From Namibian resort, Angelina appeals for global education

By Andy Goldberg Apr 28, 2006, 3:43 GMT

Angelina Jolie. © Glenn Harris / Photorazzi

Los Angeles - Angelina Jolie was named as the world's most beautiful woman Thursday by People magazine and promptly used her celebrity to back a global education campaign for the planet's poorest children.

Appearing in an exclusive interview with NBC, Jolie, 30, urged the US and other first world countries to invest more in education to give children in the developing world a better chance of achieving their potential.

Jolie was speaking from the southern African state of Namibia where she currently lives in a luxury resort together with her two adopted children and partner, fellow actor, Brad Pitt, 42. She is expecting Pitt's child in about a month and could give birth in Namibia.

'We just hope it doesn't happen when we're here,' Jolie said in an interview with NBC. 'We don't know exactly where we're going to be.'

She said she knows the sex of the child, but: 'I'd like to keep it to myself.'

Jolie said that the experience of the two children she adopted in Cambodia and Ethiopia had led her to press for better educational opportunities. Referring to her one-year-old daughter Zahara, she said: 'There's no possible way she would have gone to school. She is so smart and so strong. And her potential as a woman one day is great.'

'Hopefully ... she will be active in her country [Ethiopia] and in her continent when she's older. And because she'll have a good education, she'll be able to do that much more,' Jlie said.

'It has been proven that a basic primary education can completely change the lives of people around the world,' said Jolie in a separate teleconference with British chancellor Gordon Brown.

Video footage released over the past days showed Jolie walking among Namibian villagers in the countryside, saying that while the shack-like structures may lead one to believe otherwise, the Namibians are 'very much a community.'

'They're very smart, they take care of their families,' she said.

The interviews came despite the Pitt-Jolie family's attempts to remain out of the spotlight in Namibia. Numerous paparazzi tried to follow them to Namibia, where the government has been requiring foreign reporters to provide written proof that the Hollywood couple is willing to meet with them.

Last weekend, the government deported at least four foreign journalists, according to local news reports.

'The lady is pregnant and you're hounding her,' Namibia's Prime Minister Nahas Angula was quoted as saying in South Africa's Sunday Times.

Reports that police and bodyguards have searched homes around the resort to roust out un-credited journalists have provoked cries of 'foul' from human rights groups, who charge that the actions throw a bad light on Namibia in the week leading up to 'World Press Freedom Day' on May 3.

Ironically, the day was inaugurated in 1991 in Namibia with the 'Declaration of Windhoek' that established international standards for press freedom.

'It's very unfortunate that the visit by these two prominent people in our country is becoming increasingly a nightmare' for press freedom,' said Phil ya Nangoloh, president of the Namibian Human Rights Society.

He said it shouldn't be a problem for Pitt and Jolie to be photographed in public areas, especially since they brought along their own film team to photograph them.

'Hasn't it become an issue of who gets exclusive rights to film the pair? It appears to be an enormous money question,' he said.

He said that the aristocratic wishes of a prominent couple for privacy has hindered some local and foreign representatives of news organizations from doing their work. The pair, he said, appear to want to reserve the privilege of covering them for others, perhaps for financial gain.

Pitt and Jolie have visited local jewelry stores, sparking speculation that the two will become engaged under the African sky and fuelling expectations that the pair plans to stay in Namibia until the baby arrives.

The local Namibian radio waves are full of suggestions for baby names, especially if it's a girl. One listener phoned in the suggestion of 'Naledi' - Setswana for star. Another suggested 'Katiti,' which means 'the little one' in the local Herero and Oshiwambo languages.

Pictures of the couple with their newborn are likely to sell for millions of dollars, but according to South Africa's Sunday Times, Jolie has already agreed to sell People Magazine the pictures in return for a 3.5 million dollar contribution to UNICEF.