Slumdog Star homeless

[tillystar]

I struggle with this.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8070321.stm

On one hand I understand Danny Boyle's intention in setting up a trust and trying to help the families in a long-term manner and his concerns about giving them a large amount of cash in one go. On the other hand I think get your head out your arse and pay the kids what they deserve and find them somewhere to live NOW and stop being so bloody patronising.

I really don't know what to think, but its not nice anyway. Can anyone help me out on this one?!

[bixaorellana]

Hmmmmm. One suspects there is far more here than meets the eye, and that Boyle is trying to protect the children's earnings from being ravaged so that the money will still be available to them when they're adults. The fact that he returned to India to deal with the situation indicates that something, somewhere was either being mismanaged or bogged in red tape, although perhaps I'm reading too much into it.

After reading Spindrift's story about the Nepalese horseboy, I can see that for long-term help, it might not always be the right solution to simply hand money to the parents.

I don't know, Tilly. Does any of this parallel your thinking on the subject?

[Deleted]

I don't understand why these kids and their families don't already have decent housing. After all the movie made millions. And on top of that housing is very cheap compared to what it costs in the States/Britain. If somebody really wanted to they could find a decent place for these kids within a day.

Now that this movie has highlighted the worst of the slums, I do wonder why more people haven't come forward to help do something about it. There are many wealthy people around, especially in the movie industry. Some things just don't make sense...

[gringalais]

I do understand the idea of the trust due to the kids' ages, it is probable the parents would spend it all. However, it seems like there could be something arranged in terms of housing, like paying the mortgage or rent directly without it passing through the parents' hands. I can't believe either that with all the money the movie made the kids are living in those conditions.

[Deleted]

Even if the parents tried not to spend it all, in such poverty zones there are so many levels of corruption that it is really hard to protect the money -- or hard to buy a house, because probably you have to pay protection money as well to ward off "accidental" fires and things like that. Also, if the money is readily available, kidnappers are never far away.

[spindrift]

The perennial problem...how to help the poor. It's probably easier to help people, or villages ,far away from city life. There's too much corruption in cities.

The Mumbai slums have to be seen to be believed. Last year when we were landing over Mumbai a most terrible smell of sewage filled the plane and stayed with us until we landed and opened the doors - when it hit us anew. This smell rose from the slums beneath.

Perhaps the answer is to try and encourage people to stay in their villages and not keep crowding into the cities looking for a golden future that does not exist.

[ninchursanga]

I'm sure there are knowledgeable professionals who could help to set up help/funds etc. for those kids and advise on what is best and how to do it.
There are tons of aid organisation and I don't believe none of them is able to give assistance.

At first I was eager to see the film but after it got the Oscars I decided not to. Why? Because I thought it was outreagous to take those kids out of the slum, bring them to the States, put them up in a 5* hotel and then send them back to their slums. All for the sake of publicity, cause it looks so nice, those poor Indian sweet, cute looking kids from the slums on stage.
I was completely flabbergasted and it is totally beyond me why they did such a thing. Seriously, those people must have lost their brains.
I hope those kids will be allright.