Ah, the White Woman’s burden! Will it never cease!
Today CHIFF mouthpiece Katy Jay posted a short blog with the provocative title, Russia Closing Adoptions in Entire Region? Azerbaijan Closes. Her rant is based on an article that appeared in the March 18 Trend.regarding amendments to the country’s adoption law that halts the adoption of Azeri children by foreigners and stateless individuals. Rules regarding accrediting bodies providing legal assistance to those potential adopters were also amended..
Jay complains that since 2007 when Azerbaijan signed on to The Hague. that the flow of Azeri children into the US has dropped, accusing the State Department of having “no idea how to use the Convention for its intended purpose, which is to get orphans into adoptive families.”
Surprise!
According to the The English language AzeriNews, the State Department and Azerbaijan, are using the Hague exactly as it is supposed to be used by keeping children in their own family, culture and country whenever possible. Azeri children are only available for cross country adoption if an Azeri adoptive family cannot be found to adopt them.
A child can be adopted by a foreign citizen after numerous suggestions to Azerbaijani families, and only if no Azerbaijani family claims him or her. After receiving an application from a foreigner, the state committee requires their background information from the institution dealing with adoptions in the home country.
The State Committee tries to give children to Azerbaijani families living in their country or Azerbaijani families living abroad, assuming that kids will be more comfortable with their fellow countrymen..
And, as for all those Azeri children being barred from US happy homes and citizenship?
Last year only 8 Azeri children were adopted internationally, and all of them by Azeri families in other countries: 4 in Russia and 1 each in Turkey, Iran, France, and the US.
Why aren’t Ms. Jay and her child catchers concerned about US children bleeding into the international adoption market? I haven’t looked at the latest report, but according to the 2011 FY 2001 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption. 73 little Americans had been exported around the world that year via the US adoption industry with a total of 142 shipped out since 2009. (The number is probably under-reported). It is hard to believe that nobody in the US wanted them.
Where is the outrage?
As for the amendments to the rules governing accreditation, it appears they are an attempt to tighten up on internal reporting problems. Why would any ethical adoption advocate object to that?
When I first saw Ms. Jay’s latest propaganda piece, I planned to limit my comments to the inflammatory implication-by-title that the Putin government somehow controls FSU adoption policy and we’ll soon see a stampede of ‘stahn’s shutting off the baby funnel. (Unlike Ms Jay, I have actulaly been to Azerbiajan, and I can assure her it is not part of Russia.) If Putin will steal Crimea and Sevestapol, why wouldn’t he he steal Azerbiajan, Why wouldn’t he steal children from their forever American homes? I’m surprised Ms. Jay hasn’t joined the call to mount a military action to save the children from their own countries? . But then I saw that the entire diatribe had too many holes that needed filled up.
I have yet to hear a good explanation of why the US has a mandate to expropriate other people’s children.
Addenda: I was just about to send this when I thought I’d check in on Azer-by-what, whom I wrote about a few months ago. She’s now shilling for money to adopt in Ethiopia.
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Reader Lisa tried to post this message and had a problem, so I am positing it for her.
CHIFF in The Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/21/us-adoptions-foreign-children-russia
US adoptions plunge to 21-year low in part due to Russian ban
* US parents adopting abroad at lowest lever since 1992
*Adoptions from South Korea and Ethiopia also drop
“Chuck Johnson, CEO of the National Council for Adoption, contended that
the decline stems in part from the way the State Department has applied
the Hague Convention on Inter-Country Adoption, which establishes
ethical standards for international adoption.
The US entered into the agreement in 2008 with strong support from
adoption advocates who hoped it would curtail fraud and corruption, and
then lead to a boom in international adoptions. Instead, the decrease
has continued.
“The US has encouraged and in some cases song-armed impoverished
countries to sign the Hague Convention and then cites their inability
to comply with strict Hague standards as a reason for not doing
inter-country adoption with them, ” Johnson said.
Johnson expressed hope that Congress would support a bill introduced in
bipartisan support last year – the Children in Families First Act – that
would encourage more adoptions of foreign orphans.
It would create a new bureau in the State Department assigned to work
with non-governmental organizations and foreign countries to minimize
the number of children without families – through family preservation
and reunification, kinship care, and domestic and international adoption.”
Thanks.
Lisa