clooney said after his scheduled meeting with Biden and a separate, impromptu encounter with Obama. “It’s not about needing American troops. It’s about needing what we do best – what we have done best since the start of this country – which is good, robust diplomacy all across the world.”
The actor, who missed Sunday night’s Oscars ceremony for his White House appointment, is a UN messenger for peace, although this did not prevent the UN from revoking his security escort on a visit this month to eastern Chad, where he was touring refugee camps in the company of the New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. “If the UN is too craven to protect its own goodwill ambassadors – because they might criticise genocide – it’s not surprising that it and the international community fail to protect hundreds of thousands of voiceless Darfuris,” Kristof wrote.
Elizabeth Alexander, a Biden spokeswoman, said: “The vice-president informed Mr Clooney about the administration’s ongoing review of Sudanese policy and welcomed his observations from his trip, [and] thanked Mr Clooney for his work on this issue, which he believes is an important contribution to the public’s understanding of the conflict in Darfur.”
The actor brought with him to the White House 250,000 postcards signed by Americans urging more US action on Darfur. “I think somehow we should all know that these people are hanging on by the skin of their teeth,” he told CNN.
From The Guardian
I wonder if Clooney’s meeting was just supposed to be with Biden, and Obama just stopped by for a quick grip-and-grin. That’s what it sounds like to me. Even though I doubt Obama really cares about what the hyperventilating right-wing has to say about his relationship to Hollywood, he probably does want to avoid a lot of Hollywood encounters as a general rule. Plus, Clooney takes credit for everything – kind of like Joe Biden, come to think of it. Obama probably already had things covered with the roll-out of his African foreign policy, and Clooney swooped in to announce it. I adore Clooney and Biden, but I bet that meeting was like a war of blabbermouths.
These photos are of Clooney on set in early January and he has since shaved off that mustache.
I do admire what these people are doing, it is commendable and it is important to know and see the inequities, crimes and atrocities going on around the world.
There are people starving and living on the streets right here. Working people who have no money left after paying rent and utilities and they either supplement or entirely rely on donations from food banks. Young kids going to school not dressed properly for the weather and relying on breakfast programs. 4 out of 10 US highschool students don’t graduate.
The West needs to look after their own first, particularly now in this economic crisis, because if we continue to slide into our own mire, how in the world will we be in a position to help anybody else?
God, what a mess.
Here’s my issue with that Baho.
I agree, we have problems at home, but most of them are self-inflicted. Whether you wish to believe it or not, America is a country where hard work takes you far.
Sudan-Chad? Not so much.
I was watching a documentary the other day about the people of Appalachians, referred to as “The poorest of America’s poor” and watching that, it occurred to me, that our poorest poor, is middle class to so many countries in our world. Look at Mumbai, Darfur, heck, even rural China. Our concept of “poor” is their concept of well off.
Yes, there are kids who don’t graduate high school here and that’s an awful thing we need to combat, but all around the world, there are children who can barely leave their homes without fear of death/rape/serious injury. Girls can’t go to school at all, for fear of having acid thrown at them.
And you know what? The thing is, I truly feel that most of the people (not all but a good chunk) who are “poor” in America (children aside) have it so much better than in other countries. We just have to get over our sense of entitlement and try harder.
I read a book about a man who hid his college degree and decided to see if the American Dream was dead. So he took a sleeping bag and $25 and went out into the street to try to get a job. His goal by the end of one year, was to have a mode of transportation, a place to live and food. Basic necessities.
And you know what? He succeeded by the end of, I believe 10 months. And he did it because of hard work and determination. If there are people who come over and don’t even speak english who can make a living, then those of us who can, should be able to fair even better. But no, so many want the handouts or they think they should be getting paid more for doing this or that. Take what you can get and be grateful.
There is so much more suffering in the world than what we have in our own backyards. It’s tough. Yes. But unlike them, we have the luxury of prevailing through the tough times.
Kaiser – Think you’re being unfair to Clooney here, describing him as taking credit for everything. Really not the case and Nick Kristof’s Chad diaries which include on-the-spot vids from Clooney compound this view where he is, by turn, reflective, depressed, apalled, hopeful, all the things we’d all feel confronted with the dire lack of meaningful activity in Darfur. Watch the Larry King interview and you’ll see a measured Clooney, not even vaguely triumphant, just bringing back the latest and passing on his findings to those in a position to do something about it. And I think he’s entitled to express pleasure/gratitude that a positive step – a small one in the scheme of things – has been taken.
Anyone who takes the time and trouble to refocus international attention back to where it’s needed deserves credit.
Geronimo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2PHw2s-qAg
I see your point Annie, I really do and I agree with some of your points. I guess what I mean it in the broader sense is that it’s difficult, even hypocritical to a degree, to provide the moral compass with a bent needle, you know?
The basic allowance, or ‘hand-out’ if you will, for welfare in Toronto is $572.00 a month for a single person. For that, you can get a seedy room in a rooming house for $400 and the remainder is for your food, clothing, transportation, toiletries and any other basic needs. It’s hard to get a leg up. The person you refer to I guess did all this outside of the system.
The current social service program just catalogues the poor and yet they can’t, or won’t, tell us why 90,000 children in that system have died to date. I guess they ‘fell through the cracks.’
Also, by having a college degree, the gentleman in the example you cited aleady had a key advantage and that was the fundamental tool of literacy and the privilege of higher education.
It’s one thing to attack the problem as a social-studies experiment but it’s quite another to live day-to-day in that world. At the end of the day, the system (if you’re in it on a welfare program) crushes and demeans you and the people ‘outside’ judge at best, at worst the disenfranchised is ignored.
A couple of years I read that that average Canadian household is two paycheques away from being homeless. This is entirely due to our over-reliance on credit but when you consider that you could be literally on the street within a two week period, that is sobering.
We’ve lived in an illusion of prosperity and we’re poised on the brink of it all crashing down and poverty is no illusion, no matter where it is.
Baho there is a huge difference between not having a place to sleep and seeing your loved ones murdered by machete in front of you – or being murdered yourself. I agree that there is plenty to be concerned about in North America but the situation in Sudan is genocide, rape, murder, maiming. It needs to stop now, it should have been stopped years ago, and we should not ignore it with the very lame excuse that we have our own problems. These are two different issues.
Touche, CB!
@CB Agreed.
The way he did it was this:
He actually ended up living in a homeless shelter for 2 1/2 months and no one would hire him because he listed his place of residence as the shelter.
One day, he found a place and he went every day asking for work. Asking. Asking. Asking. Day in and day out. And every day, he was refused.
After about a month of asking, he came to the owner and proposed to him this:
You let me work for you for 2 weeks, FREE. And if by the end of 2 weeks, you think I’m an awful worker, don’t hire me and I’ll never bug you again. But if you like my work ethic, hire me and pay me what you would pay anyone else.
The owner agreed and within I think 7 months? He had already gotten a raise.
Now yes, you are correct that he was literate. But you know, the literacy rates in our country are remarkable compared to everywhere else. And unlike everywhere else, we’re not worried about getting raped in an attempt to collect firewood.
I mean, the issue that often arises is that Americans don’t want to work for free, there has to be a forsure payout. Some kind of assurance. Yes, there are unpaid internships, but they’re in fields like Law and Fashion, not “waste management” and sewer control.
My parents came over incapable of speaking the english language and attempting to escape a very war torn country. 20+ years later, through hard work and perseverance, they have 2 daughters who have graduated from Universities and another well on her way to an Ivy League. My friends, similar stories. And you can find similar stories all over this great nation.
We have the opportunities. The people in Darfur don’t. Their own government is conspiring against them.
Our average annual income is what? $35,000? The average annual income in Africa is less than $300 a year. That’s less than what the Canadian government is handing out each MONTH.
Oh. And only 50% of people in Africa are literate, compared to the U.S.’s 99%.
They’re more concerned with potable water, than reading a book.
Agree, CB.
Geronimo – I know, I know. I really like Clooney, and I respect the work he’s doing and that he puts his time and energy where his mouth is. But it bothered me that Clooney announced the Envoy appointment – it makes it look like Obama is taking orders from an actor. Which I know isn’t the case, but I can anticipate what the far-right will say.
Hi CB,
I think what I’ve said has been cherry picked to a degree here.
In a nutshell: how is it possible to overcome and save people from generations of tribalism and post-colonial dictatorhips and anarchy when we let people die, be murdered and yes, set on fire, in our own cities? When we don’t give a hoot about what’s going on in our own neighbourhoods. What moral imperative can we bring when we’ve a tremendous, and largely unseen, underclass in our own nations?
These so-called governments of Africa are sitting around laughing. No help is likely coming for these people.
These African so-called nations can’t control the West and their primary income of Western aid without these government-made crises. These crises maintain the balance of power in world government overall. Sickening, isn’t it.
Aside from airlifting all these people and moving them to the Northwest Territories, they are doomed. The problem is so huge it’s hard to get one’s head around sometimes. We all know it and so it is so painful a topic for so many. I know it is for me. I’m just trying to do what I can at home, and it does help. It helps because the people at the giving and receiving end stop feeling so helpless.
Jesus said “I am my brother’s keeper.” That goes for everybody, and that’s all I meant. And if the ‘Jesus’ thing doesn’t float one’s boat, ‘each one to reach one’ works too.
CB, you and some of the readers on this site know how I feel about Africa. Home is important too, that’s all I mean. They + We = humanity.
Well, in Walkerton ON we had a potable water disaster. A lot of people died. Many native reserves still have serious problems with potable water (at least it’s reassuring that with our N. American literacy rates, people can read about how bad off they are).
No mention of ‘functional’ literacy I see though which is incorporated into the 99%. The ‘funcional’ literates are those folks who can barely manage the T.V. and can’t fill out a job application. Knowing how to read and write one’s name and address, and read the alphabet, doesn’t constitute full literacy. Statistics are deceiving – you can manipulate a statistic to support whatever argument one is putting forward.
*edit: TV Guide*
Why does George believe it is America’s job to solve the problem in Darfur? Isn’t this one of the reasons the UN was created? Why doesn’t he ask them and Africa to solve the African problem? I don’t want anymore tax money spent or our troops sent in to solve an African problem. Africa is a continent and should use their own resources to fix their problem.
WOW!!! I just know Washington can’t live without Cloonys’ brain power. He is so busy and important….another legend in his own mind.
Folks: I owe an apology with respect to getting off topic. For anybody that cares to know why, here it is:
I’ve known quite a few people “in trouble” at the subsistence level. One being was my partner who is a First Nations person (Native American to non-Canadians). I won’t get into that whole historical debacle but I see the parallel of government oppression and genocide RESULTING in poverty and disenfranchisement.
I was seeing a commonality that not a lot of people get to see and it coloured my perspective.
I’ll do my best to stick to topic in the future, because I know I can get carried away – and just because “I” know where “I” at, or going, doesn’t mean everybody else does too.
I’ll likely ‘boob’ again. But it’s very important for me to let you know that because I have some strong (or “out there”) ideas or opinions, doesn’t mean I don’t have a heart.
I think the things I hate most are being misunderstood and hard feelings. Know that I never deliberately try to illicit either.
Take care everybody.
*oops! “illicit” – I meant ‘incite’…LOL, where the heck did “illicit” come from?
/pat Baho.
Oh hunny, no one’s upset. It’s just that we all have differing opinions on numerous subject matters. And people are bound to butt heads.
And my statistical reference was actually just for the United States. Not Canada, which is I think where you’re getting your viewpoint from.
Thanks Annie, you’re my virtual “cuppa tea” right now. I appreciate it.
Hugs.
p.s. It occurred to me what I meant and totally f*cked up communication-wise is: “act locally, think globally.”
I can hasz do-ovr??
Rofl. Yes, you can has do-over. 😀
For those who thought the envoy should’ve been announced by Obama..nobody would have even covered it (these assignments are made all the time, do you know of any?) I applaud Clooney for bringing the press to the topic. Most ‘stars’ just go to parties, in borrowed diamonds to ‘promote a cause’ and get theirs pictures on tv. Of course, Obama owes Clooney, who raised tons of money for his campaign in Europe.
I think it is important for America to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. Obama is supporting an Urban Agenda in the U.S., education and infrastructure programs, all helping to improve our conditions at home.
But we can’t neglect the rest of the world, nor should we. Real efforts are required, I think people need to help one another improve the human condition. Celebrities bring attention, money, and sometimes their brains to a cause, the government appoints an envoy, citizens discuss and debate the issues online or with friends and family–all of it is needed and has its place.
@Baho – I didn’t find your posts in the least heartless. Africa is overwhelming. Much better to focus locally and achieve something than end up hopelessly bogged down in a big black cloud of weltschmertz. Much more profitable way to expend energy.
But, on the West needing to look after its own first, disagree: The West, particularly with its ruthless oil agendas, has made Africa its own and you can’t separate the atrocities happening there from the oil interests. It’s a hopeless situation, agree with you on that, and the real tragedy is that, regardless of how much genuine (not business-led) humanitarian effort goes into trying to find a way forward, big business interests in Africa will always take precedence over African lives. Completely overwhelming.
@Des – thanks for link, he comes across very well here.
@Kaiser – possibly looking at it from a UK perspective, the US right-wing begrudger backlash didn’t/doesn’t occur to me. In that case, your take here kind of plays into the cynics’ hands, no?! I understand your point but where we disagree is our perceptions of how Clooney came across.
Thanks G-Mo.
🙂