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‘Orphan Rescue’ Attempt Hits Nerve among Haitians
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Ten US Baptists who were detained while trying to take 33 children out of earthquake-shattered Haiti without government permission say they were just trying to do the right thing, applying Christian principles to save Haitian children.
One of the 33 Haitian children who were being taken out of the country sat yesterday at the SOS Children’s Village outside of Port-au-Prince. (Roberto Schmidt/ AFP/ Getty Images) But their “Orphan Rescue Mission’’ is striking nerves in a country
that has long suffered from child trafficking and foreign
interventions, and where much of the aid is delivered in ways that
challenge Haiti’s own religious traditions.
Prime Minister Max Bellerive yesterday told the Associated Press that the group was arrested and is under judicial investigation “because it is illegal trafficking of children, and we won’t accept that.’’
The Americans are the first people to be arrested since the Jan. 12 earthquake on such suspicions. No charges have been filed.
The government and established child welfare agencies are trying to slow Haitian adoptions amid fears that parentless or lost children are more vulnerable than ever to being seized and sold. Without proper documents and concerted efforts to track down their parents, they could be forever separated from family members able and willing to care for them.
Yves Cristallin, Haiti’s social affairs minister, said the Americans were suspected of taking part in an illegal adoption scheme.
The orphanage where the children were later taken said some of the children have parents who were apparently told the children were going on a holiday from the post-quake misery.
The church group’s own mission statement said it planned to spend only hours in the devastated capital, quickly identifying children without immediate families and busing them to a rented hotel in the Dominican Republic without bothering to get permission from the Haitian government.
Whatever the group’s intentions, other child welfare organizations in Haiti said the plan was foolish at best.
“The instinct to swoop in and rescue children may be a natural impulse, but it cannot be the solution for the tens of thousands of children left vulnerable by the Haiti earthquake,’’ said Deb Barry, a protection expert at Save the Children, which wants a moratorium on new adoptions. “The possibility of a child being scooped up and mistakenly labeled an orphan in the chaotic aftermath of the disaster is incredibly high.’’
The church members, most from Idaho, said they were trying to rescue abandoned and traumatized children.
“In this chaos the government is in right now, we were just trying to do the right thing,’’ the group’s spokeswoman, Laura Silsby, said from inside Haiti’s judicial police headquarters, where she and others were being held until a hearing today.
Officials said they lacked the proper documents for the children, whose names were written on pink tape on their shirts.
The children, ages 2 months to 12 years, were taken to an orphanage run by Austrian-based SOS Children’s Villages, where spokesman George Willeit said they arrived “very hungry, very thirsty, some dehydrated.’’
The orphanage was working yesterday to reunite the children with their families, joining a concerted effort by the Haitian government, the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and other NGOs.
In Idaho, the Rev. Clint Henry denied that his Central Valley Baptist Church had anything to do with child trafficking.
- Posted in
54 Comments so far
Show AllAlthough their efforts to relieve suffering of these children is admirable, what made them think they had the right to go into another country and simply abscond with parentless citizens? If that were attempted here in the US the howls of outrage would be deafening. Look at the circus surrounding Elian Gonzales and his father had a legal claim!
The efforts of this group are not admirable. This business juxtaposed to the refusal of entry of physically broken Haitian children to the US for medical care due to lack of funds is an obscene irony.
Any effort to relieve suffering is worthy but there are correct ways to accomplish such things. Other than that your comment is right on.
You start off by posting that the rich who rule our churches and government are admirable.
Then you end by posting that our enslaving rich will come up with "correct ways to accomplish such things" as giving up their rule, wealth and power.
Try reading history.
I posted no such thing. Try reading my post as written not as you would have me write it.
YOU START
"Although their efforts to relieve suffering of these children is admirable"
Surely "their efforts" are the efforts of the self-righteous rich who own the church, surely they are among the rich who own our politicians body and soul.
YOU END
"but there are correct ways to accomplish such things."
So, do you not still believe that one of the "correct ways" is "their efforts" performed by the rich?
For surely no one with excessive wealth can do anything admirable or correct, the ultimate conclusion of his actions being starving children.
A rich Baptist war-hawk church taking poor children without the parents or governments permission and you call that “admirable.” Let me guess, you are a rich Baptist who supports the Bush-Obama War of Terror.
I never mentioned wealth. I never mentioned Obama. I never mentioned Baptists. I never mentioned the War on Terror. I have no clue what you are reading in my posts but none of what you wrote back appears in any context in my post. Stop inserting your own words between mine. I am finished reponding to your purile and ill informed attacks.
You stated that the efforts of a rich Baptist church running a kidnapping operation were admirable, to wit:
“their efforts to relieve suffering of these children is admirable”
And what of the suffering from say a grand-parent or uncle or aunt living in a village not distroyed by the earth quake, trying to locate relatives and willing to take these children in (supposing that the parents are actually dead)? Is the immediate reliaf of suffering of the children justification of years of suffering by these relatives who would believe that the children had parished?
This group of quasi-religious human trafficers was wrong. To intentionally go in, with the forthought of disregarding national and international laws can not be justified. Since they'd only planned to spend "hours" on the ground in Haiti, they obviously didn't really care if they were getting "orphans", so long as they came back with some children to sell through adoptions agencies. just an opinon.
We don't really know the intentions of these Baptists regarding the disposal of the orphans. Personally I doubt they intended to make money from the children. By now I don't think we will ever learn the truth. But for Heaven's sake, they couldn't even speak the same language. They are either incredibly stupid, incredibly arrogant or both.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
"refusal of entry of physically broken Haitian children to the US for medical care due to lack of funds is an obscene irony."
And your source for this statement?
If you don't care enough to read history,
then don't bother us by demanding a source to please your fancy.
“If you don’t know history, its as if you were born yesterday.”
Howard Zinn
John Ellis
This statement has nothing to do with history, what are you talking about?
If you knew history you would know that England like other industrialized nations gives free healthcare to all who come near their borders.
If you knew the history of our corporate butcher medical industry, you would know why Florida hospitals had to stop taking fatally injured Haitian children until after payment for services were guaranteed.
But you don't know history, so you don’t see the "obscene irony."
“If you don’t know history, its as if you were born yesterday.”
Howard Zinn
Hey John.
I'd like you to know that by and large I enjoy reading your posts. In fact, I conciously seek them out. In your above reply, you quote Howard Zinn. And that makes me even more surprised by your sharp retort. I don't believe H.Z. would have replied to someone like that. In a later post you provide examples from history that were informative and helped to make your case, but sometimes people just don't know the same things you know. You obviously have the knowledge to help them along. I'm not chiding you. Partly because I don't think I know the contents of the entire thread you may have had with this person. But, trite as it is, you do kill more flies with honey.....
You're always a valuable source on these blogs. I was just surprised to see such rancor in your reply. You're usually such a voice of calm reason.
Please forgive me if I've overstepped my bounds.
The post of richsmith2 was self-evident to all, the rich executive who ruled the hospital valued profit more then people. Then came the brainwash post of Caligula to generate harmful stress.
For nothing generates more stress then to waste a man’s most valuable asset, his time, and to do so by first repeating a self-evident fact, and then demanding self-evident proof.
For it was absolutely impossible for Caligula not to know he was generating confusion most harmful.
Published on Saturday, January 30, 2010 by the New York Times: U.S. Suspends Haitian Airlift in Cost Dispute
http://www.commondreams.org/
headline/2010/01/30-2
Thanks!!
Caligula, Governor Crist refused to let any more planes bring Haitian children to Florida hospitals until someone stepped up to help with the financial and logistical burden (citing needing space for the upcoming Superbowl customers, among other issues). For four days, only 3 critically ill children were brought to the US by a privately funded group to Philadelphia. Since then Florida has gotten federal assurances of financial support and flights have resumed. Meanwhile who knows how many people have died or been needlessly maimed as a result of this?
Time has an interesting story, identifying a level of disorganization and confusion worthy of Bush in this administration. Clearly Haiti wasn't worth much more than lip service and a lot of Marines from the US. And for awhile that's all they got, diverting Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups to make way for the Marines. Heck of a job, Barack! Link below.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1953379_1953494,00.html
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
BeForKids
Thanks! That confirms exactly what I've always heard about Governor Crist. Churlish bastard. (your pardon for my language please, but no other word fits)
Rick Perry is a fairly bad Gov. as you well know, but not even he would have done something like that. Even GWB as Gov. wouldn't have.
"Meanwhile who knows how many people have died or been needlessly maimed as a result of this?"
1 was far too many.
I've checked out most of the reports like the plane diversions and I'd suggest its not quite as bad as reported. Pretty good effort by everyone, even the Israeli and Arab's are working together! There's a picture.
I hope Rubio buries this SOB in the primaries. How could anyone vote for someone like that?
Caligula, you are being far too generous toward Rick Perry (who after all is still executing mentally retarded defendants) and have you forgotten Hurricane Katrina? It was Bush who ignored people drowning in their attics and who hollowed out FEMA into an inept shell - Heck of a job, Brownie! That was no accident. It is well known that the rich for the most part despise the poor. Why else would the Republican Reagan administration put spikes on heat grates in the winter? Or for Reagan to say "The homeless like to sleep in the streets"? The difference between Reagan and other rich Republicans is that he had loose lips.
As Republicans go, Crist is more decent than most. In the last general election he ordered the polls to remain open when the lines were long. I do have to give him credit for that. As a moderate, he doesn't stand a chance in the current Republican Party. Palin, however...
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
It was on NPR and BBC news Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and this morning.
Florida hospitals said they were overwhelmed [not just children] by those needing acute care, and who was going to pay them?
Decision made by the President was to regroup until Wednesday ?????
Now certainly people with gangrenous legs having to come off and on the brink for other reasons could be flown in to other hospitals in the U.S.
This went on for days about who is going to pay, and then the government would pick up some of the tab, but NO mention of any other states or hospitals in those states.
The way the first week of the earthquake disaster was handled was crazy. It took seven days for all the U.S. military troops to come in. In the meantime planes with water, food and medical supplies were turned back.
This reminds me of the great efficiency during Katrina, and I thought to myself with a monstrous bureaucracy now with Homeland Security, and with FEMA again, and with all the so-called bright people in our government, nobody could figure out that there was a more efficient ways to do things and it was time for emergency mode: have a team, call hospitals, call doctors, call nurses ... haggle the cost/decide on pro bono work/or get donors to pay, etcetera ... make arrangements, etcetera.
This is not rocket science.
I was around for the Berlin airlift, and wow, the order and precision was remarkable.
I was an excellent Executive Secretary, now called Administrative Assistant, when I was young. What is needed? who to call? ... Just a list of basics ... helicoptors rather than planes? that kind of thing --- where, when, who, how, what???? And then you and others get on the phone ...
Geezus ... the stupidity and incompetence and wooden-headed lack of sense are driving me nutz!!!!! Plus if people are on the verge of dying or have infections that will kill them in a few days, you don't put the decisions off until Wednesday. Or maybe our leaders need to play their golf.
We are finished in this nation if this is the best we've got. My God.
Well, anyway I had my rant.
bye, cm
Pure fiction,
since 1915 "their efforts" have only been a military invasion,
all under cover of corporate media confusion,
"their efforts" now being child genocide by starving dehydration.
“If you don’t know history, its as if you were born yesterday.”
Howard Zinn
John Ellis, quite right. Our thumb on Haitian democracy has always been a priority and still is, even and especially during a horrendous disaster.
The fact that the Obama administration had to go into a four day huddle during a crisis to figure out how to deal with the costs of saving children's lives tells you how valuable those lives are to us. There are some who act first and work it out later. Not these bastards (excuse my working class language).
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
and your knowledge of Haitian history - especially Aristide- shows that you are just like a newborn. Too bad that is not the case. At least you would have an excuse-
Their efforts are admirable? But surely their efforts have terrorized parents who are already suffering sever hunger and dehydration. Are you here to generate confusion on purpose?
I do not agree with the missionaries, but the truth of the matter is that many of the children were given to them by the parents. Perhaps you missed that from your armchair in Colorado?
Define Freedom, I cannot agree with you. Some of those children clearly had parents. And at least one of the families was told their children were going "on holiday". Talk about an out and out kidnapping. It was a lawless act. These "well intentioned" people obviously weren't even prepared to provide food and water for these kids. What they were doing was imposing their own perception of what these children need, regardless of reality. And just what would be the families they would have been placed with? Fundamental Baptists who don't even speak their language. And culturally the direct opposite of their own lives. Whatever trauma they've experienced would have been doubled.
One hundred years ago, Native American children were torn from their homes and put in "schools" where they were beaten if they spoke in their native language. Is this so very different? It's scary that some people feel entitled to impose their own beliefs on other people's lives. Personally I believe in democracy, not dictatorship. Clearly these people believe otherwise. So no, this effort was not worthy, but appalling. My mother used to say "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions". Something these Baptists might consider.
I'm wondering what the Reverend Clint Henry had to do with this kidnapping? He specifically denied "trafficking" which implies for profit. But he didn't come out and say he had no idea of this project.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
BeForKids
Absolutely correct.
The arrogance of their actions if they were telling the truth is staggering. Going to a soverign country and taking its citizens without the permission of the government of that country is a criminal act. And shouild be punished as such. Their laws, any country's laws are there to protect its citizens from harm or abuse. And these citizens were to small to protect themselves.
"It's scary that some people feel entitled to impose their own beliefs on other people's lives"
Darn scary! Lawless act indeed, shame on them, they have earned it.
Here, here.
BeForKids and Caligula, well said!
Not sure what you are disagreeing with. I am totally against what this group has attempted. I am familiar with how the American natives were mis-treated by the US govt. The only redeeming quality was they at least wanted to relieve the suffering of others. That was the core of the matter I think. If I missed it and they were just trying to prosleytize these suffering and unaware youths then they are truly monsters and I am stuningly ignorant. I feel that anyone who thinks more about relieveing the suffering of others rather than finding ways to increase it are key to solving the issues challenging us today. Can we not at least share this small piece of common ground with these people instead of condeming them out of hand?
Define Freedom, we can't guess at their motives, but I would suspect some of both. But so what? They were seriously violating the boundaries of others.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
You may hold a kernal of truth there, but here's a scenario for you....as another person posted on a previous poll..... (yes, I stole it).
"What would the USA say about a group of fundamentalist Muslims who pulled the same stunt?"
Would you still think we should find a piece of common ground instead of condemnation? I'm not trying to make a judgement on you here. Both religions are pretty much the same in my book and maybe in yours, too. I just thought it was a good comparision question.
Before entrusting your child to a church, first discover if they are into a fake morality backed up by a fiction salvation.
A fake morality being that those with excessive wealth and not guilty for all the starving children.
A fake salvation being the need for the inner goodness to ask for forgiveness. For impossible is it to feel grateful for salvation until after you receive it, and impossible is it to feel true repentance until after you believed you have been saved.
For if there is a God, surely he has the power to give us goodness without our first having to muster the inner goodness needed for repentance.
Not to say there is or is not salvation, just to show that for
most kids going to church does more harm then good.
Eeeewww!!!
I am so glad they caught those do-no-gooders! Why couldn't they just give the kids water and food there? What the big hurry?
Excellent, a moratorium on all adoptions at this time!
I totally agree with you, Dancing Bear! Leave those children where they are and take care of them there. They belong to the Haitian people. No one gave these people permission to export their children!
BLACK IS PERFECT
Haiti being ruled by the rich nobility of Canada and Empire USA, they having European blood all the way, surely they do not want black kids from Haiti mixing with the more advanced humans in their society.
For the rich nobility of England invented the religion of evolution, namely a blind faith in the belief that first animals evolved into black humans, then black humans evolved into white humans.
Actually its quite the reverse, as the purpose of this world is show that black humans were created the most perfect you see, as they be the most peaceful and less forceful there ever could be.
This post authored by that white kid who grew up the slums of Milwaukee, Minneapolis and LA, he being most peaceful and less forceful if myself I do so say.
What? This post is totally incomprehensible.
By intelligent design, we are all created with a different ability to achieve as a test, to see if we pass our excess wealth down to those of a lower class where it belongs.
The purpose of this world being to prove the harm in it.
"the religion of evolution, namely a blind faith in the belief that first animals evolved into black humans, then black humans evolved into white humans"
It's more like the original apes evolved into hairless violent apes, namely us.
You are the same BIGOT that called my "Your HELPLESS SLAVE"
YOU SHOULD BE BANNED FROM HERE
Those lousy left wing Haitian officials! How dare they interfere with a bunch of Christian Fundamentalists from Idaho!
Groups like them answer only to the almighty ($). They have a right to take what they want, when they want and where they want. Now watch the resolutions in Congress from various right wing shills to get them freed.
There is already talk that the missionaries may be tried in the USA - since whatever court or judicial facilities that existed there, are damaged now. So, yeah...
Haiti ---- WORST SCHOOLS EVER
Less the 50% of kids in Haiti attend school, only 53% can read or write, and 90% of schools are private and run by charities.
All thanks to the rich nobility of Haiti, Canada and the U.S. for since our U.S. Marines invaded Haiti in 1915, whenever the Haiti rich could not prevent democracy the Canadian rich and U.S. rich sent in their troops.
For up until 1915, Haiti farms supplied all their food, and Haiti was most prosperous, more prosperous then the Dominican Republic or any of the colonies ruled by Spain, France or our Empire.
Venezuela ---- BEST SCHOOLS EVER
Rating by UNESCO on January 19, 2010
Venezuela’s EDI ranks it 59th in a list of 128 countries.
Norway 1st
Japan 2nd
United Kingdom 9th
Cuba 14th
Mexico 55th
China 62nd
Niger 128th
United States not rated. To embarrassing, as half of U.S. students do not finish high school.
Venezuela’s EDI increased by 5.1% between 1999 and 2007.
Venezuela had around 93% enrolment in Primary school in 2007, up from 87% in 1999.
A year after Chavez became president, Venezuelans received an average of 9.1 years of education.
Adult literacy rate in Venezuela is 95%.
In terms of registration in University, the report says that Venezuela ranks 6th in the Latin American and Caribbean region.
John Ellis: Thanks so much for all of the information in your post.
Not long ago, I read that the U.S. ranks 65th in the world in literacy. I knew that the dropout rate in high school was really high, and probably around 25% for white children -- the last time I ran across an article that included that fact.
In your post, you state that 1/2 of U.S. students do not finish high school Did your information come from UNESCO? I'm just curious.
Very sad!
Kay Johnson -- i can tell you from personal experience:
many, many years ago - i was working in a copy shop...so that meant seeing the projects and theses of COLLEGE students -- get this:
IN COLUMBIA university of new york...my fellow workers and I often had big laughs at the POOR grammar of so many (qualifier -- i am aware that my own typing here is careless - but that's more because I no longer really care about such things..though I used to be quite "correct" with these and often "ghost-wrote" theses for fellow college friends so they can have good grades, lol)
what struck me was how a very high percentage or number of COLLEGE - HIGH QUALITY school - students had a very poor grasp of their OWN native language.
it was actually the experience that made me not care too much about it myself since i told myself:
"heck - if this country produces such people - the english i had to learn to write properly in university back home is TOO GOOD for these folks". i was so disappointed, frankly, because I recalled that my letter home to my mom would always come back to me with CORRECTIONS from her, no matter how small. ..and yet i could be reading even works by some professors in new york that i worked with that were really quite ..disappointing.
lol.
It is acceptable to committ crimes (even murder and kidnapping) if it is done by Christian conservatives.
Of course these Baptists knew exactly what they were doing, which was trafficking in children. Dress it up any way you like, it comes down to that. Many of these children are not orphans. It's "rice Christianity" in the 21st century, except we call it trafficking, kidnapping and criminal nowadays, as we ought.
The church group’s own mission statement said it planned to spend only hours in the devastated capital, quickly identifying children without immediate families and busing them to a rented hotel in the Dominican Republic without bothering to get permission from the Haitian government.
I think this quote from the report bears witness to your statement. Just my opinion, but I believe that this type of criminal activity SHOULD be reason enough to abolish the protections that this sect has to be called a 'religion'.
Some of these kids' parents were probably down the street or something. This is sad and really stupid.