As we reported a few weeks ago, Mia Farrow went on a planned three-week hunger strike to raise awareness about the current situation in Darfur. Unfortunately, Mia was left too weak to complete the full three-week hunger strike, and her doctor order her to eat after 12 days. Billionaire “rebel” and Virgin airline honcho Richard Branson stepped up to finish Mia’s awareness-raising stunt. Branson vowed to do a three-day hunger strike, starting this past Friday. So it should be over by now, and there’s no word on whether Branson finished it. I suspect he did.
Mia’s aim was always to bring more light on the current situation in Darfur, in the power base of Khartoum, and the refugee camps on Sudan and Chad’s borders. Since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, all hell has broken loose in Saudan, and not in a good way. President al-Bashir has pretty much declared war on the UN agencies in the region, as well as the NGOs (non-governmental organizations) trying to pick up UN slack:
Mia Farrow, who is ailing after almost two weeks on a hunger strike, announced on Friday that Richard Branson would take over her protest in solidarity with people in Sudan’s conflict-torn Darfur region.
A spokesman for the actress said her health had deteriorated in the past few days and her doctor requested that she end the liquids-only fast that she began 12 days ago to protest Khartoum’s expulsion of more than a dozen aid agencies from Darfur.
Farrow asked Branson to take over the fast, her statement said, adding that the British entrepreneur had accepted and would begin a three-day hunger strike on Friday.
“We all need to stand up and demand that international aid is restored and that the people of Darfur are protected and given the chance to live in peace,” Branson was quoted as saying in the statement.
Farrow’s spokesman said last month that her doctor expected the slightly built actress could not fast for more than three weeks.
Farrow, who was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for the UN children’s agency Unicef in 2000, has been campaigning for years to raise funds and awareness for children in conflict zones like Darfur, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Chad and Nigeria.
The International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, in March, charging him with masterminding mass killings and deportations in Darfur in western Sudan.
Since then, Sudan has expelled 13 foreign and three domestic humanitarian aid agencies, accusing them of collaborating with The Hague-based ICC.
UN officials say that as many as 300,000 people have been killed and more than 2.7 million driven from their homes in Darfur in almost six years of ethnic and political violence.
Khartoum, however, says 10,000 people have died. Some 4.7 million people rely on humanitarian aid in Darfur.
[From The Telegraph]
It’s sad that Mia couldn’t complete her hunger strike, people really were paying attention. It’s cool that Branson stepped up to do a three-day strike, but it would be even better if more celebrities got involved and vowed to complete the original 21-day strike. Yes, it would be a stunt, but more people would pay attention if people like George Clooney and Matt Damon got involved. What if all of those celebrities who don the “Save Darfur Now” shirts actually did their own publicly-announced three-day hunger strikes? Very little would actually change in Darfur, but the coverage of Darfur would change in the mainstream Western media. Hey, it’s got to start somewhere.
Photo Credit: PRPhotos
Something about rich people starving themselves for attention when these people are truly starving rubs me the wrong way. Considering this is the first I’ve heard of it, how much attention has she gotten? If you keep yourself healthy, you could probably do more good for the cause.
Celebrity Detoxing for Darfur. 🙄
And from what I read, apart from on the Save Darfur website, 99% of the attention she got was (imo rightly) negative and derisory so it’s disengenuous to say that people were paying attention. Celebs who insist on being prominent voices for causes need to focus on what they can realistically do to improve things and stop pulling cheap, attention-seeking, pointless stunts like this one.
Bringing awareness in the hopes of raising money for these poor, displaced, starving people is a good thing, not a bad thing. Farrow has visited the region numerous times at great risk and even tried to offer herself as hostage so a rebel leader would be able to get much needed medical attention. This situation is getting worse, not better. Let’s remember that Al Quaida set up camp in the Sudan before Afghanistan.
Hold your fire all you cynics. I’ve seen Mia Farrow speak in person and she is one of the most compelling people I’ve ever seen. She’s been doing what Angelina does WAYYYYY longer without benefit of her level of celebrity. She is truly passionate about her cause, and does NOT do it for cheap publicity. She had a room full of 3000 people in tears when she’d finished her heart-rending presentation. Why don’t you put your money where your mouth is and donate some money to a very much needed charity.
I agree with Overit…Mia Farrow is one amazing, intelligent, intense, and compassionate woman.
Please do not place her alongside the ranks of most Hollywood celebs. Mia is the real deal.
Bringing awareness in the hopes of raising money for these poor, displaced, starving people is a good thing, not a bad thing.
No, Mr. Rebel Billionaire dumping a day’s worth of profits from Virgin Industries into the hands of the people of Darfur, or giving them jobs and food would be a good thing. But that’s something a person who actually cared would do- this is just pompous emotional grandstanding.
unmod- what the heck set off the filter?
@overit – Yes!
Mia is wonderful. And her son with Woody is also heavily into these causes. He seems incredibly intelligent and passionate, just like his mom. She’s an amazing woman.
@H Grexx – the other thing that really bothers me about all this is that a large percentage of the population still believes that Save Darfur, on behalf of whom Mia speaks, is a humanitarian organisation – ie. an aid providing one. It isn’t, not one single penny goes towards aid, it’s a lobbying org, period. All its money is directed towards promoting US/UN intervention, in the form of expensive ad campaigns and big headline-grabbing public celebrity-filled gatherings. A visit to their site will clarify that. A look at their ad campaigns will give a rather different impression.
Kap – “Bringing awareness in the hopes of raising money for these poor, displaced, starving people is a good thing, not a bad thing.”
This is a huge misconception. There’s is no money-raising for the people on the ground attached to either this fasting or the Save Darfur Coalition. Farrow’s intention are genuine but her methods are misguided on this one.
gandhi changed the world with his hunger strikes, so there’s some precedence in the act…
save darfur may beleive that raising awareness for better political relations with darfur is the best way to help them… sort of like the old adage about “teaching a man to fish.” in either case, if they are forthcoming about their methods and well intentioned then i see nothing wrong with it…
Yes, this was so rediculous and pompus. Do something practical!
Overit = Yes!
I hadn’t heard about it until now either. Not great for raising awareness. I don’t think we need more celebrities doing it so it becomes a fad. And we certainly don’t need to encourage any stick thin starlets to starve themselves even further.
Any money raised by this effort will disappear down a sinkhole into a numbered bank account in Zurich. Those starving people with distended bellies and clouds of flies will still be starving when all is said and done.
That prospect is not a good thing.
Bringing awareness in the hopes of raising money for these poor, displaced, starving people is a good thing, not a bad thing.