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DFN Chat - UNHCR Online Chat 22 October 2002, written by Unknown.
Angelina Jolie is best known for her award-winning cinematic portrayals of a self-destructive supermodel, a scheming mental patient, and, most recently, a high-flying adventurer in the popular Tomb Raider series. However, for the past two years Ms. Jolie has worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on behalf of refugees, travelling to camps and returnee settlements in Africa, Asia, and South America. In August 2001, she was named a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador.
Typically, Ms. Jolie has taken advantage of the exotic locales of her movies to visit people whose lives have been uprooted by war, famine, and civil strife. In the words of UNHCR Senior Public Affairs Officer Shannon Boyd, Ms. Jolie "is a model of determined individual engagement to make the world a better place. She believes that each person can make a difference; with her humanitarian activities she has made this belief a reality."
Angelina Jolie joined DFN participants in an online chat on October 21, 2002 to answer questions about her work as a Goodwill Ambassador and how it intersects with own life as both an actress and a human being. What follows is an inspiring testament to the change one person can effect in the world as well as in oneself. This chat was edited for clarity.
DFN: DFN is now honoured to chat with award-winning actress and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie. Ms. Jolie presently joins us from England, where she is currently filming Tomb Raider II. This past week, her filming took her to Kenya, where she also did work for UNHCR.
Ms. Jolie is also joined here by two UNHCR officers. Shannon Boyd, the manager of the UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador and Special Events Programs, has worked with Ms. Jolie for the past few years. Rupert Colville is the senior media relations officer and UNHCR spokesman. Welcome, all!
Angelina_Jolie: Thank you!
Shannon_Boyd: Yes, it is a pleasure to be here.
DFN: OK, we will begin then. First question?
Harmony: How would you compare the people you met in your travels with those in your experiences in Hollywood?
Angelina_Jolie: Well, it is not easy to explain briefly. Every country is very different. But you always meet people who amaze you with what they have gone through. They are amazing people; my favourite people. Despite what horrors they have been through, they still smile often. They also take care of each other and in these ways it is obviously different.
They certainly live in every moment completely. They live with what is absolutely important and have no time for superficial things. They are hardworking, kind; they are connected to something beyond themselves. There was something someone pointed out to me which stayed with me: In our [American] culture, when someone goes through a traumatic experience, we kind of leave them alone to mourn; in these cultures the people put those suffering in the centre of the community and take care of them. The strange thing is that these people for all their hardship seem to smile a lot more than we do. They cry a lot more, too.
The strange thing is that these people for all their hardship seem to smile a lot more than we do. They cry a lot more, too.
FireGirl: Do you plan on writing a book about your experiences?
Angelina_Jolie: My journals are going to be published. I did a film, Beyond Borders, which happens to deal with real refugee situations.
I plan to do as much as I can. I have been involved in a documentary about Colombia. I have done PSAs [public service announcements] about unaccompanied minors, who are children who arrive in a new country without their parents and are having a tough time in the system.
LisaH: Do you think that the film industry does a good job representing human issues?
Angelina_Jolie: I think unless it is a documentary, it can't be perfectly accurate. Even a documentary misses things. I think the essence needs to be the same. If the essence moves you to care or to act, it has accomplished its purpose.
Giovann77: Do you have contact with or collaborate with other actors turned human rights activists?
Angelina_Jolie: I have been in the same room I am sure when we are working on the same project. But I have not formally had meetings with them.
Shannon_Boyd: I want to add that Angelina is involved in the gathering of all UN ambassadors. There are some one hundred people helping the UN through an occasional basis.
I want to emphasize that we consider the ambassadors to be our partners in our communications, objectives, and strategies. Their job is to help people not to forget what is going on out there.
Shurak: How did you first feel when you were contacted by the UNHCR? Were you hesitant to take on the role of ambassador?
Angelina_Jolie: The strange thing is that I am the one who contacted them. I first went to the UNHCR to learn from them and about the cultures where I was travelling I was really interested in the press staying away and not being an ambassador.
When they asked me to be ambassador, I was on a mission to Cambodia and was so grateful and flattered that they considered me to be part of the organization. The majority of UNHCR works so hard and are so dedicated; I was nervous to try and represent their work but was honoured.
Shannon_Boyd: UNHCR was watching closely when Angelina did her initial travels. The Goodwill Ambassador title is never bestowed lightly; people bearing the title are not just the celebrities in the entertainment business but are Nobel Prize winners, great literary figures, and the like. It is a role given to the highest achievers. It was an invitation that came with a recognition from UNHCR that Angelina had already done significant work. The potential was there for a long-term commitment.
Bjorn: What is your schedule like? How often do you travel for UNHCR?
Angelina_Jolie: It depends; recently I was working and I only had a day off so I went and spent a day in a camp. Sometimes it is just a day and sometimes it's two weeks.
RIMartinez: Is the UNHCR capable enough of taking on such important projects or should there be kind of a larger, more global "world- watch" protecting human rights?
Angelina_Jolie: I don't think any one person or any one organization should have the final word. That being said, I am working for a better United Nations. Nothing is perfect. You should never rely on only one source, but rather rely on those you believe in the most.
"I found [in Sierra Leone] that I was useful just as ... as a person who was willing to work and help, not because I was an actress. And that I needed to know."
DafneMuller: What was the most meaningful moment in your work as goodwill ambassador?
Angelina_Jolie: What meant the most to me is when I learned what I needed to know the most: When I first went to Sierra Leone, nobody recognized me. Once, when I was leaving years ago, some magazine had gotten through to the office where I was working with coverage of me and a movie I did, and everyone in the office started laughing, surprised that it was me.
But I found that I was useful just as me, as a person who was willing to work and help, not because I was an actress. And that I needed to know. None of the other stuff is important.
Leung80: Are you going to build that school you were planning to build in Cambodia?
Angelina_Jolie: I have built about ten schools in Cambodia and opened them as well, which has been great.
SeanK: Would you consider quitting acting as a career, so you can focus on human rights issues more?
Angelina_Jolie: I would love to quit acting, but I am aware I can do more good as an actress than just working in the field. That is something I have to accept. I am more successful as an actress and an activist than just as an activist.
Throughout my acting career, there has always been something missing; I had never felt totally fulfilled until I started my work with UNHCR.
LisaGov: Are you involved in any efforts to raise awareness about the plights of refugees inside, and coming to, the US?
Angelina_Jolie: Yeah of course. But people often confuse illegal immigrants with refugees. There are many unaccompanied minors in the US. This is an issue I am just trying to understand still.
I am the kind of person who doesn't recognize borders. I don't understand why we think it is okay to keep someone within one border when they are unable to feed their family when they could be getting help somewhere else. I don't see people as different so I don't understand the idea of borders in this world.
Kimora: What do you see as the main obstacle to people fully understanding the importance of the work that needs to be done in these suffering countries?
Angelina_Jolie: Lack of information is a big one. There is a lot I should have been aware of before I began my work with the UNHCR and I wasn't. People assume they know what is happening in the world but they really don't. Before I went to Cambodia, I had no idea about Pol Pot and land mines; how that escaped me I have no idea.
Demi: It has been said that young people of your generation are less involved and interested in world affairs than in prior generations. Do you find this to be the case? If so, what can be done about it?
Angelina_Jolie: I don't know. If people of my generation still have hope then there will be an uprising. There will be a new rebellion, instead of being passive or self-absorbed.
"That is one of the enormous values of Angelina's [human rights] work: she appeals to a generation."
Rupert_Colville: I think the polls show the younger generation is very unaware of what is going on in the world. You know, it is the MTV generation. In the old days all you would hear would be the news since that was all that would be on the radio, but now there are so many other distractions in the form of entertainment.
That is one of the enormous values of Angelina's work: she appeals to a generation. Some people would not see humanitarian causes if people like Angelina did not call their attention to them. An example of this is a 16-year-old girl who had come across Angelina's work in UNHCR and suddenly got very interested. She began writing me and she began doing work of her own. She was very energetic; she exhausted me by the end of our correspondence. Now, she is getting people involved in human rights work; one doesn't know how many times an influence will be multiplied.
Angelina_Jolie: Wow, I didn't know about this girl! I would love to get in contact with her.
FKang8: Ms. Jolie, how can we learn more about these issues? What Web sites or books do you recommend?
Angelina_Jolie: Well, as for Web sites, I always check the Human Rights Watch Web site at www.hrw.org to keep informed. Also, any UN site is good for information.
As for books, my favourite book is Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do, by Peter McWilliams. If you read it, it speaks for itself.
LionEyes: From all of your travels, what do you see as the most outstanding human rights issue facing us today?
Angelina_Jolie: That's a tough one. There are many: There is in the Ottawa convention a treaty to ban land mines and yet the US hasn't signed that treaty. Obviously, there is no good use for them.
DFN: Why hasn't the US signed the treaty?
Angelina_Jolie: One argument is that is a constitutional right to bear arms. There are other arguments for it as well.
Right now, I am the process of purchasing a house for Maddox [Ms. Jolie's adopted son] in Cambodia. I have to de-mine all the lands surrounding it. And it scares me that I might miss one and he might run off and play and step on it one day.
DFN: Thank you so much for joining us today, Ms. Jolie. There are literally hundreds of people who came today to the chat, and many questions that we unfortunately do not have time for. Do you have any last statement you would like to make?
Angelina_Jolie: I just want to thank everyone for coming. I really didn't know there would be so much interest. We should do this again sometime soon!
Submitted By: Administrator
Brad and Angelina Donate $1 Million to Haiti Quake Relief (UNHCR)
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's foundation is contributing $1 million to the emergency medical operation responding to the devastating 7.0-magnitude quake in Haiti.
"It is incredibly horrible to see a catastrophe of this size hit a people who have been suffering from extreme poverty, violence and unrest for so many decades," says Jolie.
"People are probably going to think I'm out of my mind. They already think I'm sexually wacko sleeping with my brother, dating other men, a vampire..."
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