Jolie on Refugees

I don't really share the objections that people frequently raise to celebrities getting involved in political causes. Donating what one can donate to good causes is a good thing to do. And as Tyler Cowen has observed, in the developed world one of the scarcer commodities out there is attention is grabbing people's attention is something movie stars are very good at doing. Watch this video of Angelina Jolie talking about refugees living in Syria and you'll see:

This is an issue a lot of people have tried to write about and raise awareness of, but the level of action has thus far been pretty tiny. But this is a hell of a powerful anecdote, and Jolie's able to tell it in a way that gets more people's attention than if it was just another article in a highbrow magazine somewhere.

Comments

One should really feel sorry for the Iraqis who are temporary (hopefully) refugees in Syria. The place is bad enough for the permanent residents. As my Syrian friend once told me they don't discriminate against Jews in Syria, they treat everybody equally badly.

Posted by SLC | September 28, 2007 9:32 AM

Funny that those celebs never cared about the Iraqi refugee crisis that resulted from Saddam's regime.

Posted by Al | September 28, 2007 10:50 AM

The great thing about Angelina is that if she was crazy enough to sleep with Billy Bob Thornton she just might be crazy enough to sleep with the average, dumpy male blogger. Crazy chicks rule!

Posted by Citizen (World) | September 28, 2007 12:35 PM

I saw her speak at a screening of "A Might Heart," and I have to say she is pretty awesome.

Posted by bobbo | September 28, 2007 12:35 PM

How dare she have an opinion based on her personal experience! All policy decisions should be based purely on administration leaks.

Posted by Luke | September 28, 2007 12:57 PM

Al, perhaps you'd care to enlighten us regarding the" refugee crisis" of Iraqis who fled Saddam's regime? Were there more or less refugees than now? Was it truly a crisis? Were they fleeing the destruction of their homes, their cities, their entire nation, or are you talking about mostly about political dissidents? And, given that Saddam had the full support of the US, what, exactly, did, say, the Reagan administration do to help those dissidents?? It is true, perhaps, that your despised celebs were not pushing the cause back then. But the only opposition I ever saw to US support for Saddam during the Reagan years came from leftist outlets such as the Nation. Facts and context, please, if you expect to be taken seriously.

Posted by jaytee | September 28, 2007 2:03 PM

Al, you're so cute!

Posted by John Emerson | September 28, 2007 2:58 PM

Funny that those celebs never cared about the Iraqi refugee crisis that resulted from Saddam's regime.

Oooh, a mind-reader! And he doesn't read boring old normal-people minds, but celebrity minds! He must be a hit at cocktail parties.

OK Al, tell the truth now: Antonio Banderas has a massive crush on me, doesn't he? C'mon, we're buds, you can tell me.

Posted by Uncle Kvetch | September 28, 2007 3:01 PM

Angelina is my number one favorite babe for any number of reasons.

Leaving aside her raving sexuality, she is also one very smart, tough woman. I'm not someone who much cares about refugees, or whatever is the "crisis du jour" at the moment. But I gotta give Angie full credit for being absolutely serious about her work as an UNHCR representative.

This woman learned to fly a plane so she could fly into remote refugee areas.

This woman has been to refugee camps which are quite dangerous. I saw a pic of her in one camp and nearby was a UN soldier with a silenced submachine gun - indicating this was not the safest place to be. In other pics of camps she's been in, the UN troops were carrying assault rifles or manning mounted machine guns.

This woman has adopted a bunch of kids from various messed up places and clearly loves them totally.

This woman has contributed literally millions of dollars of her movie earnings to refugee organizations and finances her own operations with UNHCR.

Whatever one might think about her personal life (and the only thing I care about it is that I'm not getting the benefit of it!), she's absolutely serious about helping refugees and kids from all over the world and is completely nonpartisan about it. She will talk to anybody, including assholes like Senator Brownback and Pakistani politicians, to get help for children and refugees.

She probably has her own emotional reasons for doing this sort of work, but nobody can say she's isn't legit.

All that said, Jesus, do I want to pump her through 100 miles of pipeline! This is hands down the sexiest woman in Hollywood. She has a drop-dead stare that can melt steel! She French-kisses her brother! She's bisexual! She plays with knives in bed! She actually screws guys in hotel rooms! She's had enough movie weapons training that she could probably outshoot an FBI agent by now! And she's smart, tough, powerful, and rich! What more do you want from a woman?

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | September 28, 2007 3:42 PM

I started out as a Jolie skeptic on her refugee work, but I've since seen her in a couple of interviews, and her knowledge of these issues is pretty impressive.

The anecdote she gives is a very powerful one, and it is just an incredible indictment of this administration that they are doing so little about this problem. Even if the war had been justified by a real eminent threat, their conduct in this matter would serve to undermine the moral authority of our country.

Posted by AJ | September 28, 2007 4:08 PM

Al, I've seen you say some hypocritical trollish shit here, but that ranks among some of the worst.

When critics of the war bring up the failed policies of this administration as a good reason for rejecting their new ideas, many war supporters are quick to say things that amount to "why dwell on the past, we're there now."

But when someone shares a heart-wrenching story about something we can and should fix, your first response is to attack the messenger, and lamely at that. Prick.

Posted by Trevor | September 28, 2007 4:22 PM