Joint Council on International Children’s Services: Racist ad draw ire of adoptees and adoptive parents

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Taking time off from its white man’s burden of scooping  kids from developing countries into the arms of America’s desperate and middle class (lately through the CHIFF Act), the Joint Council on International Children’s Services   (JCICS)  will hold a benefit Tuesday to raise money for itself. Just in time for Trick or Treat, JCICS has  invited us to the fun.   All we need to do is hop a train or plane to The Big Apple and drop ourselves and our spare change off at Battery Park’s  PJ Clark’s. We’ll get free treats for our trouble. Until this moment I was unaware that trick or treaters  pay for their free candy. Note to self: stock up on Snickers. The idea of JCICS panhandling  kinda creeps me out.  Last year JCICS’s 990 says the non-profit was bringing in solid cash. I assume not by spare changing on K Street.  At least not with a tin can. I’d not be writing about this kinda-creepy event, or even know about it,  if JCICS  hadn’t jumped the shark and decided to promote its dollar-harvesting op on Facebook  with a picture of some of its fresh produce– international adoptees– dressed up in racial and Continue Reading →

Ohio’s Dan Chaon hits the road to Starz

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Nice news from Ohio for once! Ohio adoptee  memorist and author  (and one of the best writers’ in the country today) Dan Chaon has a new gig. Dan  sent  a note  via FB and Twitter on Thursday that he’ll be working on a new  dramatic project for Starz titled Most Wanted.  The production team includes writer Chris Collins, co-producer of  Sons of Anarchy  and director Ken Fink (CSI, Oz, Homicide. Dan will serve as co-executive producer of the new series.. The show takes place in the in the Plains States in the 1970s and traces the career of fictional  prolific bank robber Nate Daniels “as he finds himself on a collision course with his family and crew as he becomes one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted.” My kinda show! I’ve written about Dan here, here, and here.   Dan lives in Cleveland and teaches at my old hangout, Oberlin College where he’s the Pauline M. Delaney Professor of Creative Writing and Literature   Twitter fried my account and I was forced to start a new one.  Besides tweeting The Daily Bastardette I tweet  (and retweet) about adoption issues, civil rights, freedom of the press,  the corporate state,  Depeche Mode, literature and books, plus some Continue Reading →

Both Ends Burning Redux: BEB’s plan for international adoption

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The other day I wrote that Both Ends Burning was closing down its Scottsdale office and moving to Washington DC to play with the big boys. It’s true. I don’t know if I missed this when I was researching BEB’s  future or it wasn’t up yet,  but the game plan is now on BEB’s webpage under Our Next Steps Forward: International Adoption Futurama • Open our Washington, DC office, hire full-time staff and build necessary infrastructure. • Establish 50 BEB state organizations and plan UN-STUCK marches in each state for May 2014. • Plan and organize the Summit of Nations meeting to take place in Fall 2014. • Launch iAdopt International Advisory Services and begin to facilitate cross-border knowledge sharing. • Produce success story series as a revolving weekly feature on our web site. To facilitate on-going communication we will have an regularly scheduled UN-STUCK MOVEMENT Stakeholder conference call the first Tuesday of every month at 4 PM EST. Our next call will be June 4th. An email will be sent in advance with call-in information. To ensure the success of this movement, we encourage open communication. Please feel free to contact us at [email protected] at any time, for any reason. This outline has got to be the most ambitious and dangerous blueprint  to up-end Continue Reading →

Daily Bastardette has moved to Word Press

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After a couple years of talking to myself  about it, I have decided to transfer The Daily Bastardette  from Blogger to Word Press.  The final straw came when Blogger changed my banner and header and wouldn’t let me fix it. back. And when I tried to change the template–forget it! Besides I can do a lot more on Word Press. I’ll still have to work on various pages and make some fixes–well a lot of fixes– over the next couple days,  but all 1100+ blogs are in place. The new address is www.dailybastardette.com And thanks to the fabulous Claud for her Big Help!

Shut Down the Machine!

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There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious–makes you so sick at heart–that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all….
Mario Savio, Sproul Hall steps, Deccember 2, 1964 Continue Reading →

Both Ends Burning: International Adoption = Functioning Global Society or Welcome to Cultural Trotskyism

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Both Ends Burning’s  Craig Juntunen  wrote a truly clueless blog the other day.  I don’t have the time tonight to go into it in great detail.  I’ll post part of it below, however,  with some comments. Certain transnational and transracial adoptees I know could have a field day with this, and I hope they do. Juntunen writes:: We have developed a distinctive arrogance of what is right and wrong for a child seemingly based on borders and geography. Many argue taking a child out of one culture to join a family in another culture is robbing a child of the birth heritage and should never happen. We have a hard time accepting cross-pollinating race and heritage as a cultural asset, and view it instead as a personal liability. Think of the many friends you know who were born in one country and during their childhood moved to another country. Ask them if moving to another country was traumatizing and damaging to their human condition, or ultimately  an experience that allowed them to expand their human condition.  Better yet, ask any child living in an orphanage whether they would prefer to have culture and heritage or a permanent family. If we are really going Continue Reading →

2014 ASAC Conference: Our presentation on Jean Paton anounced

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I am happy to announce that I’ll presenting at the 2014 Alliance for the Study of Adoption and Culture (ASAC). conference, Crossing Boundaries  at Florida State University in Tallahassee.early next year..  I’ll be part of a Book Session  panel headed by E. Wayne Carp author of the upcoming biography  Jean Paton and the Struggle to Reform American Adoption (University of Michigan Press, 2014).  A permanent title for the presentation will be announced in a few days, but for current informational purposes, we will be discussing the Jean Paton’s work and the book.. With me will be Elizabeth Samuels and Marianne Novy. I don’t know what their critique topics will be, but mine is “A Radical Looks at a Radical.”  Jean Paton is the mother of us all.:\ the  Mother of US adoption reform and the adopee rights movement.. As  Dr. Carp noted in the proposal: Paton gave adult adoptees a voice and provided them with a healthy self-image; facilitated thousands of meetings between adult adoptees and their families of origin; fought tirelessly to open sealed adoption records… Patron’s struggle to reform American adoption was never easy; she faced resistance at every turn. This, then, is Jean Paton’s story: one courageous woman’s struggle to overcome Continue Reading →

Dusten Brown honored by National Congress of American Indians

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Earlier today Dusten Brown was honored by the National Congress of American Indians.  In a ceremony attended by dozens of native military veterans, he was recognized for his service in the Oklahoma National Guard. The meeting opened yesterday with approximately 3000 Indians from across the country in attendance.Dusten’s daughter, Veronica Brown, 4, removed to South Carolina by her Capobianco “adopters”  while not present in person was there in spirit. The AP reports: During a ceremony that featured drumming and Native American songs, tribal members wrapped a brightly colored prayer quilt around Brown. The gift is intended to comfort him on the days he misses his daughter. Brown was also presented with an eagle feather to honor his service in the military. S. Joe Crittenten, deputy principal chief of the Cherokee Nation praised  Dusten as a good man and  a good father.  “Veronica will always be a Cherokee citizen, and we look forward to the day she comes home to Dusten.” Dusten remained silent during the ceremony and made no public statement afterwards. This sad picture  from the ceremony is a little fuzzy. Go here for a clearer shot. Ironically,  Oklahoma Governor Mary Falliln opened the event.  She became  instrumental in the destruction of the Brown family Continue Reading →

Orphan snatcher Madonna banned from theare chain.

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OK.  It’s a slow news day…but remember when ladies were asked to remove their hats during a movie.?  Now it’s Blackberries. Various media are reporting that Tim League, CEO of the Texas-based move theatre chain Alamo Drafthouse, has banned Madonna from his theatres until she “apologies to her fans.” Our favorite not-an- orphan orphan  harvester you see, was busted smack in the middle of the New York Film Festival for texting away during the premiere of 12 Years a Slave. (trailer)   Variety gives an account of the incident  by film critic Charles Taylor who saw  it go down: To add insult to injury, he didn’t even recognize Madonna as the mysterious lady in black until later..  Tonight at the New York Film Festival premiere of ’12 Years A Slave’ (a masterpiece, by the way), I sat behind the unholy trifecta of Jason Ritter, J. Alexander from ‘America’s Next Top Model,’ and Michael K. Williams from ‘The Wire.’ Plus, a mysterious blonde in black lace gloves who wouldn’t stop texting on her Blackberry throughout the first half of the movie. Eventually, a woman next to me tapped her on the shoulder and told her to put her phone away, and Continue Reading →

James Hamilton: An Adoptive Father Speaks Out in Support of ICWA

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A few days ago Jim Hamilton posted a comment regarding  ICWA and the Veronica Brown case under Veronica: One of the Many Multi-Heritage Children Harmed by ICWA. published on the Christian Alliance for Indian Child Welfare webpage.  The misnamed CAIW is one of the leading organizations whose mission is undermine Indian autonomy, tribal sovereignty, traffick Indian children into appropriately  white christian families, and ultimately dismantle the Indian Child Welfare Act which it claims harms Indian children.  Jim’s comment was put on “moderation” and  has never been posted. We can guess why.With Jim’s permission I am posting it below. I am an attorney and an international adoptive father. In my view, the ICWA does no harm whatsoever to children, including Veronica Brown/Capobianco. What does do great harm to children are those who circumvent state and federal laws in the blind pursuit of children.  I fully understand how intense the desire for a child can be and the emotional upheaval that delays in the adoption process can cause for prospective adoptive parents. My son’s adoption process in the country of his birth lasted 12 months. We met him for the first time almost 4 months after his referral and 8 months before Continue Reading →