Angelina's balancing act

I feel a certain ambivalence towards this woman-phenom, Angelina Jolie. I don't call her phenom because I feel the same admiration for her as I do for amazing people like Mohammad Yunus or Nelson Mendela, or maybe even Oprah. She's phenomenal because inspite of her past and her lack of academic qualifications, she's somehow transformed into one of the few legitimate celebrity turned humanitarian/activists of our time. She's almost in the same level as Bono-- who is up there on his own. I am personally not as convinced as her fans from the media or even in the U.N. about how good, sincere or smart she is, but she's arguably become an influential voice in humanitarian causes.

There are a lot about her personal views that I find questionable, or dubious. Her adoption practice seems like an express bus towards downtown--running awfully fast with no bus stops in between. She projects herself through her recent interview (Vogue's January 2007 issue) as a cynic inspite of her altruistic and mother-earth qualities, so it seems ironic that she actually believes that having so many children in a short span of time is healthy for a family or for her growing brood. A cynic would pause, contemplate, and asses the reality of the situation. Yeah, you're filthy rich and can hire an army of help to bring up the kids, but do you really want to do that? And if you don't, do you actually believe you can personally provide these kids (and counting) with enough care and guidance so as not to screw up their developmental years?

I am a professed cynic, and I cannot for the life of me answer the questions I've posted with a confident YES. My family is not big, considering I come from a Catholic country where tradition condemns artificial birth control resulting to 5.1 children in most families, and yet I still think 3 kids with merely 1.5 years in between is too much, too overwhelming, and not smart family planning. Financially, we were fortunate, but I believe that emotionally and psychologically, if a couple is not as prepared, then they should postpone having children. If Angelina and Brad actually believe that having 2 new kids/year is viable because they are emotionally and psychologically able to handle it, then either they have super powers we don't know about (aside from genes and money), or they'll seriously screw their kids' heads in the future. The road to perdition is certainly paved with good intentions.

Angelina's express-adoption just rubs me the wrong way-- a very abrasive and disturbing way. Her wanting to "balance her mixed race" family is also strangely faulty. Would it make a significant difference to Asian Maddox or African Zahara if they have another person of the same race in their home as long as they were brought up with love, support, and confidence by their parents? Who cares if there isn't another kid from some former communist South-east Asian country in the house for Maddox to "relate." If they're brought up aware and emphatic to people regardless of race, then I think Maddox and Zahara will do perfectly ok. This "balancing a mixed race family" is pure crap to me. Love should be color blind anyway. If she's committed to Mad and Zahara having "race balance" so to speak, then they're looking at 2 more kids, one Asian and one African, and then another biological child they plan on having. Nice, we've go 6 kid's ya'all. I love Brad to bits, but he's no longer spring chicken, how's he gonna handle all those rugrats?

That being said, I wish damn hard that I find the kind of romance she has with the most beautiful white man who has worked this earth. Motorcycling across the desert and flying your own plane back home--that's hot. Of course, I need to have the millions to afford my own Cessna plane.