MY CAMPAIGNS
Dear Angelina Jolie, UNHCR helper*
We are the refugees and asylum seekers of the
world. We thankfully appreciate your passion, your strong will and your hard
work to help us, but we feel your efforts are not used to their best advantage.
We believe that you have a real interest in helping us because you have strong and good humanitarian feelings, but you don’t know our real problems and the real reasons for our situations. Because the UNCHR puts curtains around you, to stop you from seeing the truth, the lights from the cameras, block your sight from seeing the truth, the UNHCR let you hear only their voices around you, and block your ears from hearing the truth.
My dear they made you: Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). We are sorry for that. We thought that you were goodwill Ambassador for the refugees. They try to make you an employee, an employee among thousands; we thought you would be our voice, voice of voiceless humans. We thought you were really working for our sake, to improve our situation, not to clean the face of the UNHCR and to clean the hands of UNHCR. Do you think that we need to increase the staff? Don’t you think that we have enough workers doing nothing? (We don’t mean you do nothing)
What kind of job did they give you? Smiling in
front of the journalist? Collecting money? It’s painful to speak like this,
because we know and believe you are a good woman doing what she believes in, but
we know you have only half of the story, the rest is hidden from you.
We the real refugees, honestly tell you that we
don’t need more money that gets used for the wrong things. We don’t need more
workers for doing nothing, just to increase the staff of the UNHCR. Do you think
that they told you what we need???
We don’t think that they told you the truth!
We have a big hope that you will look to see the
other face of the UNHCR! To listen to our voice and to see our truth.
We need some one who has a big heart to
understand what are our real problems with UNHCR’s procedures and the
injustice that we face, for they are abusing and misunderstanding the supreme
meaning and principles of the UN 51 convention. We need you to be the
refugees’ helper not just a UNHCR helper.
You are great but you are in wrong place, please
try to move one step in front just to leave the darkness of the UNHCR, one step
into the light of truth, you will find us and we will help you to see the truth,
just you and us without UNHCR, can you step in the truth???
'What
do you do about that? It's really awful,'
said actress Angelina Jolie, 26, after a ceremony Monday in Geneva in which she
was formally appointed ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR).
Voice of pain: That is true we need to know what
they will do? And to have answers for more many questions.
"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."
"I
would love to quit acting, but I am aware I can do more good as an actress than
just working in the field."
*
JL:
Did you approach UNHCR, or did they approach you after your visit to Cambodia?
AJ:
I approached UNHCR because I believe in what the United Nations is
attempting to do, . . . and I support the United Nations. I read about the
different chapters and UNHCR was the most [appealing] because I believe refugees
are the most vulnerable people in the world. They are affected by everything,
including landmines. They are vulnerable to everything.
Voice of pain: Do you mean that you believe all
of what the UNHCR are attempting? Even to violate refugees rights and letting
them be killed*
Angelina;
"so many of these people, these kids, are here-have been forgotten
about. And its so important that people pay attention, so if, I can, just a few
people, make them pay attention I will be very happy."
Voice of pain: For many years we tried to bring
attention to our real problems, but always UNHCR block us. We tried for many
times to make our voice be heard, but always the UNHCR silenced our voice.
JL:
Through your position at UNHCR, what exactly are you hoping to accomplish?
AJ:
Awareness [of] the plight of these people. I think they should be
commended for what they have survived, not looked down upon. I think people are
often uncomfortable and don’t like the idea. They seem to shy away because of
what it means to them. I think these are really amazing people that are not
really understood. Also, I personally just wanted to meet these people around
the world and know them, because they are my heroes, and I think they are
wonderful people.
Voice of pain: Yes, exactly, we need someone who
is ready and able to understand us.
JL:
I am sure you have met many influential people and heard many amazing stories.
Are there any of these experiences that you would like to share?
AJ:
There are so many. Really its just person after person in every different
country that has a life that I can’t even imagine and has gone through horror
that I can’t even imagine. And yet, in every country, every family was more
generous than I have met in other countries with their time or whatever they
had. Trying to find food or tea or something and give you a smile, and [they]
are so grateful for what they had left—an unbroken spirit. And that was
remarkable for me that that was not specific to one place or one person. That
continues to be the majority of these people out there. For whatever reason, I
don’t know why, but they’ve learned something in their suffering and their
struggle that we have lost touch with.
Voice of pain: How great you are, you have our
vision… “My
dear friends, the life of a refugee is very
dangerous and long, full of
suffering and pain. I know
some people in this situation
have lived like this for
more than 10 years, and as
these years go by, look
at this idea; It's more than a
crisis: If we take the
average of the time of being a
refugee let me speak
it’s 6 years so 6 x
22,000,000=132,000,000 years can
you imagine what this could
mean? One hundred thirty
two MILLION YEARS of life,
made up of suffering and pain.
THE
TRUTH WARRIOR
OSAM
ALTAEE
From: Hizb Allah, UNHCR and the Dinosaurs.
*
JL:
What do you feel being an Ambassador for UNHCR has done for the organization?
AJ:
I hope it has brought more awareness. That’s all I can hope for. I know
what it’s done for me, but I hope it has brought more awareness. I feel it has
because people tend to ask me questions, and I have received a lot of letters
from young people talking about the things they are doing to make a difference.
And that’s been a very nice thing because I didn’t get letters like that
before. The most important thing, or the thing I think I accomplished most was
going to these places and sitting down with the families for about an hour, and
I think . . . what matters most of all is that you go out of your way to sit
down with people and listen to their stories and talk with them and show them
somebody cares and is listening.
Voice of pain: You don’t need passport to enter
our hearts, we are already in your heart. And you don’t need to be Ambassador
for UNHCR to have awareness of our problems, all that we need is that you make
UNHCR hear our voices.
*
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 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.
Voice of pain: We can help you to find real stories about refugees with documents, if you like.
VOICE OF PAIN
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