Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Unbelievable!

Sometimes the most seemingly impossible things happen and you're left just shaking your head. Anyone see the movie Slumdog Millionaire? It was a good movie...very well done in my opinion but I had a lot of trouble watching it. All the poverty and the abuse of children. The slums. The filth. Nope. Not a movie I would ever watch again.

Yesterday a story surfaced about the little girl who was featured for a large part of the film. I remember thinking when I saw the movie how absolutely gorgeous she was. British director, Danny Boyle, cast children who actually live in the slums of Mubai. Yes, this beautiful little girl lives in a slum with her father who, it was reported, tried to sell his little girl for $300,000 the other day. Nothing has been proven yet and the father of the little girl is protesting that he had no intention of selling his child but he did meet with someone who offered to buy her.

The story mentioned a British reporter, posing as a wealthy Saudi, made the offer and he claims the girl's father was interested. More news came out later about this whole thing when the movie company who made Slumdog Millionaire discussed how these children were paid for their appearance in the movie. Because the children's parents were so horribly greedy and grasping, the studio execs decided to establish trust funds for these kids...something they can collect when they are "of age", schools were paid for, etc. Very nice. The movie executives believed these parents would squander the money so they put protections in place to assure that when they were adults, they would recieve wonderful educations and money. Some of the parents of these kids bitched fairly loudly that they wanted money and the whole trustfund thing was unfair.

Apparently the notion that his child would be provided for in adulthood wasn't enough for this little girls father. Investigations are ongoing on this deal but, I swear, if they find this guy guilty of attempting such a horrific thing I hope harsh justice is meted out. This whole thing is sickening.

8 comments:

Amy Ruttan said...

We'll see if justice is meted out.

I've heard of a lot of parents selling their daughters into prostitution. I think there was an Oprah special on it and I know Ricky Martin is an advocate to protect children from prostitution.

The producers of the movies were smart.

Luckily it isn't all the parents of these children. Some work hard to feed and clothe their children.

I think I'll wait until after I have the baby to watch this movie.

Amy Ruttan said...

I should mention this child selling happens everywhere. It's really sad.

Kelley Nyrae said...

That is disgusting. Breaks my heart. Parent's are supposed to protect their children and have their best interests at heart. I can't understand this...

Anne Rainey said...

This just makes me furious! I think Dean on Supernatural said it best: "Demons I get, but people are just crazy!"

Regina Carlysle said...

I honestly think the producers of the movie zeroed in on these parents right away and did the right thing by keeping the kids' earnings from their parents.

The whole thing about Slumdog Millionaire was based on how these kids survived and the horrible things that happened to them. I felt a little (a LOT) ill after seeing it. Yes, it was a well done movie but it pissed me off so badly.

Amy Ruttan said...

I second Dean from Supernatural's comments.

I don't get it. I could rant and rant and rant about people who have kids and don't care for them. Trust me.

I don't get it. Especially when there are so many good people out there that CAN'T have children.

Mary Ricksen said...

I think we should sell him. The punishment should fit the crime.

Can we go pick him up. It's too bad there wasn't some way to ensure the child has proper food and clothing until they can get their trust funds. When we can't imagine such a thing, our world is still full of evil people. But I do believe in Karma.

Regina Carlysle said...

Know what I'd love to do? Just beat the crap outta him and others like him. This all makes me think that we MUST try to take better care of our kids. I mean, kids of the world. Is there no humanity out there? Okay. If you see the movie you'll know what I mean about these hideous slums. Reprehensible that people are forced to live this way.