Although I understand the BBC feeling the need to place a few items of “good news” on their website since there’s so much nasty crap going on in this world of hurt, they shot wide of the mark with this story on a “baby bin” in South Africa.
As if the photo alone doesn’t provide quite enough bleak, the copy in the report is gag-invoking on many levels and was very obviously written by someone who has no clue to the sensitivities of the adoption world.
Most people would not give a second glance to the metal hatch on a wall in Hillbrow Street in Johannesburg’s tough Berea suburb.
But the “Door of Hope” is saving the lives of scores of unwanted babies.
Mothers can place their babies, usually newborn, inside and leave them anonymously to be found and cared for.
Awww. How warm and fuzzy, heh?
Well … no.
The reality being that much of Johannesburg is dirt poor, AIDS infected, drug-riddled and that many pregnancies occur outside the realm of ability to care for a child, there are many, many babies born in conditions that offer few options.
Yes, putting a baby in a “bin” that will lead to food and warmth, rather than death, is an option and it does save lives, but the fact that an average of sixteen babies per month are being deposited is not “good news”.
These are the lucky few – they are alive and have someone to care for them.
And if the orphanage has its way, they will soon be adopted by families who can provide for them.
The lucky few … hm …
Sure, when paragraphs like that are juxtaposed against the following, it can warm some cockles …
Child Welfare South Africa (CWSA) – the country’s largest non-governmental organisation – says more than 2,000 children are abandoned in the country every year – a 30% increase in the past three years.
Many of them are found near death in rubbish bins, wrapped in plastic bags, inside toilets, shoe boxes, open fields and parks and often die within hours of birth from dehydration, starvation or hypothermia.
Horrific thought, heh? Sure. An orphanage is certainly a better fate, and those who get the baby bin rather than the rubbish bin can be considered “lucky”-ish, but stories like this miss the point by so wide a margin.
For starters, the issue isn’t one of babies, but the entire shredded fabric of South African society, and a piece here and there about a few babies being “saved” does nothing but provide a tiny diversion from the truth of the matter that is life in Johannesburg.
As adult adoptees will point out through the benefit of their experience, there’s nothing lucky about being stripped of all history, and although I have often taken issue with those who state they’d “rather be dead than adopted”, starting life in a loss as great as abandonment is devastating at a cellular level.
Orphanage care, no matter how compassionate, is still institutional, and orphanages in South Africa are far from well-funded. The more babies they have, the more institutional the care out of necessity.
We then come to specifics on the adoption thing, of which even a mention is ridiculous to the point of cruelty. South Africa is such a bloody mess that potential adoptive families in the country are almost nonexistent. As for adoption by families from other countries … well … here’s how it looks from the USA.
South African law recognizes two kinds of adoptions by foreigners:
1) Local adoptions of children resident in South Africa by foreign residents of South Africa, and
2) Intercountry adoptions of children resident in South Africa by foreign citizens residing abroad.
The first category (“non-Hague adoption”) requires the foreign adoptive parent(s) to be resident for five years in South Africa, and the adoptions are handled by an accredited agency and finalized by the Department of Social Development under laws relating to local adoptions. Note: Under applicable U.S. laws and regulations, children adopted in non-Hague adoptions will only be eligible for immigration to the United States after a waiting period of two years’ residence and two years’ legal custody with the adoptive parent(s).
The second category (“Hague adoption”) is only available to citizens of countries with a working agreement between the prospective adoptive parent’s country of origin and South Africa. As of this writing, there have been no working agreements finalized between South African and U.S. adoption service providers. Please contact the U.S. Consulate Johannesburg Immigrant Visa Unit (contact information below) for the latest information regarding adoption in South Africa.
There have been a number of cases in which American Citizens have been issued “Guardianship Orders” from the South African High Court. These orders do not constitute “irrevocable release for adoption and immigration” as required by United States Immigration Law. As such, they cannot be used for immigration purposes.
In other words … uh … nope.
Bottom line on the BBC’s “feel good” efforts?
Show us something on real efforts tackling AIDS prevention, controlling drug cartels, rights and education for women, stemming violence and alleviating poverty.
Yes, I know. That’s not easy, is it?
A collection of my short stories:
I'm in this one, too ...
And I'm in here, as well ...
Paradise Preoccupied 
I have nothing to say/write!
Nothing, Ian? Really?
Yes
Very good analysis, Sandra. It is very sad.
I know the Hague Convention well. It can be interesting getting children from a non-Hague count ry to a Hague country, as we are doing now.
The Hague country expects certain legal documentation from the children’s country, but when that country does not have such a framework, it creates difficulties. So I can imagine adoption must, as you say, be an even bigger nightmare!
It is disturbing to see the issue of mothers struggling to care for their children intermingled with the topic of adoption. The two subjects are not related. How does it help mothers or their children when we separate the children from their families? gah!
The whole article disturbed me, as you may have noticed …
~maniacal laugh~ and people wonder why I do not feel “at home” in this wonderful world of ours. Yes I must say I felt all warm and fuzzy inside reading about the drive through equivalent of unwanted baby disposal, which in of itself is new worthy but not exactly as positive thing.
But it is interesting how the masses think and react, or maybe better said the lack of thinking, because there are a few things I have never really gotten an answer to. As for the moral high grounds we take.
I remember being in school, I think it was Fifa 96-97 something a huge story came out that the fifa balls where being made by child labor and how horrible it was. Which yes it was, so we in the western world taking the moral high ground decided to ban fifa until they stopped getting their balls through child labor and sweat shops.
Again, all in all great stuff, however here is my question, if you are the parent of say 10 year old that you send off everyday to make balls in a no light little shitty shop for a penny a day, now I am just guessing here, but you probably do not have many other options, other then the choice you have made. When we come and we say “We can not accept this” and we take the labor away, however it is not replaced by an option, what exactly are we doing? I mean we stop buying the footballs, but does that mean that these children get sent to school? Their parents going “oh well it was nice while it lasted, lets get them back into education” ? Because what we are doing is taking away the only source of income they have and replacing it with nothing.
Or when animal right activists, break into labs/fur farm etc. breaking out the poor animals and releasing them into the wild “be free and live” you know the animals that where breed and raised in captivity and have no tools of self survival?
Yes this world is funny indeed….
as always, nice post Sandy
Ah, yes … the knee-jerk reaction that ends up doing more harm than good. People without a clue to harsh reality tromping in and “saving” kids from menial labor. Sigh. No clue to the fact that that menial labor is the only route to food, and maybe for an entire family, and, as you say, no better options provided. Do these idiots not understand by putting these kids out of work they sentence them to either starvation, prostitution or out-and-out slavery?
I’m certainly not saying that it’s cool to pay shit wages simply because a company can, but in REAL life that penny-a-day job is making the difference between life and death and is a big step up from having dangerous sex with disgusting degenerates for even less than that.
Thanks for your, as always, similar thoughts, Bobby.
~smiles~ thank you Sandy. You know, we need to feel that we are doing something “good”, most of us only manage to see whats 2 feet from our face and not beyond.
We are a generation of facebook heroes, joining groups to show our support against bullying and we feel like we have done our part. We share the facebook status of light a candle, and like fan pages of against animal cruelty
oh yes being a hero and being on a moral highground is only a click away…
i actually do see some good in social networking, as my hope is that it will be much harder to turn on a people, a country, a religion, if one happens to have fb friends representing whatever. Will agree, however, that your generation is a bit lacking in real hero stuff in Western cultures. Really now … Lady Gaga as the most radical challenge to comfy conservatism? That’s just weak …
Sandra, you almost made me spray alcohol into my keyboard with your Lady GaGa assessment. I’m avoiding your comments until tomorrow now!
Sorry ’bout that, Robyn. See you tomorrow, then …
that I agree to the fact that there are many positives to soc. networking, well to be honest nothing is all good nor all bad. For someone like me who is more a globalist than a patriot, I love free flow of information.
I think that there are (sadly) only two ways to reach world peace:
1: We as a race evolve, you know human 2.0
2: A global leadership that govern world with a iron fist, where injustice is not tolerated. this opinion is the one that makes me different than most people :p
I wonder if I can become a hero?? 😉
Lady Gaga is not a radical challenge to comfy conservatism, she is circus side show :p
Hm …
The evolving thing seems unlikely since we’ve moved away from the parameters that set us forward … and I can’t help but wonder whose fist that could be. Aside from mine … or yours … and I don’t see either of us being elected as Iron Fist or doing what it would take to TAKE OVER THE WORLD … those most in position to actually pull that off probably wouldn’t.
You can be my hero if I can be yours. 😉
As for Lady Gaga, I think she’s pretty cool … and she is your generation.
yea kinda given up on the evolving thing, human 2.0 is far off as most of the population is still on beta homosapien beta edition,
I would gladly take over and rule, you can so join 😉 and I think the whole point of being Iron fist is kinda lost if you get elected :p Yes that is another brilliant example of why the world is how it is, the fact that those who CAN do something about it, don’t
hehe deal 😉
Eh, she has some ok music, but thats about it, I prefer eminem. there just is a sense of honesty about him
Maybe we should start working on our Superhero costumes, Bobby …
I think it is a great idea Sandy 🙂
I’m thinking a black leather catsuit for me … maybe with a nice teal blaze across the bodice. You …? Hm … Tights and a cape in your choice of color.
ummm I do not think my body is tights standard quiet yet :s how about something more in the Greenarrow sence from Smallville ??? Maybe in red, I like red
And I’m a bit over-ripe for a catsuit, but who cares? We’re going for the Superhero thing, so we will be the standard to which all others aspire. In other words, Bobby … you get the tights. Red is fine.
Hmm valid point when it comes to being the standard. I get a distinct feeling that you just wanna see me in tights Sandy 😉
Ya think????
~laughs~ well I am glade someone does my dear 😉
I sincerely doubt I’m alone in that one, Bobby …