The reasoning behind the forced precipitation was because Beijing had been experiencing a drought. The night before the snow, the government had fired silver iodide into the skies. The resulting effect increased the amount of snow by 16 million tons.

“We won’t miss any opportunity of artificial precipitation since Beijing is suffering from the lingering drought,” said Zhang Qiang, the head of the weather modification office, to the state media.

China has a history of artificially inducing rain, usually in cases to stop drought. At other times, the weather modification office has reduced the rain to ensure clear skies, such as during the National Day parade in October or the Beijing Olympic Games.

Netizens have been divided in their opinions about this past weekend’s man-made snow. Some wrote gleefully about its beauty, like blogger, 鱼干儿.

北京的天气，总是这么让人匪夷所思。毫无预兆的就下了场雪，而且还一发不可收拾。听说是人工催下来的，管他呢，我们就爱这样的天气。

Some, however, have been more annoyed. Wrote 小米：

回来才听说这是场人工降雪，是谁这么主观的断定这是下雪的好时机呢？？到处都是措手不及的冷，电力、交通、供暖等都遇到很棘手的问题。

On an Internet forum, one user complained that the government should have warned people ahead of time, adding that many of the flights at the airport were delayed.

要我说，这种人定胜天的精神是好的，虽然北 京人都“被冬天”了，如果真能解除北方旱情也算是功德一桩。就是没通知大家的气象局太不地道。

A few posts made on the Internet have also expressed worry over what kind of effects the unnatural snow might have on the environment. One blogger, 天边的云, wondered if anyone has the right to alter the weather.

但是，在我们还不能完全掌握天气变化的规律时，就盲目改变局部的天气，是否会对 整个环境造成更大的不利影响呢？比如，这次因为北京缺水，就让原本要下到山东（假设而已）的雪在北京下了，会不会造成山东更缺水呢？

Alex Pasternack, a blogger and journalist in Beijing, wrote a post on Tree Hugger elaborating on what kind of effects the man-made precipitation might have.

The drought has affected 800,000 hectares of farmland by the end of October, official sources estimated, and the snow storm was said to be a much-needed boon to local farmers.

But not all farmers in the region benefited. One possible side effect of weather modification is that it diverts precipitation from other regions that need it too, for the sake of creating stronger storms in a focused area.

Other netizens have poked fun at the snow. Elizabeth Kain wrote on her blog:

Yesterday's snow was the earliest in ten years. I am sure my mother, who sat in the Beijing Airport for 7 hours as all flights in and out of the city were disrupted or cancelled, would be happy to know her inconvenience was state induced.

Another comment about the snow also made an astute observation:

Martin M. November 2, 2009 3:30 pm

Everything is made in China, even snow.

Under existing law, each rural deputy represents a population four times than in urban areas. That means that one rural NPC deputy represents 960,000 rural people, while each urban NPC deputy represents 240,000 urban people. Legal scholars said the amendment reflects the transition of China’s urban and rural society. The current imbalance started in 1953 when the first Electoral Law was passed. At the time, rural population greatly outnumbered urban citizens. The rule was to ensure that urban deputies would not be greatly outnumbered.

While China’s state media carries headlines such as “China's rule by law boosted by equal political rights and equal life compensation in urban and rural areas” and “One step nearer equality”, netizens’ responses are more skeptical.

Netizens from nfdaily.cn question the credibility and limited public participation of elections in China:

1 # 网友 2009-10-28 10:18:40: 当某一权利仅仅是纸面权利，而不被坐实时，大家都不重视它就在所难免。而不重视的结果是，让这一权利更加流于形式. 这么多年在外面遇见很多黎民百姓，问过很多人，结果都和我一样从来不曾有用过一次选举权的事。一切还是务实点好。许多空话对百姓又有什么意义。

While a right merely exists on paper but not in practice, people will not attach importance to it. The result is that this right will only become a formality. These years, I’ve asked a lot of people. Many, me included, simply haven’t ever exercised the right to vote. Be more pragmatic. These are just empty words to common people.

6 # 网友 2009-10-29 23:47:33: 选举制度无论怎样改，内定人选早就安排好了

No matter how you reform it, the preferred candidates are arranged in advance.

Earlier in September, a Southern Metropolitan Weekend article on the reform attracted similar comments:

Mameng 2009-09-17: 其实现在就算这四分之一的选举权都没有充分的给农民行使啊.很多农民这一辈子都没亲眼见过“人大代表”为何方神圣

In fact, farmers didn’t even have the chance to exercise their “one quarter” election right in the past. Many simply haven’t seen an NPC delegate in their lifetime.

One also questions the need for adjustment based on the urban/rural population ratio in the first place:

foxhtj 2009-09-18: 如果构成人民的主体是农民，为什么人代会不能成为农民大会，何况是在没有农会的情况下，难道仅仅是因为按马教教义，工人阶级是统治阶级，高人一等？那又何必上山下乡呢

If farmers make up the bulk of the population, why couldn’t they form the bulk of the People’s Congress? Is it just because Marxism-Leninism stresses that the working class should be the ruling class? If so, what’s the need of the “Down to the Countryside” Movement?

Obviously, more far-reaching issues lie beyond the reform. 孫嘉業 of Hong Kong’s Mingpao provides an analysis:

不過，雖然近幾屆全國人大農村代表比例增加，但真正的農民代表人數與毛澤東時代相較卻不增反減。在3000多名代表中，真正的農民僅百名左右，很多農村人大代表是鄉鎮幹部。即使在毛澤東時代，農村選出的人大代表又能在多大程度上代表農民利益，頗成疑問。在國家工業化的進程中，農民的利益總是最先被犧牲掉的。

Although the proportion of rural delegates has increased recently, their absolute number has declined compared with the Mao’s era. Among the 3,000 NPC delegates, only around a hundred are real farmers. Many rural delegates are village officials. Even back in Mao’s era, the extent to which rural delegates represented farmers’ interest was also questionable. In the ongoing industrialization, the farmers are always the first to sacrifice.

真正增加農民在國家政治生活中的話語權，單靠增加農民選出的人大代表的數量是不足夠的。正如現今的工人代表亦未能充分代表工人利益一樣，要徹底改革人大代表産生方法，就應落實人民的選舉權和被選舉權，擴大選舉競爭性，打破身分職業的界限，做實地域代表制，如此，「幾分之一」的困擾，亦隨之化為無形。

To really increase farmers’ representation in national politics, it is not enough to increase the number of delegates elected by farmers. Similarly, workers’ rights in today’s China are not sufficiently reflected by workers’ representatives. To completely reform the formation of NPC delegates, China needs to implement people’s rights to elect and be elected, increase the competitiveness of elections, abolish restrictions based on occupation and identity, and ensure equitable geographical representation. If so, the debate on “fractional” voting rights would be solved.

Poster Of Tibet Photography Exhibition

Students for a Free Tibet, Bangladesh (SFTBD), the Bangladesh chapter of the Students for a Free Tibet organization, in partnership with Drik Bangladesh, has organized a photography exhibition on Tibet named “Into Exile | Tibet 1949-2009” at Drik Gallery in Dhaka which was scheduled to start today and run for a week. Drik Bangladesh is an internationally acclaimed photo agency which is led by renowned photo journalist and blogger Shahidul Alam.

Phayul.com reports quoting a spokesperson from SFTBD:

“On 29th October 2009, Qian Kaifu, Cultural Counselor, and Cao Yanhua, Cultural Attache, from the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Bangladesh visited Dr Shahidul Alam to ask him to cancel the exhibition.”

“They brought Chinese gifts along with their request,” [..]

Unheard Voice Blog reported on 31st of October, 2009:

It seems like China is surely paying attention. Tomorrow’s exhibition in Tibet seems to be in jeopardy with the organizers under serious pressure to cancel the event.

Yesterday a delegation from Chinese embassy came to meet the Shahidul Alam, director of Drik and ‘requested’ him to cancel the event.

An email from an activist reached us here: ‘They also wandered around Drik and asked employees number of questions….

Alam bhai told them not to advise him what to do on his own property. So the exhibition is going on, but we are expecting huge lines of dgfi (military intelligence) and what not on the opening day on Sunday.

Not only was the exhibition targeted, but also the activists as the post elaborates:

As of 6 pm tonight, Special Branch officers reached Drik under the operatives of a certain SI Mijan and demanded to know the name of the contact person for the exhibition. The movement leaders also previously reported various visits to the home of the activists over the past three weeks by the same SI.

Shahidul Alam posted this message on Twitter:

7:04 PM Oct 31st: khairul kabir and palash from special branch currently at Drik. want to know names of organisers of Tibet show. I've refused to give it.

And today (Sunday) the inevitable happened. Shahidul Alam tweeted this afternoon:

The heat is on. OC Shah Alam just phoned me again telling me to stop the show. Threatened to send police if we refuse.

Later reports came in that police finally prevented the event:

An hour before the launch, scheduled for 5pm, police shut the gates preventing public from entering the gallery, said Drik authorities.

Drik managing director Shahidul Alam said Bangladesh Police Special Branch spoke with him and asked him to stop the exhibition citing a “government order”.

Alam said, although the police officers could not produce any document of the order, they threatened to shut down the show by force if the organisers did not do so willingly.

Now let us learn about the turn of events from Shahidul Alam's blog post:

When Mr. Kaifu, instead of showing interest in our sole Chinese member Jessica Lim in the library, insisted that we find a quiet place to talk, I realized it was more than a courtesy call.

He got straight to the point. “We would like you to cancel the Tibet exhibition” he said. Reminding me that Tibet was a part of China, he went on to explain how the Bangladesh China relationship would be affected if the show went on. He also spoke of the many things we could do together, the exhibitions we could bring. About how such a famous organisation like Drik would find many partners in China. It seemed churlish to remind him that my recent application for a visa when I was to judge the TOPS photojournalism contest in China, had been rejected.

As politely as I could, I reminded Mr. Kaifu that ours was an independent gallery. I asked him how he felt he had the right to tell us, what we could show. I invited him to the show and assured him that he would be free to present his own opinion at the opening. We would be happy to show a Chinese exhibition, if the quality was right. He wanted to see the gallery and a colleague showed him around as I went back to the meeting.

It was evening before the phone call from the ministry of culture came in. “China was a friend, you mustn’t show pictures of Dalai Lama” the high ranking official went on. “No no we are not talking of censorship, but…” This was followed by some artist who spoke as if he was a friend. I couldn’t place either of the callers, though I could place the ministry official by his rank. I could see it was to be a multi-pronged attack.

Shahidul Alam commentates on the images in a live web stream after the exhibition had been closed. Image courtesy Media Helping Media

The Special Branch do like me. They came to visit again. [..] The initial cordial conversation, turned sharp when I refused to divulge the contact details of the organizers. They reminded me of how it would become difficult for Drik to operate in the future if we didn’t take the side of the government. I reminded them that I was siding with the law. That the law applied to the police, was an unknown concept to Shah Alam.

Pictures of the turnout of events are available on the DrikNews site which appears to reported at as an attack site. You can ignore the sign (its safe) and see the pictures.

Rob Godden at The Rights Exposure protest writes:

The Chinese government’s increasing interference into other states is a worrying trend. Not satisfied with running their own complex censorship system they are attempting to make it transnational. These tactics work best on small countries such as Bangladesh, or Nepal where I am now, and smacks of bullying. [..]

The Chinese government obviously thinks that it has jurisdiction over any content that relates to China where ever in the world it may be displayed. If pressure from the embassy does not work an unofficial cyber attack will be on its way.

Bangladeshi netizens have already started protesting. Habibullah Mizan wrote in the Facebook page of the event:

Are WE living in BANGLADESH or CHINA??? WHO runs our elected government??? WE or the CHINESE???? We can’t even allow any exhibition? Really shame, shame, shame.

Shada Kalo Blog is also not happy with the government's decision and asks it to show a little spine:

Comrades, why are you kow-towing to China and repressing freedom of speech in Dhaka? Yes, I know the old jokes about it raining in Peking and opening umbrellas in Dhaka. But seriously, this was not a government sponsored event. The worst Beijing could have done if you said sorry, we can not intervene, was NOT sell you some more lead-tainted toys.

We thought you took an oath to protect and follow the constitution of Bangladesh first (which includes protecting the freedom of speech of its citizens), not the geopolitical aspirations of China when this really does not matter to Bangladesh.

Sorry, now we know better.

But how does bridge blogging (the writing and translation of, in this case, Chinese and China-based blogs into English) fit into this online make-up? What is it they seek to achieve? and how, if at all, do they help foster a less black-and-white communication with the West? These are the questions I put to various bridge bloggers dotted around the People’s Republic this week.

chinaSMACK, an entertainment-heavy blog, rests on the premise that “translating and sharing the content that is most hot or viral on China’s Internet, and the comments of Chinese netizens themselves, will help foreign netizens better understand a part of China’s modern society and realize that Chinese people and foreigners are really not so different after all.” Fauna, the site’s translator, wants “to show that Chinese people are humans, too.”

This would suggest dissatisfaction with foreign audiences’ perceptions of China and the related media bias in covering the nation. Indeed, we are all too aware of the dominant Western discourse reiterating China’s systematic breaching of human rights, the controversial treatment of ethnic unrest in Xinjiang and Tibet, its ‘Great Firewall’, intense media censorship and the ramifications felt by media professionals who do not tow the party line (out of the 175 countries featured in Reporters Without Borders’ recent Press Freedom Index, China came 168^th). But however much this discourse hovers around us, it is rarely followed by a cultural understanding: we lack a more complex appreciation of China’s history of foreign imperialism, stark poverty, grassroots revolution and societal and cultural characteristics that would otherwise help us to better understand why such measures are in place.

For Jeremy Goldkorn, founder of Danwei, bridge-blogging allows the coverage of China to improve, if for no other reason than to make available a wider breadth of sources to a more well-informed outside world. This has

a normalising effect (…) blogs help to fill in more details about Chinese daily life and how it is lived.

Goldkorn founded Danwei in 2003 in order to chart what he considered the exciting change China’s Internet was witnessing through the blogosphere and BBS forums, much of which the West was not aware of. Equally, Chinese themselves are also becoming more aware of the West, its lifestyles and perceptions of China.

For some, however, the initial act of bridge-blogging was only partially in response to narrow Western media framing. Cheng Lingcao established Fools’ Mountain in 2006 due to frustration with Chinese media practices, namely the detaining of blogger Wu Hao, and Cheng’s own desire to add support to the online campaign to free Wu. But, like Goldkorn, Cheng also felt the growing online debate in China needed translating into English to reach a wider audience, with the aim of establishing dialogue, not confrontation.

Yet, for all of bridge-blogging’s attempts at deepening both Western and Chinese perspectives of each other, it has its flaws. ChinaGeeks founder Charles Custer claims

it’s dangerous to assert we offer anything more than ‘a taste’. The Chinese Internet is vast and there are millions of opinions out there. Time constraints alone force us to pick and choose what we translate carefully, so it's obviously not representative of ‘the Chinese perspective’ (I'd argue there's no such thing) and it is all being filtered through a foreign lens, i.e., it's non-Chinese people making the editorial decisions about what to translate and what not to.

The selection process behind choosing what to translate is not subject to strict guidelines. According to Goldkorn, much of it is based on gut instinct and what readers may not expect, all in the context of a changing China.

But, in the opinion of a Fools' Mountain contributor who wished to remain anonymous this often ticks the box of “anti-China behaviour”. He cites the recent example of Atlantic Monthly’s James Fallows’ commentary on Chinese bloggers’ attitudes towards race after the participation of a mixed-race Shanghainese woman in a beauty pageant. Fallows cited many quotations collated on ChinaSMACK, which, in the anonymous blogger’s view,

were extremely racist and vicious (…) however, when I looked into this story, I found ChinaSMACK’s story not only incomplete, but extremely biased. While the few racist quotes were translated to help make the point, the majority of sympathetic comments in China's blogosphere against racism were completely ignored.

While we cannot generalise about the entire blogosphere through this one example, it does show potential problems the bridge faces. Fallows himself stated,

this is not a “blame China” episode but rather one of many illustrations of the differences in day by day social realities and perceived versus ignored sources of tension in particular societies.

chinaSMACK responded in agreement with Fallows. Fauna told me,

my post was about “Lou Jing Abused By Racist Netizens” (…) I do not think it is my “duty” to remind people that not all Chinese are racist. My post is not to “set the record straight”. My post is a translation of the story that is spreading on the Chinese internet.

Besides issues of this nature, there are also several practical problems: getting over the Great Firewall, financially maintaining these initiatives and involving non-English speakers in the dialogue make the bridge a relatively weak one. But, it is an effort in a progressive direction, fostering a deeper understanding on both sides of the globe and linking the crossroads both the West and China find themselves at today.

As he went to retrieve his package at the post office:

it had been opened by various puzzled customs and postal employees who, at a loss, defined the product in writing as “containing an unknown red liquid” – and awaited my description.

 
He told them it was “cinematographic make-up” and took the item home:

Such is the “hymen”: a 5×7cm folded piece of plastic – of albumin, the notice promptly corrects me – covered on one side by dark red ink. Placed in the vagina before sex, the plastic hardens slightly, and rips upon intercourse. A few drops of “blood” will stain the sheets, preserving the woman's, her family's, or society's “honour”.

Whether it does actually work or not I cannot answer. The complete absence of medical information on the product, as well as online accusations that this product can cause infections, made me unwilling to give it to a volunteer to test.

Mona El Tahawy did not like how Egyptians were hot and bothered over fake hymensWith all the troubles Egypt faces these days — spiralling cost of living, a president in power for 28 years whose son looks likely to succeed him, etc. — why all the fuss over hymens, real or fake?

Welcome to the hypocrisy and denial that together drum at the heart of conservative religious views on women and chastity. And in the case of Egypt, that conservatism applies equally to Muslims and Christians.

As a Muslim, I know the Qur’an preaches chastity for men and women, but the conservative obsession with women means only females are expected to abide by the prohibition on extramarital sex. This obsession with virginity is shallow at best and deadly at worst.

Mohamed El Rahhal strongly condemns:

the hypocrisy that allows us to discriminate against 50% of the society while giving a free pass to the other half. I am against forcing women to go such lengths, sometimes endangering their health, to allow us to delay a long-awaited national moratorium on gender relations.

Morality is worst interpreted by anatomy. And if we're waiting upon a small piece of plastic to define morality, then we've already failed – and ought to find a better definition.

Built during the Qing Dynasty, it was later sacked by British and French troops in 1860 during the Second Opium War. Countless works of art were also looted from the palace and then taken abroad.  Now many of these items remain in the hands of foreign museums or private collections.

Earlier this year, a few of those artifacts went up for auction in Paris, drawing the attention of the Chinese media. The Chinese government condemned the sale and demanded the artifacts’ return.

Now with the recent passing of the 149th anniversary of the palace’s destruction, China has announced it will send a team of experts to identify and document what items were taken from the historic palace. To do so, the team will visit museums, libraries and private collections in countries like the United States, Britain, France, Japan and more.

But the team’s goal will only involve cataloging what relics were looted in order to understand what the palace was like before it was destroyed. Still, Chen Mingjie, director of the Old Summer Palace’s management office said that they hope some artifacts will be returned to China during this retracing effort.

Like many repatriation issues, the topic has generated different views on what should be done. The hope for many Chinese netizens is that China can correct a bleak part of its country’s history.

One blogger, 村民老尚 described the history of the Old Summer Palace as a disgraceful and heavy burden.

长期以来，“圆明园”在中国人的字典上，基本上是具有莫种沉重与羞耻意义的三个字。她就像一个背负欺辱的受害者，始终在一种不堪回首的状态中存在着。

但是近些年，这种沉重似乎是越来越加重，加重的原因也似乎和圆明园的历史没多大关系了（那些历史已经定格），却和现代咱们中国人对圆明园历史的认识有关，和今天的圆明园要传达什么样的历史和现代文明、现代文化有关。

Another blogger, 高遠 discussed the difficulties China might encounter when trying to search for the relics in museums abroad.

我看这两天西方媒体报道， 他们说欧洲多国博物馆对中国追讨文物的举措感到紧张和担忧。紧张是心虚，担忧是怕自己的强权地位衰落而影响国际形象。但对我们中国来说，追讨遗失文物是早 晚要走的必由之路。

就像季羡林先生生前所讲的：“这些海外遗失文物首先是中国的，然后才是世界的”。问题是，我们才刚刚准备派出几个小分队，西方就开始感 到紧张、担忧了，大规模海外寻宝之旅不久的将来终会启程。那时候，才是真正对西方自我标榜的所谓人权、平等理念的最大考验。

Not all bloggers saw a need to search for the artifacts. 司馬平邦 commented that the palace’s significance has been overstated.

同时它是统治者用民脂民膏搭建的一个奢侈工程，毁了也就毁了，罪有应 得，洋人替老百姓拆了它，另一方面也大快人心。

Other comments have been made, reflecting the feeling that China is now a major power in the world, and should be treated as so.

Replying to an article about how all Chinese artifacts should be returned to the country, one user made a recent comment in the People’s Daily about how China shouldn’t even have to consider buying back any lost artifacts.

中国不能再搞什么回购文物的玩意了，应该名正言顺的要回本就属于我们的宝贝，这才能真正显示中国的力量和尊严！回购不仅仅会使非法文物合法化，甚至还会使那段野蛮的侵略合法化！

A quick poll was done at iDiaoYan.com that asked netizens what they thought about China’s search to archive the taken relics. Users seemed to be pessimistic about the project’s success, with 57.1 percent saying that it would be difficult to find and document all the looted artifacts.

Another question asked what if users though the project would help in returning artifacts to China. 58 percent said it would help a little, while 14 percent said it wouldn’t do any real benefit.

Still, 60 percent of the users in the poll, said they supported the project.

In comments made to the China Daily’s english article on the search for the relics, some netizens pointed out the benefits of having the cultural artifacts stored abroad.

Joanna 2009-10-19 17:18

i am amazed that so many relics were kept in the museums of other country, just as one of my friends said as long as the relics are well stored and some of them can be viewed for free in europe or America, it is a chance for forenginers to know more about China, especially chinese culture.

Give Credit 2009-10-19 13:27

A lot of these cultural relics were bought or stolen. However 100 years ago or even 70 years ago these treasures were lying in the original countries(when poor) as a worthless relics or art. If these cultural heritage are not “rescued” they would have been lost for ever.
Today these heritage are kept in good condition and displayed for free viewing. A good example is London Museum.

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.