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Dragons Dens James Caan tries to buy baby girl from family in flood struck village in Pakistan.

169 replies

TotorosOcarina · 22/10/2010 09:13

story here

This really shocked me.

Do you think you get to the point in being so rich you really think you can buy anything?

That family must have been devestated enough at loosing everything without someone trying to buy their daughter.

And £1,500? when he has £130million?

It was just horrible.

OP posts:
Awitch · 22/10/2010 09:52

sorry claig, can you point out on this thread where anyone has said that his behaviour re this child is okay? i mean, even he has said that his behaviour wasn't okay, i'm not seeing anyone disagree with him.

PortoFangO · 22/10/2010 09:52

I can quite easily understand why he said what he did. A tiny, perfect baby surrounded by devastation and poverty. And to know that you have the power to give that child an entirely different life....I would probably have done the same thing. It is NOT right though, and he did realise this. So DM ignore all the good is he doing, and go straight for the jugular. Nice. Hmm

notyummy · 22/10/2010 09:53

I guess we will just have to agree to disagree. As a pragmatist, I would rather my distaste was saved for those who do nothing at all to contribute to the greater good, rather than focus on picking apart whether people's actions in acheiving a positive result fully meet my moral code.

There are Generals in the Lord's Resistance Army that we could better spend some time reviling - and that could also do with a programme highlighting their flaws....

claig · 22/10/2010 09:53

No one is talking about STONING HIM. This isn't about being a deal maker, buying a newborn baby isn't a deal. Doing deals is OK, this isn't.

Awitch · 22/10/2010 09:54

yes, correct. and he would agree with you.

next...

claig · 22/10/2010 09:56

If we are all agreed that what he did was wrong, then there is no argument, we all agree. We shouldn't try to mitigate what he did, just because he is rich and has camera crews following his charitable deeds. I didn't see anyone talking about stoning him though.

Awitch · 22/10/2010 09:59

we agree, he agrees, philippa lei agrees. dunno what all the fuss is about. he did a wrong thing while trying to achieve a muuuuuuch bigger right thing, and he has apologised. no need for all the shock and awe, he's rich, but he's human.

claig · 22/10/2010 10:04

I think this is a moral issue and he is a public role model, which is why it is of such importance.

The "muuuuuuch bigger right thing" he is treying to achieve is that

"He is asking people to donate money for new £1,500 brick homes in Jan Lunda to replace the mud huts swept away by the flood."

I think it is a muuuuuuch bigger wrong thing to try to buy a newborn baby by offering £1500 to a mother from an area hit by devastation, than the small good thing in asking the public to donate for brick homes.

Sassybeast · 22/10/2010 10:08

He messed up. He acted on impulse. He doesn't deserve to be persecuted for it. He is paying thousands to rebuild the village. no one is saying that he was right to do what he did - the readiness with which some people are trying to tear him to shreds is sickening.

Awitch · 22/10/2010 10:08

bullshit is he a public role model. absolute rubbish. he's a businessman who accepted a role on a tv show. Hmm

claig, you're clutching at straws because for some reason you are desperate to keep attacking the guy despite the fact that he has already acknowledged that what he did was WRONG.

claig · 22/10/2010 10:11

Who is tearing him to shreds? I find it sickening to see people supporting him. I am glad that Philippa Lei was reported as

"Philippa Lei, of children's charity World Vision, said she had been 'shocked' by the film"

I am glad that the Daily Mail reported the story and that ITN News will show the film, otherwise we would not have known about it.

Awitch · 22/10/2010 10:13
Hmm

and it's in the public interest to know about this how? why do you care so much about what James Caan does? would you have cared this much about his charity work alone? would we expect there to be a thread on brick houses in this section had he not made a fuck-up (for which he immediately apologised)?

claig · 22/10/2010 10:14

I am not attacking him. I agree with the OP and Philippa Lei of children's charity World Watch, that it is shocking. Maybe he also now agrees with us and thinks it is shocking too. Maybe he will give some of his money to help that family now that he realises how shocking it was.

claig · 22/10/2010 10:17

I think it is in the public interest to know of any celebrity who offers cash to buy a newborn baby when filming for a charity which is seeking public donations. I could never have imagined that he could have done such a thing. But now that he has done it, I think it was shocking. I think the majority will also think that and that is why it has made news.

MmeBodyInTheBasement · 22/10/2010 10:18

He was shocked and made an offer, or a comment, that he later realised was completely inappropriate and apologised for. Why does that make him a terrible man?

He is a man used to solving problems, often by using him money and influence to do so.

He spoke without thinking it through.

I agree with NotYummy, at least he is using that wealth and influence to draw attention to the tragedy in Pakistan, and to help people there.

megapixels · 22/10/2010 10:20

I think he messed up big time with that, I was shocked when I heard of it, but seeing that video clip it looked like he was actually overcome with emotion at that point (rather than just being a card he played to get out of the situation).

megapixels · 22/10/2010 10:22

I applaud him for cancelling his big birthday party to go out there and do this, he is also the nicest and most gentlemanly dragon of them all. He messed up and he apologised, poor man.

claig · 22/10/2010 10:23

Do you think that he would have bought a child for his brother, without thinking through whether his brother would have wanted the child? I think he had thought it through. His daughter tried to stop him. He did it in full view of a camera crew.

He was serious about it and tried to stop his daughter intervening to stop it.

'I'm being 100 per cent serious,' he says. 'My brother lives here and he desperately wants a baby. We can give this baby the best life she could possibly have.'
His daughter Hanah tries to intervene to stop him, but he says, 'Stop it, stop it.'

hubblybubblytoilntrouble · 22/10/2010 10:25

I believe he has given a large sum of his own money to the charity, could be wrong. Also, he is there, using his experience to try to improve things for those people.

On this, totally the wrong thing to do. I'm glad that he's acknowledged this.

I still don't think his motives were necessarily questionable though. A lot of us manage to make a big mess trying to do the right thing, particularly in such an emotional state.

megapixels · 22/10/2010 10:25

Yes he probably knew that his brother desperately wanted a baby, and being in that situation and seeing a beautiful and impoverished child something would have clicked in him and he made the offer without thinking.

claig · 22/10/2010 10:26

Do you think that his offer of £1500 was as a result of spur of the moment emotion?

Do you think it was spur of the moment emotion when he looked for the father and mother?

'Where is the mother and father?' before making the disaster-struck family the 'deadly serious' offer of money for the child.

notyummy · 22/10/2010 10:28

Tbh, if he was properly devious and manipulative he would done his good works for the camera, and offered the family an even smaller amount of money off camera.

Instead he reacted inappropriately from his gut.

Still can't understand why it deserves more of our 'worry time' then the Pakistani politicians who have been found to be creaming off vast amounts of the relief money for themselves.

(And I refer you to my earlier point about various other 'properly' bad people from around the world to start threads on...)

Appletrees · 22/10/2010 10:28

Aitch "poor guy, he did something wrong in the middle of doing lots right. hang him." I assume deep irony --- I think you're right.

hubblybubblytoilntrouble · 22/10/2010 10:28

You don't think claig, that the sight of perfect, innocent helplessness, born into such tragic devastation might make you a little vunerable to being a bit daft?

Awitch · 22/10/2010 10:28

you know a lot of this is going on in your head, claig, don't you?

it IS shocking that he did this, it's just that under the circumstances and given the life he can offer a child, it's not that surprising... he did it, he was overwhelmed, and he has completely acknowledged that it wasn't the right thing to do.

plus, tbh, if you think that many families in the direst of circumstances across the globe wouldn't give his plan some serious consideration, you are living in cloud cuckoo land.