(An Inadequate Peek) Inside Ethiopia’s Adoption Boom UPDATED

I was excited on Saturday morning when I retrieved my copy of the Wall Street Journal and saw on Page One, above the fold, a supposed exposé about Ethiopia adoptions. Its online version is at Inside Ethiopia’s Adoption Boom [Wall Street Journal 4/28/12 by Miriam Jordan]

I knew I was going to be disappointed when I hit the sixth paragraph and started to read the party line that there was no proof of widespread fraud. I knew at that point that the journalist did not dig deep emough. Clearly she hadn’t read this blog…and she didn’t have to go to Ethiopia to do that.

If Susan Jacobs of the DOS thinks that the “numbers will bounce back this year” then that is a clear sign that it will be back to unethical business as usual in Ethiopia, this time in a different region. Just like in Guatemala , the US Embassy does not want to be seen as the “bad guy” or “anti-adoption.” Remember that Hillary Clinton was part of the CCAI when she was a senator and NCFA inducted her into their Hall of Fame. The media mustn’t tarnish “adoption” especially in an election year when so many CCAI members are up for reelection.

To travel all the way to Ethiopia and not press forward with important questions about CHSFS is a waste.

The best line is ““First, Mr. Delebo said, he offered two of his sons, who were then about eight and nine. But the orphanage said it needed children younger than five.” This was a golden opportunity to delve into WHY THE ORPHANAGE WAS HARVESTING CHILDREN UNDER FIVE.

Harvesting was pointed to when Mr. Delebo described “Four years ago, he claimed, a stranger–a middleman in the adoption trade–came to his village and persuaded him to give up a child with the promise that she would grow up and send money to support him.”

The inaccuracies in paperwork were downplayed in the article.They did not even refer to ACTs excellent on-the-ground investigation, Fruits of Ethiopia  or PEAR’s report from 2010 seen  here.

All in all, the piece seemed to paint this scenario as an exception to the rule. We have found that this type of recruitment is not some one-off special case. Unfortunately, the journalist doesn’t suggest this at all nor does she touch on the long-term impact of the village that clearly was harvested from; the long-term impact on the adoptee, siblings or father; or connect the dots to the future villages that agencies will target.

REFORM Puzzle Piece