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Farrow dedicated to Darfur
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Farrow dedicated to Darfur By Vit Wagner TorontoStar May 25, 2007
Actor Mia Farrow, through her long-standing association with UNICEF, had some familiarity with the plight of the world's disadvantaged, particularly the ravaging effects of poverty and disease on underprivileged children. But it wasn't until learning about the situation in Darfur that her activism took on a life-altering dimension.
Farrow used her status as a celebrity UNICEF goodwill ambassador to arrange a 2004 trip to the Sudanese region of Darfur, where the local population has been slaughtered and displaced by the country's military and a proxy militia, the Janjaweed. By some counts, as many as 400,000 people have died in the conflict.
Today, four million Darfuris are dependent on food aid, and a quarter of those reside beyond the reach of assisting agencies.
Since 2004, Farrow has visited the region four more times, including a second stop in Darfur. She has written articles, tirelessly made herself available to the media and established a website www.miafarrow.org where she posts photographs from her trips, blog entries and links to other sources of information on the subject.
"I came out of there as a witness, with an immense responsibility," says Farrow, who will be in Toronto on Monday to speak about her experience during a motivational seminar at the Power Within, held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
"I, who had shirked interviews my entire life, have given upwards of 2,000 since 2004. I didn't know I could write op-eds," Farrow says. "Until then, I hadn't taken pictures of anyone but my children, but now my photographs have been published around the world."
One particular newspaper column, written with Ronan Farrow (her son with Woody Allen) and published in the Wall Street Journal in March, aims to pressure China, Sudan's major trading partner, to use its influence with the Sudanese government to end the violence and suffering in Darfur. Through the piece, the Farrows have rebranded next year's Beijing Olympics as "The Genocide Olympics," in contrast to the event's official slogan, "One World, One Dream."
"The Chinese are extremely anxious that these games become their post-Tiananmen Square massacre calling card to the international community," says Farrow, who is lobbying Beijing to urge Khartoum to stop the bombing, disarm the Janjaweed and allow peacekeepers into the region.
"With the slogan `One World, One Dream,' we couldn't ignore the fact that there is also one nightmare that China cannot be allowed to sweep under the rug. And that nightmare is Darfur."
The article also called on director Steven Spielberg, who has been hired to orchestrate the opening ceremonies, to cut his ties with the event or risk going down "in history as the Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing Games."
Spielberg has since expressed his concerns to Chinese President Hu Jintao, as well as donated $1 million (U.S.) to a Darfur fundraising effort organized by actor George Clooney and the rest of the cast and crew of the summer blockbuster Ocean's Thirteen.
While applauding the efforts of her fellow celebrities, Farrow was also heartened by the news of a recent poll claiming that two-thirds of Canadians would like to see Canada take a leading role in bringing an end to the killing in Darfur.
"Yes, one would like to see that," she says. "One has become accustomed to looking to Canada for moral leadership."
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