Can the glitterati save Darfur ? (What can celebrity benefit shows really do to stop genocide?)

International Herald Tribune ^ | 09/14/2007 | Alex Beam

[SirLinksalot]

There was yet another outbreak of Darfur Chic at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art on Friday night. The traveling photography exhibit Darfur/Darfur was in town, and the ICA packed an auditorium with well-fed local glitterati to hear chin music about the four-year-old humanitarian crisis, as well as some real music from cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

I'm glad I took in Darfur/Darfur because I narrowly missed last month's "Rip the Runway for Darfur" gala in New York, sponsored by Level Vodka. I see the Designers for Darfur are showing off their fall collection.

Marvy.

Oh, look - here's an invitation from Ambassador Swanee Hunt, to join her and Liz Walker at another top-drawer Darfur event next month.

If the ongoing conflict in Sudan isn't the most pressing international crisis, it is certainly the most precious. Earlier this year, the Sundance festival was atwitter with tales of the Darfur documentary, "The Devil Came on Horseback." The movement has the obligatory "I Care" wristband, this one green, with the words "Not on Our Watch." The Save Darfur campaign sells car ribbon magnets and of course those lawn signs you see in better communities everywhere.

Who hasn't been to Darfur? United Nations ambassador Angelina Jolie has visited the region several times and has even penned stirring op-ed columns, op. cit.: "It has become clear to me that there will be no enduring peace without justice," whatever that means. Ambassador Mia Farrow co-authored her own stirring op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, calling out director Steven Spielberg, who has been working on the Beijing Olympics.

"Is Mr. Spielberg, who in 1994 founded the Shoah Foundation to record the testimony of survivors of the Holocaust, aware that China is bankrolling Darfur's genocide?" Farrow asked. Well, he is now.

[Otaku6]

Imagine the looks on their faces when they do some research and find the best mercs for the job are Blackwater and the best people at rebuilding would be Halliburton.

If these guys want to make their own GDI (C&C reference I know) then they should foot the bill but I’ll bet no one wants to fill a uniform with those tards in charge.

[PsyOp]

Imagine the looks on their faces...

Theywould spontaeously combust. The cognitive disconnect would be too great for them to handle.

[rhombus]

“I ask why are lives in Sudan any more precious than the lives that will be lost were we to leave Iraq?”

Going to Iraq was President Bush’s idea, not theirs.

The question remains the same.