Posted on 02/09/2010 8:48:02 PM PST by ETL
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti Parents of some of the children who 10 U.S. missionaries tried to take out of Haiti after its catastrophic earthquake told a judge Tuesday that they freely handed over their kids, the Americans' lawyer said.
The parents' testimony means no law was broken and "we can't talk any more about trafficking of human beings," attorney Aviol Fleurant told reporters.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Haitian orphanages are full of non-orphans. Haitian parents put their kids in orphanages because they can’t feed or care for them, and they don’t want to give them to wealthier Haitian families that will use them as slaves.
This used to be common in US orphanages in the 19th and early 20th centuries, too.
Our government hasn’t come to their aid because they’re the type of people our Dear Leader loves to hate: middle class white Christians trying to do something on the basis of their faith and without government assistance. He’d be happy to see them hanged in the town square.
So would Haiti, which is doing this to cover up its massive misuse of relief funds. Heck, even the US military couldn’t get paperwork to drop emergency supplies for the first few days, and they went ahead and did it anyway.
They weren’t lying. Normally, the Dominican Republic works hard to keep out Haitian illegal immigrants, but DR has actually taken in a number of Haitian refugees in this disaster, and housing the children there would not have been unusual.
Many of the children in Haiti’s orphanages were taken there by their parents (pre-earthquake). They just could’nt feed and care for them. Our friends with a haitian son have actually met their son’s biological family, and that was the case there.
Thank you that is exactly what I meant.
Locking up these “Baptists” isn’t going to solve the problem of Haitian immigration to Florida. It was going on long before the quake and will keep going on. Why is it okay for the Cubans to come but not the Haitians? Who are you to say who can come to America? Your parents Native Americans? We need to protect our borders, but where I live, we are overrun with Mexicans and most are just looking for a better life. Isn’t that the reason everyone comes to America? Isn’t that the reason our ancestors came to America?
I have a problem with some missionaries.
go through the system in the soverign state that you are doing your work.....or stay out....
It is a common practice in Haiti, prior to the earthquake, for poor parents to gve their children to orphanages and for adoption.
“Before last month, Haiti already had 380,000 children in orphanages. That was certain to grow in the aftermath of the Jan. 12 quake, which wiped out what little most people here had. In the past few weeks, some orphanages say they have seen relatives hoisting children over the walls and running away.
Many of Haiti’s hundreds of orphanages operate in virtually medieval conditions, with little money or regulation; only 67 are licensed for adoptions, and many aren’t registered with the government.
At one orphanage visited this week by a reporter, more than 50 children, including an infant girl only a few weeks old, crowded into a compound of a half-dozen fetid rooms. The children weren’t allowed to use the only toilet, which was reserved for the staff, but instead used a primitive latrine. Human feces lined a gutter near the latrine, just inches away from a muddy puddle where a toddler busied himself playing with a plastic cup.”
For some reason many on FR have been quick to label these Christian missionaries as “child traffickers.” There is no evidence of that.
This whole situation reminds me of the black social workers in the US objecting to white parents adopting black children. Politics before child welfare.
please see my post #68.
It was not taking advantage. This was going on BEFORE the earthquake.
You don’t know what goes on in Haiti. Regulation is apparently non-existent. There were vast numbers of “orphans” with parents before the quake:
“Many of Haiti’s hundreds of orphanages operate in virtually medieval conditions, with little money or regulation; only 67 are licensed for adoptions, and many aren’t registered with the government.”
see post #68
exactly.
Thank You
The Kansas City Star had an article about the missionary from Kansas and it was reported that the group was asked to pay $300/head to cross. The group refused to pay and were then arrested.
http://www.kansascity.com/703/story/1728522.html
This cannot be said enough. Misguided compassion causes a lot of pain. I read a posting a while back of a Walter Williams piece I think, about the folly of do-gooders trying to "make a difference". People would do well to focus on their sphere of influence and familiarity rather than to jet off to a foreign country and try to 'help'.
That’s what I think too - corrupt government officials demanding bribes to make things run smoothly. Vs naive American Christians. I too have traveled in third-world countries.
This has been vaguely touched on a few times, but skipped over a bit I think. If you are in Haiti and the parent or last surviving relative of a young girl (or even boy), the conditions are horrific. If you think the roaming bands are only looking for pretty adult women to rape and abuse, you are myopic at best. Who among us would not do everything we could to get our child out of that situation before our worst nightmares materialized before our very eyes??? This is not being taken advantage of during a time of crisis, this is an answer to prayer for the life and safety of a child.
It is much easier to navigate extreme situations if you are looking out for yourself alone. If you have others depending on you, it makes you much more vulnerable because it limits your choices. If those depending on you are children that you love and would give your life for, neither may have a chance in the kind of extreme circumstances that occur when civilization is just a memory -— the parent gives their life, and then the predators take the kids anyway.
Did anyone see Governor Ed Rendell a day or so after the earthquake bragging about the orphans he rescued? There were quite a few & I’m happy these children were rescued...my question is HOW did he do this so fast & why couldn’t the missionaries in Haiti get the same “skip the red-tape” treatment Mr. Rendell had???
Just asking...
How many third world countries have you completed an international adoption from?
“The fact that you expect the government to come to their aid is a tell.”
Thanks for the welcome. However, I don’t understand your comment. It’s a “tell”. A “tell” about what? FYI, I wasn’t saying that I “expect” the government to come to their aid. I was only asking why they haven’t.
I do seem to remember that. You make a good point.
As to your question, I guess the answer is that, because Rendell is a governor and therefore works for the government, he’s better, more ethical, smarter, more knowing (as to when red tape should or shouldn’t be waived), more efficient and more compassionate than a private Christian organization is. /s
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