A neo-Jacobin: Mr George Clooney, I presume

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Mr George Clooney, I presume - Africa's new expert

What I'd like to know is, since when, has the millionaire, Oscar winning actor, George Clooney become an expert in the political affairs of the Sovereign state of Sudan? The self-proclaimed expert of contemporary Sudanese politics, Mr Clooney, apparently, has knowledge of what is happening in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Clooney told a audience of the world's media that, events unfolding in Darfur could only be discribed as 'the first genocide of the 21st century'.

I'd like to let readers of this blog into a not so well known fact: there is no evidence of 'genocide' in the Darfur region of Sudan. Of course, Mr Clooney doesn't need evidence to support his unfounded claims. He speaks, the world listens, and that is that - who needs evidence?

There is no evidence of a 'genocide' in Sudan - an indepth UN investigation concluded in Feb of last year that there was 'no evidence' of 'genocide' in Darfur. An investigation led by the European Union in the summer of 2004, drew the same conclusion, that the killings in Darfur 'were not genocidal'.

Clooney, has become what the U.S. Department of State would call a first-class 'prognosticator'. Clooney has done what many in the west do in order to draw attention to their particular cause, he has grossly overemphasised the degree to which violent deaths have contributed to large-scale mortality in Darfur. Or in other words, more people in the Darfur region die of malnutrition and infectious diseases, than they do at the hands of the Sudanese government forces.

Clooney is a major American celebrity who think its ok to be cavalier with the facts, and he seems to think its perfectly fine to present Africans in the most horrific terms possible, even if its inaccurate.

I, for one, welcome an honest debate about what's happening in Africa. What we don't need is overpaid Hollywood actors rehearsing powerful and emotive stories about nonexistent 'genocide', in countries they know very little about.