World debt, fair-trade initiatives, Oxfam and WTO ministerial conferences are not exactly sexy or photogenic, but trot out a hot young Latino actor, a Canto-pop icon and an African songstress and you are guaranteed to catch the attention of the world's press.
Mexican heartthrob Gael Garcia Bernal and Canto-pop star Anthony Wong Yiu-ming joined African singer Angelique Kidjo yesterday to hand over an Oxfam petition with 17.8 million signatures to World Trade Organisation director-general Pascal Lamy.
Mr Lamy signed the 'Big Noise' petition while he was still European Union trade commissioner shortly before the WTO summit in Cancun, Mexico, in 2003. He also received the petition in Cancun that year when it carried 5 million names.
Oxfam, in its 'Make Trade Fair' campaign, contends that existing global trade agreements benefit rich nations while driving poorer countries further into debt.
Bernal, who played a young Che Guevara in last year's film The Motorcycle Diaries, said members of his family were farmers, and he was representing Mexican and Latin American farmers.
'The situation is very explosive. It cannot go on like this any more. By being here, I would like to bring them back an explanation of why things are the way they are,' he said.
