Baby auctioned for $351 to pay debts

Agence France-Presse ^ | 22 Nov 2006 | correspondents in Dhaka, Bangladesh

[Kitten Festival]

POOR parents of a newborn child in southern Bangladesh auctioned off their baby to repay a loan from a local micro-credit bank.

The auction took place in the impoverished hamlet of Farhadabad in Fatikchari sub-district, 290km south of the capital, Dhaka, over the weekend, said the daily, Ittefaq.

The announcement of the sale attracted more than a dozen bidders, many coming from outside the district.

The newspaper, quoting local reporters, said the baby was sold at a price of 20,000 taka ($351).

Chikon Mia and Humaira Khatoon, parents of the baby, said they already had two children who they were barely able to feed.

“We do not have enough money to feed the two children. How can I possibly feed a third one?” Ms Khatoon asked.

The landless family fell into hard times and took out a small loan last year to tide them over an economic crisis. But the farming couple failed to repay the loan in time and plunged into deeper financial problems.

After the couple's request to the bank to reschedule the unpaid loan was turned down, they put the baby up for auction.

Nearly 40 per cent of Bangladesh's 130 million people live under the United Nation's designated poverty line.

[Kitten Festival]

The only microlender I know of in Bangladesh is Grameen Bank, whose founder, a guy named Yunus, won the Nobel Prize In Peace last month. He's a Clinton pal. And now his banking practices are coming to light. If it's him, I wonder how he's gonna explain himself, now that he's extracted his pound of flesh!

Oh what a humanitarian he is! Oh that wonderful Nobel committee!

[cripplecreek]

I've learned that liberals can rationalize any behavior for themselves. In this case they would say that this Yunis guy had indirectly led to a better life for the child with a family better able to afford it.

[Kitten Festival]

More background on Grameen - it sounds like a loan-shark mafiya: Almost three-quarters of poor households have borrowed from Grameen Bank or one of the 700 groups that provide microcredit. The loans, some for as little as $8, are meant to help people with few other options earn an income and break out of poverty. Yunus runs Grameen Bank as managing director and sits on the board of many of the Grameen companies. He says the bank owns no stake in most of them and he personally owns no part of Grameen Bank, from which he draws a monthly salary of 15,000 taka. "They are all started by me and funded separately," says Yunus, seated in his office in the bank's 21-story building in Dhaka, the capital. "You can call it a Professor Yunus empire but not a Grameen Bank empire." Geeta Rani says taking a loan from Grameen Bank made her situation worse. Five years ago, Rani borrowed 2,000 taka. She planned to buy a cow, fatten it and sell it to augment her husband's 4,000 taka annual income as a barber in Kamarpara, a village in the northern district of Nilphamari. When a famine hit, she used some of the funds for rice to feed her three children. With the remaining amount, she bought a goat because she could not afford a cow and lost most of what she spent when the animal became ill. The family cut back on meals to repay Grameen Bank 44 taka each week, Rani says. She says making the repayments left her more distressed than she was before the loan. "I wouldn't borrow from Grameen again," she says.

[sageb1]

Yep

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2006/press.html

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006

[lilylangtree]

The bank officials should be fired for failing to work with the couple. Sad!

[Kitten Festival]

The Yunus dude should be fired, he says he has so much influence it's not even the Grameen Bank but the Bank of Yunus.

Man I hope word of this gets out and gets onto Clinton where it belongs.

[Theo]

People in the States pay over $10,000 for a baby, and spend over a year in the process, working with lawyers and adoption agencies. I've known several friends who've done this. $351 is a deal for those who want to share their love with a little one.

Of course, in this situation, the adoptive/purchasing family hasn't had a background check. Which could be a bad thing.

[Dante3]

How sick!

[lowbridge]

Baby auctioned for $351 to pay debts

How much was eBay's cut?

[Revolting cat!]

A pretty good discount, you might say. A Wal Mart price. Madonna and Jolie paid a lot more for their little African slaves who must be a lot darker.

[newzjunkey]

Greeta Rani won't borrow from Grameen Bank again but the bank had nothing to do with the famine nor the goat's illness. She was still obligated to repay the debt. And, to top it off, she never bought that cow!

People make bad financial decisions all the time, and sometimes banks loan money when they really shouldn't. We're seeing those cases coming home to roost with folks being caught by variable interest, interest-only loans or balloon payments.

[chaos_5]

I don't know exactly how I feel about this story.

It's that pesky humanity thing kicking in. The up shot is they where able to sell one child, instead of the unthinkable (kill 3).

eh, I know, I'm going to burn in hell for that one. =o)

[steveo]

I thought it would have been eBaby...

[albee]

The parents should have gone to that kind, loving, generous humanitarian and fellow African, Kofi Annan!

He would have fronted them the money.

Ooooooooooops!

I just remembered...he gives away other people's money, never his own!

[plain talk]

Remimds me of the scene from the Blues Brother where Belushi asks "how much for the leetle girl? I want to buy them. Sell them to me. Sell me your children". Only that was a joke.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

In the US we call them PayDay Loans.

There on every street corner in the Hispanic parts of Houston.

[HelenChicago]

I'd be willing to bet a week's pay that:
1. The baby is a girl (no parents would sell a boy).
2. The buyers are brothel owners or will sell
the girl into prostitution in good time.
Johns in South Asia will pay a pretty penny for the
pleasure of deflowering an underage girl.

[billybudd]

What are you guys talking about? The bank had nothing to do with the baby sale. The parents borrowed money that they were not able to pay back. They're at fault. Who the bank is doesn't make a difference.

[Gondring]

If only layaway were available in Bangladesh... </sarc>

[processing please hold]

Shame on you. I hope a beggar never walks up to you with their hand out.