International Adoption

There are a lot of interesting programmes to listen to on ‘Here on Earth’, so I thought why not telling you about another one. This time I chose a programme in which Jean Feraca discusses the issue of international adoption. Her guest is Dawn Davenport, the author of ‘The Complete Book of International Adoption’. Dawn is a mother of four children, one of whom she has adopted.

Many celebrities, such as Madonna or Angelina Jolie, are known for having adopted toddlers from countries like Vietnam, China or Russia in order to enable them to grow up in a safe environment and have a good life far away from famine, poverty or war. Nevertheless, International Adoption is a controversial topic, that has both supporters and opponents.

At the beginning of the programme, Jean Feraca refers to Madonna, who has just recently adopted a child – she called him David - from Malawi. This adoption was in the news for quite some times since many people were arguing whether it was done legally and whether it was really the child’s good fortune to be taken from its family and home land. But what other options did David have? His three older siblings and his mother had died, he was going to be raised in an orphanage and his father didn’t seem to take care of him. Dawn Davenport argues that now he has very functioning and loving parents who can offer him a decent life. She also mentions that through her adoption Madonna hasn’t only helped one single child but that she is also supporting African children through funds and has even set up an orphanage called ‘Raising Malawi’.

Next, Jean Feraca talks about an Ethiopian poet, Lemn Sissay, who was raised by a white family in the north of England. Even though emotionally he believed his foster parents to be his own, he still felt like he was growing up in an alien environment. Davenport explains that it is very important for adoptive parents to learn what it means to be Ethiopian, Chinese, or whatever and that they have to be aware of the fact that their family becomes a trans-racial family. The children, as well, have to learn what it means to be multicultural and also to be proud of that fact. These parents are not only adopting a child, but they are adopting a whole culture. Davenport also points out that when the kids, are small everyone knows who they belong to, but as soon as they leave home and go to college people will look at them and assume they are, for example, Chinese-American having Chinese parents. Thus they assume a certain knowledge of Chinese culture and it is important for these kids to have that knowledge.

Many opponents of international adoption claim that money is not everything and that you can’t buy love. They don’t believe that people are adopting children from Africa to give them a better life, but simply for themselves. They also maintain that parents should adopt children from their own country instead, since international adoption effects domestic adoption. Dawn Davenport explains that there are two types of domestic adoption, private and public adoption. The former allows birth mothers to select the new parents of their newborn themselves, while the latter is an adoption from the foster care system. The disadvantages here are that adoptive parents usually only get school age children and that they also have the risk that their child might be taken from them by a member of its extended family or birth-family. Davenport claims that it is much easier to get a newborn or toddler from overseas.

At the end of the program, the so called post-traumatic stress disorder is discussed, which is among only a few mental disorders that are triggered by a disturbing outside event. Adoptive children who have been abused in their early childhood tend to suffer from PTSD, consequently, it is necessary that parents are educated to deal with this disorder before the adoption takes place.

Life of a Modern Nomad

Our Final is only two weeks away and since there's going to be a listening comprehension on the exam I thought it might not be a bad idea to get some practice. I decided to listen to one of the programmes on Here on Earth, which was titled “Life of a Modern Nomad”.

Jean Feraca’s guest is Stephanie Elizondo Griest who is a world traveller, journalist, activist and author (her latest book is “100 Places Every Woman Should Go”). Stephanie describes herself as modern nomad who is constantly moving from one country to the other. What distinguishes her from a traveller though, is that she doesn’t travel for landscape, food or museums but for human interaction. Nomads travel out of necessity and are constantly searching for better hunting, planting and feeding grounds - Stephanie is likewise constantly searching for material for her writing and her art. She is a nomad out of choice, which also entails making a lot of sacrifices, even if it just means that she can’t be part of any club or, just to give an example, attend a dancing course. She also couldn’t live the way she does if she was in any committed relationship, had a child or a sick person to take care off.

Right now, Stephanie is staying at a writer’s retreat in Nebraska where she working on her new book. There are hundreds of such artist residences in the US and around the world, which are set up by wealthy people who are dedicating their life to art. Artists go to these retreats in order to get inspiration and some uninterrupted time to work. Most of these residences are free or only charge a small amount of money.

One of the best experiences Stephanie’s ever had, was the time she spend as a ‘trekker’ traveling across the United States, documenting history that is generally overlooked in classroom textbooks for a non-profit educational website called The Odyssey. Stephanie was part of a very diverse team, including, among others, an African American, Native American, Asian, Iranian and a Chicano (herself). It was their job to write about history of the perspective of the people they represented. What made it even more adventurous for them was that they only had 15 dollars a day at their disposal, so they mainly had to depend on the kindness of strangers. During that time, Stephanie learned that Americans are much more hospital than she had imagined, since she spent many great nights with people who offered to take her team in without even hesitating.

Stephanie also tells us about a website called “Let me stay for a day”. It’s set up by a guy who decided to travel around the world for two years without any money in his pocket. On his website he would write where he was going next and that he was looking for places to stay. People were even fighting to have him for a day since in exchange for their hospitality he would put a little story about them online.

During her life, Stephanie had the opportunity to spend some time with different groups of Mongolian nomads. 30% of all Mongolians are fully or semi nomadic, travelling by horseback from one place to the other. One important thing she learned from these nomads is to pack and live extremely lightly. But just like the Mongolian nomads, there are a few devotional and nostalgic items that she constantly carries with her no matter where she goes. These special items give her a little bit of grounding wherever she is. Mongolians see their entire homeland (Mongolia) as their home – Stephanie feels at home in the whole world. For her, ‘home’ is a deep little place inside of us.