Pitt and Jolie Give Namibia $300,000

The gossip rags and TV were full of the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Baby Watch in the last week. This journal has little interest in the off-camera activities of most movie stars and is highly suspicious of those who get involved in social causes because rarely do they do the homework needed to really help. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, however, proved exceptions to the rule when their daughter was born in Namibia. They gave $300,000 to two hospitals in Namibia to help children whose parental lottery tickets didn’t provide two movie stars as Mommy and Daddy.

Namibia is about half the size of Alaska and has a population of just over 2 million. The CIA says the median age is 20, with an infant mortality rate of 48.1 per thousand. Life expectancy in Namibia is 43.4 years. HIV has infected 210,000 Namibians and has killed 16,000. Typhoid, malaria and schistosomiasis (a nasty worm infection) are fairly common. Thanks to mineral wealth, though, the GDP per capita is a relatively high (for Africa) $8,200 per person. So, while pretty typical of Africa, which is to say bad, it is actually a place where there is some hope.

If one can have a child anywhere on Earth, Namibia doesn’t come top of the list necessarily. Being targets of the paparazzi, though, Mr. Pitt and Ms. Jolie decided it offered privacy they wouldn’t get in, say, Los Angeles, New York or Paris. They appear to have been correct, as the world has been spared (thus far) any baby pictures on Page 1. All babies look more or less alike; the chubby ones resemble Churchill and the thinner variety all look like Ike. Any photo would do, really, unless one is Jon Voigt (and that’s a different issue).

In a statement, the binary star “Brangelina” said, “We want to contribute to Namibia and the people who have been so gracious to us at this time.” Now, $300,000 to a hospital in the US doesn’t even settle a malpractice suit, but in Namibia, it buys vaccines and mosquito netting that can save literally hundreds of lives. A second donation of $15,000 for a school and community center in Swakopmund, Namibia (where kid was born) might save a few more from poverty and ignorance. They could have done more, and no matter how much help goes to places like Namibia, some kids aren’t going to make it. Rabbi Marc Gellman, who writes for Newsweek and who is senior rabbi of Temple Beth Torah in Melville, New York, tells a story that explains why their efforts, nonetheless, are noteworthy as well as praiseworthy.

A young man was jogging on the beach one morning when he saw an old man ahead of him bending down and picking up starfish and throwing them into the sea one by one. As he came close the young man asked, ‘What are you doing?’ The old man answered, ‘There was a storm last night and many starfish were washed high up onto the beach. If I don’t throw them back, the sun will kill them by noon.’ The young man laughed and said, ‘You are a fool old man. The beach is miles long and there are thousands of starfish stranded on it. You can’t get to them all before the sun dries them out and kills them. What you are doing, old man, just doesn’t matter.’ The old man threw another starfish into the safety of the waves and said, ‘It mattered to that one.’