celebrity defeating apathy

for the last few days the media has been immensely concerned with the influence of celebrities, particularly as it relates to the political process. will Oprah really get more votes for Obama? should Oprah get more votes for Obama?

in the midst of that melee comes this interview by USA Today with George Clooney, who's interested in politics from a different angle. Clooney isn't campaigning for a specific candidate, but is instead focusing his celebrity on a cause. the interview, found here, has some interesting thoughts and quotes, including...

"People can march and pat each other on the back, and concerts will happen, and the simple truth is there's still the exact same issues going on."

"It certainly reminds you to be ridiculously happy with your life. Once you see people suffering in the way these people are suffering, you feel very guilty about not suffering at all."

if you haven't been watching the news recently, several other celebrities have been brining a lot of attention to justice related issues including...
-Brad Pitt in New Orleans with an innovative and caring project
-Don Cheadle, also championing Darfur, recently authored a book
-Al Gore, who recently picked up his Nobel Peace Prize and had some worthwhile things to say
-Natalie Portman, who just released a mix CD with the proceeds going to FINCA, a charity that supports developing world entrepreneurs

Sudan

Thanks to the relentess promotion of a handful of tireless workers (like those who put together Invisible Children, or Don Cheadle and his new book on the topic), Sudan is starting to be a topic that more people are aware of.

On a side note, one of the reasons why I don't think Sudan got a lot of press early on was because most of us have no idea where it is. We assume it's just some small African country, so we don't give it a second thought, not realizing that first of all, size doesn't matter (and neither does location), and even if it did, Sudan's actually 200,000 + square miles larger than Alaska.

Anyway...

Here's a great resource I stumbled across the other day (can't remember how, now), that gives a great, interactive explanation of the crisis in Sudan. Take a look when you have some time...

Washington Post Special Report