01-11-2007, 06:20 AM
On a related note, kidnapping children for adoption in the west is a mass market these days. It's not just non-christian non-orphans who are victims of this massive crime. Bolivian children - they're very cute by the way, look very Indian with all that hair - are stolen off the streets, and in extreme cases when they are walking with their mum or playing with other children. Then they are shipped of to the U.S. where willfully ignorant (because they are desperate) rich couples happily adopt these 'poor, destitute orphans from the poverty-stricken nation of Bolivia where they would have had miserable, loveless lives'.
Bolivia at that time was the child-kidnapping capital of the world, and it was also the time when (surprise, surprise) many American parents adopting non-American children miraculously got Bolivian kids.
And in a more recent documentary that I watched, Polynesian mothers who'd assented to their children being taken in by American parents, realised what exactly 'adoption' entailed in the western sense and became heartbroken when they realised they had been duped out of their children. Among Polynesians, the concept of adoption is very different. It's like it is in Indian village communities: parents who have too many children or single parents, or immobile grandparents, 'share' their children with the rest of the community. Those who can, take care of the children. Feed them, clothe them, look after them. But the parents or grandparents still have all the rights and access to their own (grand)kids. The Polynesian women who signed away their 5th or so kid to a mercenary western adoption agency, because they couldn't afford to look after so many, didn't understand the English in the contract. They were told it was adoption (by a translator, who used the regular Polynesian term for it). Later, when they asked about when they could see their children again, they slowly found out the truth. It was heartbreaking to watch these women and men cry over their children that they lost to these spineless, heartless middle-men.
Highlighting the individuals of one particular case, the documentary interviewed the man of the adoption agency - who had no comment other than to say the woman had signed the contract and had a translator available. It also interviewed the adoptive parents, who when they found were a little perturbed initially. But being good christians, they found their conscience was back at ease when they said something to the effect of 'a contract is a contract' and we love the little girl like she is our own. But she's not theirs is she? She has real parents.
And oh, yeah, when asked whether they'd tell the kid when she grew up that she had real parents, they said they couldn't do that because the parents were alive.
Obviously they have no problems sleeping at night.
Bolivia, as far as I am aware, is in general a christian country. Samoa definitely is. Moral: Even after converting, be ready to be exploited. You'll always be untermenschen.
Bolivia at that time was the child-kidnapping capital of the world, and it was also the time when (surprise, surprise) many American parents adopting non-American children miraculously got Bolivian kids.
And in a more recent documentary that I watched, Polynesian mothers who'd assented to their children being taken in by American parents, realised what exactly 'adoption' entailed in the western sense and became heartbroken when they realised they had been duped out of their children. Among Polynesians, the concept of adoption is very different. It's like it is in Indian village communities: parents who have too many children or single parents, or immobile grandparents, 'share' their children with the rest of the community. Those who can, take care of the children. Feed them, clothe them, look after them. But the parents or grandparents still have all the rights and access to their own (grand)kids. The Polynesian women who signed away their 5th or so kid to a mercenary western adoption agency, because they couldn't afford to look after so many, didn't understand the English in the contract. They were told it was adoption (by a translator, who used the regular Polynesian term for it). Later, when they asked about when they could see their children again, they slowly found out the truth. It was heartbreaking to watch these women and men cry over their children that they lost to these spineless, heartless middle-men.
Highlighting the individuals of one particular case, the documentary interviewed the man of the adoption agency - who had no comment other than to say the woman had signed the contract and had a translator available. It also interviewed the adoptive parents, who when they found were a little perturbed initially. But being good christians, they found their conscience was back at ease when they said something to the effect of 'a contract is a contract' and we love the little girl like she is our own. But she's not theirs is she? She has real parents.
And oh, yeah, when asked whether they'd tell the kid when she grew up that she had real parents, they said they couldn't do that because the parents were alive.
Obviously they have no problems sleeping at night.
Bolivia, as far as I am aware, is in general a christian country. Samoa definitely is. Moral: Even after converting, be ready to be exploited. You'll always be untermenschen.