Chris Rattue: The SBW hype machine comes good

Sonny Bill Williams visit to Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon. Photo / Supplied

All that publicity has come good for Sonny Bill Williams. Or, more to the point, it has found a good - or great - cause.

His decision to tweet photos of two dead Syrian refugee children has brought home the horrors of war and displacement into our homes.

The cross-code league/rugby star and overrated boxer has shown that celebrity can be relevant to the important things in life, that many shallow offerings can lead to something deep.

Yes, we already knew about the Syrian refugee crisis, which has seen an evil regime and a civil war force millions out of their homeland, often into dreadful living conditions and a life in limbo. Yes, we know it has tested the soul and the humanitarian ideals of countries, governments, and found some wanting.

But knowing and feeling can be two different things, and the photos and publicity around this story have rammed home what is going on with the Syrian tragedy in a new and very powerful way. Being the famous and much-loved-in-some-circles sportsman that he is - his polarising effect notwithstanding - the truth about a human crisis will have reached many more people with a couple of SBW's clicks.

The two photos SBW posted, after his visit to a temporary Lebanon refugee camp, brought the truth home in a way that has bypassed a lot of us until now.

"What did these children do to deserve this?" Williams asked, in an effectively simple way.

The story has leapt to the top of internet news sites although the New Zealand Herald is among those who have chosen not to display the photos, because they are "too grim".

Traditional news sites and social media work hand-in-hand, and the story's high rating means more people will be aware that they can find the photos, if they wish to. War photography has often been the most powerful messenger of anti-war sentiment, and there are iconic examples of that, and a handful of famous and brave practitioners who did it better than the rest.

While we are a hardly talking Robert Capa-quality photography here, two simple photos of man's inhumanity to man can still have an amazing effect. They have.

Williams, a Unicef ambassador, has been reported as saying: "I know no one knows me over here [in the Middle East], but there's a few people that know me in Australasia and I just thought, people are naturally good people.

"People have goodness in their hearts ... Surely those people who see [the situation here] back home in Australia and New Zealand, it would change a few of their mindsets, how they see refugees."

There has been a pig-headed, self-centredness to SBW's behaviour over the years - some of his actions towards fellow players and teams have been unacceptably selfish.

He does tend to march to his own beat (with the encouragement or at the instigation of his entourage I'd guess) and stuff the consequences or effect on other people. A perceived weakness can be a strength however, and his unique journey and the fame it has garnered found a good place in a very sad place this week.