Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
News
Original poster

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:
ColdComfortFarm · 22/10/2010 11:51

Nothing, but nothing, gets my goat as much as multi-millionaires yelling 'dig deep, give all you can afford' at poor people, while prancing about in their £600 fecking shoes and going home to one of their multi-million pound houses.

ColdComfortFarm · 22/10/2010 11:52

I'm not wrong. Exactly, HE WAS FILMING. ie not being stalked but actively publicity-seeking.

ColdComfortFarm · 22/10/2010 11:53

I am sure that the clothes Caan was standing up in cost far more than he was offering for that baby, far more than the cost of a house.

minibmw2010 · 22/10/2010 11:55

James Caan was talking about this on Daybreak this morning and he said that he was gripped by a "moment of madness" and realised straight away how wrong it would be, how he'd been carried away by the circumstances and how it had just made him convinced he had to work harder to make all their lives better by helping to rebuild the the village. So I'm not really sure the man needs lynching.

phipps · 22/10/2010 11:55

I think people are being harsh. He appears to have been overcome with emotion and soon realised it wasn't a fair thing to do. He is trying to help. Have all of you who are criticising him given to the charity?

Simbacat · 22/10/2010 11:59

I think that we need to be very careful that we don't impose our affluent western views on a very different cultutre.

I have lived and worked in Asia ( not Pakistan but India). The poverty in which many children live is unimaginable to us. I have been asked on more than one occasion ton take a baby, I didn't- that baby probably died. Was I right?

You see dead bodies in the street regularly. Peole want not just a better life but a life for their children.

If you knew that your child had a very high chance of mortality would you want to give them away knowing that they would not only live but have the kind of live you dreamed of?

I am not saying it is right but it is a reality of live that
In the poorest parts of Asia babies are given away all the time- I suppose that bit is like Europe 120 years ago.

Awitch · 22/10/2010 12:03

ccf so no tv show, no deal. itn have someone out there to cover pakistan and when they heard that caan was out there they will have been keen to film him because it gets the story of the continuing tragedy in that country back on screen precisely because of the celeb angle. tbh i think a lot of you are just displaying how little you know of how these things work.

and agree with simba's post. it must be absolutely heartbreaking to refuse to take a child you know will likely die without intervention, simba, how awful. but of course the whole situation is so awful.

claig · 22/10/2010 12:09

This is Ricky Gervais's clip for Comic Relief 2009

It is about 9 minutes long. It makes uncomfortable viewing, but the denouement at the end is amazing. It features a lot of big "stars". It is worth a viewing

Appletrees · 22/10/2010 12:33

I think anyone with experience of the media or developing countries will have more of a perspective on this.

PosieComeHereMyPreciousParker · 22/10/2010 12:52

I don't think being media savvy makes any of this any better, the 'wrongness' here is not planned or pre meditated, the man just has a very different response to most people I know.

Appletrees · 22/10/2010 12:54

The media savvy part is about people complaining that he's being filmed at all.

claig · 22/10/2010 12:57

Ricky Gervais is quite media savvy.

PosieComeHereMyPreciousParker · 22/10/2010 13:00

The thing is ITN would have had an audience already and didn't need to follow James caan for the report, it doesn't make it any more or less terrible. He chose to allow them to film him because it makes him look good.

Appletrees · 22/10/2010 13:01

Quite, Claig.

Awitch · 22/10/2010 13:27

honeslty, posie, i guarantee the guy in pakistan is tearing his hair out looking for a new angle on the story. it's still terrible over there, but the reports have totally dropped off. i just don't think you get what a god send these celeb visits are for fcs.

phipps · 22/10/2010 13:41

He is going to be on the ITV news shortly explaining why he said what he did.

claig · 22/10/2010 13:46

thanks phipps will tune in

claig · 22/10/2010 13:51

missed it

franci1 · 22/10/2010 14:53

He appears to be marketing himself through a countries misfortune, with child trafficking rife through out the world what an odd thought to "buy" a child for his brother - who is might be known to be unsuitable ?
How is it someone so uninformed has attained such a place/wealth? One only supposes his ethos has always been "how much can i buy you for?"

Awitch · 22/10/2010 17:50

not a country, his country. he's pakistani.

and i suspect ricky gervais was satirising people like claig, who think they know what goes on because the daily mail tells them so. much like alf garnett in the 70s, an audience sees what it wants to see.

claig · 22/10/2010 18:33

I think Ricky Gervais is clever and he knew what he was doing. He even got the other "stars" to join in.

Awitch · 22/10/2010 19:14

I too think he's clever. Certainly clever enough to take the pissed out of you without you noticing...

PosieComeHereMyPreciousParker · 22/10/2010 19:16

Awitch.....wow, living up to your halloween name! Very unlike you, you okay?

Awitch · 22/10/2010 19:24

what? just because i don't agree with you that james caan should be hung, drawn and quartered for making a mistake for which he immediately apologised?

the gervais think was hardly an admission of guilt from celebrities who fund-raise, Bono, Geldof et al were taking the piss out of people who think that way. it's quite telling that claig puts it forward as a mechanism for supporting her cynical argument, it just means she hasn't got the joke.

claig · 22/10/2010 19:46

I disagree with you. I think you have missed the point of his sketch. I think he is taking the piss out of cynical media slebs, not out of the viewer. I think it was a brave sketch to do for Comic Relief. I don't think there has ever been a sketch quite like that on Comic Relief. He is such a big name that he could get away with pulling it off.