Manic mummy

I am hoping that my two sons will turn out like George Clooney.

No, not because he is a suave, handsome Hollywood star (although there's that, too), but because he is a man who cares deeply about the state of the world and the plight of others - and is not afraid to look unglamorous while doing so.

Proof positive: Two weeks ago, the actor-director was arrested outside the Sudanese embassy in Washington, alongside others who were protesting against Sudan's alleged use of military force to block food and humanitarian aid to civilians on the South Sudan border.

Photos of the A-lister, sporting a grizzly salt-and-pepper beard, with his hands behind his back and cuffed with zip-ties, soon went viral.

What makes him different from the other hunger-striking, prison-going activist-celebrities out there?

For one thing, he has always maintained that he is nothing more than a "megaphone", using his star power to amplify what the neglected and oppressed common man is trying to say.

For another, his approach to monitoring conflict in Sudan strikes me as often diplomatic, considered and nuanced.

Yet, what is most heart- warming - if heart-warming is the right word for the public stance taken on a grim political situation - is that he was arrested alongside his dad, retired journalist Nick Clooney.

"I'm glad to be standing here with my father," he told reporters, as father and son were led away.

If you (like me) are wondering what kind of parenting style contributes to raising a child that grows up to be like George, a Salon.com interview with Nick last Thursday offers some clues.

"We always talked about what was going on in the world. We talked about it at the breakfast table; we talked about it in the car," the veteran newsman said.

"But we always tried to do it with humour and something that matched George's and our daughter's (Ada) experiences. I hate sermonising."

Asked what he thought about people who feel that children need to be protected from upsetting things in the world, he replied:

"Perhaps we were negligent in protecting our children. We, instead, always opted for involvement.

"We believed that if someone is down on the ground, we should not be standing there and doing nothing."

His words made me appreciate the Supportive Spouse (SS) even more for his efforts to engage our elder son, Julian, who is six.

Last year, on the 10th anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the SS started explaining to Julian what had happened and how it rocked the world.

(Meanwhile, I was nervously reminding the husband that we were about to board a flight for Disneyland the next day, and not to traumatise the kid.)

When unrest erupted in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, father and son watched the news on television together and followed the Arab Spring reports in newspapers and magazines.

Julian was so interested that he ended up making a little booklet on Africa for show-and-tell in school. These things are heartening, as it worries me a little when I see some young people in Singapore who care only for the newest restaurants and designer togs.

Recently, when I mentioned to a 20-something friend that I was going to Seoul, she lit up at the prospect of shopping but had an utterly blank look on her face when I mentioned the DMZ (demilitarised zone) between North and South Korea.

Even as we, parents, worry about our offspring's academic grades and character development, it is worth bearing in mind that there is also an imperative to instil in them a sense of being connected to the rest of the world that they inhabit.

A few days ago, Julian started asking me about pet ownership. Somehow, the conversation turned to freedom and slavery.

"There are many children who are slaves in the world. Even today," I said. "Think about it, and how to help them."

It's at best a homily, I know. But as Clooney Senior said: "You throw out 58 homilies and hope that one or two of them stick."

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