October 4 2011; Source: ONE | What’s in a word? It is bizarre that as a society we can become so upset about minor verbal transgressions but be so numb when it comes to the death by starvation of tens of thousands of children within just a few months. This is the point made in a video by ONE, the global anti-poverty group co-founded by Bono.

ONE has launched a campaign entitled “The F Word: Famine is the Real Obscenity.” The video, which also involves Somali-born singer and poet K’naan, FOX news host and former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Arianna Huffington, Jenna and Barbara Bush, George Clooney, Clive Owen, Jessica Alba, Christy Turlington Burns, Kristin Davis, Idris Elba, Colin Farrell, Joe Jonas, Liya Kebede, Annie Lennox, Justin Long, Rob Lowe, Ewan McGregor, and Evan Rachel Wood is intended to call attention to the fact that more than 30,000 children have died in the Horn of Africa over the past three months as well as to the fact that in contrast to the response after natural disasters, there are no long term plans to address the problem.—Ruth McCambridge