MNN - Mother Nature Network

Okay, so Matt Damon isn't really going on a toilet strike. Or maybe he is. I had a friend in high school who, in addition to listening to a lot of Ween and smoking clove cigarettes, experimented with al fresco urination in his mother's backyard in order to decrease his water footprint. That seemed to work out well for him (and his mother's garden). 

 

In a truly toilet-humored, viral-aiming video — a video complete with a "Two Girls One Cup" reference and a reporter muttering the words "caca" and "peepee"— released yesterday by water.org, the World Toilet Day-supporting actor announces in a mock press conference that "... until everybody has access to clean water and sanitation — I will not go to the bathroom.”

 

Like toilet paper entrepreneur Simon Griffiths' similar squat-in from last year, this is a stunt. Damon will indeed go "caca" and "peepee" and he'll most likely do so in a toilet, not in his swimming pool or in his neighbor's begonias. But this is a stunt with a humanitarian mission: to raise awareness of clean water and sanitation issues in developing countries.

 

Damon, who founded the H2O Africa Foundation before it merged with another NGO to form water.org in 2009,  explains to the Los Angeles Times: "The concept of experimenting with comedy to generate new levels of awareness and participation in the cause is something we've been toying with for a couple of years. If Sarah Silverman and I can generate millions of views on YouTube for something ridiculous, then we should be able to do better for one of the most important and solvable issues of our time." 

 

 

The Strike With Me campaign will be running through World Water Day on March 22, a date that I presume that the "We Bought a Zoo"and "Promised Land" star will revert back to indoor plumbing. You can find out more about the worldwide toilet crisis — more than 2.5 billion people are without access to clean, safe means of sanitation —at Strikewithme.org. While there, you can also donate to the cause. The campaign's initial fundraising goal of $10,000 has already been met and then some but contributions are still very much welcomed as a mere $25 can help the organization supply an individual-in-need with clean water for life. You can also show your support for the strike via social media, a method that's far more socially acceptable than popping a squat in the far corner of a Safeway parking lot.

 

In addition to his good work with water.org, Damon can soon be seen on HBO playing the much younger lover of the world's most beloved piano-tickling human peacock and velveteen toilet-owner in Steven Soderbergh's "Behind the Candelabra."