On U.S. and other Whites Adopting Haitian Children: not so fast if you care about Haitian children

All that follows is from GLOBAL CONNECTIONS. Click on the article title just below to link back to their site and this article as it appears there. -- Julian

Haiti’s babies & its future are already being set up for Adoption before the dead are accounted for & buried.

Posted: January 15th, 2010

The dead have not even been accounted for nor received proper burials yet & America is already talking about adopting Haitian children instead of setting the foundation to keep families together. We have anti-immigration laws in this country calling for the deportation of over 30,000 Haitian immigrants, many of whom have American born children who they will be separated from if the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) remains only temporary -to be recalled at America’s leisure without consideration of the devastation to families; yet we are going on about taking Haitian children from their homeland & families & adopting them out to Americans- huh? We always say we want to help, but our help seems to come too often at a devastating cost. This is a time & lesson in global humanity & humanitarian servicing, where we should reevaluate policy, how we administer aid & how we really help nations & people in times of need & tragedy.

We could have helped Haitians long ago by aiding them to utilize their ripe land for their own agricultural & economic benefit instead of utilizing it to build many wealthy nations, while forcing them into poverty & dependency. We could have helped with infrastructure that would be able to stand the tests of nature instead of losing thousands of lives & destroying families before the earthquake hit. We could have helped by not aiding in or standing idle to the destabilization of Haiti’s government long before the earthquake. We did not do all that, so at a time when we have the opportunity to right our wrongs -the first thing for us to think about is building a nation back to its glory of old as an even better, stronger nation with its families intact & people united in the continuation of building a great nation, not adopting out the future generation who will be the ones to carry Haiti’s torch!

When I saw this tweet from Wolf Blitzer -all I could do was shake my head & say oh no what are we thinking & not again.

Wolf Blitzer | Washington D.C.
“So many of you want to help Haiti. Some want to adopt orphans. CNN’s Mary Snow will report on adoption procedures in Sitroom.”

I will be watching carefully to see what this is all about, but I must say I do not like the tone & direction it is heading.

As an African I cringe at the separation of families throughout the Diaspora & Africa that was brought on by slavery -which even today still continues in many ways because of poverty & bad governance, which often give families no choice but to separate & give away or leave their children in order to seek a so called “better life” away from family. African descendants /families have been separated for far too long through the selling of the so called “better life” , which has left us with nations devastated by wars, poverty, lack of infrastructure & a perpetual disadvantage toward taking care of ourselves & believing in & living our greatness due to the fact that many of our best & brightest are taken away or drawn to the so called “better life” that the world keeps telling us can never be found at home.

The amount of money spent on Madonna & the Jolie-Pitts adopted African children’s wardrobe alone could support the villages they came from & kept them with their families. I think adoption is a noble, selfless act which I encourage all those who have the means & desire to do so, seek in great numbers; however we have to also consider if adoption is always the best way to provide a child with a better life as opposed to providing their families the help, education & aid necessary to keep the family intact. Maybe we should practice more of an “it takes a village to raise a child” motto by adopting families, not necessarily in physical form, but in the form of mental, emotional & financial support needed to help raise any and all children.

“The Greatest good u can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to them their own” (B. Disraeli)

“Of special note to international adoption are campaigns for adoptions that occur after disasters such as hurricanes, tsunamis, and wars. There is often an outpouring of adoption proposals in such cases from foreigners who want to give homes to children left in need. While adoption may be a way to provide stable, loving families for children in need, it is also suggested that adoption in the immediate aftermath of trauma or upheaval may not be the best option. Moving children too quickly into new adoptive homes among strangers may be a mistake because with time, it may turn out that the parents have survived but were unable to find the children, or there may be a relative or neighbor who can offer shelter and homes. Providing safety and emotional support may be better in those situations than immediate relocation to a new adoptive family.There is also an increased risk, immediately following a disaster, that displaced and/or orphaned children may be more vulnerable to exploitation and child trafficking.

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_adoption)

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/The-Case-for-Haitian-Immigrant-Amnesty-2184

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amy-wilentz/haiti-and-the-depths-of-d_b_424806.html

http://www.one.org/us/actnow/drophaitiandebt/

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15brooks.html

http://www.adoptivefamilies.com/articles.php?aid=1663

Madonna adoption-This is a bit harsh, but great points are being made here particularly since many African countries specifically put in place residency caveats because of lessons of slavery of old & slavery of new.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6260996
 
Help Haiti Art work by: Graphic artist KERRY DEBRUCE (check her at www.kladcreative.com)

Remembering Howard Zinn (1922-2010), a mensch who lived to the young age of 87

[image of Howard Zinn is from *here*] 

If you did not know him, please take a moment to read up about him and his life. He was one of many examples of how to be a white Jewish man, or a mensch. A mensch means many things--and is not specifically raced or gendered as a term. But to me and to many it means a man of integrity and honor, who respects people deeply and cares fiercely with a compassionate heart. It means someone who loves his spouse as his equal, who loves his children each as if they were an only child, and who cares as much about justice for the oppressed as for anything else on Earth. It is quite the opposite of what it means "to be a man" in dominant white gentile secular society. If living in the U.S., it is to reject that sort of being, in fact, in favor of being a man who is against all forms of domination, violation, and exploitation. Howard Zinn was, among other good things, an anti-racist, anti-corporate, pro-Indigenist historian and writer, and a civil rights, labor, and anti-war activist. He taught a young Alice Walker (and many other students!) at Spelman College, and taught for decades at Boston University. He was a dear man, a mensch to be missed and one to be remembered.

More information will be forthcoming at howardzinn.org. This next news report is from *here*. Howard Zinn, American Jewish historian, dies January 28, 2010 NEW YORK (JTA) -- Howard Zinn, an American Jewish historian who wrote the "People's History of the United States," has died. Zinn, whose best-seller helped establish him as a central figure of the American left, died of a heart attack Wednesday in California. He was 87. Along with another Boston-based American Jewish professor, Noam Chomsky, Zinn was a leading left-wing intellectual. His "People's History," published in 1980, accused Christopher Columbus of genocide while venerating labor leaders and war opponents. "He's made an amazing contribution to American intellectual and moral culture," Chomsky said, according to the Boston Globe. "He's changed the conscience of America in a highly constructive way. I really can't think of anyone I can compare him to in this respect." "People's History" inspired a documentary in 2009 on the History Channel titled "The People Speak." Zinn narrated the documentary, which highlighted those who spoke up for social change. Zinn, a New York City native and the son of Jewish immigrants, wrote several books and three plays. His last essay, about President Obama's first year in office, was published last week in The Nation. His last essay, about President Obama's first year in office, was published last week in The Nation. Recent news, from just two weeks ago: Howard Zinn is 2010 New York University MLK Humanitarian Award Recipient   NYU press release: On February 10, 1961, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a speech on the campus of New York University that advocated for civil rights and championed nonviolent protest for social change. For the fifth-consecutive year, the University will commemorate Dr. King’s visit and his legacy by hosting a weeklong schedule of special events and programs. This year’s theme “Who Will You Inspire to Dream?” is intended to remind us of Dr. King’s message of activism, motivation, and leadership in service to the community.  The Week will showcase featured events that include the University-wide Feature Celebration in the Eisner and Lubin Auditorium, Kimmel Center, January 21, 2010 at 7pm. Join us for an evening of NYU student and special guest performances; the 2010 MLK Humanitarian Award presentation to distinguished alumnus, historian and author of “A People History of the United States,” and the landmark film, “The People Speak,” Dr. Howard Zinn and remarks from NYU President John Sexton. The links that follow were found on his web page. Please see the Democracy Now! tribute: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/28/howard_zinn_1922_2010_a_tribute   And from The Progressive: http://www.progressive.org/wx012810.html   From The Nation / NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123063395   (Please also see the "Howard Zinn Series" of videos on NPR:) http://forum-network.org/series/howard-zinn-series   From SocialistWorker.org: http://socialistworker.org/2010/01/28/the-peoples-historian   From the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-green/remembering-howard-zinn_b_439541.html   From AntiWarBlog.com: http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2010/01/27/a-memory-of-howard-zinn/   From the Boston Globe: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/01/howard_zinn_his.html   From the Washington Post: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postmortem/2010/01/the-daily-goodbye-146.html   From MTV.com: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-green/remembering-howard-zinn_b_439541.html   From the Assoiated Press: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/us/28zinn.html