(translation from Danish)

Uncertain future for parents with disabilities

April 13, 2015

The new principled judgment on forced adoption of a daughter from her brain-damaged mother. The Department is concerned about the future for parents with disabilities.

The High Court has chosen to affirm the District Court's decision in a case of a brain-damaged mother and her daughter by which the municipality wanted to forced adoption. This means that the 8-year-old girl will now be forced to be adopted by the foster family. Matter of principle, because it is one of the first cases of forced adoption services for a child with a mother with disabilities.

Cambodian Orphans Yearn for Answers 40 Years After Fleeing the Khmer Rouge

Abby Seiff April 13, 2015

Young Cambodian child at a hospital in Phnom Penh, in March 1975.

Francoise Demulder—AFP/Getty Images

Young Cambodian child at a hospital in Phnom Penh, in March 1975.

No appetite to uncover scale of illegal adoption scandal

Monday, April 13, 2015

By Conall Ó Fátharta

Irish Examiner Reporter

Calls for an audit of all the files held by accredited adoption agencies and by the State, so that the full scale of illegal adoptions and birth registrations can be uncovered, have always fallen on deaf ears, writes Conall Ó Fátharta

joint committee of Parliament has given its approval to changes in the Indian Adoption of Children Bill which after going to the Union Cabinet has been presented to both the Houses in the monsoon session of Parliament. The Bill will make adoption of children legal among all communities in the country.

At present only Hindus have a law which permits a couple to take a child and make him their legal heir. This law only places the child in the foster care of adults and does not bestow upon him the right of inheritance. It also does not guard the parents against losing the child, as they are legally only its guardians.

This Bill, which smoothens out the many legal twists that prevents destitute children from being adopted by a proper home, was drafted twelve years ago. The Bill was finally introduced in Parliament, not got legislative sanction so far, due to filibustering by members who saw in it the opening of the flood gate for Indian children going abroad as cheap labour.

The Indian Council for Child Welfare, a leading organization that handles adoption, helped 99 parents between 1963 and 1973 to take up destitute and orphan children under foster care. Of these, only 11 were Indian couples and the rest were from Sweden, France, West Germany, USA and Belgium.

Under Indian law, none of the children going abroad were legally "adopted" before they left the country. They were only placed in foster care of the families which finally adopted them under their country's law. The new Bill makes a district court the authority to pass an "Adoption order". In the case of foreigners it will issue an interim order which will have to be finalized by the adoption law of the land of the parents.

(CNN)Their eyes reflect childhoods marked by tragedy. Their faces show wrinkles made deeper by pain and the passage of time.

Tomasz Lazar spent hours photographing and interviewing adults who were ripped from their homes as children in the 1940s and forced to live thousands of miles away in Siberia.

"For me those faces are like maps," Lazar said. "The more you look at them, the more you are discovering."

Soviet authorities invaded Poland during World War II and deported hundreds of thousands of Poles. Some were sent to prison camps in the frozen wilderness of central Russia. Many were children. In effect, Moscow stole much of an entire generation of young Poles, a handful of whom Lazar has located seven decades later.

During Lazar's interviews, many of the survivors broke down in tears.

The only person who managed to get a full refund from the Isha Foundation is a Swede with roots in India. Jeya Balu had to fight hard to advertise a holy stone that cost her over SEK 60,000 and it required the help of a Muslim, a Christian, a Hindu and an atheist as well as a policeman to succeed. NewsVoice has interviewed Jeya.

It started in the 80s when Jeya Balu, who was born in India, searched for his biological roots. Jeya had moved to Sweden as an adopted child and DN reported with several full-page spreads about her journey back to her former homeland where she was reunited with her father and mother. There were two trips to India and several reports in Dagens Nyheter.

In the fall of 2014, it was time to find the spiritual roots and Jeya traveled alone to the spiritual organization Isha Foundation, which she had been following for some time online. She was fascinated by the spiritual leader's wisdom. He is called Sadhguru and he lives like a movie star in a self-built community near the city of Coimbatore in southern India.

Jeya Balu describes how she became enchanted by Sadhguru and his entourage of followers. She went so far as to order a sacred stone at a price that, with today's exchange rate (March 2015), corresponds to over SEK 60,000. When the shipping cost was added to the price, the final bill ended up being over SEK 90,000.

The "holy stone" of 165 kilos was to be initiated during a mass ceremony in a huge room filled with around 200 westerners, where most of them ordered the large holy 60,000 kroner stone. They had paid in cash or by bank card.

What J.K. Rowling Is Doing Right Now Will Make You Love Her Even More

Kevin O'Keeffe's avatar image By Kevin O'Keeffe April 08, 2015 LIKE MIC ON FACEBOOK:

J.K. Rowling's story is well-known by now: A British woman living on welfare after a run of hardships, including her mother's death and the end of her marriage, takes a train and thinks of a story about a boy wizard. Thus, Harry Potter was born, and the rest is quite literally history.

Seven books and eight films in the Potter franchise later, however, Joanne Rowling remains a cultural force. She's written new books like The Casual Vacancy and The Cuckoo's Calling, the latter under a pseudonym, and launched the immersive Potter fan site, Pottermore. Yet perhaps most impressive has been Rowling's continued work in the worlds of activism and charity.

Harry Potter was a treasure. It's what's come afterward that's truly magical.

Private initiative

https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/visit_of_meps_pittella_and_kyeng#outgoing-5356

Final reply not put online, sent by snailmail

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Congo: Pittella and Kyenge, from Kinshasa commitment ok adoptions

Congo: Pittella e Kyenge, da Kinshasa impegno su ok adozioni

Missione del gruppo S&D nel paese africano

08 aprile, 16:05

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Data: 08-04-15

Congo. Si intensifica l’attività diplomatica per risolvere il blocco delle adozioni. Le missioni dell’Autorità Centrale francese e del Parlamento Europeo

pittella

Due missioni diplomatiche si sono svolte nei primi giorni di aprile 2015 con l’obiettivo di accelerare la soluzione del caso relativo al blocco delle adozioni nella Repubblica Democratica del Congo. La prima ha visto il presidente del gruppo dei Socialisti e Democratici del Parlamento Europeo, Gianni Pittella, e il vicepresidente della Commissione parlamentare a Bruxelles Ue/Africa-Caraibi-Pacifico, Cecile Kyenge, recarsi a Kinshasa per affrontare l’argomento con il premier e il ministro della Giustizia congolesi. La seconda è stata invece portata avanti dall’Autorità Centrale francese per le adozioni internazionali che ha immediatamente comunicato l’avvenuta riunione tra i suoi rappresentanti e quelli dei ministeri congolesi interessati presso il Ministero degli Affari esteri e della Cooperazione internazionale di Kinshasa.

“Le adozioni in Congo potrebbero presto ripartire. Il premier Augustin Matata Ponyo e il ministro della Giustizia congolese, Alexis Thambwe Mwamba, ci hanno rassicurato circa la volontà del governo di sbloccare e facilitare il processo di adozioni fermo ormai dal 2013”. Lo dichiarano in una nota congiunta il presidente del gruppo dei Socialisti e Democratici al Parlamento europeo, Gianni Pittella, e il vice presidente della commissione parlamentare a Bruxelles Ue/Africa-Caraibi-Pacifico, Cecile Kyenge, al termine di un incontro a Kinshasa, nella Repubblica democratica del Congo, con il premier e il ministro della Giustizia congolesi.