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

[TotorosOcarina]

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.

but that love might be expressed in other ways. in this country there was a long tradition in poor families of giving their children over to the church or to rich childless families, precisely because of how much they loved them, so that they could have a better future. the idea that scratching a living from a devastated land is every pakistani parent's dream for their child is pretty patronising imo.

'the idea that scratching a living from a devastated land is every pakistani parent's dream for their child is pretty patronising imo.'

I disagree with that. I think that is in itself patronising. If it were true then these families would be offering up their children in their millions for adoption, and they are not doing that. Posie was right when she said
"the idea that villagers in Pakistan aren't ths same as the rest of us, don't love their children as much"

I agree Aitch, especially given the fact that children are burned or maimed by their parents in order to beg (or is that India), but surely he's in a position to help the whole family and not just the baby? I think we'd all be hard pressed not to be moved by the plight of a newborn born into such chaos, but very few of us would think to wrench that child away from it's parents...most of us (especially parents) would want to help the parents give this child a better life.

Am really with you Aitch. Feel quite strongly about this.

hey, i'm not setting myself up as judge and jury here, i'm just saying that it's entirely possible that a parent could love their child absolutely as much as it's humanly possible to love them and to believe that the BEST THING FOR THE CHILD would be to go and live with a bunch of millionaires. and i wouldn't judge them for it.

I don't think that describing this as an emotional mistake implies that Pakistani parents love their children less than white parents. That's trying to bring race into it.

Awitch I agree with your last statement.

Anybody who is seriously interested, as opposed to spitting feathers in a moment of whimsy, can look further into corruption in the adoption industry, into child kidnap and trafficking in south Asia, into the "altruistic" adoption market.

I'm sorry, but this is just so unimportant in comparison.

Claig I don't think you are having a moment of whimsy, I think you are genuinely deeply shocked, but a lot of the rest of this thread is just like nasty gossip.

I'm not saying that. BUT I do think there's a less emotive response that there should be when we think of Africans in famine or Pakistani villagers and how they feel for their children, they become images and it's easy to forget that those parents have the same feelings as us. Poverty does not mean less loving.

Posie, this is me moving strongly into guessing territory now, but having met the child i'd be inclined to think that Caan would find it hard to abandon her entirely, don't you? but that's just me guessing.

MN is the place for gossip, surely.

James' mistake does speak volumes about who the man really is.

Actually I think it's an extremely emotive, "created" response which is engineered by (much as I LOVE the media) celeb PR, charity PR and journalists.

Yes, I truly think I would hold that baby and find it very hard to leave it in that situation. But I would 'rescue' the whole family.

Perhaps I'm projecting.

'But I would 'rescue' the whole family.'

But have you got a brother that "desperately" wants a child?

and another thing, given the tradition of rich families taking on poor children to raise, it's entirely possible that caan's offer would be more culturally acceptable at this point in time in pakistan, despite the fact that it seems wholly inappropriate to us.

"I would rescue the whole family"

Why don't you? You don't have to go there, just pop a cheque in the post? Or is it only when you are immediately moved by holding a beautiful baby that that urge has any purchase.

I'm sorry, this is just fantasy.

10,000 rupees would rescue the whole family, as it happens.

agreed, appletrees. it wouldn't cost the earth to make serious differences to that family's life.

Appletrees....the comment was in the context of me being James Caan, or having his wealth. I don't have enough money to buy my ds a winter coat right now.

£15000 = 100,000 rupees
So for £150 he could have rescued the entire family.

'I don't have enough money to buy my ds a winter coat right now.'

Don't tell James Caan about that.

Somedays I would take him up on any offers.

Sure I see. But we can all make plans about how altruistic we'd be if we were filthy rich. I think this has more to do with his brother's pain than his own wealth. Why else would anyone make such an offer.