Cambodia has one of the highest rates of child abandonment in South-East Asia, its orphanages are overcrowded and homeless urchins roam the capital, Phnom Penh, sniffing glue and begging.

ECONOMIST: Cambodia

Laura Dern is brilliant as Ruth Stoops, a small-town paragon of irresponsibility, who, owing to glue sniffing, drinking, and general recklessness, has lost custody of her children and is homeless, under arrest, and under pressure from a liberal judge to terminate her pregnancy.

NEWYORKER: Citizen Ruth

But it was blamed when one of its products, Resistol, became the drug of choice for glue-sniffing children in Central America.

ECONOMIST: The burdens of responsibility