The above is a screencap of a video of George Clooney reporting to the UN on things he saw and experienced on a recent official visit to Africa (see it yourself here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/…220735.stm# ).

This isn't some jaunt he took so he could pick out a new child to adopt. Clooney went in as a representative of the UN--cornily called a "UN Peace Ambassador," he's actually doing some great work. He spoke with people in the Darfur region who had been displaced by violence brought upon them by the Sudanese-government-sponsored militia that rape and murder locals to get them off the land. If memory serves this is happening because the land has oil underneath it.

I couldn't find a transcript of what Clooney said, so I'll paraphrase:

"One-hundred-percent of these people blame the government for displacement. It's not disease, not disaster, not an act of God, not famine--the government of Sudan. I spoke with a woman who had been raped and set on fire two days before and she asked me to please send the UN. Not the US, not the UK, not the Russians, but the United Nations. They are believing what you are telling them. Don't let them down."

In case you couldn't tell he's guilting the shit out of the UN to actually bother to help Africa.

He's got a tiny bit of history with Africa, you see. A couple years ago, he and his father, himself a veteran newsman, literally sneaked into Darfur to witness some of the atrocities that have been committed there. They weren't with the UN then, but they did it anyway.

George Clooney is *finally* someone we can look up to. Sure, he's one of those "phony Hollywood-types" with a villa in Italy. But he's actually doing something good with the gobs of money he's made off of us.

How many "Hollywood-types" do that? How many rich people do that? Not only is Clooney a good actor and filmmaker, but he's a good person and I'm tempted to call him a hero.

He seems to understand that every thing each one of us does is a message to the future and has said on more than one occasion that he doesn't want to be on the wrong side of history.

The people of Sudan need money, supplies, weapons, stability. On two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US has spent about $1 trillion. Just *think* how much good that money could have done in Africa.

I've long ago given up on the mainstream news for any information other than breaking news of disasters, so I don't know if they've covered Clooney and what he's done. But I'd much rather be hearing about Clooney and what he's witnessed than whether or not Hillary faked her cry-fest a couple weeks back.

As far as I'm concerned, George Clooney should get a medal.