I enjoyed this book very much, although it tensed me at times, and made me cry at others. It's the story of many refugees around the world, and the humanitarian work Angelina Jolie has done to help them out. It's an account of her early years as Good Will Ambassador for the UNHCR.
I'm so impressed by the things that people can do to each other, and how the survivors of this hatred and spite keep on with their lives after such harsh and traumatic experiences stay tattooed on their s...more I enjoyed this book very much, although it tensed me at times, and made me cry at others. It's the story of many refugees around the world, and the humanitarian work Angelina Jolie has done to help them out. It's an account of her early years as Good Will Ambassador for the UNHCR.
I'm so impressed by the things that people can do to each other, and how the survivors of this hatred and spite keep on with their lives after such harsh and traumatic experiences stay tattooed on their souls. By the end of the book I couldn't stop asking myself the same thing that Angelina asked herself all along: how do they survive at all!
Angelina starts her journal by saying that she's not different from other people, but she wants to help. To me that alone makes her different. Not everyone cares about other fellow beings. She's different in so many ways and she makes a difference with all her humanitarian work.
I can understand why the UNHCR agency has such high rates of suicide and depression. Reading books about other countries who live in permanent terror like the ones she describes always depresses me, even though I'm thousands of miles away culturally and physically, and safe behind the soft pages of the book. I can't imagine the emotional scars that all those persons are left with when they are lucky enough to keep their lives. Anonymous to the rest of the world and yet still very valuable lives. Dead just seems such a high price to pay for respect and integrity. I can't imagine where they gather the strength to keep smiling.
It would be easier, less risky and less emotionally demanding to just send funds from the comfort of her home, and yet she is willing to share with all these people her time helping out in whatever ways she can. And that's why it's so admirable what she does. It's easy to mourn the dead, but it's hard to help the living. To all those refugees she is just some woman who wants to help. A remarkable woman with noble feelings. She masters beautiful gestures that make people feel good and loved and recognized and valued, and that alone can be more important than having a lot of other things that seem necessary and are necessary for all of them, but not any more so than the grace and beauty of a person whose mere existence makes it possible for them to keep their hopes up.
As I read once, you can train thousands or millions of political theorists and economists and theologians and bureaucrats, but charm and charisma, and the desire to put celebrity to good use: hundreds of years of training can't teach that or invent it. And Angelina has what it takes to make all this happen. I can't help those people because I don't have the economic resources to do so. But I'm grateful that there are people like her out there who are willing to share what they have, and to sacrifice some of her own comfort to help out. It's a good read if you want to sensitize yourself about some world issues.
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![Notes from My Travels: Visits with Refugees in Africa, Cambodia, Pakistan and Ecuador by [Angelina Jolie]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51dcAXwJnyL._SY346_.jpg)
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Lucia Malefici
A Wonderful Example of Noblesse Oblige
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 12, 2015Agatha Magdalena
Heartbreaking and eye opening.
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