Slumdog Millionaire Child Star Almost Sold for $300k!
WTF? How could you sell this girl? Boy, just when you thought you've seen it all. Apparently this has been in the news all week long, but for whatever reason I'm just now coming across it.The whole thing makes me want to vomit. I mean, look how happy that girl looks! How incredible she must feel after being part of such a HUGE freakin' movie, only to be pawned off by your dad in a flip of a switch! Horrible. Here's what went down according to News of The World,
In a bid to escape India's real-life slums, Rafiq Qureshi put angel-faced darling of the Oscars Rubina [Ali] up for adoption, demanding millions of rupees worth £200,000.I get how people are desperate for money, esp if your daughter didn't get jack from being in an Oscar winning movie (wtf again? Is this true?) but that's still inhumane no matter how you slice it. LUCKILY, you'll be happy to know that the girl did NOT, in fact, get sold. Her mother is praising News of The World for exposing this plan before it got carried out (thank goodness!).
As he offered the shocking deal to the News of the World's undercover fake sheik this week, Rafiq declared: "I have to consider what's best for me, my family and Rubina's future."
How does one even go about CALCULATING someone's total "worth"? It's obvious that stardom comes into play here, although you'd think your odds of getting caught are MUCH higher so you wouldn't even dare it, but what else? If you were 10 would you be worth more because you can do more? If you were a boy, would you get more?
Obviously, those traits don't even matter because it's immoral as hell, but it's still crazy to think about. Not being poor is wonderful, but trading life for it is just plain wrong. Unfortunately I'm sure $hit like this happens a lot more times than we're lead to believe...let's just pray the poor kids make it out okay.
Labels: cockamamy indeed, in the real world, morality
posted by J. Money at
9:48 AM
11 Comments:
Selling children is horrible and immoral, but... just to play devil's advocate here, if the girl got very little for her part in the movie and the family is hurting financially, wouldn't it have made sense to the father to have Rubina be adopted by wealthy people who could care for her and offer her a better life? And if at the same time her adoption also provided for the family, wouldn't that be a good thing? I could see how he would see it as beneficial all the way around, maybe with wealthy parents she could go to college, have more choices for her life. The money he received could support the rest of his family for the rest of their lives. I'm not saying this is the right thing to do, but I understand why it would happen.
''How does one even go about CALCULATING someone's total "worth"?''
Based on what I've learned from the PF blogosphere, it's assets minus liabilities. Zing!
We could never understand their culture because it is so much different.
I assume they have lived in poverty for so long that this is their big break but they see their daughter has a very bright future and they wouldn't be able to support it or know they will need to do to bring out her talents to its fullest potential.
Therefore selling her to someone else that will know what to do makes sense, as a business decision. Because really at this point, she is a brand.
There is a list of things that our North American culture does that we would consider immoral, and not even us but others around the world have similar views of us.
Ziiiiiiing! I actually had "net worth" in there first and was like "wait a second...something is off here".
@Dawn - You know, you actually have a very valid point there...i guess the key word being "put up for adoption" over "selling your daughter". put that way, it makes a lot more sense for all parties involved. sucky, but you could still understand more.
Tom - True, to an extent. But selling a human is immoral across most cultures, regardless if it's illegal or not (in this case, it was). Plus, you can tell the dad was upset about the idea of it all, but felt he had to do what he had to do. If he believed it to be an okay thing to do, then he wouldn't have felt so guilty.
eeeehhh, tricky. if he gave her up for adoption to make her life better, so be it--but then he shouldn't have asked for compensation, right? but no, he asked for money IN EXCHANGE for his daughter. that reeks of disgustingness. your kids are not your property, human beings should never be owned or transferred in business deals. no matter what culture we're talking about, that's just basic human decency.
i heard somewhere that the kids DID get a lot o' moolah for their roles in the movie, but that it is held in a trust to prevent the parents and relatives from spending it all before the kids even see it. they'll get it when they are 18+, i think.
also heard (man, i gotta start saving the links i read) that the kids' families were given decent housing (and by 'decent' that means out of the slums, not necessarily mansions or anything), and the father wasn't satisfied with it. that could be a rumor, i dunno.
If i were Rubina, i'd have a talk with my dad about where he plans to live and how he plans to eat when he's 80 and can't work anymore...i wonder how much a 80 year old crappy dad would go for on the streets?!
Dude, WTF? is right! How could someone even consider such a thing. I agree 100% with SENSE on the post above!
I am a Dad and I don't care what culture you are from being a Dad is special! Children are gifts and I could never imagine selling my kid for money, EVER!
I wonder, who exactly was he going to sell her to? What would her purpose have been in her new home? Would she basically become a slave of some sort? And, since this was illegal, will the father go to jail, which would most likely put the family in even more peril?
Hmmmm... It's so easy for us to cast stones when none of us have ever lived in abject poverty. This story gets a lot of press because she starred in an Oscar winning movie. But you know that many children of impoverished parents get sold into slavery and prostitution around the world. Where's the moral outrage about that? I'd like to believe that I would never do such a thing, but unless I've walked in the shoes of impoverished people, I am going to reserve judgment.
This is absolutely terrible. There is no justification for trying to sell your own daughter.
Check this out, looks like it's not even that uncommon here in the US! this world is going to hell in a handbasket...
No, You Should Not Sell Your Five-Month-Old To Raise Money For A New Apartment (first @ $10,000, then dropped to $5,000)
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