As the Syrian refugee crisis continues to overwhelm Europe and the world, various agencies and organizations are trying to raise money to help the plight of the millions of people fleeing war, violence and atrocities. Save the Children has launched a “Help Is Coming” initiative, reissuing the Crowded House song “Help Is Coming,” with proceeds going to Save the Children. With the reissued song, journalist Caitlyn Moran and her husband Pete Paphides are promoting a video featuring real refugees fleeing the conditions in the Middle East. Benedict Cumberbatch fronts the campaign, and appears at the beginning of the video:
The poem Benedict recites is “Home” by Warsan Shire, a Kenyan-born poet who came to the UK as a child.
This is so sad. I mean, this is a gossip blog so I don’t want to get into geopolitical bulls—t and who should be doing what and how the American response to this (on both sides of the political spectrum) is utter horsesh-t, but I’m glad that somewhere, some people are trying to do something and help in some way.
After last night’s performance of Hamlet at the Barbican, Benedict did his curtain call and while the audience was still applauding his performance, he made a speech about the European response to the refugee crisis. Some people said the speech was supportive towards the government, some say that Benedict “condemned our government’s slow response.” He also urged people to donate to Save the Children at the door. Here are some photos of Benedict leaving the theater last night:
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Yeah the countries responses have been awful.
Not just BC and Moran tho like Knightley, Michael Caine, there’s a bunch of ppl involved, it’s good to see.
I’m not always a fan of Mr. Cumberbatch, but good on him. The whole situation is sad and terrifying and I’m glad to see so many people taking the initiative.
Zero snark on this. Well done Ben, good to hear. The refugee crisis is horrendous and I am glad people are trying to do something, somewhere…
On a separate note, being in the middle of a campaign here in Canada (my American friends would say “huh, what campaign”.. we are so low key), last night I got a call from the Conservatives asking for my support. I tried to behave like an adult and not snort in disdain as I told the caller “absolutely not, I ‘m a liberal”… My son clapped appreciatively, saying “wow mom, can’t believe how nice you were on the phone” _he knows how I really feel about Harper and his ilk). So there, I was mature and nice for the week:-)
ha ha well done. I would have given them a piece of my mind. Bloody Harper, destroyer of all good things Canadian.
I’ll be nice an mature, and not go on a rant about Trudeau 🙂 Not a Harper fan, but Trudeau would destroy our country… I need someone from the Rhinoceros party in my riding… what to do when none of the candidates are good for your country?
Trudeau won’t drive us further into a recession or be a snake like Mulcair. Trudeau is the best of the 3 IMO. I can’t vote yet (still a PR) thanks to Harper making me wait another year to apply for dual citizenship. I’ll be voting for Hillary or Sanders in states though!
Agreed. My family hated Pierre Trudeau with a passion. He was mean to the west.
In our household we have been liberal for years (although with a slight touch of financial conservatism…)
It is tough – I don’t mind Justin but I think he lacks the experience and charisma to pull it off, so the real question is do we think that his team is going to be changing the policies we have all (generally ) hated?? You know that an inexperienced leader will rely on his team more heavily.
Mind you, where I live it does not really matter, the Conservatives have been winning for so long it’s ridiculous. Hence, I think, the phone call… Hubby has been listening to the pro-Mulcair stuff and now thinks there is a chance he may switch his vote… essentially at this point I will vote anything that gets Harper out. That sounds sad, doesn’t it?
I went to the campaign stadium when Pierre got into power -boy I had a crush on him.Canada came out of the recession far better than we did-i watched the Canadian dollar and it held steady at the time unlike the UK who deregulated the bank and give them control of interest rates.
No snark, good for him.
As horrible as it all is I want to put forward some optimism: This is not the first mass refugee crisis in our history. We have done this before, we can do it again.
The US already has thousands upon thousands of Central American refugees (many unaccompanied minors) who we just lock up in gross refugee camps, while our “Christian” nation ignores them or screams to send them back across the border. We should do more for the Syrians, I’m not disagreeing, but we need to address the issues at our own border, too.
How can we be so blind to suffering? Is everything so overwhelming that we’re paralyzed by the enormity of it?
Oh, girl. You brought up the US and it just brings out the worst in me.
Should we start with the fact that the US is directly responsible for these refugees because it destabilized Middle East and Africa? And refuses to take any responsibility – for illegal war in iran and illegal meddling everywhere else.
US foreign policy is criminal, no two way about it. But there is nobody to stand up to the most powerful country on Earth. And I am an American. My only excuse is that I became an American during the Clinton times and I had no idea the country was going to turn out like this.
I was against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because I am a fan of history and I knew this region is a Pandora box. But Bush administration was all set on those wars and anybody who spoke against was ostracized as a traitor.
Yeah, have to agree with @EN, it’s cause-effect, and it’s been going for so long. The Iraq and Afeghan war only made it worst…
There are a lot of people to blame here. You could go back to the colonial powers of Europe carving up the Middle East and Africa creating this whole mess a century ago. None of these countries would even exist without that mess.
Then there’s Saudi Arabia spreading their version of Islam across the middle east, which is a take no prisoners version like Game of Thrones, which ISIS promotes.
People are fleeing a civil war in Syria between two evils, a cruel dictator with a horrible human rights record and Wahhabi Islam from Isis, who want to implement Sharia law all across the middle east and ultimately the world.
So who would you like to see win in Syria? Assad or Isis, because that’s what we have there.
Amen to that. The best way to help these people is to end the wars that are causing all this. And that seems to be inconvenient for some countries, some of EU countries included. EU cannot handle this alone and the fact that some of these refugees are violent is not helping.
> There are a lot of people to blame here.
The region was stable until the misguided attempt to “bring democracy” there. The US is to blame for the current crisis/
If you call a Russian-baked dictatorship ‘stability’, then, yes, by all means. Also: the US did not start the Arab Spring. That would be condescending to maintain.
Ironic that Germany who refused to go along with the War(s) is the country who take over the most refugees, this small country…..well i think too the people who joined the U.S Army, like as example the UK should take responsibility for her own actions and the impact, and open their countrys for more/any refugees.
But they won’t…
@Iskra, this is exactly the problem, but it is Germany who has to handle the impact of the actions of others, this is pathetic.
> If you call a Russian-baked dictatorship ‘stability’, then, yes, by all means. Also: the US did not start the Arab Spring.
Yes, I call it stability. Syria and Libya were OK countries, I know people who worked there. They were secular dictatorships, which is still better than tribal anarchy we are seeing now.
You obviously disagree but when it comes to foreign affairs the US is no better than Russia. It ruthlessly pursues its self-interest without taking any responsibility for the consequences.
What did American leadership think was going to happen when they started arming Islamic fanatics?
They did it in Afghanistan in the 80s – didn’t learn a thing. And keep doing it over and over.
As for Arab spring – do you seriously believe that US wasn’t involved in financing it and trying to steer it?
EN – the stability that Syria and Libya had was based on a terrible dictatorship. As someone who has lived in such a dictatorship, I can tell you that it is not a picnic. Being a rich expat living in a secure compound is nothing like being a local at the mercy of the petty, small minded, arrogant police officer/small court magistrate/security office / insert any official title you want here… anything from rape to theft to outright murder goes and you have zero recourse.
Do I agree with how things went down? Goodness, no! Being non-American, we could tell when it started that it was going to be a clusterf**k. I actually remember thinking that a Hollywood version of the intervention would have been better – you know, send the elite troops to wipe out the leader and a few cronies, supervise elections and then get the hell out of Dodge. Instead they keep pouring bodies on one side and weapons on the other in a powder keg. And yes, I agree with you, US financing and weapons is what keeps this going although at this point I think the financing is shared between a variety of countries, the US alone could never sustain this level of military and covert expenditure.
I don’t work with stuff I don’t know. I find it condescending that you think that American involvement brought people on the streets. I loath dictatorships because, without fail, or maybe with the Polish and Czech exceptions, their demise happens in a sea of violence, corruption and anarchy. And it’s not fair to compare the evil of civil war and forced displacement with the evil of a paternalistic regime with secret police, secret executions and imprisonment. Yay, stability! Finally, I’m not going to address, well not too much, the comparison between the States and Russia. At least here you don’t get shot on a bridge for disagreeing with batyushka Putin.
@VelvetPaw – I agree, and I think world and EU need to bow down to German and Turkey and Lebanon for taking care for large amount of these people. I agree that EU should do everything to help them but is is unrealistic to expect few countries will be able to do this by themselves. EU demographics have already been changed by refugees, you have places (like Sweden) where there is more than 50% of foreigners who simply refuse to be integrated in society and obey the law. I know that scenes that people see on TV and in the media are horrible but believe me, that is only one side of the story. My friend volunteers for Red Cross and has been everywhere – from Macedonia to Hungary and the real story is a bit different than it is represented in the media. Some of these people are armed, were shooting at the police, demolishing shops and cars in the center of Skopje, got in fight with the locals though they weren’t attacked. Europe is afraid and with good reason. I live in Croatia – despite the fact that we are struggling economically, have high rate of inemployment and are generally fu..ed up financially, are ready to take some 2000 of them. But shelter is only thing we can offer them. Who will feed them? Where will they work? How will their children go to school? How will they be integrated in our society? For how long? Religion is not the problem, at least not in here. Though we are majority Catholics, we have experience living with Islam community and have a lot of mosques where they can attend their ceremonies. But what with everything else? Where are Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAEmirates? They have taken none of it. And they are culturally and financially in lot better position than any EU country to help them. What is with USA? why dont they take some of them on their territory? EU is afraid, and with reason, of cultural and identical disintegration and instability. We cannot cope with this alone. We need better plan and more help in creating programs to deal with this. We can only wait for the war to end but I guess as long as some countries have their interests in Syria and Middle East, that will not happen.
Wow…these comments. Thank you, all. Your contributions are so enlightening. Our conservative governments have recently taken the hardest line with those seeking asylum here, particularly the “boat people”, despite international treaties/agreements we have signed up to. I could go on and on… Refugees who do make it here, invariably end up in on- and off-shore detention centres, to be “looked after” by private contractors, and where they languish for years in often appalling conditions. Apparently, it takes THAT long to “process” them… Recently, our government banned anyone – ANYONE – from taking cameras or any other form of recording equipment into these detention centres, and no one NO ONE – is permitted to speak about what they see or hear in any of the centres, which has obviously made many people highly suspicious and extremely worried about just what goes on in these centres. Even the employees are issued with old-style Nokia (!) mobile phones with no camera or Internet access, to prevent them from recording or being recorded, and have information leaked to the outside world. It’s absolutely appalling.
Our intake of immigrants was also reduced a while back, and in the face of this latest crisis, our PM emphatically stated time and again that our priority was “to stop the boats, and we have done that and will continue to do that”, without actually addressing the issue at hand. It was only under severe pressure (election due in 2016), being vociferously called out and publicly shamed, that he agreed to allow 10-12,000 Syrian refugees asylum here. I’m not sure of the finer details as yet, but I have written to Miste Rabbit, our PM. Tony) offering accommodation to a family or two, telling him I am prepared to house them in my own large, family home. I’m certain a home environment would be far better than a prison-like abode, and saves the government money. As a teacher, I can offer practical support for education, even as far as taking part in ESL programmes with them, if necessary. I’m yet to hear from any government official, though, but I’ll wait…
Good on Mr Cumberbatch, and good on you, Mia4S: “We have done this before, we can do it again.”
We can all do our part, even if it’s to simply shut up and let others get on with what needs to be done.
@s
oh come on. You really think Putin couldn’t take care of it quietly if he wanted to? You really think that Nemtsov is the only one to disagree with Putin? Do you really think American presidents never “take care” of people who disagree with them and might be dangerous?
I lived in a dictatorship as well, and while I did not like it on many levels, I will take a peaceful dictatorship over bombs and ISIS any day, if nothing else because peace allows me to plan my escape in an orderly and well-thought out fashion, whereas war doesn’t. It’s silly to claim that Assad was as bad as what’s going on now. I have a friend who’s a Syrian refugee, she was not part of the elite, her husband ran a small business (pharmacy) in Aleppo. They had a comfortable life, a nice house, she claims Assad was good for the middle class. Sure, human rights are important, but are there no better ways to fight for freedom of speech than this?
Thankfully, my friends are already in Sweden and not on the streets of Hungary or the waters of Turkey, but some extended family of theirs is still trying their luck, and a few are still in Syria.
It’s silly to claim that I claim Assad is as bad as what’s going on. A closer reading on your part will improve communication. As to American presidents “taking care” of dissidents – talk specifics, not slogans.
Adding: Really? Do some people want to present themselves as Assad (or insert dictator) apologists? Sheesh. Oh, things were not that bad, human rights were violated, like, hourly, but we had a nice house and things were stable. Dictatorships have at their core co-option.
> Finally, I’m not going to address, well not too much, the comparison between the States and Russia
Please, note I specifically said “foreign policy”. Whataboutism is not a valid argument when we are talking about wars and millions of lives at stake. Russia doing something bad is not an excuse for the US illegal wars.
On the involvement in the Arab spring, I will point out that the US seemed to be very involved in Egyptian revolution and behaved like it had a say in how it should proceed . This points out to the heavy US involvement behind the scenes. The revolution was eventually hijacked by Islamic fundamentalists yet again.
Here presidents are prone to lose reelection or their presidency based on foreign policy wrongs. Do not compare the US and Russia in that respect. In Russia leaders tend to keel over of old age and vodka, unquestioned and with honors, after they have sent tens of thousands to die in some mountains in Georgia or Afghanistan. I wasn’t excusing my country for any wars. I was questioning your parity between the two.
And what’s with all the “seems”, “point out” and “behaves like”? Is that hard evidence? Again, you’re dissolving the agency of the people in the Arab countries.
Sorry, but the dictator in Syria is responsible for the Syrian refugee issues. When the Arab spring happened in other countries, he could have used that as an opportunity to make changes in his own. Instead he took a hard-line against reforms. He had an easy out and he could have stayed in power, just as the military did in Egypt (give a little, but really change nothing). But at every turn he used violence, which ended in civil war. And he’s still doubling down on the violence.
The void in Iraq is directly caused by the naive Bush administration (or cynical, take your pick). They removed a horrible dictator and put nothing in the void, except their cronies with their no-bid contracts. Those people got rich(er) and did nothing except kill/rape/detain/brutalize the population, all with the tacit approval of less than a majority of the country (or whatever margin Bush ‘won’ by). That void has been filled by ISIS, Iran and Iraqi forces.
This is why I like Cumberbatch – he is not just a good actor/ celebrity, he is actually a decent human being who cares about other people and does something about it.
If you look at the likes of Redmayne and Hiddleston, for example, sure they are nice chaps but given their privileged unbringing and celebrity status I feel like they could do more than just being good actors and pretty to look at.
Both Redmayne (Teenage Cancer Trust) and Hiddleston (Unicef) are involved in charities as well, so they do more that just be pretty.
You don’t have to tear down others just to build up Cumberbatch, especially when it’s not accurate.
> You don’t have to tear down others just to build up Cumberbatch, especially when it’s not accurate.
Ah, yes, I debated saying it because I knew it would be taken this way. This is just what the appearance is to an outsider. I am not trying to build up Cumberbatch, I am pretty sure I’d do more harm than good even if I tried. I am just explaining why I like him over some other actors.
I don’t know about Redmayne, but Tom Hiddleston is big into charity and caring about others. I’m not sure why you picked these two actors to use as examples. Because they went to Eton? That’s not fair. Hiddleston is a really stand up, kind-hearted guy.
I know, I could’ve brought up Ben Affleck , for example. Uggh.
it is just because Hiddleston and Redmaynbe are almost there, they come across as caring, but not quite there. Again, as other people pointed I don’t know everything any of these actors are involved in, so I might be wrong.
Why on earth would you bring up other actors’ charity work as insufficient compared to Cumberbatch? Because they don’t do it on camera? Because they didn’t do a feature-length Ice Bucket Challenge? Advertising your charity doesn’t make you ‘better’.
> Why on earth would you bring up other actors’ charity work as insufficient compared to Cumberbatch
Hmm. Because I want them to do more?
@EN
“Hmm. Because I want them to do more?”
How old are you, 12?
You don’t have to WANT anything from complete strangers, you don’t know nothing about who is doing more or less, child.
People do charity without advertising it, get it at least.
> You don’t have to WANT anything from complete strangers, you don’t know nothing about who is doing more or less, child.
Why is it wrong to want celebrities ( ok , I can say – I would like) to do more charity work and make it more visible? I honestly don’t get the outrage.
EN… why compare Ben’s charity work then to two guys you admit you don’t follow as closely? As others have mentioned, both Eddie and Tom are actually involved in charity efforts and a quick search could prove that. Throwing their names out and claiming you like Ben better because he does “more”, but then admitting you don’t really know what the others do.. well that is not a very fair comparison is it?
I do praise Ben for doing this – but I think that has nothing to do with the efforts of other celebrities, who do happen to also be strong advocates.
“> Why on earth would you bring up other actors’ charity work as insufficient compared to Cumberbatch
Hmm. Because I want them to do more? ”
Yet you admit that you don’t know what they do. As I have said below, one of those you claim does little, has been trying to bring attention to the plight of Syrian children for the past year, not just suddenly this week. Could it be that you don’t know this, not because he isn’t being public about it, but because you don’t follow him?
no body really knows who is doing the most charity-Tom and Benedict quite often join poetry in readings etc when time permits but so do many other actors- and sometimes it is linked to PR activities-and lets not forget all the non celebrities who put in hours of charity work without all the publicity and public praise
Good job, Cumberbatch for using his available platform for this. However, One of those you call out was tweeting about the plight of children in Syria a year ago. While it is good for celebrities to go public and encourage fan contributions, we have no idea what some may be doing through charitable organizations, through private donations, or through putting pressure on their elected officials so, unless someone does something outrageously bad in public, I refrain from saying they should do more
@EN, I really appreciate your well versed post and agree with all of it wholeheartedly. You seem a compassionate and caring person.
May PEACE be restored all over the world; that is my prayer.
Politics aside (and believe me, I’ve got an opinion – haven’t I always!) these are the cold, hard facts.
The UN estimates the humanitarian need for Syrian refugees – displaced inside the country itself, within the region, and those who have gone to Europe, is in excess of £9bn for 2015 alone. The international community of governments all together have only managed to contribute £3bn to the UN and NGO programmes.
Therefore, there is a massive need for charitable efforts.
This particular fund is targeted at child refugees, wherever along the route from Syria > region > Europe they are found, so it’s something I think everyone can be happy giving to, wherever they stand on the politics of it all. It’s children, after all, whose fault it simply cannot be.
I already contributed via the YA publishing community effort set up by Patrick Ness, since that’s my professional area. I can’t see at as anything other than a good thing that prominent people/popular people/leaders of/in different areas of society spearhead their own fans, followers and colleagues into the same charitable effort.
Hey Sixer, what do you think of Corbyn?
Wow that was a hell of a thing to watch, on today of all days too. So I’m sobbing. Thanks for the info
Thank you so much for posting this. If anyone could possible see the pictures of that little boy on the beach and be unmoved, I question their humanity. (Sadly, my mother is one, delusionally believing this is an ISIS plot to infiltrate other nations.)
We sponsor two children through Save the Children and I gave an extra donation to their efforts with Syrian refugees. The organization is very well respected, gets high marks on Charity Watch, and provides immediate help. We can disagree about the best strategy for Syria, but while we are disagreeing, hoards of people are suffering right now.