Babygate: trafficking children to cover demand

Malinda, an adoptive mother of two Chinese girls,  writes in her blog Adoption Talk about the lengths some corrupt individuals are going to ensure the steady flow of adoptable babies to people able to pay the pricey adoption fees. In her post Adoption Corruption: Trafficking in the news she highlights recent cases in Cameroon, where children are kidnapped in order to be placed for adoption; Korea, where young parents put their baby on sale on the Internet; Guatemala, where the army abducted and sold more than 333 children for adoption and where recently babies and children were put up for adoption without parental consent; and Ethiopia, where unregulated agencies are convincing families to give their children up for adoption, promising them the children will later return to them or that the agency will help support the remainder of the family. Similar cases have been seen in numerous other countries.

Mothers coming together to secure their human rights

Some adoptive mothers do what they can to ensure one woman's right to motherhood doesn't go against the reproductive rights of another mother.

One such option is open adoptions, a sometimes controversial decision where the child remains in contact with the birth mother and is aware that due to other circumstances, she wasn't able to take care of them.

One woman in the United States, Leigh, writes a blog called Open Adoption Round Table about the challenges of giving her child up for adoption in a semi-open arrangement.

Another blogger and writer Dawn Friedman tells a story in her blog from the opposite perspective of adopting her daughter, Madison, while keeping an open line of communication with the birth mother. Friedman is also an activist for adoption reform in the United States. She believes pregnancy counseling in unplanned pregnancies too easily pushes women towards giving up their babies for adoption without informing them adequately of how difficult it is. Friedman also recommends that the process of adoption counseling should include a post-labor session where women are accompanied through the decision making process and advised of their rights and possibilities after giving birth, in case they are having second thoughts or have additional concerns.

Birth mothers

Lorraine Dusky in the United States, who runs the Birth Mother, First Mother Forum had medical history that made her think that birth control pills she took during pregnancy could have affected the child she placed in adoption, but when she tried to contact the adoptive family through the agency to let them know, they refused to send over the information.

She relinquished her child with no particular coercion, but the laws for “closed records” in adoptions may have cost her daughter's life.

But what about natural mothers in developing countries? Where are their voices? Some of them have written letters to the children they've placed for adoption, as Pam Conell of families.com tells us in her book review of I Wish for You a Beautiful Life: Letters from the Korean birthmothers of Ae Ran Won.

Others are telling their stories through documentaries, or after being reunited with their natural children. And there are some others who tell of women who don't regret giving their children up for adoption, considering it was the best alternative. However some women, like  Malinda in the USA,  adoptive parent of Chinese Girls who writes AdoptionTalk believes that these last representations have to be taken with a grain of salt:

These representations of foreign birth mothers allow us to divorce ourselves from the experience of these birth mothers, to minimize their pain, and to justify how much better off our children are with us than with them.

The Voices of the Adopted:

Mary Grace in China by endbradley

The voices of the adoptees are as varied as any of the other parts of the adoption triad. But in general they share some points of view in common: The desire to know about their origins and the reason for their adoption and the hope that their birth mothers made an informed decision to part with them.  They also believe in the right to know their history if they choose, to know about their adoptee status from early on and have it acknowledged as part of their identity.

For example Susan from ReadingWritingLiving, an adult adoptee born in the 1960's, identified with TV drama Mad Men, particularly in their portrayal of adoptions in that time period, where women hid their shameful unwanted pregnancies until giving birth and how adopted children where seen as discards. She sums it up in her post Mad Men: A Window into my Own Past

Yes, it was painful to hear this but also WILDLY refreshing to have someone just come out and SAY it.

In the I am adopted [es]blog in Spanish, David Azcona writes about his difficult childhood, adoption at the age of 6 and the instability and inability to bond with people [es] he's felt since. It is also a place for other adoptees to post their adoption stories, and to share their experiences. In the comment threads of his about page, stories about apropriated babies [es] with no knowledge of their birth parents, twins separated at birth[es] by nurses who told parents one of the babies had died[es] and requests from birth mothers trying to contact their children as well as the other way around.

An adoptee answers a question asked on a website regarding love between adoptees and adoptive parents:

I was adopted as a baby by the two most loving, caring and supportive parents a child and young adult could ever wish for. I also have a younger adopted brother.

I don't think my biological parents could have loved me more than my adoptive ones.

Other adoptees with similar experiences chime in, some with relationships with both natural parents and adoptive parents and others who have only known their adoptive families. In this particular thread, the experiences are overwhelmingly positive towards adoption.

Some adoptees advocate against adoption. Lost Letters, an adoptee herself who writes in the Anti-Adoption livejournal community believes that instead of using so much money to aid in adoption processes and fees, it should be spent in improving the conditions of the birth parents so they can take care of their family. She adds:

I understand that my actual position on adoption is going to piss people off because people want to believe that adoption is a win/win/win situation for everyone, because people think that middle class white women deserve children no matter what, because people think that our western society is so wonderful that all children should be bought up here.

AmyAdoptee who posts in the Adult Adoptees Advocating for Change forum writes:

The adoption industry intentionally pits us against each other.  We are letting them do it.  In fact, the adoption industry gets a wonderful kick out of this.  Here is an article that supports generally our point of view but they ask that we refrain from attacking adoptive parents.  There is nothing wrong with a healthy discourse.

PhilM, in the same forum thread discussing how adoptive parents perceive them, clarifies:

I’m angry at a society that ignores the problems of adoption, and the harm it causes. I’m angry that when I try to talk about these things, I am marginalized and dismissed with comments along the lines of “well, everyone experiences it differently” and “most adoptees I know love their adoptive parents” and others. I am angry that, because I speak out about adoption, people question my love for my adoptive family. And, I admit, I get angry when individuals parrot these messages.

I don’t need a lecture for how to behave in dialogue. I need people willing to engage in it.

The way forward

As with any delicate issue, it touches a sensitive chord for all those involved: adoptive mothers, birth mothers and adopted children. However, it seems they all meet and agree on one important point: Transparency in the adoption process is vital to safeguard the human rights for the mothers and the children, and discussing adoption openly encourages transparency.

EDITED TO ADD:

We have removed a reference to a blogger who didn't wish to be quoted or mentioned in this post. To her, our apologies, it was in no way our intention to infringe on her or offend, but to provide a multiplicity of visions regarding a sensible subject.

Photo by Renata Avila

Years later, after he was released into the custody of his older sister, Tecú began to work to exhume the mass grave of those killed in the Massacre. Eventually, this work led to the conviction of 3 of the men who took part in the killings. This work has been crucial in the pursuit of justice and the preservation of the historical memory on local and international levels.

Tecú wrote a book called “Memory of the Río Negro Massacres” that tells his experience as a homeless child who survived the war. Tadeo explains more about the story that Tecú tells:

The military and paramilitary forces rounded up all of the women and children and accused them of collaborating with the guerrillas. Together they proceeded to rape, torture, and murder everyone. Some 177 human beings, including 107 children, were massacred on the 13th of March, 1982, in Rio Negro. The few survivors, mostly young boys, were forced into slavery. In The Massacres of Río Negro, survivor Jesús Tecú described being enslaved by a leader of the Xococ PAC, a man who ripped his youngest brother out of his arms and swung him by his feet, smashing his brains against rocks in front of his eyes because his wife was “not used to caring for [such] a small child.

Tecú's case is different from many others, because he stayed in his community helping his community to fight for their human rights. He is leading a Legal Clinic to help poor and under-educated people to fight for their rights. This struggle  by Tecú and other survivors of Guatemala's civil war led to the creation of the New Hope Foundation (FNE). Their mission can be found on their blog [es]:

Consideramos que una buena educación para nuestros hijos es la única manera de combatir la intolerancia, construir una paz verdadera, y mejorar la calidad de vida para nuestras comunidades en las que viven en extrema pobreza tantos sobrevivientes de la violencia pasada.

Other similar initiatives are taking place in the Achí community, as a way to remember the past, but also celebrate their culture. The Achí community recently opened the Riij Ib’ooy Center in the town of Rabinal, where people can learn more about the massacres, but also about the culture and glorious past of this Mayan group. In an interview with the Coordination for International Accompaniment in Guatemala (ACOGUATE), Tecú explains that the situation in Rabinal is extremely complex, since perpetrators and victims are living and sharing spaces in the same small village.

In her blog, Christina Gray of the organization Youth Helping Youth describes how Tecú explains the story of his village to visitors:

Sunday afternoon, the delegation, interns, and coordinators met-up with Jesús Tecu Osorio, a Maya-Achí speaking survivor of the Río Negro Massacre of 1982, who shared with us some of Rabinal and neighboring community’s history as represented in the monuments dedicated to those murdered in the massacres, these monuments allow the community and foreigners to remember the lives of those that passed and speak out against the government's desire for everyone to forget.

For his work, Tecú was awarded the Reebok Human Rights Award. In this Witness video, Tecú explains his struggle for Justice:

Despite the progress made by Tecú and the Achí community, the work continues. Survivors are still pressing the Guatemalan government to convict those responsible for the massacres, as shown by Colectivo Guatemala Blog. Some of these individuals are being intimidated for their work.

Recently, Tecú has received threatening phone calls. Padd Daniel of the Guatemala Solidarity Network describes this news:

On the afternoon of September 14th, 2009, human rights defender Jesus Tecú Osorio received a telephone call on his personal cell phone from an unidentified extortionist who threatened to kidnap, torture and dismember each of Jesus' children, one-by-one, if his demands are not met. The caller demonstrated that he knows where Jesus lives with his wife and children, as well as the location of the school where his eldest son studies. Like most human rights defenders in Guatemala, Jesus has received many death threats over the years, none of which have been properly investigated. But Jesus has never let intimidation tactics deter him from continuing his human rights work.

Nonviolent action has played a key role in the struggle for social change in Guatemala, as shown by local activists like Jesús Tecú. However, as the recent threatening phone call demonstrates, there is still much progress to be made.

Photo by Esteban Suástegui and used under a Creative Commons license. http://suastegui.wordpress.com/2008/05/09/vendiendo-en-los-buses/

Rodríguez is from Quito, Ecuador, and observes that there are some vendors that stand out from the others [es]:

Hay casos excepcionales en esto. Hoy hablo de uno de estos casos. Se trata de un vendedor de caramelos, un poco malencarado, pero siempre que se sube al bus vende por lo menos unos 2,50 o 3 dólares, es decir logra que entre 10 y 12 personas adquieran su producto. Justamente logra esto porque hace la diferencia. Al llegar y vender sus caramelos él logra captar la atención de la gente, habla de política, de índices y estadísticas del país, habla de religión, hasta un poco de charla motivacional se manda. Al final siempre dice que aunque él sea solo un vendedor de caramelos eso no implica que no pueda darse un tiempo para leer, estar informado, navegar por internet para poder hablar de cosas interesantes a sus clientes. Luego de su discurso que resulta ser más largo que el del común de los vendedores somos muchos los que nos quedamos con 5 caramelos en el bolsillo y 25 centavos menos, que en verdad no enriquecen ni empobrecen a nadie.

In the comments section, Estertor shares his experience of another vendor who went above and beyond when selling a liquid to clean scratches off DVDs. He brought a portable DVD player aboard the bus to show how after scratching the DVD with sandpaper, all it took was an application of the liquid so that the DVD would play like new.

Even though for many passengers, the interruption may or may not be welcome, there is a segment of the population that respects the hard work that is put in by these vendors. They may not always make much on an individual trip, but the sales add up throughout the repetitive day. Esteban Suástegui, a Guatemalan blogger at Pensamientos de un Suástegui [es] looks at the labor of these individuals with an appreciative eye:

Pero a pesar de todo, con todas las artimañas que solo un religioso podría saber, y con productos de mala calidad o que vencerán en un mes, a pesar de toda esta bulla, todas las molestias y tanta desesperación que cusan, es agradable cuando uno se pone a pensar que, como ya dijero, intentan ganarse la vida trabajando, que hace todo ese esfuerzo para alimentar a su familia, para no tener que delinquir, para poder hacer de este país un país menos pior…

Many of these artists are living and painting abroad. They use their blogs as a space to show others their work and stay in touch with their community.

Sebastián Sarti is Guatemalan, but was born in Costa Rica, where his Guatemalan father was exiled and married his Puerto Rican mother. He grew up in Nicaragua, lived for a while in Guatemala, and now he is dedicated to his paintings in Aix et à Marseille. He is sharing his works on his personal blog El Desorden de la Cabeza [es] (The Mess Inside My Head).

Le voleur d´animaux by Sebastian Sarti.

Based in Brooklyn, NYC, Juan Carlos from Historiando [es] has many talents to share with his readers. A painter and activist, he uses his works for exhibitions in galleries but also for demonstrations. He created a John Lennon poster using recycled tickets from the metro, to protest against the high fares of public transpot in New York. In this link, you can see some of his exhibitions.

Artwork by Juan Carlos

Elvira Méndez is a talented painter, based in Antigua, Guatemala and shares her work with the world. Her blog Pintura [es] (Paint) shows her collections of paintings, expressing herself with different shapes, colors, and textures.

Collage by Elvira Méndez

Alejandro Marré is a poet, a performer, but also a creative painter as his Arte Marré blog shows. Pop culture elements are remixed and retouched to have results, such as this:

Walking around by Alejandro Marré

Erick González is in Montmartre, the place any painter in the world dreams about. He is creating interesting pieces, expressing in images through recycled materials that contrasts the most complex topics in Guatemala, from violence against women to the increasing number of bodyguards and firearms. His blog [es] hosts critiques and pictures of his paintings.

Here is a sample:

I am a Product by Erick González

There are few galleries or public spaces for young artists in Guatemala to showcase their work. There are also little resources for invitations to exhibitions and the art critics rarely highlight little-known artists. For that reason, blogs are providing the opportunity to young artists to display their artwork, express themselves and share and interact with those who visit their sites to see their pieces of art.

All images used with permission or under a Creative Commons license.