by Annalisa Tancredi
It's hard not to hear a humanitarian appeal when its deliverer is a Hollywood star. What celebrities say or do seems to be more authoritative and truthfully and is able to effectively inspire selective attention and to influence people’s behaviours. This time Antonio Banderas, actor and leading personality of the international movie scene, appears on the screen playing the part of Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Development Programme (UNDP), to deliver an urgent appeal on food crisis in the Horn of Africa.
On July 29 the UN raised alert to all nations over the worst famine of the last 60 years. In Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia people are forced to flee towards camps because of drought, famine, conflict and prices rising. 20% of families is facing a serious food shortage, more than 30% of people suffer from severe malnutrition and the daily mortality rate is about 2 over 10,000. Children are dying of starvation and thirst and the UN Deputy Secretary Asha-Rose Migiro stated that "The future of an entire generation is at risk."
One of the causes of thirst is global warming, that affects oceans’ temperatures and changes the pattern of rainfall (ENSO - El Niño-Southern Oscillation). It’s a matter of fact that the warming of the Indian Ocean, due to greenhouse gases emissions, caused the decrease of rainfall in the Horn of Africa areas.
In these dire situations, Goodwill Ambassadors use their fame to boost the requests for help and to highlight these issues to media and public. The popularity of the Ambassadors and the consideration the target has placed in them help to make the message effective. The more popular they are, the more powerful the message will be.
The social and environmental communication campaigns, aimed at raising awareness and mobilizing the masses on public interest issues, need ambassadors for winning a dual challenge: to field all possible creative resources to awaken a general public who is accustomed to alarmist media and to introduce attractive means to communicate social plans.
This is Antonio Banderas’ appeal: «Across the Horn of Africa, is taking place the worst food crisis in the world. Drought, conflicts and high food prices have left people starving. Hundreds of thousands of them have left their homes, walking for weeks in search of food. More than 12 million people are in desperate needs and the number grows by the day. The United Nations are working to save their lives and to help them to get back to their lands. We too are working to make people more prepared to face this kind of crisis. So life is not lost yet and they can keep making a living. Me even, as Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Development Programme I am getting involved in this plan and I hope you will do the same. By responding now we can make the difference».
It's hard not to hear a humanitarian appeal when its deliverer is a Hollywood star. What celebrities say or do seems to be more authoritative and truthfully and is able to effectively inspire selective attention and to influence people’s behaviours. This time Antonio Banderas, actor and leading personality of the international movie scene, appears on the screen playing the part of Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Development Programme (UNDP), to deliver an urgent appeal on food crisis in the Horn of Africa.
On July 29 the UN raised alert to all nations over the worst famine of the last 60 years. In Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia people are forced to flee towards camps because of drought, famine, conflict and prices rising. 20% of families is facing a serious food shortage, more than 30% of people suffer from severe malnutrition and the daily mortality rate is about 2 over 10,000. Children are dying of starvation and thirst and the UN Deputy Secretary Asha-Rose Migiro stated that "The future of an entire generation is at risk."
One of the causes of thirst is global warming, that affects oceans’ temperatures and changes the pattern of rainfall (ENSO - El Niño-Southern Oscillation). It’s a matter of fact that the warming of the Indian Ocean, due to greenhouse gases emissions, caused the decrease of rainfall in the Horn of Africa areas.
In these dire situations, Goodwill Ambassadors use their fame to boost the requests for help and to highlight these issues to media and public. The popularity of the Ambassadors and the consideration the target has placed in them help to make the message effective. The more popular they are, the more powerful the message will be.
The social and environmental communication campaigns, aimed at raising awareness and mobilizing the masses on public interest issues, need ambassadors for winning a dual challenge: to field all possible creative resources to awaken a general public who is accustomed to alarmist media and to introduce attractive means to communicate social plans.
This is Antonio Banderas’ appeal: «Across the Horn of Africa, is taking place the worst food crisis in the world. Drought, conflicts and high food prices have left people starving. Hundreds of thousands of them have left their homes, walking for weeks in search of food. More than 12 million people are in desperate needs and the number grows by the day. The United Nations are working to save their lives and to help them to get back to their lands. We too are working to make people more prepared to face this kind of crisis. So life is not lost yet and they can keep making a living. Me even, as Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Development Programme I am getting involved in this plan and I hope you will do the same. By responding now we can make the difference».
No comments:
Post a Comment