by Rubee Kola

Created on: February 21, 2008

Every time I hear about another "Humanitarian Award" given to Angelina Jolie, I cringe just a little. People are quick to point out that she has made significant contributions to world causes over the years, but are those contributions really motivated by her personal philanthropy philosophy?

Angelina Jolie has been traveling the world her entire life. The daughter of wealthy Hollywood actors, she has had the means and the resources to travel wherever she desires. Throughout her acting career, she had the opportunity to visit Afghanistan, and was "shocked and amazed" at the conditions of Afghan refugees she came in contact with. She donated one million dollars to the Afghan Refugee Fund. The United Nations Refugee Agency showed their appreciation by bestowing her the title of UN Goodwill Ambassador in 2001.

Since then, Angelina has traveled all over the world, mostly Africa and Southeast Asia, expressing her shock and amazement at the inhumane conditions she experiences there. Why didn't anyone know about this before her visits? As a result of her travels, she published a book called "My Travels" which is a diary of her trip throughout Africa. She also made a movie for MTV titled "The Diary of Angelina Jolie and Dr. Jeffrey Sachs in Africa." I wonder just how much MTV paid for her time and appearances, along with the costs of a crew following her through Tanzania?

In 2003, Angelina was the first recipient the Citizen of the World Award, which was created specifically for her by the UN Correspondents Association. In 2005, she was awarded the Global Humanitarian Award by the UNA-USA. In 2006, she created the Jolie/Pitt Foundation, which gave 1 million dollars each to Global Action for Children and Doctors Without Borders. In 2007, she was awarded the Freedom Award by the International Rescue Committee. With every new award, we are reminded just how "humanitarian" Angelina Jolie is, traveling around the world, speaking out about conditions everywhere.

What is troublesome about her humanitarian achievements is that she receives so much attention and praise for her work. There are people that work their entire lives for the variety of causes she becomes "shocked" to hear about while on a movie location site. These people will never receive humanitarian awards, or Citizen of the World recognition. How is it she is so strongly praised for a cause she has minimal involvement with?

One woman can hardly have the time to make these kinds of contributions to so many causes.

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