Few celebrities leave glitz behind for Aceh<\/p>\n
Eric Unmacht, Guardian News Service\/Banda Aceh<\/p>\n
Celebrities love to get behind a good cause -- especially a non-
\npolitical one.<\/p>\n
They'll literally sing and dance around it, as shown by recent
\ntsunami fund-raising performances by Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder,
\nBono and Slash at the Grammy awards.<\/p>\n
They'll also put their names and faces on it and open their
\nwallets for it.<\/p>\n
Yet, there are far fewer celebrities who are willing to leave
\nbehind the glitz and glamor to travel across the globe to
\ntemporarily live in it, as was the case with American football
\nplayers Kurt Warner and Amani Toomer, who recently visited Aceh,
\nthe area worst hit by the Dec. 26 tsunami.<\/p>\n
"Obviously this is huge and bigger than anything I can recall
\nand I think America has done a whole bunch," said New York Giants
\nquarterback Kurt Warner. "But a lot of what we do in America is
\nstill to give money."<\/p>\n
"So often we think we're rich, we can give some money, and
\nit's awesome and goes a long way, but to give time and effort I
\nthink goes even farther," he said.<\/p>\n
Nearly two months after a tsunami decimated coastlines around
\nthe Indian Ocean, aid groups are trying to line up high-profile
\npersonalities to visit and keep attention on the area in the
\nmonths and years to come.<\/p>\n
But the job of persuading celebrities to leave behind the
\ncomforts of life in the fast lane is often not an easy task.<\/p>\n
Besides the football players, earlier this month, former
\nsinger Cat Stevens, who turned his back on the industry in the
\nlate 1970s for a life devoted to Islam and changed his name to
\nYusuf Islam, briefly remerged into the spotlight to visit this
\ndeeply religious province in the world's most populous Moslem
\nnation.<\/p>\n
They are among the few celebrities to have visited Aceh to
\nlend what they have most to offer -- the publicity that naturally
\nfollows them around.<\/p>\n
A posse of photographers, cameramen and reporters spent three
\ndays with the American National Football Leaguers, who came on
\nbehalf of the UN World Food Program (WFP).<\/p>\n
Warner and Toomer helped to unload goods from a relief
\nhelicopter in an area of Sumatra's decimated west coast, visited
\nmembers of the U.S. Navy on a hospital ship, showed kids how to
\nplay American football and helped clear rubble in the city.<\/p>\n
Some of the horrific scenes they saw may partly explain why
\nfew celebrities jump to make these journeys into the heart of the
\ncause they're striving to help.<\/p>\n
"You can't imagine," said Giant's wide receiver Toomer. "I was
\ntalking about it with Kurt and some of the other guys and you
\ncan't imagine how big and how much force would have to be used to
\nmake a wave that size. When you see cars all mangled up, worse
\nthan you'd see in fatal car accidents, it's just, just very
\nshocking."<\/p>\n
In addition to the emotional toll, for stars looking for
\ncelebrity treatment, there's not much to be found. The football
\nplayers slept on cots in UN tents with the other aid workers and
\nshared the same breakfast of oatmeal.<\/p>\n
But those trying to drum up support for the aid efforts say
\nthese visits are invaluable to raising funds and other support in
\nthe developed world for the immediate cause and causes in other
\ncountries, as well.<\/p>\n
"There are corporations that spend millions and millions in
\ngetting celebrities to advertise because they sell more pop,"
\nsaid WFP marketing director Renae Morgavi. "There is definitely
\nfactual information and statistics that show you what a celebrity
\npersonality brings to the table."<\/p>\n
"They're able to educate people, not just about this disaster,
\nbut about all the things happening in the world," she added.<\/p>\n
One of the quiet grumbles from aid workers who see disasters
\nlike the tsunami getting so much attention is that other
\ntragedies and conflicts also deserving attention continue to
\nwallow in the relative media shadow.<\/p>\n
"The Congo, Uganda, Ivory Coast, all of these places where
\npeople suffer and die every day in huge numbers, but don't
\nreceive a 100th of the attention and financing of what has
\nhappened here," said Joel Boutroue, head of UN relief operations
\nin Aceh.<\/p>\n
"The huge momentum and solidarity here is welcome," he said.
\n"What we need to do is to make people touched by this suffering
\nrealize that there is huge amount of suffering happening in other
\ncountries as well, in Africa in particular."<\/p>\n
Aid workers are trying to learn how to channel the attention
\nfrom these high-profile tragedies to other lesser-known ones, but
\nthey say most of the value of these celebrity visits is still in
\nbringing the immediate cause to forefront after the media
\nattention dwindles.<\/p>\n
Knowing this, the UN appointed former president Bill Clinton,
\nwho visited the region earlier this week with former president
\nGeorge Bush, as their special envoy for tsunami relief this
\nmonth.<\/p>\n
Nicole Kidman is expected to come for Unicef in March and soul
\nlegend James Brown is also scheduled to headline a fund-raising
\nmusic festival in Indonesia that month.<\/p>\n
"The emergency is almost behind us, it was pretty successful,
\nbut now the real hard part starts," Boutroue said. "We need
\npeople to keep the level of interest very high."<\/p>\n
dpa eu pw<\/p>\n
GetDPA 1.10 -- FEB 17, 2005 14:43:08<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/few-celebrities-leave-glitz-behind-for-aceh-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }