The Pitts’ Monday Morning Stroll

From Los Angeles Times

Tourists go extra mile to do good

More travelers are taking volunteer vacations. A new website aims to help them plan.

By Kimi Yoshino, Times Staff Writer
March 7, 2007

Blame Angelina and Brad and their do-gooding, orphanage-visiting ways. Or maybe it’s all the hurricanes, tsunamis and tornadoes.

Whatever the reason, more tourists — such as college students on spring break, jet-setting luxury travelers and retiring baby boomers — are using their vacations to volunteer.

In the latest example of the growth of “voluntourism,” United Way, one of the nation’s oldest and largest community service organizations, and CheapTickets.com will unveil a website today to link travelers with volunteer work.

“You always had some college kids who go with their church ministry and they build roofs somewhere, but now it’s really something where the industry has taken notice,” said Cathy Keefe, spokeswoman for the Travel Industry Assn. of America. “It’s come a long way from the idea that it’s all crunchy-granola people.”

Recent surveys by online travel company Orbitz, competitor Travelocity and the travel industry group all show increasing interest in volunteer vacations. An even stronger indicator of the interest, Keefe said, is that more travel agencies and tour companies are offering specific volunteer opportunities. In some cases, people can add a day to their trips to focus on a specific cause.

The website doesn’t require visitors to book a vacation with CheapTickets or donate to United Way — but both options are a click away. Still, the site is mostly a way to link tourists with United Way’s 1,300 local chapters by logging on to CheapTickets .com, said Randy Punley, United Way’s director of corporate partnerships.

After travelers decide on their destinations, they can go to the site (volunteer.cheaptickets.com) to pick the specific location for their volunteer work and then select their particular social issue, such as homelessness, domestic violence and drug abuse.

To attract the travelers who might be interested in mixing a good time with good deeds, Punley said, “we’re on MTV, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube.”

Last year, about 100 college students volunteered in Biloxi, Miss., and Foley, Ala., as part of United Way’s inaugural Alternative Spring Break program. This month, more than 300 18-to-24-year-olds — more than 40% of them repeat volunteers — will head to Louisiana for more post-hurricane relief work.

Baltimore resident Brian Pham, 21, saw one of United Way’s ads on MTV last spring and ended up in Biloxi, roofing and framing homes for hurricane victims still stuck in trailers supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In June, he went on a vacation to New York, where he donated time at a day-care center, a home for the elderly and a women’s shelter. Now, he’s in Louisiana for a month as one of United Way’s project managers.

“I don’t even know what words to describe it. Fulfillment, I guess,” said Pham, who took time off from his family’s real estate company to volunteer. “You just feel like you’re doing so much to save the world.”

And it’s not just young idealists helping out. Richard Degnan, a senior executive for Williams-Sonoma Inc., took a four-week jaunt to Africa last year. On his trip, the 40-year-old San Francisco resident visited four countries and took two high-priced safaris. He also spent two days at three orphanages, where he played with children and dropped off suitcases full of clothes. It just didn’t seem right, he said, to go to Africa and not do any volunteer work.

“I know this is going to sound a bit silly, but to be honest, I think it’s because of people like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie,” said Degnan, referring to the celebrity couple’s globe-hopping visits to orphanages and refugee camps. “They’ve glamorized it.”

The orphanages were not what he expected. They were clean and the kids seemed happy and well cared for. But the children were still needy.

“They all craved physical attention — especially little kids want to be held, picked up,” Degnan said. “There’s just not enough people to give them enough attention.

“Now that I’ve done this once, wherever I go, I will always do this.”

Melissa Thornley, 35, spent last Christmas break in Honduras, building homes for the poor. She caught a truck every day at 7 a.m. that took her into the mountains, where she worked four or five hours.

“I was doing physical work, but in a way, it was relaxing,” said Thornley, managing director for a film editing company in Chicago that produces commercials. “When you’re in advertising, we’re not really contributing very much…. I wanted it to feel like I was doing something good over the holidays.”

She booked her trip through i-to-i.com, a British company that allows tourists to book specific volunteer travel. Among the choices: panda conservation in China, coaching baseball in the Dominican Republic and saving sea turtles in Costa Rica.

Although i-to-i.com has been around since 1994, North American bookings increased more than 300% from 2002 to 2005. Last year, the company arranged 5,000 volunteer vacations worldwide, spokeswoman Amy Kaplan said.

“Vacation travel is all about recharging our batteries,” said Randy Wagner, chief marketing officer for Orbitz Worldwide, which owns CheapTickets. “The traditional way is to go to the beach, recharge and you feel great. Now people are telling us that they feel just as great when they give back.”

http://www.i-to-i.com/

Will someone send what was revealed about Tatian to American Adaption Orphan Agency or to legitimate madia or NYpost’s rival NYDailyNews ?

Hi green lettuce,
I haven’t had the pop up problem, but we all have lost posts!
Sometimes they reappear, sometimes they don’t.
Email Jared about the pop ups and do not despair, we’re here
and, hopefully you too.

Jolie filed the first application papers three months ago.
++++++
She probably filed when she was there in january. I think is great that they are adopting an older child.

“Departed” stirs anger over Boston Irish mob boss

By Julie Masis
Tue Mar 6, 3:17 PM ET

BOSTON (Reuters) - While Martin Scorsese is feted by Hollywood for his Oscar-winning film “The Departed,” relatives of people killed or tortured by the real-life Boston Irish mobster on which the movie is based are not applauding.
Some say they feel exploited by the film that won best picture and best director in last month’s Oscars, or that it stirred up painful memories or glossed over crucial facts.

Others simply refuse to see Hollywood’s version of the life of fugitive gangster James “Whitey” Bulger

“The movie gives this hero worship to this creature,” said Christopher McIntyre, 47, whose brother was murdered by Bulger’s gang in 1984. He said he has not seen the film because it would be “very painful.”

“For eight hours, they strapped him in a chair and cut pieces off him. He begged for a bullet in the brain,” McIntyre said, adding that he personally still feels threatened by remnants of Bulger’s gang and plans to leave Massachusetts.

Indicted for 19 murders, Whitey Bulger has eluded police since December 23. 1994, when the convicted bank robber and government informer with ties to corrupt federal agents vanished and sparked a manhunt with unconfirmed sightings spanning nearly every continent.

He is listed alongside Osama bin Laden as one of America’s most-wanted fugitives.

McIntyre’s family filed a federal lawsuit in 2001 that alleges FBI agents at the top levels of the Boston office knew of Bulger’s crimes but protected him from prosecution because they were informants against the local Italian Mafia.

The FBI has declined to comment on the case, saying its investigation into Bulger is ongoing.

Tim Connors, 32, whose father was gunned down by Bulger’s gang in 1975, said he did not like the way Hollywood portrayed Bulger and his notorious Winter Hill gang which generated more than 60 convictions in about 30 cases.

“It glorified things way too much,” he said. “Everybody is just trying to cash in on that story.”

‘NO GOOD GUYS’

Howie Carr, author of the “The Brothers Bulger,” said that although the movie was set in the insular Irish-American South Boston enclave where Bulger lived, it missed a few salient points in the Bulger story.

He said in real life there were few if any redeeming characters such as the policeman played by Leonardo DiCaprio who infiltrates the gang and forms a close relationship with the larger-than-life mobster played by Jack Nicholson.

“There were no good guys in this saga,” said Carr.

Carr’s book explores how much state and city politicians knew about Bulger’s gang, and whether they tolerated its years of bookmaking, drug peddling, extortion and murder while Bulger’s brother, William Bulger, was a dominating force in state politics as Senate president.

David Wheeler, whose father was shot and killed by a hitman on Bulger’s orders in 1981, criticized the film for glossing over the government’s involvement in Bulger’s gang.

“In my opinion it’s a revisionist history that protects the guilty,” he said. “I cannot see this movie. It would just be too painful.”

In a 21-minute documentary on Bulger included in the DVD version of the film, which was released by Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. Pictures, Scorsese puts some distance between the character of Frank Costello played by Nicholson and the real-life Boston gangster.

“In no way do we say that Francis Costello is patterned after Whitey Bulger. But let me put it this way: We felt comfortable in the character and in the situation because we know it to be true,” he said.

BAMZS+?
They already chose the boy when they visited Vietnam, I think it was Thanksgiving.
If the boy is between 4-5 he’ll be very close to Mad in age. I wonder about the language barrier, but at that age kids can learn anything very quickly.

I am so excited!

obviously,they’ve meet this kid already.wow!,and maybe, mad talked the kid everyday!double wow!and T.P.anjie will be pregnant around this time too!triple wow!

1042
Rachel Says:

March 7th, 2007 at 7:24 am - flag comment
——–
You already made up the answer, so why should anyone answer you?

1044
Rachel Says:

March 7th, 2007 at 7:29 am - flag comment

Whatever you say, still love and support this couple!

oh RACHEL ,like your idol dumb and i-d-i-o-t!

Are you for real Rachel? What an idiot you are. Typical of haters & Aniston sympathizer (read, not a fan but sympathizer, big difference) . If you hate someone why keep on bragging about your hate in a blog for hours & responding to the fans & posters. You are the stalker. People approached Brad & Angelina before & no problems. They are just careful that maybe some PEOPLE LIKE YOU GOES BESERK & MIGHT HARM THEM & THE KIDS> remember you are a stalker & disturbed!

BTW, are you “yen”,”finally”,”reality”,”sherkthethird”,etc. Same tactic….will keep on arguing with posters for hours, different names per threads but switch topics on every thread so as not to get busted.

Thanks for all the links and information regarding the adoption. I wish BP and AJ the best in their adoption. Maddox and Zahara are two blessed children and will have great opportunities with two parents who love them. Shiloh is a blessed baby born of the love and respect BP and AJ have for each other. People can continue to make silly references to children all they want. Obviously, they are the ones with the self esteem issues. However, this does not change the fact that Zahara is adopted by BP and AJ and is now their child. It will not change the fact that Zahara will ride with Shiloh in the double carriage. Zahara will sleep and eat in the Jolie-Pitt household. Zahara will be loved by her siblings and BP and AJ. To reflect your inner hatred on a child, just shows how lonely and miserable your life is. It certainly does not relect on Zahara. Keep on Rocking Zahara. Peace