WOW, Blogspot finally unlocked my blog!
For more than a year I have not been able to access my blogspot but recently it seemed to work (*Content Blocked setting seems to work in OPERA Browser now) SO...I will attempt to update after many years living back in Manila, Philippines, where I have gotten back into film-making for local Indie films and international film projects done here. I have continued in both acting and Stills/BTS photographer for the last 7 years. I should be retired but enjoy doing work (*though not paid much, and doing most for gratis or love of the arts).
I continue to follow events and developments through social media and news concerning on This Thing of Ours-Adoption. The insane policy of deporting some of the failed adoptees has brought to light the fact that thousands of Adoptive Parents never got their Inter-Country Adopted children Naturalization to be come actual US Citizens. I totally support the push for amendments to the law to include all those who have been adopted from outside the US. I am not aware of any problems in other E.U. countries on this issue.
Well, I will see if this actually posts. lol
Old Dogs have to relearn tricks again!
The Koreanwarbaby from his second adoptive country, the Philippines.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0068157/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
For all who are discovering or pursuing their own self-identity or healing, understanding and just curiosity about #adoption #koreanadoptee #koreanness #iamabanana #yellowoutsidewhiteinside
July 27, 2019
February 2, 2018
Latest from Steven Morrison
02 Feb, 2018
https://www.facebook.com/mpakpage/
This is a great news that Korea may finally be adopting a law to protect unwed mothers the rights to choose to give births and stay anonymous, as the current law does not allow. The current law requires unwed mothers to register their babies in order to give them up for adoption. This caused thousands of babies being abandoned in the Baby Box, and many instances of abandoning them in the streets, trash bins, abandoned buildings, and many have been killed. All this because the unwed mothers did not want to have the birth history recorded in their family registry. This law, thanks to pastor JongRak Lee, who has championed for years for this to happen, will bring a great relief to unwed mothers that wish to stay anonymous. And this will reduce the number of babies coming to the Baby Box as the babies will be redirected to the adoption agencies for adoptions, hopefully. But despite this many will continue to be admitted to institutions if they are not adopted.
The Korean War Baby is very pleased about this development as it recognizes the situation of the reality in present day Rep. of Korea (The South Korean democracy not the commie bastards of North Korea). Adoption is NOT the best, but the realities of life bring about hard choices for mothers. In a perfect world, there would be no need, but pregnancy happens and at least a few women DAILY chose to NOT TERMINATE UNWANTED pregnancies. Daily about 4,000 plus Korean women chose to have abortions but around 25 children are born to Unwed Mothers. Good news, more of them are able to keep and try to raise their babies...but WOMEN should also have the Choice to Stay UNKNOWN...Hopefully, later they will make contact or leave a message for their child. We cannot "force them" to do such things or we will continue to have abandoned newborn infants left in dangerous circumstances.
January 21, 2018
Protest Statement on current adoption law in Korea
The Protest Statement by the Adoptive Families in Korea, in response to the Forum to amend the current adoption law in Korea to undermine the good adoptive families and the attempt to reduce/close adoption, thus forcing more children into institutions.
Please spread this widely to all the adoptees and adoptive families.
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The Protest Statement -
From the Members of the Emergency Adoptive Family Task Force Against the Amendments to the Special Adoption Law Initiative
From the Members of the Emergency Adoptive Family Task Force Against the Amendments to the Special Adoption Law Initiative
The Forum Organized by the Anti-Adoption Groups is Invalid.
The forum on ‘The Policy Change and Response After the Adopted Children Abuse and Death, Centered on The Daegu-Pochun Adoptee Abuse and Death Case’ was held on Tuesday, January 16, 2018. The main panels in the forum consisted mainly by the anti-adoption advocates that have long campaigned against adoption.
The forum missed the greater perspective of adoption, which should have included a greater diversity of experiences or opinions or values, but was designed to give greater platform to the people that centered on the negative aspects of adoption based on a couple of exceptional cases.
The forum on ‘The Policy Change and Response After the Adopted Children Abuse and Death, Centered on The Daegu-Pochun Adoptee Abuse and Death Case’ was held on Tuesday, January 16, 2018. The main panels in the forum consisted mainly by the anti-adoption advocates that have long campaigned against adoption.
The forum missed the greater perspective of adoption, which should have included a greater diversity of experiences or opinions or values, but was designed to give greater platform to the people that centered on the negative aspects of adoption based on a couple of exceptional cases.
Within the word ‘Adoption’ there is a life and rights of a person. We as adoptive families acknowledge that no matter what the reason is, for a lone child who has no one to care for, the best solution is to give the child a family through adoption. The Hague Convention of Adoption considers the institutionalized care as the last option for such a child.
However, the forum was mainly centered on the people and the organizations that totally disregarded the intent and the spirit of Hague.
By proposing a set of surprise amendments, this was not a forum but an announcement of an agenda that was already planned and decided by the organizers.
However, the forum was mainly centered on the people and the organizations that totally disregarded the intent and the spirit of Hague.
By proposing a set of surprise amendments, this was not a forum but an announcement of an agenda that was already planned and decided by the organizers.
The forum should be about bringing people with diverse opinions and backgrounds, and hopefully come to an agreeable and unified conclusion for good. To do this effectively, it is a general rule that a forum organizer must provide the forum materials to the public well ahead of the meeting.
However, the forum organizers provided only a select portion of the proposed special adoption law amendments, which came to the full light on the day of the forum. The organizer was not transparent with the forum agenda nor make it public, and with the few information they provided ahead of the meeting, they surprised all of us with the other materials.
The forum went against the common sense and against the values that are typically held at such an event. And the forum was conducted in a manner that gave advantages to the individuals or organizations that were against adoption, and did not give equal footing to the others that had the different opinions, and in fact even blocked others from making comments. Thus, the forum that was supposed to be about a frank discussion on a certain topic turned out to be a one-sided affair.
The Proposed Amendments to the Special Adoption Law Goes Against the Human Rights and Life.
The forum in question was held three days ago. We did not have enough time to digest the proposed amendments to the special adoption law that was made public on the day of the Forum. However, there were some very disturbing contents in the proposed amendments that stood out.
First, it was on the Article 30 on the Rights of Adoption Information. This law would require the adoptive parents to release all adoption information when a birth parent a birth relative demands it. All the adoptive parents in attendance were alarmed at this. This law would give the rights to the people who ‘willingly’ gave up their parental rights to later approach the adoptive parents anytime and demand the information from the parents that now hold the true legal parental rights. This is a gross violation of human rights.
The amendment states that the Rights of Adoption Information will be applied to all intercountry adoptions, but our concern is that there is no clear language that this will not be applied to all the domestic adoption cases.
The amendment states that the Rights of Adoption Information will be applied to all intercountry adoptions, but our concern is that there is no clear language that this will not be applied to all the domestic adoption cases.
Second, the proposed amendments to the special adoption law is also designed to block and reduce the number of adoptions significantly, thus this is an anti-adoption bill. The proposed law is evil in that has stripped down all languages that give positive supports to adoption and proposed that it should be run by public system, and make the adoption process more difficult, and if possible discourage adoption altogether. However, it was interesting to hear that a representative from the Ministry of Health and Welfare at the forum comment that even if the adoption was run by a public system there is simply no infrastructure or capability to operate such system by the government.
Therefore, we the adoptive parent representatives from all the regions of Korea have gathered and discussed the contents of the one-sided proposed amendments to the special adoption laws on Thursday, January 18, 2018, and view the proposed amendments goes against our human rights and threatens the lives of the children and their rights to homes.
Our Demands
We have therefore established ourselves “The Emergency Adoptive Family Task Force Against the Amendments to the Special Adoption Law Initiative” on that day and have decided to provide a collective response to the Rep. Nam Insoon as follows:
1. We demand an apology for holding a forum that was centered on anti-adoption agenda on January 16, 2018.
2. We demand an apology for completely and deliberately ignoring and excluding adoptive parents during the process to develop the amendments to the special adoption law.
3. We demand the immediate stop to push the Amendments to the Special Adoption Law Initiative.
4. We demand an open forum to include the adoptive parents, domestic and intercountry adoptees, and the adoption agencies to come together to discuss and develop the amendments together, rather than a forum that excludes the other important groups.
We the adoptive parents declare that if you do not comply with our demands as stated above, the collective forces of all adoptive families from all corners of Korea will join in a unified protest on the streets to voice against the inhumane amendments proposition to the special adoption law.
From the Members of the Emergency Adoptive Family Task Force Against the Amendment to the Special Adoption Law Initiative
Friday, January 19, 2018
Friday, January 19, 2018
THE KOREAN WAR BABY CONCURS ONE HUNDRED PERCENT WITH THIS!!!
January 20, 2018
"Just when I thought I was out......they pulled me back in"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Avk1PaB5fs8
Yes, folks, the Korean War Baby has been dormant for several years since returning to the Philippines and focusing on his film-making activities. I have not kept up on my blog but recent concerns on the This Thing of Ours-Adoption pull me back in.
I am Compelled to speak out against the issue of banning ALL ADOPTIONS IN KOREA...It seems that the laws have been twisted to virtually make even adoption in-country BY Koreans to be rendered de-facto useless.
I am spending the next few weeks to update myself on the facts before release my own analysis. First I must refresh on current happenings and touch base with those still very deeply involved.
I feel a stirring in the Force, the shit is about to hit the fan.
Out for now,
The Korean War Baby
Formerly known Alia, JUN Yong Soo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Avk1PaB5fs8
Yes, folks, the Korean War Baby has been dormant for several years since returning to the Philippines and focusing on his film-making activities. I have not kept up on my blog but recent concerns on the This Thing of Ours-Adoption pull me back in.
I am Compelled to speak out against the issue of banning ALL ADOPTIONS IN KOREA...It seems that the laws have been twisted to virtually make even adoption in-country BY Koreans to be rendered de-facto useless.
I am spending the next few weeks to update myself on the facts before release my own analysis. First I must refresh on current happenings and touch base with those still very deeply involved.
I feel a stirring in the Force, the shit is about to hit the fan.
Out for now,
Formerly known Alia, JUN Yong Soo
February 15, 2014
Back in Show Business-in the Philippines.
This is Don Gordon Bell, and well... for a Long long time, I have not touched my blog nor even been part of the discourse on This Thing of Ours-Adoption...I have been living in the Philippines, focusing on just getting established and well, getting ready for the last chapters of my life. I found much has changed, much has stayed the same, population has exploded in the Philippines since I left in 1985. Poverty is worse than ever, though the economy is growing at a high rate the trickle-down effect is not providing jobs.
Yet children born to unwed mothers in the Philippines for the most part, perhaps due to being one of the largest Catholic Christian communities in the world, STAY with their Mothers. Society in the Philippines tends to overlook a person's personal parentage with acceptance, unlike in Korea (Rep of Korea or South Korea not the communist run North Korea) where any hint of Taintedness or being Not perfect can kill a career before it begins. Confucian thinking pollutes the mindset of even Catholic and Protestant Christian in Korea in general with the idea that to be Orphaned, or even Adopted...proved that you were tainted according to this non-religious social structure that controls still a large majority of modern Korean society...But I digress.
Since my unfortunate divorce from a Korean national in 2010 it has been challenging to adjust back to living no longer in my birth mother's land, to 'making it' in Manila. I lived almost ten years back in '75 to '85 working in the film making business, starting with "Apocalypse Now". It was contact with Andrew Leavold, that crazy Aussie whose passion for B-movies lead him and I to do interviews on skype back in 2008, awakening memories of my adventures as a B-Movie Character Actor. I returned several times, met Nick Nicholson, Henry Strzalkowski, Steve Rogers, David Light, and FB contact with many other foreigners that I once worked in both International and Filipino action/drama genre films.
Over the last 18 months I 're-invented myself' with my hobby as an amatuer photographer, developing the 'eye' for what looks good on a scene in a film or even with a persons face. I understood from working with John Silao, a Filipino who emigrated to the states as a teenager, in our college days at Mt. San Antonio College. We have known each other since 1973 after both of us got out of the armed forces and through common high school friends shared a house in West Covina, Cal. and in 1975 came to Manila for a 3 week vacation that for John lasted for 3 months before he returned to Cal. to continue to study photography.
I was caught up in the APOCALYPSE NOW film, the first major production on the Vietnam War. My 'tour of duty' was to last ten years, as I became involved in the Casting Dept. under Ken Metcalfe...teaching foreigners from many lands who had arrived in the P.I. (Philippine Islands) to be extras in this great war epic. I was in my element, and worked to coordinate all the extras, Vietnamese Boat Refugees, D'Ifugao tribe of the Mountain Provinces who played the Montagnards or Mountain Men of the Central Highlands of Vietnam, plus all the Foreign Background extras playing US troops. It was a glorious adventure and healing at the same time for myself.
Hollywood had come to the Philippines big time and for 16 months I worked on the filming. One film led to another during this Golden Age of the cinema in the Philippines, as one by one, foreign productions came to film on location, in the P.I.
(To be continued)
September 1, 2012
Minnesota Transracial Film Festival 2012 Indiegogo UpdateThank you so much to all of you who have already contributed to our to MNTRFF Indiegogo fundraising effort! It is your support that continues to strengthen and enrich our vibrant and dynamic adoptee/adoptive parent community!We are now entering the second half of our fundraiser (30 days remaining) and we need your help. As you know, AK Connection, Watch Adoptee Films, and AdopSource are partnering with one another to bring you an innovative adoptee-centric film festival that has both a physical presence (Saturday, November 10 from 12-8pm at the University of Minnesota's St. Paul Student Center) and online presence (Monday, November 12 through Friday November 16) For the physical film festival, we are showcasing three feature films (Finding Seoul, Going Home, and The Invisible Red Thread) two short films (Struggle for Identity/A Conversation 10 years later and Seoul Searching) and three teasers of upcoming adoptee films (Found in Korea, You Follow, and Geographies of Kinship). The online film festival will include Going Home and Adopted: The Movie with additional films to be confirmed in the coming weeks. In order to bring the community the best possible film festival experience, we need your help. In return, we have some great perks for you:
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August 28, 2012
You judge me b/c I am pretty and I can smile…thinking I have lived a peaceful life….but my beauty only shines the most when I am shedding tears about the past that made me who I am today… « Forever….a child of Korea
SARAH has just recently returned to the land of her birth, Republic of Korea, and met her "Birth/Natural" (please forgive the terminology, no one agrees on what is best) .
REUNION, and all the emotional and mental rollercoaster that comes to mind. It is to some tabboo and for others a dream. For Korean Adult Adoptees less than 3,000 have gone down that path, often with very different results and experiences. For Adult Adoptees it is a minefield to walk, balancing adoptive family and 'birth/natural' family. We who have not yet actually walk this path can only wonder how we will feel.
Follow Sarah on her journey as she shares her own story in open details that many will identify with. No matter who you are or what part of This Thing of Ours-Adoption you are part of, reading will help you by 'walking along the path with Sarah'. She is walking Point, for us.
August 25, 2012
August 19, 2012
ART & BEAUTY 2 at Ricco-Renzo gallery
ART & BEAUTY 2
Former Beauty Queen Artist, Miss Philippines representatives are exhibiting their painting to be sold and some of the proceeds are going to support women's causes.
CLICK ON LINK BELOW
Riccorenzogallery Slideshow Slideshow: TripAdvisor™ TripWow ★ Riccorenzogallery Slideshow ★ to Makati. Stunning free travel slideshows on TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor is fun and easy to do, check it out.
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| by Reena Rae Sarmiento |
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| by Maria Isabel Lopez |
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| by Maria Isabel Lopez |
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| by Valerie Bangs Garcia |
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| Lani Lobangco |
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| by Loni Lobangco |
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| Collection of art works in support of Green |
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| Lani Lobangco |
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| Nina Ricci Alagao |
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So the Korean War Baby is having More Fun in the Philippines, with photography and next month, for the dozen or so friends who might want to know, I will be relaunching my film acting career in an Indie film directed by an International award winning Indie film direk Auraeus Solito. In the Montreal Film Festival, five of his films were shown. |
| Cast and crew members of Dir. Auraeus Solito (3rd from right) on the first of his Palawan triology, Filming on location in beautiful Palawan island soon. |
August 17, 2012
Riccorenzogallery Slideshow | TripAdvisor™
This is some of the stuff I am getting into, taking photos of famous people.
The Korean War Baby is getting back into the game, show business. I love it.
Riccorenzogallery Slideshow | TripAdvisor™:
'via Blog this'
The Korean War Baby is getting back into the game, show business. I love it.
Riccorenzogallery Slideshow | TripAdvisor™:
'via Blog this'
July 31, 2012
Geographies of Kinship – The Korean Adoption Story
Geographies of Kinship – The Korean Adoption Story:
'via Blog this'
Sign up to help KickStart this film project, be part of the efforts to get out the multiple stories so others can see they are not alone. Every person's story is slightly different, and yet so similar. If you are a KAD, an adoptive parent/family member, whatever, take a look at the films done by MUFilms.
The Korean War Baby
'via Blog this'
Sign up to help KickStart this film project, be part of the efforts to get out the multiple stories so others can see they are not alone. Every person's story is slightly different, and yet so similar. If you are a KAD, an adoptive parent/family member, whatever, take a look at the films done by MUFilms.
The Korean War Baby
| Support the Geographies of Kinship Campaign! Geographies of Kinship – The Korean Adoption Story is the latest film from award-winning filmmaker, Deann Borshay Liem (First Person Plural and In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee). The film follows Korean adoptees from the U.S. and Europe on their journeys to reconnect with their birth country and piece together their past. Deann is raising funds for the production phase of the project. Please click here to view the trailer and help get this film made! A Note from Deann While traveling around the world with my previous films, I've met hundreds of Korean adoptees from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Canada and heard countless stories from adoptees of all ages – sometimes heartbreaking, oftentimes funny and ironic,always inspiring. Geographies of Kinship presents a small handful of the amazing stories I've heard from around the world. We meet, for example, Estelle Cooke-Sampson, a bi-racial adoptee who revisits the orphanage where she grew up until she was adopted by an African American soldier. Emma Anderson is a Swedish adoptee who visits Korea for the first time and unexpectedly reunites with her birth mother. Meanwhile, Michael Holloway meets his birth family via webcam on a live television show. He is shocked to discover he has an identical twin. We have already started development of the project and shot some interviews. We're now asking for contributions via Kickstarter so that we can continue our momentum and complete the shooting phase of the film. Your support will help get all the elements we need for the film so we can start editing and make what I know will be a fantastic film. There are all sorts of exciting prizes in exchange for your support. Please check out the Kickstarter campaign and pass this email and link along to all your friends!  Thank you in advance and happy viewing!
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July 26, 2012
"Ritwal" And "Sta. Nina" at Cinemalaya Slideshow & Video | TripAdvisor™
The Korean War Baby has been quite busy lately, getting offers to do film and television work in the Philippines. The Cinemalaya Film Festival in Manila, Rep. of the Philippines is currently going on. Here is just one of many film premieres that KWB has attended. Inde or Independent films, shorts, and full feature films are being shown at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
"Ritwal" And "Sta. Nina" at Cinemalaya Slideshow & Video | TripAdvisor™:
'via Blog this'
"Ritwal" And "Sta. Nina" at Cinemalaya Slideshow & Video | TripAdvisor™:
'via Blog this'
July 6, 2012
Jae Sun Says This-Swedish KAD blog on Reunion
Reunion with one's Birth/Natural/Bio Family...For Adoptees it is just one of the many thoughts that MAY cross their minds when they are growing up. It may be in a culturally mixed family, where one KNOWS that they were adopted, or when in domestic adoption the adoptee discovers or is told that they were adopted. No matter, when thoughts develop such as "who am I?" and "why was I given up?" We find sometimes fantasy thinking and wondering "WHAT IF".
It is said that 75,000 visits to Korea by Korean Adoptees, some as children with their adoptive parents/family members, many as adults, have taken place. The first visits usually include the processing adoption agencies, foster parents, and even the first orphanage (if it is still open). A 'taste of Korea', experiencing the land of our birth, and for most it is a re-connection that opens up many questions with few answers.
For fifteen years I lived in Korea, teaching English, as a half-breed, mixed-blooded Korean-American. It was my opportunity to be involved with Global Overseas Adoptee's Link, from the beginning in the coffee shops of Seoul, circa 1997 with the founder Ami Natzger. Ami saw the need for an organization to help KADs find their way around and get some help. Nolin and about a dozen of us continued to meet but it was Ami who did the 'heavy lifting'.
The Korean War Baby
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Jaesun says this
Heavy Me Stuff
This is my latest attempt of a blog, I write about my life as a
Korean raised in Europe, living and being raised in Sweden, about
Korea, adoption, my Korean family, reunion. And also about my daily
life, opinions and values.
I look upon my life in different stages:
- Stage I. The Ignorant/Oblivouis State (my arrival in Sweden til my 5th birthday). As I was not yet fully aware of ethnicity.
- Stage II. The Awakening. (from my 5th birthday til my 12 birthday). I begun to realize that I was different since I was adopted.
- Stage III. The Time for Impugnation. (12th birthday til 18th birthday). The teen years, time for questions and finding identity.
- Stage IV. The Honemoon Phase. (18th birthday til 25th birthday) Around the time I found and meet my Korean family.
- Stage V. Age Of Realism. (25th birthday and ongoing.) The time after my second trip, I realized and accepted many things…
As for the future stages( Stage VI and onwords ) I’m
not sure what they exactly will entail but I’m more than happy to share
my daily experience with anyone who might be willing to listen.
I’m fairly confident and convinced that Korea will be a part of my
life just as adoption always be. The two simply wouldn’t function
together…
June 24, 2012
Geographies of Kinship - The Korean Adoption Story by Deann Borshay Liem — Kickstarter
Geographies of Kinship - The Korean Adoption Story by Deann Borshay Liem — Kickstarter:
'via Blog this'
'via Blog this'
ABOUT THIS PROJECT
About the Project
My name is Deann Borshay Liem and I’m a documentary filmmaker and Korean adoptee. While traveling around the world with my previous films, First Person Plural and In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee, I met hundreds of Korean adoptees from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Canada. I’ve had the tremendous privilege of hearing countless stories from adoptees of all ages – sometimes heartbreaking, oftentimes funny and ironic, always inspiring. These stories cover the gamut of life experiences – from stories about searching for identity and belonging; to stories of love, loss, and discovery; to questions about “who am I” and “how did I get here?”
Geographies of Kinship presents a small handful of the amazing stories I’ve heard from around the world. We meet, for example, Estelle Cooke-Sampson, a bi-racial adoptee who revisits the orphanage where she grew up until she was adopted by an African American soldier at the age of seven. She wonders how the nuns felt about having a black child in the 1950s. Emma Anderson is a Swedish adoptee who visits Korea for the first time and unexpectedly reunites with her birth mother, discovering family secrets along the way. Meanwhile, Michael Holloway is in San Francisco when he meets his birth family via webcam on a live television show. He is shocked to discover he has an identical twin. These, and other riveting stories, serve as a springboard for exploring the history of transnational adoptions from Korea, from the 1950s to the present.
We have already started development of the project, collected some archival material and shot some interviews. I was thrilled recently to receive development funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities which is now enabling us to complete archival footage research, write a script, consult with scholars and experts, and edit a fundraising reel. We will be done with these important steps in the Fall.
We are now asking for contributions via Kickstarter so that we can continue our momentum and complete the production (shooting) phase of the film by following our film’s participants on their individual journeys. Your support will help us get all the elements we need for the film so we can actually start editing and make what I know will be a fantastic film.
Geographies of Kinship presents a small handful of the amazing stories I’ve heard from around the world. We meet, for example, Estelle Cooke-Sampson, a bi-racial adoptee who revisits the orphanage where she grew up until she was adopted by an African American soldier at the age of seven. She wonders how the nuns felt about having a black child in the 1950s. Emma Anderson is a Swedish adoptee who visits Korea for the first time and unexpectedly reunites with her birth mother, discovering family secrets along the way. Meanwhile, Michael Holloway is in San Francisco when he meets his birth family via webcam on a live television show. He is shocked to discover he has an identical twin. These, and other riveting stories, serve as a springboard for exploring the history of transnational adoptions from Korea, from the 1950s to the present.
We have already started development of the project, collected some archival material and shot some interviews. I was thrilled recently to receive development funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities which is now enabling us to complete archival footage research, write a script, consult with scholars and experts, and edit a fundraising reel. We will be done with these important steps in the Fall.
We are now asking for contributions via Kickstarter so that we can continue our momentum and complete the production (shooting) phase of the film by following our film’s participants on their individual journeys. Your support will help us get all the elements we need for the film so we can actually start editing and make what I know will be a fantastic film.
June 23, 2012
On Whining and Pining
1 comments from earlier Post:
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I agree that qualifiers should be used rather than blanketing something or someone and all of adoption in discourse. A qualifier would have been suitable here because it's not entirely true. There are indeed *many* instances where adoption has caused the loss and separation of mothers and children.
As an adoptee and feminist, I have long been concerned with the U.S. obsession of "righting" the "illicit" childbearing of impoverished and/or unwed mothers by adoption--something that came about after careful marketing and the creation of a supply and demand system in the domestic industry in the United States. In the 1970's, for every one "unwed mother" who might give her baby up for adoption, there were ten prospective adoptive couples waiting to adopt (that ratio has since skyrocketed astronomically) with few facilitators and institutions at the time disagreeing that an adoption wasn't the only option. This system stacked against vulnerable, young, women did in fact cause them to lose their babies to adoption. The need for adoptions to happen as, second to marriage, the only way for a woman to "redeem" unwed childbearing drove the losses of over one million women. These are losses the blossoming industry at the time absolutely caused.
The over one-million U.S. women, and who knows how many worldwide, victimized by this system should not be dismissed. Their children were also victims. How can we dismiss them or tell them how to feel about it all either?
I know you've heard the voices of these mothers. What they say is true. My mother was treated very much like this in the 1980's. The second she walked into the agency, the decision was already made for her. Adoption was the agency's #1 priority and so many absolutely repugnant things happened to her, I, and my adoptive parents, just so adoption was the end that justified the agencies means.
Not every person, mother, family, or adoptee shares that experience. But we cannot dismiss them. I don't want my mother dismissed because her loss to adoption--because of adoption--isn't nice to think about because that's not fair. She was one of those women people use as examples of those who don't want their babies, she was raped. She loved me. She wanted me. I don't "pine" that I wasn't kept. I "pine" because of her horrific experiences--because she's a human being, and my mother, and no one should have to be treated that way.
I don't blame my adoption, adoptive parents, adoptive parents as a whole, adoption workers, original parents, or anyone else for any problem that I've ever had. But I do expect adoption to be accountable for the reprehensible amount of losses it, in itself, causes to orphans, foster children, youth adoptees, adult adoptees, original families, and adoptive families. I'm gladly a "whiner" for the cause of accountability ;-)
My point is that the facts are that a child was conceived, in any manner (marriage, unwed premarital sex, rape, incest, IVF, etc) and then adopted in any manner, that adoption does not CAUSE the loss and separation. A life has been produced, and no matter how it was brought into being, babies and children are in the world having already suffered loss and separation.
It is these and other conditions that CAUSE separation/loss not the other way around. It may be death of one or both parents, it may be extreme poverty, it could be the mother was forced by the societal and family lack of support, or she just did not want to be a mother yet. Rape or incest, and a decision not to abort or lack of facilities or religion may prevent turning to abortion. There are many Causes for the separation.
AGAIN, this is Post conception and relinquishment phases. Demand for children to be adopted did not Cause pregnancy and male preference did they? No. "Supply" is over abundant for many factors, in different ways over the years it changed as in the USA fewer women gave up their children. Single motherhood became more acceptable by society in many countries (one factor). It is a clear indication that THE RESULTING adoption both Domestic and International is that there is a huge SUPPLY. Not Demand 'causing' the Supply. YOU SEE? You prove my point, that it is not the cause but the Effect of the huge SUPPLY that led to the marketing and some abuses within the system. THIS I AGREE WITH, that abuse HAVE and DO occur.
I can agree with those who are upset about the extreme viewpoints (i.e. "forever families", Christian zealous motivations to adopt and save a child"). There are also problems of the Process that international adoption has undergone and In-Country adoptions are still unregulated in Sending Countries. Non-Hague signatory countries are still allowed to send orphans, so the Hague Conventions are worthless and cannot be enforced.