Our cultural obsession with fame mystifies me. But every once in a while I find a famous person I would truly love to meet. Typically fame alone doesn't merit much of my interest, but when that person is combining that fame (and fortune) to somehow work to make the world a better place...now that's worth some giddy admiration.
Take Shakira, for example. I bought Shakira's first CD (when she was still singing in Spanish) while on vacation in Mexico City in 1996. It was a wildly popular throughout Latin America. She was only 18 at the time, and I remember hoping that so much success at such an early age wouldn't ruin her.
So it's heartening to see news like this:
Kind-hearted pop star Shakira is donating $40 million to help rebuild areas in the Americas hit by recent natural disasters.
The Colombian singer will donate the money from the foundation Latin America for Solidarity Foundation (ALAS) - which she co-founded with Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
The money will go to repair damages caused by an earthquake in Peru and a hurricane in Nicaragua.
The pop beauty also revealed the foundation will plow $5 million into a three-year commitment project for children in the two regions.
I love the example she's setting. Imagine the millions of kids around the world who are Shakira fans seeing that and absorbing that as a behavior to emulate.
Here's a pipe dreamer thought (hey - I'm allowed!). How cool would it be if, rather than the fancy car and the shiny bling, one must-have measurement of fame started being how much you give. And rather than obsessing on who's dating/breaking up with/cheating on whom, we could be obsessed with who's making what kind of difference in the world.
Yeah, it probably wouldn't get as much attention on the front page of The National Enquirer, but a boy can dream, right?
[via Don't Believe the Hype]
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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst TM
Great idea! I think you could argue that people like Bill Gates are making your dream come true within the corporate world. As corporate social responsibility continues to rise, everybody wins while companies fight for increasingly peerless brand images and plow money, research and time into health care, education, and ecological stewardship. I think we've gotten to a point where people expect this from companies, especially big multinationals.
This happens simply because a lot of people are paying attention, notably the media and stockholders. If the media spends more attention on efforts such as Shakira's (and also notes those who fail to follow suit), and the "stockholders" (fans) notice these things, then such a change can happen within the celebrity world.
Posted by: JeremyS | October 06, 2007 at 01:52 PM
Hey Jeremy! I think the key here is, "if the media spends more attention..." What the media focuses on has so much potential to shape the way we see things. I'm heartened by the fact that more socially conscious ideas and efforts are starting to get more play.
Posted by: Curt Rosengren | October 09, 2007 at 09:12 AM