Mia Farrow Shows Support for Darfur, Skips Lunch

It's hard to be both a liberal and a curmudgeon. Because there are inevitably times when my left-leaning, bleeding heart sensibilities crash headlong into my misanthropy, resulting in an explosion of shattered optimism and blazing antipathy.

Let me put it this way: You remember that highway scene in Final Destination 2, when the cop spills coffee on his lap, and then a log falls off the logging truck and bounces through the windshield of his police car, then a guy on a motorcycle slides and gets crushed by his own bike, and another guy's car flips about eight times before he's creamed by a semi, then a van flips over a log and another woman gets a water bottle stuck under her brake pedal causing her to crash into it and burst into flame, and then seven or eight other cars either roll, crash, or explode into an inferno of screaming death? It's kind of like that, only the woman with the bottle under her brake pedal is my lefty liberalism, and my general dislike of humanity is the logging truck.

Which is why it makes my brain hurt so much to read that actress Mia Farrow has announced that she'll be going on a hunger strike as a way of showing solidarity with the people of Darfur. The 64-year-old Farrow says that, starting next week, she'll begin a water-only fast to express "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".

Now, the sentiment isn't without merit. Rebels have been fighting the Sudanese government for six years with a reported death toll of 300,000, and almost 3 million people have been driven from their homes. The Sudanese government kicked 13 aid groups out of the country in March, and it can be said that major world governments should take a more active role in putting an end to the violence, starvation and disease that plagues the region.

But it's hard to believe that Mia Farrow, through the act of sitting in her Manhattan apartment, sipping bottled water and refusing to eat a sandwich, is going to make that big of an impact on the situation. And why is she waiting until Monday to start? Perhaps she's hoping that Omar al-Bashir will say, "Mia Farrow's going to stop eating? I loved her in Hannah and Her Sisters! Okay, this is the last weekend for the atrocities, then. We can't let Mia Farrow go hungry!"

The logic behind your average hunger strike is to pull media attention to one's cause. And Farrow's announcement has certainly done that -- after all, even Cinematical's writing about it. But in today's ADD-afflicted times, it's a fleeting attention, and not worth a lot. Tomorrow's photos of a Jonas brother smoking a cigarette or a new boyfriend for Jennifer Aniston will knock Farrow's announcement cleanly out of the cultural consciousness.

The Sudan's ambassador to the UN, Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem, told Reuters that "Darfur should cease to be an arena for those seeking fame and publicity" -- which sort of misses the entire point of celebrities using their clout to shine a light on issues that your average People magazine reader might overlook. Farrow, who has a long history of humanitarian activity, isn't doing this to boost her career. But that doesn't mean that it's an especially effective gesture.

As I said, it just hurts to think about it. On one shoulder, my liberal angel is pumping its fist and saying, "You go, girl! You may be crazy as a bag of yo-yos, but we're with you!" while the cynical devil on the other shoulder is rolling its eyes and saying, "Seriously? A hunger strike? Really."

At any rate, her doctor says she ought to be able to stay alive for three weeks without food. We'll see if that's enough time to make a difference.