The dead have not even been accounted for nor received proper burials yet & America is already talking about adopting Haitian children instead of setting the foundation to keep families together. We have anti-immigration laws in this country calling for the deportation of over 30,000 Haitian immigrants, many of whom have American born children who they will be separated from if the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) remains only temporary -to be recalled at America’s leisure without consideration of the devastation to families; yet we are going on about taking Haitian children from their homeland & families & adopting them out to Americans- huh? We always say we want to help, but our help seems to come too often at a devastating cost. This is a time & lesson in global humanity & humanitarian servicing, where we should reevaluate policy, how we administer aid & how we really help nations & people in times of need & tragedy. We could have helped Haitians long ago by aiding them to utilize their ripe land for their own agricultural & economic benefit instead of utilizing it to build many wealthy nations, while forcing them into poverty & dependency. We could have helped with infrastructure that would be able to stand the tests of nature instead of losing thousands of lives & destroying families before the earthquake hit. We could have helped by not aiding in or standing idle to the destabilization of Haiti’s government long before the earthquake. We did not do all that, so at a time when we have the opportunity to right our wrongs -the first thing for us to think about is building a nation back to its glory of old as an even better, stronger nation with its families intact & people united in the continuation of building a great nation, not adopting out the future generation who will be the ones to carry Haiti’s torch!
When I saw this tweet from Wolf Blitzer -all I could do was shake my head & say oh no what are we thinking & not again.
Wolf Blitzer | Washington D.C.
“So many of you want to help Haiti. Some want to adopt orphans. CNN’s Mary Snow will report on adoption procedures in Sitroom.”
I will be watching carefully to see what this is all about, but I must say I do not like the tone & direction it is heading.
As an African I cringe at the separation of families throughout the Diaspora & Africa that was brought on by slavery -which even today still continues in many ways because of poverty & bad governance, which often give families no choice but to separate & give away or leave their children in order to seek a so called “better life” away from family. African descendants /families have been separated for far too long through the selling of the so called “better life” , which has left us with nations devastated by wars, poverty, lack of infrastructure & a perpetual disadvantage toward taking care of ourselves & believing in & living our greatness due to the fact that many of our best & brightest are taken away or drawn to the so called “better life” that the world keeps telling us can never be found at home.
The amount of money spent on Madonna & the Jolie-Pitts adopted African children’s wardrobe alone could support the villages they came from & kept them with their families. I think adoption is a noble, selfless act which I encourage all those who have the means & desire to do so, seek in great numbers; however we have to also consider if adoption is always the best way to provide a child with a better life as opposed to providing their families the help, education & aid necessary to keep the family intact. Maybe we should practice more of an “it takes a village to raise a child” motto by adopting families, not necessarily in physical form, but in the form of mental, emotional & financial support needed to help raise any and all children.
“The Greatest good u can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to them their own” (B. Disraeli)
“Of special note to international adoption are campaigns for adoptions that occur after disasters such as hurricanes, tsunamis, and wars. There is often an outpouring of adoption proposals in such cases from foreigners who want to give homes to children left in need. While adoption may be a way to provide stable, loving families for children in need, it is also suggested that adoption in the immediate aftermath of trauma or upheaval may not be the best option. Moving children too quickly into new adoptive homes among strangers may be a mistake because with time, it may turn out that the parents have survived but were unable to find the children, or there may be a relative or neighbor who can offer shelter and homes. Providing safety and emotional support may be better in those situations than immediate relocation to a new adoptive family.There is also an increased risk, immediately following a disaster, that displaced and/or orphaned children may be more vulnerable to exploitation and child trafficking.
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_adoption)
“When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the Missionaries had the Bible. They taught how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible.” — Jomo Kenyatta, Pan-Africanist & first president of Kenya
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/The-Case-for-Haitian-Immigrant-Amnesty-2184
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amy-wilentz/haiti-and-the-depths-of-d_b_424806.html
http://www.one.org/us/actnow/drophaitiandebt
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15brooks.html
http://www.adoptivefamilies.com/articles.php?aid=1663
Madonna adoption-This is a bit harsh, but great points are being made here particularly since many African countries specifically put in place residency caveats because of lessons of slavery of old & slavery of new.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6260996
This is the difference between so called good intentions of adoptions & hoping to save just one as opposed to the altruistic intentions of realizing that it taks a village to raise a child therefore families should be kept together whenever & however possible
American church group arrested on Haitian border accused of abducting children
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7009970.ece
African Union to consider “land for Haitians” plan
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60U0IV20100131
Parents ‘reclaim’ children in Haiti abduction-adoption row
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100202/ts_alt_afp/haitiquakechildrenuscrime
Help Haiti Art work by: Graphic artist KERRY DEBRUCE (check her at www.kladcreative.com)
Ifind your thoughts here sadening . . .I don’t disagree that the Haitian people could have and should have been helped through constructive investment in their economy by industrialized nations. God only knows that we as a country have been guilty of such neglect from the time our nation was born. With that being said; if a child is going to grow up without parents, one should celebrate the desire of wanting families to help to that end. No child will be harmed or disenfranchised by having a loving mother and father . . . regardless of their race. And yes, I am anglo.
I haven’t hidden my name; because I have nothing to be embarrassed about here. Perhaps you would like to post your own with your comments.
Doug Doran
@Doug-Why r u so saddened? I am not against adoption in general nor am I against Anglos adopting non-anglo children. My comments are more about the general idea of feeling like if I can save 1, I have done my job or a good thing in this world instead of truly being selfless & altruistic & realizing that perhaps it is best & possible to save many by keeping or helping to keep a family together. I am just saying that being so quick to adopt out children particularly during a catastrophe when we do not even know if these children have family members still alive that they can be reunited with or really helping toward implementing infrastructure, education etc. that can help the entire family & nation stay together & build together is all I am saying should be given more consideration, otherwise we will end up basically having to adopt out the entire nation , child by child, if they are never given the upper hand or a hand up to find their happy home & better life at home.
As I said I think adoption is a noble & selfless act & I praise those who chose & continue to choose to do so, particularly when one adopts a child from a completely different culture or a child with disabilities- the work ahead of them is often very difficult to make sure they are meeting the needs of a child & these families also need the village to help them raise a child -the village that includes other families from the same culture & experience with disabilities. When I look at Zahara Jolie- Pitt , I ache for her for the fact that it is obvious that her adoptive family does not know how to handle her Ethiopian hair nor do they have someone in their life on a regular basis to teach them how to. This may sound trivial & ridiculous when the she is in a happy loving & wealthy home instead of in poverty in Ethiopia, but I have known adopted Black children with White parents who became traumatized adults because they had to live a life where they never felt beautiful because they were so different & their parents didn’t have the basic tools to know how to handle something as simplistic & complicated as their hair & found it a trivial thing to go out of their way to seek the help needed.
I was not at all speaking of children who have no family being given a home by any loving person regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or whatever- but I also emphasize “no family” not just no parents. In Africa the idea of family is extremely extended for a good reason. Many of my cousins live with my mother even though their parents are still alive & one lives a stones throw away, but my mother has the means & space to provide a better home & education for my cousins than their parents at this time. That is the duty of a family- to pick up the slack where needed in order to keep the family together & thriving as opposed to my aunts having to adopt out their children to strangers & not be able to see them again or to get the help & time needed to get themselves on their feet enough to be able to take care of their own children & to keep the legacy of family going. In the USA many of my friends & acquaintances find it so strange that I am constantly around & keep in touch with so many cousins, aunts, uncles & extended family, but that is what family is amongst Africa & her descendants & we should not lose that culture to a western culture where family is basically ur immediate family where one barely sees nor deals with their extended family. Every child deserves a loving home & the ability to share in family, so please don’t get me wrong about adoption & be open to see the bigger picture that I am speaking of.
Thanks-Aretha Amma Sarfo
PS
I do not put my name, not because I am hiding, but because all the posts on this site are written by me unless otherwise stated -so I don’t have the desire to plaster my name for the sake of making sure I get credit-but I see it causes some confusion. I will make sure to put my name so in the future people can address me by name & not feel like I am hiding behind my words.
thanks for this. i’ve been “feeling” these things, but sometimes it helps to have a framework to put them in.
@Doug-this is the type of so called good intentions of adoption that I am speaking about in this Post-http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7009970.ece
I was just chatting with my friend about this last week over lunch . Don’t remember how in the world we got on the subject really, they brought it up. I do recall eating a excellent chicken salad with sunflower seeds on it. I digress…
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