Mia Farrow Launches Hunger Strike Over Darfur

Sudan's brutal dictator, Omar al-Bashir, won't care. The question is, why should we?

April 21, 2009 - by Kyle Smith
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Mia Farrow recently announced she was going to launch a hunger strike. Why now? It was three days ahead of the premiere of the latest Woody Allen movie. Coincidence?

True, Woody Allen movies come out so frequently that it would be difficult to stage a humanitarian protest at a moment when he wasn’t either releasing a movie, announcing his next project, or getting mentioned at the Oscars. Maybe Farrow means business.

Or maybe she doesn’t. In a Huffington Post piece telling the world about her Darfur diet — she’ll be drinking water only, she says, starting next Monday (don’t all of us put off our starting our new weight-loss regimen?) — Farrow says that her reasons are to register “solidarity with the people of Darfur” (do starving Sudanese refugees read the Huffington Post?) and “outrage at a world that is somehow able to stand by and watch innocent men, women and children needlessly die of starvation, thirst and disease.” That’s a pretty broad reach of indignation. People have always died of starvation, thirst, and disease. People are dying of disease right now in the neighborhood where Farrow lived for many years. Is Farrow outraged by every death? Or is it just the “needless” ones that bother her?

The Darfur atrocities, though, aren’t needless in the sense of being random or without purpose. Sudan’s dictator, Omar al-Bashir, is an Islamist Arab whose militias have been ruthlessly exterminating farmers in a racially-fueled grab for land, resources, and power. If somebody dies in his warm hospital bed on the Upper West Side because a doctor got careless and infected him during surgery, maybe that’s a pointless death. The deaths caused by Bashir are pointed. They’re intentional. And he isn’t sitting around thinking, “The value of the lives of black African farmers depends on the views of that woman who was so delightful in Purple Rose of Cairo.”

Like most hunger strikes, this one (yes, it’ll be Twittered) is meant not to cause change directly, but to generate publicity that could someday lead to change. If only more of us were aware, goes this line of thinking, we could stop the slaughter. Sort of the way applause brings Tinkerbell back to life.

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Kyle Smith is a film critic for the the New York Post. His website is at www.kylesmithonline.com.

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50 Comments

1. joe:

Why don’t liberals ever hold the United Nations accountable as atrocities, genocides, and malevolent dictatorships continue unabated and unchecked years on end? Or maybe what I mean is, why don’t events like Darfur and oil-for-food scandals convince liberals that the U.N. is a corrupt and impotent boondoggle?

Apr 22, 2009 - 12:17 am 2. Emma:

You will have to pardon my ignorance if I’m wrong but, I’m assuming that the only way to stop the madness in Darfur is a war – or at least, a military action to take out Omar. And I find it hard to believe that anyone in Hollywood is going to get behind that.

Apr 22, 2009 - 2:51 am 3. Gary Ogletree:

Darfur needs international attention. Mia Farrow steps up. Good for her.

Apr 22, 2009 - 4:17 am 4. gramtx:

Why do these Hollywood types think we care what they think or do? They are the ones with all the money – Put your money where your mouth is instead of asking us to do it. Then I might listen, but I doubt it.

Apr 22, 2009 - 5:36 am 5. Lynda:

Gary, Darfur has been getting international attention for years. Nobody cares. Mia Farrow isn’t going to change anything – but she will garner a lot of publicity for herself. Got to love celebrities – apparently when they speak out or fast for five days or travel in luxury to a third world country to “observe first hand” or whatever – the world is suddenly supposed to sit up and notice what has been going on under their noses for years???? I don’t think so.

Apr 22, 2009 - 5:48 am 6. Wolla Dalbo:

I’m sorry, but I have absolutely no sympathy for some has been actress (who never really was to begin with) who is seeking to gain some publicity for herself and reclaim the spotlight.

If she wants to deprive the world of yet another bad actress, I say, go for it.

Apr 22, 2009 - 6:15 am 7. scott:

“Mia Farrow”
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
[ raucous derisive prolonged guffaws ]

How can one even manage to write an article on such a twit? I’m tapped out just writing this. And I certainly didn’t read beyond the headline.

Apr 22, 2009 - 6:50 am 8. Michael O'Brein:

What does she want us to do about Darfur? Invade it? Go to war? Beat the hell out of them and level what’s left of the god forsaken place?

Or perhaps she’d be satisfied with several billion U.S. taxpayer dollars thrown at it for appearances and publicity, as if that money would ever make it to the intended uses.

Such mis-informed hypocritical idiots these soft minded Hollywood types are.

Apr 22, 2009 - 7:01 am 9. Joe Bison:

Nobody gives a damn what these “celebrities”
say except for the weak minded in the West.
The exception is when a useful idiot presents
a propaganda opportunity.

Apr 22, 2009 - 7:21 am 10. Trainwreck:

The white elephant in the room that none of these shallow Hollywood elitist morons want us to see is that the Dafur issue is based on Islamofascism and genocidal jihad, which the leftists do not want us to recognize, let alone fight. THeir beloved UN has the blood on its hands, but these Hollywood dopes see this organization as beyond reproach, and that the US should subvert its soreignty to the UN. THe same UN that has declared that to fight jihadist atrocities is a crime against humanity.

Rather than use might to defeat this cancer, the leftist thinks that cheap sloganeering, marches and narcissitic activism (which make them feel good) will change the hearts of dictators.

Apr 22, 2009 - 7:30 am 11. Wolla Dalbo:

Might I add that since at least WWII, when Hollywood was the focus of Communist efforts–somewhat successful initially, and gaining ground as the decades have passed–to see to it that the themes and viewpoints Communist propagandists crafted to destroy America became the central ideas at the heart of this huge propaganda machine, Hollywood has increasing been a pernicious force–trying and, for the most part, succeeding quite handily–in discrediting, mocking, subverting and destroying traditional American values and America from within, while also presenting a distorted and highly negative image of America and Americans to the World.

Thus, when I see most Hollywood types, I view them as infected and contagious Lepers, anxious to spread their disease and, not coincidentally, spread bad acting, worse scripts and drug-addled, brainless, brazen, course and piggish behavior–viewed by Hollywood as self-congratulatory wisdom, erudition, a warm and heartfelt concern for humanity, and the one true faith of the far left–as far and wide as they can.

Apr 22, 2009 - 8:08 am 12. Sebastian Shaw:

drama queen

Apr 22, 2009 - 8:17 am 13. elvis:

The funny thing is the people of Dafur have been participating in a hunger strike over Mia Farrow!

Apr 22, 2009 - 8:21 am 14. Scott:

Darfur is undergoing jihad. Arab Muslims in Sudan are killing non-Arab Mulsims and non-Muslims. This is unfortunate, but it is not an American problem. The Europeans can deal with it should they care to. We are busy.

Apr 22, 2009 - 8:40 am 15. typos_R_us:

Who cares what Will Farrow’s skanky sister does?

Apr 22, 2009 - 8:44 am 16. pappy:

I hope she isn’t waiting for a ton of grain from dafur, she’ll croak for sure. i’ll chip in for a mosquito net to keep the bugs away.

Apr 22, 2009 - 9:34 am 17. Morton Doodslag:

I may be unaware of or mis-remembering the facts, but I can’t recall a single politician or celebrity loudmouth spouting off about Darfur mentioning the Islamic/Arab racist nature of that particular genocide. Not once. There’s a sign on a front yard in one of the neighborhoods I drive through here in Los Angeles — it’s been there for at least 4 years — it says: “Darfur — NOT ON OUR WATCH”. Really?

Again — no mention of the entrenched and ancient institutionalized Arab racism and hatred. No mention of the war doctrine of Islam — or the genocidal tracts in their heinous Koran which extolls the virtues of slaughtering until Islam is supreme. Somehow in that sign Darfur and the genocidal Islamic slaughter happening there is our responsibility — it’s on “OUR WATCH”, after all!

What supreme arrogance! What supreme ignorance! Mia Farrow somehow thinks that the horror of her going without food for a few days will shock the consciences of people to stop what a bunch of Muslim Arabs are doing to a bunch of Muslim blacks in darkest Africa. Dream on. The frailty of her connection with reality is frightening.

Apr 22, 2009 - 10:33 am 18. kiwikit:

Based on how she looks, I’d say she’s probably been on a hunger strike all her life!
Being anorexic might be appealing on a 17 year old, but it looks merely wrinkly on a 60 plus woman. Her mother was gorgeous up to the age of about 90 but Mia seems to have looked like an old lady once she hit 35. Possibly this ‘fast’ is honorable but I’d be more impressed if she campaigned quiety and got food for them.

Apr 22, 2009 - 10:41 am 19. Marie Claude:

#18 LMAO ! in case she can still go there as a nurse !

Apr 22, 2009 - 10:53 am 20. Hotpatch 6:

I wish Mia would get Jane Fonda, Sean Penn, Alec Baldwin, that Garafolo woman, and any number of liberal numbskulls in Hollywood to join her. Mass starvation of do-gooders – a consumation devoutly to be wished.

Apr 22, 2009 - 10:58 am 21. LawhawkSF:

Ever time I see her I’m reminded of what Ava Gardner said about her when Sinatra married Farrow: “I always knew that someday Frank would marry a man.”

Apr 22, 2009 - 11:26 am 22. Gary Ogletree:

Why all the dumping on Mia Farrow? She has been on this issue from way back. Did I stumble into Daily Kos here?

Apr 22, 2009 - 11:29 am 23. Werner Patels:

Excellent, maybe she finally wither way into nothingness and stop bothering the rest of the world.

Apr 22, 2009 - 11:53 am 24. Ken O'Banion:

Trainwreck (#10):

Your parenthetical comment, “which makes them feel good”, is actually the entire point of Ms. Farrow’s exercise; it has absolutely nothing to do with trying to “change the hearts of dictators”.

If she has even three interconnected neurons — I know, I know, but just go with me here — she has to know that dropping a few pounds isn’t going to make a damn bit of difference (except maybe to herself; hell, maybe she feels she’s getting a bit broad in the beam, so to speak, and she’s trying to multi-task).

But making a difference is not her purpose. Her purpose is precisely what you stated: to feel good about herself, to indulge in some form of self-righteous, pious posturing that won’t wreck her manicure. (And maybe to get back into a size-two without being beholden to Jenny Craig, like that sellout Valerie Bertinelli.)

That’s all that these people are about. Remember that classic photograph of Sean Penn’s “Katrina rescue mission”? The Gilligan joke in that picture practically leaped off the screen and Gibbs-smacked you up-side the head. This kind of feel-good, self-aggrandizing, yet utterly pointless nonsense is what passes, in what I am charitably going to call their minds, as effective social activism. In reality, it’s just self-delusional narcissism.

Kind of sad, when you think about it.

Apr 22, 2009 - 1:37 pm 25. Duane Phinney:

Why in the world would she post something like this on Huffington Post? The bed wetters would go nuts if you suggested using force to stop it.

If we don’t fight them wherever we find them, they will control the world.

Apr 22, 2009 - 1:39 pm 26. Christian Toto:

More cold, hard truths in this commentary than you’ll read in a month’s worth of MSM blather. Kudos.

Apr 22, 2009 - 2:04 pm 27. Jeff W:

Huh, I did not know that she ate food.

Apr 22, 2009 - 2:27 pm 28. kenny komodo:

Mia who????

Apr 22, 2009 - 2:38 pm 29. Class Clown:

The real reason that Darfur matters to these people is that it is useful as a in framing yet another criticism of the Iraq War (ie. we don’t care about Darfur because they don’t have oil).

Save Darfur. Free Tibet. Yadda Yadda Yadda. Hunger strikes, bumper stickers, and benefit concerts, but just don’t think of actually doing anything for them.

Apr 22, 2009 - 2:54 pm 30. Sebastian Shaw:

Mia Farrow should save herself & eat some more protein & fiber. She’s skin & bones!

Dear Mia, won’t you come out to play…

Apr 22, 2009 - 3:51 pm 31. BigDog:

The only way to save Darfur is American military intervention. Anyone who talks about Darfur and doesn’t support a US military effort with is commensurate increase in military funding and expansion is simply not serious about doing anything to help Darur. IMO, people who are not serious about Darfur are simply using the issue for self-righteous narcissistic party throwing ego stroking.

Being anti-military and pro-Darfur simply is not a tenable position, and I am sure most of these Hollywood types are just that.

Apr 22, 2009 - 4:37 pm 32. Sebastian Shaw:

Mia should ride on her high horse–as Lady Godiva–wearing a machine gun over her naked body & go save Darfur all be her lonesome. She won’t last very long.

She could do her best Rambo/pacifist impression spreading her “peace” everywhere.

Apr 22, 2009 - 4:55 pm 33. Class Clown:

I suppose we could hold a benefit and send food to Darfur, but not to Mia Farrow.

Apr 22, 2009 - 5:35 pm 34. Войска ПВО:

28. kenny komodo writes:

“Mia who????”

..you know, the step/foster mom of that Korean girl who’s married to her step/foster dad, Woody Allen or is it..

..I give up, it’s wa-a-a-a-y too confusing.

Apr 22, 2009 - 5:49 pm 35. one of my own:

I hear Glenn Beck is going to gorge non-stop on cocktail weenies and Cheeze Whiz to protest the abominable, horrific, violent and tragic treatment of Miss California. (Go, Glenn! I haven’t been this outraged since they cancelled the Tony Danza Show . . . bastards.)

Apr 22, 2009 - 6:37 pm 36. JFM:

To #18

Campaigning quitely and getting food discreetly is not _efficient_. And food is not the only thing of Darfur people. They also need help against the genociders. I for one salute the AFAIK first and only celebrity who seems to care for real suffering instead of hiding nazi-like antisemitism behind concern about the sufferings of the poooooooooooooor Palestinians. Palestinings are fat, Darfur people are starving and mass-murdered and raped and enslaved.

Apr 23, 2009 - 2:17 am 37. I'm confused:

Why would so many people who supported the Tea Party protests denigrate a woman for protesting Darfur? It seems . . . inconsistent.

Apr 23, 2009 - 5:57 am 38. Sebastian Shaw:

Unlike the Tea Parties, Mia Farrow is not serious about her “protest.” Fasting is not credible. She needs to actually go to Darfur herself & speak to the people. But that would require courage. She has none. Farrow is your typical celebrity reading from the same old tired script.

I think she has crocodile tears in her heart.

Apr 23, 2009 - 7:07 am 39. 38952R:

These things are always so pointless. I always think of Simone Weil and how when she was in the hospital once she refused to eat more food than the soldiers in WWII were getting as rations. She died. Yeah, that one worked.

Apr 23, 2009 - 9:44 am 40. Meryl:

…but wait! even if we send a cargo ship to Darfur, it might get taken by pirates from Somalia…who don’t care that the people in Darfur are starving.

…but wait! that would be good! because then some other star could go on a starvation diet to prove that THEY care about the pirates!

…if we could get this organized right, we could have all of Hollywood on starvation diets, and eventually it might cut down on the volume of crap that they have time to release through their press agents.

(Why doesn’t one of them go on a starvation diet on behalf of obama’s half-brother in Kenya? Last I heard, he’s near starvation, too.)

When I saw the headline, my first thought was, “Well, she must be between films or something and needs a little press.”

Apr 23, 2009 - 11:07 am 41. Sarah Burnett:

We don’t…care, that is.

Why on God’s green earth should anyone busy living an actual life (not a pretend celebutard life) give a damn what this has-been green weenie hippie does for or about anything? Can you say “dog & pony show”?

We don’t care what she or any of the rest of them do. What celebrities think and do are irrelevant to the lives of thinking, reasoning people.

Apr 23, 2009 - 11:49 am 42. Meryl:

“Why all the dumping on Mia Farrow? She has been on this issue from way back. Did I stumble into Daily Kos here?”

Apparently her “being on this issue from way back” hasn’t helped. But of course, with the her dhimmi crowd, results don’t matter, just good intentions.

If she’s been on this issue from way back, is there a record of what she has accomplished? Is anyone else (in her Hollywood networking group) helping her? Has she been successful in setting up a process and a flow of funds to meet the need?

Sorry. When there is a Franklin Graham with Samaritan’s Purse and Josh McDowell with Christmas gifts/funds/clothing working regularly, effectively, year after year, funneling millions of dollars in cash and supplies to similar situations, (with very little general publicity and “attention”) you’ll just have to pardon me all to pieces if I don’t just fall over and weep with empathy because Mia Farrow has stopped eating this week (with doctors on standby).

She doesn’t occupy any moral high ground here.

This isn’t Daily Kos. This is real people who get tired of the endless attempts toward manipulation and phony empathy. Just real people fed up with the games and saying so. That is DEFINITELY not Daily Kos.

Good grief. THINK.

Apr 23, 2009 - 11:49 am 43. Sebastian Shaw:

Meryl (#40), I’m suspicious when a celebrity gets in any headlines for supposedly noble causes. Darfur is the chosen poster child for the Left. Mia Farrow has chosen Darfur. Does that make her a mindless ghoul looking for publicity? I think so.

In the 1980’s, the cause celeb was AIDS (to use it a weapon to bash President Reagan). Today, it’s Darfur (then as a contrast to Iraq & bash President Bush). Nothing really has changed.

Apr 23, 2009 - 12:07 pm 44. Meryl:

“Why all the dumping on Mia Farrow? She has been on this issue from way back. Did I stumble into Daily Kos here?”

My post #42 was a response to #22, Gary Ogletree, whose quote I used to begin….should have marked that better.

42 Sebastian. Exactly…well said. (And succinct! Occasionally I flail, verbally, particularly when I have just “had it up to here” with the unthinking “go along to get along” naivete, which is dressed up to look like empathy and compassion. Grrrr.)

Apr 23, 2009 - 12:30 pm 45. Sebastian Shaw:

Meryl (#44), we all occasionally get a frog in our throats. It happens to the best of us. I usually trip over myself when I want to say too much about one subject.

Apr 23, 2009 - 12:59 pm 46. ked5:

#44 Meryl,

I call it “psuedo-compassion” vs. *real* compassion.

pseudo-compassion makes the “compassionate” person feel good (epsecially if they can tell everyone how compassionate they are), but actually does *nothing* for the person they are claiming to help.

Apr 23, 2009 - 9:01 pm 47. G-man:

If only Ms. Farrow and her ilk would go as far as Bobby Sands. At least the poor public would be spared thier self-centered bloviating.

Apr 24, 2009 - 6:07 am 48. tanstaafl:

…feel better about themselves by feeling worse.

I think that’s the point of such gestures as Farrow’s. She has always had that kind of “I’m wistful and just” persona going on. I find her self-righteous gesture & self- advertising repugnant.

The years go by, the guests sit down on the couch and get up from the couch, and Omar al-Bashir goes on killing.

Ordering and supervising the killing, anyway. Al-Bashir seems to have laughed at his indictment by the criminal court at the Hague (war crimes & crimes against humanity & arrest warrant.) I doubt any additional attention to his habits of conducting carnage for personal enrichment will have much of an effect.

Apr 24, 2009 - 9:12 am 49. ddc:

Dafur: a disease for which there is no cure outside the death of more American sons and daughters being sent to “save” the citizenry. It would just another mess that I hope the US is not dumb enough to involve herself in. Our children have done enough. It’s someone elses turn but not surprisingly, NO OTHER COUNTRY is dumb enough to sacrifice theirs. I wonder why that is?

Apr 25, 2009 - 9:18 am 50. mhbion:

Among the several immature and insensitive comments there are a few that share this one persons concerns about a part of our world that is so far away that few of us know or care about the people who live and die there. Mia has worked in an extreemly committed and conciensious way as the most recognized spoke person for the terrible existence that they have from birth to death. I commend her for championing their cause but she needs to remain strong and seadfast in this just cause. She needs not to immerse herself in joining their hunger and pain but rather project herself to the rest of the world as a strong, positive example and continue her campaign to improve their quality of lfe. mhbion

Apr 27, 2009 - 7:49 pm