The New York Times covers an example of kinship care, proof that — contrary to popular belief — there is another option besides the adoption-by-well-meaning-wealthy-white-people vs. “languishing in an orphanage” binary that is so often cited in (oversimplified) discussions of transnational and transracial adoption:

Fragile Tanzanian Orphans Get Help After Mothers Die

Seoulites, please visit the TRACK site for details about this very important hearing and how you can help:

Adoption Law Public Hearing (Seoul, Korea)

Wednesday, July 1, 2009
2:00-4:00 p.m.

Korea Press Foundation building, 19th floor
Subway: City Hall exit 4 or Gwanghwamun Exit 5

****This is your last chance to be heard before the Ministry of Health and Welfare finalizes its draft bill on ADOPTION LAW.****

****SIMULATANEOUS ENGLISH-KOREAN TRANSLATION PROVIDED BY THE KOREAN GOVERNMENT!! ****

Since we asked for it, and they gave it to us, that we must now use it (or lose it next time).

Wanted: 30-40 adoptees and supporters

The main issue at stake for adult adoptees: The Central Authority

How the Central Authority is shaped will determine all post-adoption services. The Central Authority is the gatekeeper to your history. If you are not involved now, access to your past will still remain in the hands of your agency and the government — not yours.

So if you are studying Korean language, just grab toast, hop on the subway, and come after class. If you’re an English teacher, you are probably not even working because of student exams, so get yourself to the meeting. If you have a lunch date or an appointment, do what you do when you’re hungover and just call and change it! ^^

Adoptees are not yet a powerful presence in Korean society, but we are quickly building power. Now is the time and we must seize every opportunity we can to fight for the rights of adoptees.

TRACK is working with the Gonggam public interest lawyers, KoRoot, and ASK to make our own draft bill to be submitted to the National Assembly. But we are also participating in this ministry process as much as they will allow us. So please come out and be heard.

From CNN’s “Black in America 2″:

In the black culture, a richness of hairstory

“I don’t want people to look at her and tell she has white parents.”

From People.com’s Celebrity Baby Blog:

Kelly Clarkson Has ‘No Desire’ For Children

Unlike many of her American Idol alumni, Kelly Clarkson says that having a child isn’t high on her list of priorities; In fact, it might not be on her list at all! “Oh my God, I have no desire,” the 26-year-old songstress tells USA Today. “I would not be a good mother.” Instead, Kelly enjoys being an aunt to her niece and nephew, and feels that the demands of her career would not be conducive to motherhood.

“I used to want to, like, adopt 10 kids – because I had friends who were adopted, and I thought that was the coolest thing, to be chosen. But again, my job is too selfish.”

Orphanage director to Afghan orphans: You’re ungrateful.

Nice.

At hearing on adoption law, frustration and calls for change

By Shin Hae-in
SEOUL, Feb. 26 (Yonhap) — Local experts and adoptees expressed frustration Thursday at a public hearing on South Korea’s antiquated adoption law over the country’s lack of child protection programs and the slow pace of change.

Since the 1950s, South Korea has sent away the largest number of children for international adoption in the world, with over 150,000 Korean children ending up in 20 different Western countries, according to state data.

Despite its lengthy history with adoption, the country has yet to ratify a 1993 Hague Convention on child protection because its adoption law, established in 1969, does not meet several preconditions. The accord has been signed by some 73 countries. …

[Read the full article on Jane's blog.]

Someone recently remarked to me, “It’s too bad you’re not blogging anymore.” Which gave me pause. It’s true, I have been a bad blogger, practically to the point where I no longer feel qualified to call myself a blogger at all. Former blogger? Fair-weather blogger? Fugitive blogger? Blogger-at-large?

2008 was a big year for the nonprofit organization I’ve been helping to nurture and cultivate for the past few years, as we played host to an international assemblage of 100 adult adoptees of Asian heritage, plus a few hundred more public attendees, at the Asian Adult Adoptee Gathering and Film Festival here on O’ahu this past October. Now that it’s all over and done with, I’ll be quite unmodest in acknowledging the amount of blood, sweat and tears we spilled in planning and executing this not-so-mini-gathering, not to mention the accompanying film festival, which was the first to exclusively feature films written, produced or directed by Asian adoptees.

This endeavor was something we developed over the course of a year, and only those who have been directly involved with organizing a large-ish event starting with $0 will understand the scope of what is required — from the shameless self-promotion and prostrating for contract negotiations and fundraising, to the last-minute do-it-yourselfing, to putting out the eleventh-hour fires and real-time mini-fires. And all of this was accomplished by an unpaid, all-volunteer band of five nonprofit soldiers with full-time jobs, families and other outside commitments. I’m extremely proud of my teammates’ hard work and the way we all had one another’s backs when the going got tough. (And we’re all still friends!)

I guess it’s really no wonder I did so little blogging this year. It just occurred to me that I didn’t even manage to remember to promote the gathering and film fest here on my own blog, at least beyond the tiny banner on the side. Oops.

Anyway, outside of that little project, it was a pretty good year. Yobo and I visited two out of three of our families (no trip to Korea this year), logged some QT with friends who visited O’ahu, and finally dove into some home-remodeling projects we’d been talking about for three years. (Need your floors tiled? New cabinetry installed? Please, please don’t call me. I mean, I know how to do it, but I’d really rather not.)

Although I continue to do battle with my post-gathering-and-film-festival burnout, I’m keeping busy. My writing continues to take me away from the blogosphere — but not too far, I suppose, depending on how you see things. Perhaps if you’re keeping up with your adoption-related reading offline, you might see me around. (If that seems vague and/or mysterious, it’s because I intended it to seem just so, at least for the time being.)

The funny thing is that I’ll have a lot more to potentially blog about in 2009, but much less time and energy to actually do it. Life marches on, you know, and it takes on new shapes and meanings.

So, as 2008 bites the dust and 2009 edges its way in, here’s wishing you a year of hope and new perspective, truth and greater understanding, prosperity and better prospects, and happiness, love and Hello Kitty waffles for all.

From the latest CNN article following up on Anna He:

Since her parents split, Anna has re-established regular contact with the Bakers, who call every Saturday. But after more than a year with her biological family, Anna is still unsure of where she would rather be — with her mom or the Bakers.

“I cannot pick anyone. I would die if I would pick one,” she said.

From another recent Associated Press article on Anna’s life in China:

When asked about the Bakers, Anna pulls away. She rolls onto her back. She covers her face with her hands. She says she has forgotten what it was like when she moved from one family to the other, and whether she was happy or sad.

“I don’t even know,” she says.

From my imagination:

When asked to choose between the Bakers and the Hes and to state whether she loves or hates them and is happy or sad about her past and current situations and to rank the United States and China on a two-point scale of worst to best, Anna unleashes an indescribable but deafening noise that shatters the reporter’s digital recording device, not to mention eardrums.

“What a pointless f*cking bunch of questions. Get a clue, get out of my house, and leave me the f*ck alone,” she says.