FacePalm Friday

Welcome to this week’s edition of FacePalm Friday.

This is where your hosts will list their top picks for this week’s FacePalm moment—something they learned or read about this week that caused the FacePalm to happen (you know, the expression of embarrassment, frustration, disbelief, shock, disgust or mixed humor as depicted in our Rally FacePalm smiley).

We invite you to add your FacePalm of the week to our comments. Go ahead and add a link, tell a personal story, or share something that triggered the FacePalm on the subject of child welfare or adoption.

Your Host’s Selections:

 

(1)Fallacies that people have about nonprofits parallel the adoption industry. The similarities of what can go wrong when someone gets greedy and puffed-up with ego are uncanny.

 

In this case, Three Cups of Tea author “Greg Mortenson, a Bozeman philanthropist and co-founder of the Central Asia Institute, must pay more than $1 million in restitution for mismanaging the nonprofit’s money, according to a Montana attorney general’s investigation released Thursday.

 

Mortenson failed to fulfill his responsibilities as the executive director and as a board member for the nonprofit, the investigation found, but can still be part of the organization as long as he does not have financial oversight and is not a voting board member.”

 

“CAI is based in Bozeman and aims to empower communities of central Asia through literacy and education, particularly for girls, and to promote peace through education in the U.S. and abroad.”

Mortenson, CAI mismanaged money, but will be able to continue work in the future

[Bozeman Daily Chronicle 4/6/12 by Carly Flandro]

 

Just like how those caught in illegal and unethical activity in the adoption industry are allowed to move on to a new state and start a new adoption industry, this “philanthropist” “failed to make contributions to CAI equal to the royalties he earned on the books the organization purchased”, and “used money donated to CAI on personal items such as charter flights for family vacations, LL Bean clothing, iTunes, luggage and luxurious accommodations, “yet “Mortenson is now on the board as a co-founder. He wants to continue his work with CAI, but will do so in a different, more scaled-down fashion, according to Karin Ronnow, spokeswoman for CAI” and he will be the “chief inspiration officer,”

 

Ooooo! inspiration officer!I can see it now….

 

(2)Adoption allows a family to happily grow[Gulf News 4/6/12 by Noor Al Khatib]

 

The title is AP-centric. The APs talk about education solving poverty and adopting in the same breath

 

Sounds like this Aussie AP adopted to provide education to older girls and they are quickly adding an unrelated 8 year old. “”In my family, education is really important. We believe education is the way to solve poverty. When we read statistics about Ethiopia, we wanted to adopt girls from a vulnerable situation and help them.”

 

(3)British Sperm Donor Possibly Fathered 600 children

 

British sperm donor ‘fathered 600 children’ [The Sun 4/9/12] “Bertold Wiesner – who was born in Austria – ran the Barton Clinic in London which helped more than 1,500 women conceive.

 

Barry Stevens, a film-maker from Canada, was concieved using Wiesner’s donated sperm and said the number could be much higher.

 

He said last night: “He was the one that found the donors so it’s possible he didn’t tell his wife and she believed the donations were coming from a lot of different men.”

 

Wiesner ran the controversial clinic with his wife Mary – until he died in 1972. Research shows he regularly made donations from the early 1940s until the mid-1960s.

 

David Gollancz, a London-based barrister also conceived at the clinic, said last night: “A conservative estimate is that he would have been making 20 donations a year.

 

“Using standard figures of live births which result, including allowances for twins and miscarriages, I estimate that he is responsible for between 300 and 600 children,” he added.

 

Allan Pacey – a male fertility expert at Sheffield University said a healthy man could make up to 50 donations a year.

 

He said Gollancz’s estimations were “plausible”. ”

 

 

(4)Kinship care not allowed in this UK case

 

“Three years ago The People told how Sarah’s parents had cared for her first two kids Josh and Chloe – not their real names – who were five and four at the time.

 

Sarah admitted she couldn’t cope but her mum Susan and dad Peter fought for custody of them.

 

Despite winning court cases against Edinburgh City Council, social workers kept appealing.

And as the legal bills spiralled Peter and Susan gave in.

 

The couple claim they were told if they objected to the youngsters being adopted by a gay couple they’d never see them again.

 

The council later apologised for its handling of the case.

 

But by then their beloved grandchildren were with new parents and both had new names.”

 

“Sarah went on: “At first, social workers said my mum and dad would have contact with the older two probably twice a year and I’d be able to send cards and presents at birthdays and Christmas.

 

“But they have never provided me with news or photos as agreed and the contact promised to my parents has never materialised.

 

“Cards I sent signed ‘Mum’ were returned to me.

 

“I was told the adoptive parents were angry with me for making my case public.”

 

She added: “They have shown themselves to be cold and indifferent to me and to my family and unaware of the pain losing my older children has caused us, so why should I be happy to send another child to their care?” Asked about her new pregnancy, Sarah said: “I know people will criticise me but it wasn’t planned.

 

“And I wasn’t even two months pregnant when I was told there was no chance I’d be allowed to keep the twins.

 

“I’m very much against abortion and I hate myself for getting into this situation.

“But I fear for my health if I carry them for nine months, give birth to them and then have to hand over two children.”

 

Family’s anguish as they face THIRD forced adoption

[People 4/1/12 by Marcello Mega]

 

The new babies are slated to be placed with the siblings and now the mother may instead have an abortion!

 

(5) Kindle Giveaway

http://thetalesoftwo.blogspot.com/ The gaming/fundraising goes on…

 

(6) Buckner, Christian Alliance and Saddleback

Summit on orphan care reflects growing trend in U.S.

[MNN 4/12/12]

 

“Buckner International recently reported that families adopting from foster care are increasing. In just three years, Buckner says, there was a 65% increase in U.S. foster care adoptions. Believers in particular seem to be catching God’s vision for “pure and faultless” religion, caring for orphans.”

 

“”Our focus is especially on the local church, where the local church body as a community walks this road together,” says Jedd Medefind, president of the Christian Alliance for Orphans. “It’s not just one family adopting or fostering or sending money overseas; it’s a community of believers engaging these things together.”

 

Medefind says the goal is “ultimately working toward a world in which we see the local body of Christ in every country being the primary answer for the orphans in their midst.”

 

But adoption isn’t about proselytizing….riiiiight!

 

 

(7)Double Facepalm Kids

 

First Facepalm: Be Part of the Miracle! http://www.rainbowkids.com/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=771

(except if you are Wasatch and breaking the rules for the China shared list! )

 

Second Faceplam: Facebook comment-reinventing the Anti-Adoption Strawman and dissing reformers

 

Strawman Message From Martha:

 

“It would be wonderful to see PEAR celebrate something positive in adoption. You represent a voice against fraud and coercion in adoption…why not showcase some articles, issues, or examples of families kept together through your efforts, children finding hope through adoption…something other than the negative side. Love your efforts and applaud them…but the suffering of these kids, in reality and not just “wish it could be better” is awful.”

 

Martha and the advocate cult are the ones that “wish” away severe special needs with a “love is all you need”attitude in the new Internet Orphan Train movement known as “special needs advocacy.” Too bad that they stand with the adoption industry, make money off of people and are not there to help those that disrupt or to prevent disruption…that mess is left to us reformers. People like Martha like to those realities under the rug.

 

Reformatina debunked this Anti-adoption strawman in this Tuesday Term post