baffled with our trailers and equip our teachers with as much information on as much training as possible. with money drawing a frost, a beautiful idea to help disadvantage teenagers, me soon free did to oblivion along with hopes of many goals. who dream of changing their society and the world? i'm a decrease algebra couple nigeria. ah . as as out there are these you top stories. a cautious com has returned to lebanon's capital aren't being wrought by gung fine rocket propelled grenades for more than 4 hours. tension over an investigation new to launch his port explosion developed into the worst st on some more than a decade. with 6 people have been killed. president michelle own has the destination condemning the violence. rosara nor your side is that the we will never allow anyone else to hijack the country of what has happened to day one will be

followed on both levels of the judiciary and the security and investigations were reach the reality and the truth and effect some of those perpetrators will be taken to the court. the investigation of the barrett port blast will continue, because it's a commitment towards the lebanese people and towards the international community law based on the independence of the judiciary. your arm that you as president joe biden says, his country will donate millions of korean of ours vaccines to the african union, made the announcement while hosting canyon president order can yasser the 1st african leader to visit the white house. as joe biden took office. former you as president, bill clinton has been hospitalized with a suspected blood infection. in his statement, clinton spokesman says he's currently on the meant and, and good spirit. stop to say his responding well to treatment taliban delegation is in turkey, is it continues a diplomatic push for support. an international recognition. it comes

a day on to talks in catherine where the group appealed to us in european officials, to end afghanistan's isolation, taiwanese authorities on investigating whether a fire that killed at least $46.00 people was started deliberately. dozens more were injured and thursday's place at a 13 story building which is made up of small shops and apartments. will that 100 of the residents were physically disabled? the un envoy to yemen is wanting the fighting. the city of maria has taken an alarming turn more than a 100 people have been killed, and hundreds of civilians on tramped as fighting intensifying this week. the healthy rebels expanded and offensive against saudi barracks. government forces. last month. those all you had lies in east continues here on out as air out the stream. the world is warming, i'm green lynn's ice sheet is melting, which is changing everything from sea levels to the way people live. and now

even exposing the remnants of a cold war pulse greenland from melting of the frozen north on al jazeera i i, as in the, okay to day on the stream, we are looking at star power ad celebrity activism. i know you have seen them high profile, global ambassadors, representing charities and yos around the world, global smokes people who also happen to be very famous, raising awareness on important causes. who are they really helping him? what impact are they having? those are 2 questions to start you off in argue chit chat, a comment section open. do join in and be part of today's discussion. let me introduce you to our panel. it's a good one, lisa, to me. i shall. hello,

welcome to the stream. i'll come back to the stream for some of you really good to have you, lisa introduce yourself to our global audience and tell them what you're bringing to the table to day. i thank you very much and my name is lisa and richie. i am a professor globalization at the copenhagen business school, and i'm here today because i work on commodified compassion. and i'm the co author of a book which has just been published by university of minnesota, chris i, together with alexandra booted, ben called batman saves the congo. how celebrities, you disrupting the politics of development. it's a heavy li. so we're gonna dig a little bit into some of your findings later on in the show cou may welcome back to the stream. introduce yourself, remind out audience who you are, what you do. thank you. hear me. i'm currently the global ambassador or african sizing for just to speak in dignity, a pan african social movement. and i'm a visiting fellow at the bush academy in berlin at the moment. i get to have you can remember

a just to be clear on the spend agenda balance. i thank you. thank you for bringing your social justice activism to us and also providing gender balance. and finally, i shall welcome to the strain california who you are, what you day. hi everyone. so i'm, i, shan, pakistani, american who's been spending the last 20 years fighting for the right and dignity of the women who make our clothes mostly happen to be women of color. i currently service. see, we me, we are an advocacy organization based in california, lily to handle, i guess i'm going to start with somebody that caught my eye just recently. i was watching global citizen live, which was a huge global concept that went from one city to another city around the world, raising awareness, raising money activism that was very accessible. and i noticed that the end of the new york lag, the ceo and co found of global citizen was all state his name is hugh evans. and

then you see him in central park and just listen to what the audience begins to shout out as he presents his message of we need to take action. have a listen, have a look. ah, in 2005. when nelson mandela launched the campaign to make poverty history, he said that overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. but it's an act of justice. he said, poverty is not natural. it is man made and can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. charity alone as important as it is and it is important will never be sufficient to end extreme poverty or tackle climate change the crowd a yelling out, cold play co play. they want the next act to come on state. they don't really care

that much about taking action. who said, wow lisa, you stuff yeah, yeah. wow. um, i think that this is one of those really good moments which explains why it is that maybe this isn't the best way about getting audiences engaged in global justice movements. because when nelson mandela was talking about why we really shouldn't have poverty, he was also talking about the human beings creat poverty with their choices. and it's really hard for us to actually accept that and it's hard to get people sort of to get on to that message. and so probably they just wanted to do something fun and listen to call play. i think that's where that's really challenging to try to mix up celebrity activism and entertainment ayesha, you know, i would say it really depends on who the celebrity is and whether or not they are really using that platform for good. you know,

we all remember the queens where the candle, general pepsi commercial right, where she was handing the pepsi to the protest from the protesters to the lease in order to say, hey, you know, this is a way for us to come together. and we all just lost them say, you know, new york, a lot of my black lives matter movement. this is terrible. and so that's an example of a right. but we're just coming off of the tree, the gum and work of protection act here in california, which assures government workers make a minimum wage. and we had some incredibly thoughtful celebrity, supermodel amber, the latter actress robin wright, who lent her support to our campaign. and i have to tell you that was critical in our when it helped us galvanized more citizens. it helped us reach policy makers. so i would say it really depends. you know, this blanket statement of celebrity should never get involved. frankly, for us, we sometimes need the star power off celebrities, age cultural narratives. yeah. can i just jump in?

it's amazing that robin wright was doing that work for you because, you know, some of the interviews that i did with humanitarian and development workers, can shop the democratic republic of congo. actually some of them pointed to her in particular because she has this organization where she sells like $200.00 us dollar pajamas for, for women in eastern congo called per list him. and what one of the mentoring workers actually said, we have a quote in our books. basically, you know, that robin wright made a big deal out of something. she knows absolutely nothing about. actually if she came here to the congo, she'd probably get stones coming way in. well, i was moved by the example because i was the chair of that global make poverty to campaign which is called the global cause action against poverty. and i, together with nelson mandela last launched that campaign in london in chicago square, nearly genuity. and let me just tell you our perspective in engaging with celebrities

. it was based on what i basically said, which is that we have a media environment that is stacked against us. it is so difficult for us to get our narratives into the mainstream media. however, they are, as lisa points out, civil lists involved. and i think it's a question of finding the right balance between how we actually engage in what kind of sort of parameters we put to it. because the term that we used, by the way, in 2005 because we had challenges in the way that celebrities engage with us. and in fact, at that time, we would say we need to be gaudy against a problem up celebrex to see and set up to see the domination of public space by celebrities. on the other hand though, let's be clear, we got a method communication challenge. how do we get our message across to the largest

number of people, the shortest space of time, and whether we like it or not, celebrities, ab access to public opinion, and are able to shift people. but been, we don't want situations where for example, a company is supporting l g b t i to issues was like, i'm so glad you said that to me. but i'm not sure that you read our mind here on the screen yet to finish up. oh yeah, i got him with it but been ah, producing those are sort of her clothing and the branding and so on. right. i washing where algae beauty i q people are murdered and killed for their choice of sexual orientation. so while we can't be black and white about this, i think we need to put some clear. busy guidelines that, that you lead to or guide how celebrities engage. just if i may just intervene just just one moment i should because i'm, i'm just going to bring in a point that,

that to me race. and i wanna introduce into the conversation, david bishop, and he talks about rain by washing in june than the month of june is as pride month around the well and how companies leap on it and say, yes, we celebrate pride. we support pride, but then that actual policies do not. this is what they had say about that. i'm a very fortunate person. i've been lucky and blessed enough to be very successful in ways that i've always wanted. as an actor writer, director, it's on when i got to a point where i felt like winning a idea or some goal, i didn't know what i was contributing to while i was reading with the violence in washington. and he said to some 300000 deaths, and there are dwarfed only by the 5000000 it was

i guess that's an unimaginable. how could this? how do i know what is never where we do it? as you can tell, that was no david bishop, that was that animation of ben affleck with get to came in just a moment here as promise is david bishop. i think that there are lot of people that are not interested in the rainbow watching in the corporate appropriation. i'll to be to you people, you know, cuz they will rainbow in june and then, you know, get hundreds of thousands of dollars or $1000000.00 to organizations that you know, want to disturb all right. the way. so i think a lot of people are over that. so where we find ourselves right now is in a place where celebrities look for cause is not all of them where they can be connected together. so they use that platform and then they can help amplify

a cause. is there anything wrong with that lisa? yeah, what i think it's really important that we understand that it's not that celebrities just look for causes like that, that there is an entire industry that's developed in terms of celebrity liaison officers, the work of my colleague dunc rocking to and actually includes a lot of interviews with these, these folks who work in the industry, whose entire job is to match large corporate in cios together with celebrities, and to get the right fit and it's extreme, it's extremely scientific. you don't just go out and support a cause. you happen to like ben affleck, great example, but i know we'll get to later. this is, this is a strategy. it's a business strategy, friends. and it's about, you know, mixing up the kinds of things where people really want to do good in managing to modify their compassion, managing to profit or met without giving any of the profits that you make from that to the rightful shareholders. who are actually, you know, the supposed beneficiaries and the people who are supposed to be helped

a couple of thoughts. hey, on twitter, then i shall go to you of the back of, of these tweets h t for a says, what's happening right now with celebrity activism. it's gentrifying the issue then commercializing it. the impact is an issue. publicity is relative to its profitability. so they're going to be some cause is down. i say that a sexier than others that get a lot of attention and in others that do not. this is 10 die 10. i says that a, as in bob, we and social justice activists. i view this new trend as the meaning and trivializing general genuine causes. i should go ahead. no, i think at the end of the day if celebrity activism focused on telling more staff, it's essentially doing more harm than good enter barren. i think like the conflict cried when you think about as t q. i as so much of the commodification as our land wanted to just pump out products and so celebrities to lend a name to, to make more money. and that's where i think it becomes very dangerous, right?

it's a be yeah, i think similarly, we all remember when nike, you know, that kept the nick was going to be the person in america like in to camps. right. there was those were like, oh my god, because of it, we never going to buy nike and then folks were like, now we're going to buy nike and the shares started storing the thing. maggie has a history of preying on black and brown communities. not just to sell their product, but also how their product is made. and so similar to cultural appropriation. when you've got liberties endorsed, being or giving their message to a big brand. that's clearly a for creating a social movement for clever advertising. that's very problematic. i think that sort of shallow marketing and commodification of social movement is what we need to stay away from. but the earlier example that i gave you, which was a worker, lead piece of legislation, where the front line work, a community that the one that demanded the living. and then you had celebrities with back check data using the platforms to support that sort of stan leverits is

really critical. and so i think the win win here is when influencer and celebrities are allies to campaigns that are really rooted in solutions for the community. the professor help to me go ahead. well, i think the biggest problem, the biggest disease we have in the world right now is not covered, but a disease that we could call affluenza, affluenza pathological illness where people have been led to believe that a good decent life comes from more and more material acquisition so let me just be very clear. i believe celebrities are human beings. they are citizens, died of the work. they have a right to participate in public life as anybody else s. however, when they use that relationship to tell products to make profit and to abuse that relationship, that's when in fact the violation of that. right?

so that's happening. so i have no illusions in my mind that like know, things i've tacked against us in terms of us being able to get our message to the largest number of people in the short space of time when the fellow that we've got listen to me is to get emissions to peak and stop coming down and way. in fact, this decade that we live in, which is i would argue the most consequential decade in humanities history. and what we achieve in the next 10 years would determine what kind of future we have, or whether we have a future at all when we, when the stakes are that high. but i think it is appropriate plus, recognized that we are never going to be able to pass in the politics. that is going to be perfect and idealistic, we're going to have to make some sort of i don't want to use a word compromise. what the, some could sort of adjustments in i was strategy come,

come from lies, is the right word. yeah, yeah, that's the right provis compromise is a difficult would for activism. let me just say why? because you cannot compromise on values. you cannot compromise on the life that people have to choose the own sexual orientation of women to have equality and so on. right? so. so what i'm saying is that when provided we are not sacrificing principles, right? if we're not sacrificing principles, technical adjustments that we need to make from time to time. i think given the realities that we are dealing with, what many call a white stream media, i'm talking here from the global out perspective. and and we in fact quite often the media. busy environment is not talking about the issues, i mean think about the climate stuff trying to call me back between tick tock and it's so hard for us to come to the noise and gotten their attention. and so we see

what we, you know, we're here to influence the multi trillion dollar industry, the company, not billions of dollars products. and for young girls look at celebrities and influences perpetually buy stuff. so we can get married and get some thought about our cars. why not? well, absolutely, but, but i, it, i completely agree with, with what you're saying. but i also think we should remember celebrities or the oligarchy of the attention economy. ok. they, as you've both pointed out, really take it all, but the politics that they bring forth is this politics of authenticity of oh, how much we? well, meaning often white people in the western parts of the world care about a particular cause and not about another law, lisa cannot cut. and i how can i ok? i think you're, i want to push in a particular field. i want to push in a particular does i, which because we, we saw ben affleck explaining how he wanted to be involved in the east and

congo because he read something and he had the money and he wanted to do something, leases, i'm just gonna push you in that direction, because now that i've shown everybody the admiration, i want it to ring us full circle and explain what the challenge is when a celebrity says, i care about this. i've read about a, his, my money and, and i'm super famous what they do. yeah. but yeah, absolutely, and that kind of genesis story about how much we care is exactly the politics i was talking to you about these politics of authenticity not accountability. ok. what we actually know from the research that we've done over years on the organization and ben affleck's involvement in the democratic republic, congo is he didn't wake up one morning and read the newspaper and find out how terrible things were in the democratic republic of congo. okay. in 2006, he hired one of the world's best and most successful strategic consultants. he farms, he interviewed a number of experts, including people that we also interviewed to try to find him

a good cause. and of course, he couldn't have sal sudan because george clooney had already taken that oprah already had south africa completely. you know, under wraps. i mean, basically he would call shopping as celebrities do at that level. and he hired, you know, an extremely successful firm. it was about a business model, and then they wrote a really important story which is very compelling. i have no reason to believe that ben affleck doesn't hear about eastern call go. why would we think he's not a human being like the rest of us who's also moved by, by the tragedies and difficulties and in the world? yet to convince ourselves that just because he carries that, makes her for tickler authority to speak on behalf of the congolese people is something that's a real problem. there were already plenty of organizations working for the eastern congo, including that is read by congo lease. and we have statistics to show that unless those organizations had guerrillas, or very horrific stories of sexual violence or a celebrity, they got almost no funding. and looking at the looking at the budget differences

over a 5 year period is incredible. yes, i want to play to videos for you and to get your instant reaction. catherine clay higgins spoke to us a little bit earlier. she's a ph. d candidate at atlanta school of economics and political science. he was wrestling with this whole concept of celebrity activism. are they helping all hurting his? yes. to celebrity bring to the table of social justice movement is disability. of course it's important not to miss. recognize that there's ability as actual social change at the same time. however, i think it's also important not to be true automatically. dismissive of celebrities to speak out about social justice courses, not because celebrity should be the front of us social justice. they shouldn't. i think it's obvious to most people they shouldn't. but because the way that we tend to dismiss celebrities by accusing them of that, she said, moreno, called chasing, or being otherwise self interested. these are the exact same allegations that we then see far, right, groups and other regressive political projects,

re purposing against people involved. and social justice, well, they're celebrities or not. so guess skepticism is essential, but we can be skeptical and wave. it doesn't contribute to our rhetoric that tries to break progresses already or so it's such a gray area until you really is the address that in the last 25 minutes. and i sure, and lisa, let me show you everybody, guests and, and also our audience could read night on twitter. this is him active, a speaking truth to power, continuing to reflect right at the justice. all right, that's can me a real life proper activist from when he was a teenager. and then we have the activists. the c b special i show is holding. i had, she's, i faced pausing is a terrible idea. according to my, to population. the i day was that you voted on the activists of your choice. it was game of flying activism. it got such a horrific reaction that they've now turned into a documentary about activation or give us

a leaning end to see how that scan to turn out. but when we spoke to adam a little bit early, he said, well, this is just the natural progression of how a combo defying celebrity and activism here is adam. and then can me and me to react on the back of just a briefly as far as a show, like the activist. i was not particularly offended by it. in fact, that was actually weirdly excited for it because i thought it actually demystified the essential nature of what activism is in a late capital estate. it was showing us very clearly that activism interest, another form of branding, of marketing. it poses no threat to the existing relations of a capital estate, and at this point in cap in the development of our economy, i don't even think activism can overcome short term contradictions or even really achieve policy goals. well danger lies the

clarity that if you are going to be using your visibility to continue to advance an unjust economic system. right and push overconsumption, then you've lost the plot, right, oliver? i am persuaded by this reality that if we need to be yeah, in terms of how many people we mobilized, how much of consciousness there is, are many people understand that we are losing, but the planet be losing the right of humanity to exist on this plan. as a result of climate, then we have to embrace a range of energies that can help us communicate. so i would make an appeal to people who are celebrities. you have a role to play as human beings as citizens like any one of us. you cannot imagine

that every not been involved at all. suddenly you are the leader of some social movement to use it to support people, ensure that you are not over exercising your influence and presence and take a leadership from movement is a problem would appear amount of celebrities getting ahead of monday. let me just say that i thought, yeah, well of african refugees. thank you to me. i thank you, kimmy. thank you lisa. thank you. i sure we can obviously talk about celebrities and activism all day long, but i don't have all day long. thank you so much for your tweets and your youtube thoughts as well. i'm going to leave you with a song that was running a name 1985 by michael jackson, and loud or richie. it was the biggest charity record ever. it has gone at a $163000000.00 more than that. the charity. i will leave you with. we are the well thanks for watching everything. with

me. one it is approaching a tipping point. in the lead up to the cop 26 climate summit, al jazeera showcase is program dedicated to one veiling the realities of the climate emergency. witnesses green's films documenting the human experience on the front ah, planet. as the west reports from greenland on how the rapid rate of melting ice is having a profound effect on the population. people in power of why politicians have been so in affected in fighting climate change. folk lines investigates how rising temperatures of fueling a water war in the u. s. l just they were well shows how a community in senegal is dependent on the preservation of their natural resources

. the screen takes the fight, the climate justice to our digital community, and up front. it's hard, demanding environmental accountability. the climate emergency. a season of special coverage on al jazeera talk to al jazeera, we ask what gives you hope that there is going to be peace because the situation on the ground seems to be pointing otherwise we listen. we were never on the. 3 whatever road to off migration we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter on al jazeera. how many nukes is too many new america has in many ways driven the arms race for parties are much more like the british toys down to that there are fewer regulations to own a tiger, then there are its own a dog. how can this be happening? we take on us politics and society and that's the bottom line. mm. mm. be the hero. the world needs washer

ah 2. ready ah, the battle ground of a route 6 killed and dozens into it as wide. will factions open fire in the lebanese capital? ah, i why money fight this is out. is there a lie from dough or so coming up.