Brad and Angelina are welcome in Namibia
It sounds like a good percentage of the populus in Namibia are more than happy for Brad and Angelina to be there, and that they totally agree with the way that they are being protected from the paparazzi. From Yahoo! News:
Tags: Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Namibia, TravelA Namibian rights organisation and journalists have accused VIP guards and police of heavy-handed tactics, including a door-to-door search for suspected paparazzi and assaults on photographers with pepper spray.
But ordinary Namibians who live along Langstrand (Afrikaans for “Long Beach”) told AFP this week they believed the star couple should be left alone.
“Namibians are not celebrity mad like in Europe or the United States,” said Almuth Styles, who runs a tourist information shop in the scenic nearby colonial German holiday town of Swakopmund.
Styles told AFP when Jolie visited Namibia in 2002 for the filming of the movie “Beyond Borders”, none of the locals were bothered too much about it.
“Jolie even came into the office asking for directions. I didn’t recognise her and only afterwards a young trainee told me that it was her,” she laughed.
Another resident, Roger du Toit, who every day takes his dog for a walk past the Burning Shore Lodge, where the couple is staying said “they are just ordinary people to me, enjoying the beautiful, unspoilt stretch of the beach and the view of the Atlantic Ocean.”
“Let them enjoy this place like everybody else. It doesn’t matter whether they are famous or not,” Du Toit said with a typical shrug of Namibian shoulders.
The owner of a cluster of holiday flats next to the Burning Shore Lodge added she discovered a group of foreign paparazzi perched on the balcony of one of her apartments.
“They brought a ladder with them and climbed to the balcony of a chalet that I had rented out,” Merylin Leippert told AFP.
“When I arrived the people who rented the chalet informed me of their unwelcome ‘guests’,” she said.
“They (the paparazzi) told me they had permission from the owner and I told them: ‘I am the owner and that they certainly did not have my consent,’ so I made them leave promptly.”
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POSTED IN: Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Travel
9 opinions for Brad and Angelina are welcome in Namibia
portishead
Apr 30, 2006 at 10:36 am
Off Topic:
Angelina made Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People list. Best yet, she wasn’t included on the celebrities list but on the Heros & Icons list. Go Angie!
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1187349,00.html
Catherine
Apr 30, 2006 at 10:48 am
geez, the world deffinetly needs tougher paparazzi laws. That kind of invasion without thought for anyone or anything but the cash a photo might produce could get extreemely dangerous. Selfish self centered Greed. It’s simply just another form of Evil. I can live without photos retrieved under those circumstances. and, I can certainly understand why Mickey the bodyguard has such a get in thier face attitude!
Mike
Apr 30, 2006 at 1:33 pm
Greetings again…I have returned from Longbeach were I have taken a few photos for you! Brad and Angelina are not there at present; they are at another resort for the long weekend. Security is still tight though. Police are now guarding the lodge together with the couple’s security personal as well as a local hired security company. I had to sneak in to get the pics. The police keep a watchfull eye on all the people-walking pass. There are NO paparazzi in sight at all, not a single cameraman to be seen. I suppose I was the only paparazzi then?
The weather has turned and has gone back to normal tempretures. I expect that they will return to their Hotel tomorrow. Their visit seems to be good for Namibia as decleared in Parlament by our Ministers. They stated that Brad and Angelina’s visit to Namibia has done more, that is value, in two weeks for Namibia than the entire budget spent last year to promote Namibia as a tourist destination.
Thank you for all the nice comments, Christina and Catherine and others…
Bethany
Apr 30, 2006 at 2:04 pm
Thanks Mike! I hope you didn’t get caught trying to take pics, it good to see that the paps are out of sight, however I saw some pictures of them yesterday on rameypix, it looks like it was taken out of a long lens, there was one picture of brad’s hand on angie’s shoulder on the second page, it looks like the paps followed them where ever they went. Anyways check out rameypix.net
Bethany
Apr 30, 2006 at 2:07 pm
The caption on rameypix reads…
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie arrived at the Swakopmund Airport coming back from the bush with the children in Namibia on April 28, 2006.
Bethany
Apr 30, 2006 at 2:08 pm
Oh! and justjared.com has the bigger pictures up
JoliePittFan
Apr 30, 2006 at 3:24 pm
Thanks as always Mike for your diligence and wonderful reporting. I told someone when Jolie-Pitt arrived that I imagine their presence would be a shot in the arm to the local economy, and I’m to hear that it did assist your country financially. From what I read, the boost to tourism is pretty much owed solely to the couple, and I hope it lasts for years to come.
On JustJared.com there are new photo’s of the pair and their entourage arriving in Swaktopia(forgive me if I spelled that very wrong, but I’m going from memory) and I wonder where this is.
I also notice that Marianne Pearl (the writer and widow of murdered Iraq hostage journalist Daniel Pearl) and son are with Jolie-Pitt, and I wondered if there was any news other than her friendship with the couple that may pertain her visit.
I read that she’s become a roving reporter for Glamour magazine and wondered if maybe she’s doing a story on Namibia. Brad Pitt also bought the rights to her book about her husband, and so maybe that has something to do with her visit.
Thanks again for the update.
JoliePittFan
Apr 30, 2006 at 3:31 pm
Mike, make that Namibia’s Swakopmund airport. I am so goofy. I didn’t see the “airport” part, just the name Swakopmund and assumed it was another region in the country.
Christina
Apr 30, 2006 at 6:08 pm
Mike, thanks so much again for the gorgeous pictures and your efforts - we thank you so very much!! I will have them up in just a few minutes. :)
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