'James Bond' fights sexual abuse of children

By Lela E. Madjiah

STOCKHOLM (JP): "James Bond" fighting the sexual abuse of children?

Why not? After all, he has retired now.

It's a giant leap from sexy agent Bond to working for humanitarian causes, but British actor Roger Moore is sincere about his concern for humanitarian problems, including the sexual abuse of children.

"It is simply wrong," he said at a panel discussion on the role of the media at the first World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Stockholm Thursday.

"Poverty cannot be an excuse because there are many poor parents who do not sell their children," he pointed out.

Moore was invited to the congress, organized by End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism (ECPAT), UNICEF, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Swedish government, to share his view on the issue.

His presence at the congress drew special attention from the 400-odd journalists and 1,200 participants, not only because he is a former Bond character, but also because he was once a victim of sexual harassment as a child.

"I was in Wimbledon camp and this man came in and said I had nice knees. Being a hero, I went out of the tent," Moore recalled.

However, it was not until he was 16 years old that he told his mother about it.

"What I want to convey is that quite often children have this guilt about what happens. They think it happens because they have done something wrong, which I did. They think that if they had been nice it would not have happened," said Moore.

"We can educate children to be free to tell their parents or grandparents or uncle or teacher of what happens," he added.

Educating children can be done through comics and television, so as not to alarm the children, he stressed.

Moore also noted that it was not easy to get media attention for the issue.

"The voices of children are often not heard because they are not loud enough," he said.

He recalled his experience in Brazil during the 1992 Earth Summit. He met a nun who told him about a girl who had been raped by a policeman and who dreamed of having a bicycle.

"Being a policeman's son, I was very sad to hear this story. But I cannot go around the world buying bicycles. I told the nun I would help by bringing the story to media attention," he said.

However, it turned out to be not that easy.

"The nun said, 'It's easier to sell a story on the rainforest. But what's the use of a rainforest if there is no girl to live in it?'"

Campaigning against sexual abuse of children is not Moore's only task as UNICEF Special Representative for the Film Arts.

Since he took up the job on Aug. 9, 1990, Moore has traveled to lots of countries, including Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Costa Rica. There, he visited projects in health and immunization, water and sanitation, education, street children and community development.

Roger Moore first became associated with UNICEF by promoting greeting cards in radio announcements prepared by the U.S. Committee in the early 1980s. More recent support to National Committees has included serving as UNICEF spokesperson at the Zecchino D'Oro Song Festival in Bologna, Italy in 1990; as Master of Ceremonies (with Audrey Hepburn) of the Danny Kaye International Children's Award TV show in the Netherlands in 1990, 1991 and 1992; as spokesperson at the 1991 FIFA All-Star UNICEF Benefit Match in Munich, the World Cup Qualifying Draw in New York and the International Emmy Awards, both in New York in the same year.

Moore, father of three children, had been involved in various charity and social organizations long before he joined UNICEF. Among his many other humanitarians efforts is a long association with The Stars Organization for Spastics in the U.K., of which he was chairman from 1973-1976, and vice president thereafter. Born and raised in south London, Moore strongly supports the Variety Club of Great Britain, and the New York-based Variety Clubs International. Moore, who makes his home in Switzerland and California, is also interested in the Police Dependents' Trust, his father being a former police officer. He has participated in many charitable events in the U.S. over the years.

"I absolutely have no regrets, although I'm underpaid. After all, it's tax free," Moore joked earlier of his UNICEF job at a press briefing in between the serious, often emotional sessions of the congress.

Chauvinism

Naturally, questions were raised about his seven James Bond films.

"Yes, I was a chauvinistic pig when I played James Bond. I don't like the character at all," he admitted.

However, he dismissed the charge that the James Bond films were abusive towards young girls.

"I don't think James Bond abuses young girls. I was never involved in sexual exploitation of children. None of the Bond films were," he stressed.

Moore, who had various jobs before he got his break in the London production of Mr. Roberts in 1950, expressed concern over the increasing number of young girls used in advertising.

"Their sexuality is used to sell products," he lamented.

"I'm all for art, for creativity and free speech, but let's think about art with responsibility," said Moore.

He recalled a movie about a girl named Lolita which caused quite a controversy in the 1950s and 1960s.

"It's about a young girl who tries to seduce a grown-up man. Lolita became a symbol of a girl child who is provocative to older men. Now Lolita are everywhere. The Lolita syndrome has returned. Ironically, Lolita has been remade and I'm afraid it will be a box office hit," he said.

Moore warned the media, including the movie industry, of the danger of building the wrong image (of certain characters).

"As an actor, I was part of the role in building images. We see how Rambo has become a dangerous model for children in conflict areas," said Moore, who studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and eventually joined the Cambridge Arts Theater, which led to roles in London's West End.

Despite his concern, Moore is against censorship of adult movies aired by cable TV networks.

"It's a matter of adult choice, although I don't approve of it. If it's something against the law, then the state can step in," said Moore, adding that he believes more in self-censorship.

He recalled another Hollywood experience in the 1930s.

"They thought they had gone too far and said to themselves, 'That's it. We've gone too far.' I would like to see Hollywood return to that particular point," he said.

Moore's career in Hollywood dates back to the 1950s. In 1953 he went to the United States to appear in a live television drama. In 1954 he made his formal screen debut in The Last Time I Saw Paris and appeared in several other films at MGM. He also continued working in U.S. television before he returned to England in 1961 and found the part that made him famous in The Saint.

Production of The Saint, one of the most popular series on British television, ended in 1968 after 114 hour-long episodes. However, another role was to make him even more famous: Secret Agent 007 James Bond.

Moore starred in seven extremely popular Bond films, Live and Let Die (1973), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1976), Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1982) and A View to a Kill (1984). His latest film The Quest is soon to be released.

When asked about the distribution of child pornography through the Internet, Moore said there was always a way of controlling it.

"There has to be a way because there has to be a source (of distribution) and when we know the source we will find a way of controlling it," he said.

As for himself, "I cannot find my way into the Internet," Moore said.