Check this story of a kid who was rescued by an airline stewardess: [www.karmayog.org]

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If they had cast actors who were not living the slumdog life (brought them in from Great Britain or elsewhere) there would have been outrage of another type. Something along the lines of how the producers didn't want to muddy their hands of the potential sociopolitical problems of finding child actors whose lives would be forever changed by their participation.

No one...absolutely NO ONE knows how things are going to turn out for a film as it is being made. It's a gamble for all involved. The fact that this film is now successful and the opportunistic are now calling foul is pretty disgusting, but pretty effing predictable, too. These squabbles over "fair shares" are par for the course, but this story about the father selling his daughter seems pretty contrived and twisted for the benefit of a tabloid rag.

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"...Christian Colson, the film's British producer, has admitted being wrong-footed by the intense media interest in the child actors. He insists, however, that Rubina and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 10, another slum child who played a lead part, were paid fairly, and that as soon as they were cast moves were made to safeguard their futures.

The children were found places at an independent school - the first they had ever attended - which specialises in educating disadvantaged youngsters. If they remain in school until they are 18, they will receive a "significant lump sum". They have also been promised a new home by the film-makers.

"We thought that the parents would be incentivised by long-term benefits to their children. We were wrong," Mr Colson told The Times this year.

Looking ahead

- Rubina, 9, and Azhar, 10, now attend a UN school to which they are driven in their own rickshaw

- Their trust fund is guaranteed only if they attend school until the age of 18, though they are not obliged to pass any exams

- Each family was promised that funds would be available in emergencies. When Azhar's home was bulldozed, the producers wired money They also gave £500,000 to the charity Plan, which improves children's housing in the slum

- Attempts to buy apartments for the children have proved difficult under Indian law..."

The producers of Slumdog Millionaire have in essence purchased bare minimum media pacification policies and spun it as custodial oversight of the childrens' future. Notice the trust fund payouts at age 18 have been attached to a 'still in school' contingency that seems highly problematic. I'm advocating a G.W. Bush Administration style water-boarding of the producers of Slumdog Millionaire until they admit that they're parseltongued weasels.

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I don't know what the solution is here. I'd like to be angry at Hollywood's arrogant interference into these matters having no clue about the gravity of which they dabble. Hollywood filmmakers are not the United Nations or some other ambassadorship entity. They're about making money. That's it. I'm not saying this scumbag father wouldn't have ultimately engaged in the horrible deeds reported here, but I do think Hollywood needs to think more closely about what they do, and the affects it will have on the lives of the people involved long after the awards have been handed out and they're off to make their next feature film. You can't just thrust a whole cultural society in the limelight, highlighting the good and the bad, slap five when the money is made, and leave the rest in ruin. Where's the responsibility here? It's not about trust funds and pats on the head saying "Good job."

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There is one good thing to come out of this movie for me at least. I have the misfortune to know many reality-challenged, smug ex-hippies. They would gush on and on that India being the land of Gandhi, maharajahs, Kamasutra and yoga is exclusively a spiritual utopia of great peace and social justice. And where all the people without exception are spiritually advanced, highly evolved souls who have fantastic tantric sex and are adept at balancing their chakras.

Slumdog took all that away from them. As a bonus, they feel terrible liberal white guilt about feeling outraged against all the various atrocities in the film. It has been very beneficial for my inner peace to watch their worldview and their identity as good, non-judgmental liberals get fucked with. Oooommmm.

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I wish I understood money to the point where it was possible to divine some way to prevent it from being used as a tool of predation. Somewhere Western currency is flowing into filthy hands for all of this to happen. Perhaps as a condition of our surrender to public funds our banks, who are on the forefront of database and monitoring technology, should be given more of a role in preventing this particular form of horror.

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