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Minnie Driver is putting her Hollywood career on hold to work in a sweatshop in Cambodia.

She will leave behind her tennis star boyfriend, Robby Ginepri, and her Notting Hill flat to experience poverty in South-East Asia.

The actress wants to highlight how Western clothing companies use "slave labour" in Third World countries by working for "weeks, perhaps months" alongside teenagers in Phnom Penh.

Driver, 32, currently filming the movie version of Phantom Of The Opera, told the Evening Standard she will use her fame to raise awareness of unfair global trade agreements.

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She can afford to bribe the owner of a particular sweatshop with more money than he'd see in five years, and if she keeps the identity of that particular sweatshop confidential --probably easy to keep it from mainstream "reporters", tougher from the tabloids-- she could still do a successful expose.

I don't care if it's self-serving or not. Her detractors remind me of the crabs in the pot, pulling the ones who are almost out back down.

Investigative journalism, much as I admire what's left of it, preaches to the choir. If it takes crass celebrity to raise public awareness of important issues, then we should embrace it.

[ 31 October 2003: Message edited by: Sisyphus ]

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Cambodia is already obligated through its membership of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) to remove most import tariffs by 2015, but will have to implement much of this package earlier to meet the WTO requirements. It will be unable to levy duty on agricultural goods, the main income source for 80 percent of the population, above 60 percent. In contrast, European Union farm tariffs range up to 252 percent, the US levies a maximum of 121 percent and Canada 120 percent.

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9 October – Government policies to reduce poverty in Cambodia, one of the poorest countries in the world, are not in line with the country's obligations to improve human rights, a situation that calls for informed public debate, a senior United Nations official says in a reportreleased today.

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"Policies and strategies allegedly aimed at reducing poverty have been developed without sufficient regard for Cambodia's obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and are hampered by problems of disbursement in the education and health sectors," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative for human rights in Cambodia, Peter Leuprecht, says.

"Many problems persist in the delivery of the right to housing, such as forced evictions and the lack of adequate shelter for displaced Cambodians."

The National Assembly elections of July 2003, the third since the 1991 peace agreement, was better run and marked an important step in establishing a multiparty democracy. He expresses concern, however, about intimidation, vote buying and violence during the electoral campaign and a "perception among many state actors and institutions that criticism of the government may amount to criminal incitement."

Cambodia was set to become one of the first two least developed countries to complete its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), a move that "may adversely impact on the fulfilment of its human rights obligations," he says. "(The Special Representative) believes that there is a need for informed public debate on this issue." (Pimji's note: This cannot happen if opposition party members and supporters are continually gunned down.)

Cambodia has an annual per person gross national income of $260 and is ranked 130th out of the 174 countries surveyed in the UN's "Human Development Report 2003," Mr. Leuprecht notes.

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I'm in full support of high profile celebs using their status to bring to light the crushing living standarsd of the worlds poor.

I think many celebs are more lucky, than talented, and doing something positive with their wealth, status and high media profile is positive. Then again there is Arnold although I predict he will quickly tire of the daily drudgery of work and retire back to his cushy playboy lifestyle. The regular folks of all social strata, I would say, feel more in tune with celebs rather than their own government. Government departments tend to communicate best with other government departments; including government departments who are fronts for criminal gangs.

[ 31 October 2003: Message edited by: Pimji ]