[source]
From The New York Times — apparently, overseas adoptions of Koreans is just plain “embarrassing.” Well, that’s a loaded word. Embarrassing for whom? The country? The couple? The child?
You know, it’s great to hear that for the first time, more Koreans adopted than non-Koreans. But in a mere 4 years time, the government thinks the other half of the parenting gap will be filled? I wonder which will be more important if overseas adoptions are halted before all the kids are guaranteed homes — the welfare of the children or national pride?
09/10/2008 at 10:36 pm Permalink
There was an article in the JoongAng Daily several months ago in which they followed adoptees as they reconnected with their biological parents. As a part of the article some of the parents which gave their children up for adoption were also interviewed. I recall one of the mother’s saying that the greatest tragedy was that when she was reunited with her child, who had been adopted abroad, they didn’t speak the same language. Unbelievable.
09/10/2008 at 11:02 pm Permalink
Marmot had a link a few weeks ago to http://www.ted.com featuring the story of Natasha, who was adopted by an American family. Very heart warming story.
Last year PBS had a segment on a Vietnamese woman, who came to states as a baby, grew up in Texas, got married and had two children. She went back to Vietnam to see her biolgical mother and it was a disaster. She did not know the language or culture.
09/10/2008 at 11:40 pm Permalink
I read a nice article in the Korea times today about how Korea is sliding down the scale in terms of international competativness. I think this is just another international event that Korean newspapers can report about. They should make a sparkling adoption campaign to make Korea the world’s hub for Korean people adopting Korean kids. It is unfair that Americans are winning this event that they didn’t even know they were competing in.