Little Rubina probably thought she was the luckiest girl on Earth when she was cast in the Oscar-winning movie Slum Dog Millionaire.  For sure, the experience was worth its weight in gold but she would never, ever anticipate that the experience would mean that she was worth her weight in gold.

News outlets all over the world are reporting that Rubina’s father is trying to sell her-that’s right, SELL her.  And her price has increased since Slum Dog won the award.

Of course, Rubina’s father has denied the allegations-including the one that reports he increased her price, saying she is ’special. She is an Oscar girl’.

We may never know the truth but what we do know is that the price to Rubina is incalcuable and it is potentially devastating to others as well.  

Why?

We are seeing human-trafficing splashed across the pages of our newspapers and as lead stories on other news outlets-under the guise of adoption!

Put yourself in the shoes of a child who was adopted-and who saw or heard about this story.  Can you imagine the pain that he/she may feel.  Maybe he/she would wonder whether or not he/she was bought and sold-no different than a transaction they might see in a supermarket.  No matter how secure he/she might be in your love the mere suggestion of this kind of exchange could be devastating to a child-especially one that wonders about how and why he/she came to be available for adoption.

Human trafficking is as horrendously wrong as legal and legitimate adoption is spectaularly right.  The problem is when one gets confused with the other. 

Let’s make sure that we keep them straight.  You might also consider the similarities and differences between Rubina’s situation and the ongoing Madonna/Malawi saga! 

Forget the tagline “Is it live or is it Memorex?”  The new mantra is “Is it adoption or is it human-trafficking?”

Whatever you decide,  you are going to have to tell your kids.

With Respect,

Deb

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 at 7:03 am and is filed under adoption, bias, children, community, culture, education, family, international adoption, kids, life, motherhood, motherhood parenting, multiculturalism, parenting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.