So George Clooney and celebrity Africa activist John Prendergast think that we (the US, its allies) need to do more with regard to the situation in the Sudan. Fair enough. Prendergast has long been an advocate for the Sudanese people and while I could do with less of his retiring-to-the-fainting-couch appeals to emotion, and while I am not a fan of celebrities lecturing us all about the latest cause du jour that just came across their (publicist’s) radar, I am not going to complain too much about “awareness raising” even though I don’t think the plight of Sudan is exactly obscure among the people for whom it shouldn’t be obscure.
But that last part is pretty important. Next year’s referendum over the possibility of South Sudan separating from the North is going to be a vital moment in the history of the country and the region. It runs a serious risk of leading to bloodshed and war. I don’t trust Khartoum even remotely (no matter what its representatives say for outside consumption). But none of this is secret. It’s not as if Prendergast and Clooney have told the United Nations or the UN Security Council or American officials or diplomats or really anyone else who ought to know about the situation in Sudan anything that they don’t already know.
There may be no real harm to this sort of celebrity onanism that will inevitably serve only to fuel the easily inspired sense of moral outrage among a tiny cycle of attention-span starved folks looking to show the rest of us how much they care. But celebrity onanism it is.
