Angelina Jolie To Pakistani Politicians: I Didn’t Come To Wine & Dine

United Nations’ Goodwill Ambassador was shocked to see Pakistan’s rulers interested in private group photos with her when 20 million Pakistanis were in distress

Jolie was in Pakistan in the first week of September 2010. She was wined and dined, so to speak, by Pakistani politicians.

But they failed to join her in visiting their distressed countrymen. They also failed to match her personal cash donation to flood victims.

No wonder Ms. Jolie is miffed.

SPECIAL REPORT | Sunday, 17 October 2010.

WWW.PAKNATIONALISTS.COM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Corrupt, inept, dollar-huggers and downright cheesy. This description sums up the personal attributes of the vast majority of Pakistani politicians and generally the closed club of Pakistan’s ruling elite, barring few gentle exceptions.

No one discovered this better than Angelina Jolie, who was put off by the antics of the Pakistani ruling elite during her visit to Pakistan last month to rally international support for flood victims.

As much as she was touched by meeting ordinary Pakistanis, her meetings with Pakistani elites were awful, to say the least.

Just read what columnist Masood Hasan says in today’s column in The News International:

“Pictures of her sitting on a "charpoy" dressed almost like a tramp … Personally, in some, I couldn't even make out which was Ms. Jolie and which was the woman who had lost it all. Yet each time she has been here, the worst traits in our society's upper echelons have surfaced like warts. Earlier, Mr. Shaukat Aziz embarrassed us as he clung to her hand, much to Ms. Jolie's embarrassment – he was showing her his Rose Garden. (Etchings?) In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the governor had made a fool of himself (and us) by pressurizing her to cut his birthday cake (what a coincidence it was his birthday!) and her finally relenting for the sake of the UNCHR, only to find a hall full of ogling males and overdressed aunties. Some madcap photo-op ensued and, while I don't know the details, it was all pretty hair-raising.”

Jolie’s horror story began when she saw Pakistani rulers pushing back flood victims to make time for private group photos with her, showering her with gifts, inviting her to sumptuous private dinners, and requesting her for private photo opportunities.

Commentator Zeenat Rehman reported on the Pakistani website PakSpectator.com how Jolie informed the UN, where she is a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, about how Pakistan’s ruling elite must be told to be more sensitive to flood victims:

“The philanthropist, soft-hearted world’s number one female actress, Angelina Julie is not at all happy with her visit to Pakistan to see the flood victims. She came here, held the hands of the victims, made donations, stood up with the miseries of the people, denied any photo sessions, met with the aid agencies, but then she talks about the darker side of the things.

She is not happy with the attitude of the authorities and the government, who were more interested in toeing her line, watching her make movements, trying to please her while pushing the flood victims. She was also perturbed at the Prime Minister’s wish that his family wanted to meet him. Prime Minister’s family was especially flown down all the way from Multan to Islamabad and they presented expensive gifts to Jolie and had a sumptuous meal with her.

She said that she was feeling awful at that time to see so much food at the table, suffice for hundreds of flood victims who were fighting like crazy to get a small bag of flour and a small bottle of water. She was ill at ease when she saw the interior of lavish Premier house and some of the government buildings and the chartered planes and other such luxuries, when there was so much misery outside.

In her report to the United Nations, she has recommended UN to ask Pakistani government to first cut down on their expenses and to first cut down their luxuries before asking the aid from the world.

How true she is.”

One more thing that shocked Jolie during her visit to the flooded areas of Pakistan was to learn that her personal cash donation of $100,000 [approx. Rs. 8.5 million] was more than any Pakistani politician has given to his or her own people.

Pakistani newspaper Dawn has reported that Jolie’s cash donation “belittled” the contributions of President Asif Zardari, Prime Minister Gilani and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and leaders of major Pakistani political parties like MQM, ANP and others.

Unfortunately, these politicians do not reflect the hospitable and generous nature of Pakistani people.