Slumdog Millionaire may have won the Oscars a few weeks ago, but the drama didn't end when the curtains came down.
Reporter Mazher Mahmood of The News of the World set off a firestorm of controversy when he went undercover in India to buy Slumdog actress Rubina Ali from her poverty-stricken father:
In a bid to escape India's real-life slums, Rafiq Qureshi put angel-faced darling of the Oscars Rubina up for adoption, demanding millions of rupees worth £200,000.
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."
Rafiq tried to blame Hollywood bosses for forcing him to put his daughter up for SALE. As he tried to fix the illegal adoption deal, real-life slum dweller Rafiq declared: "We've got nothing out of this film."
Then, almost embarrassed to speak it out loud, he whispered to an accomplice the price tag he has put on his innocent young daughter: "It's £200,000!"
That was an astonishing FOURFOLD increase on his opening demand. But Rafiq's equally demanding brother Mohiuddin insisted: "The child is special now. This is NOT an ordinary child. This is an Oscar child!"
"Makes perfect sense to me considering how their culture works."
Just what is that supposed to mean? Please explain how "their culture works"? Way to go and make a huge unfounded generalization that Indians are immoral people who love selling their kids because that's just "how their culture works".
Get off your high horse.
Approximately one out of every 6 people in the WORLD is Indian, and India itself is comprised of many different cultures. But according to you they're all immoral savages, apparently.
This is my point exactly. The laws are generated by people with this horrible misconception, that somehow the work I put into birthing a child, rearing he or she, raising it, is somehow not my own anymore. How widespread these kind of laws are point to how prolific these odd views are.
Bless you, my son..
a) It IS illegal to sell your child precisely because you do not "own" your children.
b) Whatever la-la-land you live in, the same rules of child traffic and ownership do not apply to India.
-H