How my mind wanders from one subject to another…

By TAO

A very odd post today…odd even for me - for some it will make sense – others will just shake their heads.

I’m a huge fan of Formula 1 Racing, have been for over twenty-five years.  I watch both the qualifying and the race, every time.  I usually have two or three favorite drivers vs. following a team.  I write out the racing schedule each year so hubby can make sure everything is taped, even those that would start at 5:00 my time, on the off-chance I slept in.

Today, I saw Tedx has a F1 talk that I had to watch.  A fascinating talk about how they are working on an experiment, that takes the same concept of how FI works behind the scenes, with the vast amounts of data collected and used – to see if those very same tools can help save lives.  The talk is only 9 minutes – I hope you watch.  It makes sense, and after seeing it my mind wandered to what other data is collected around the world, which could be used to do something it wasn’t collected, or intended, for – and of course I thought about adoption…more on that below the video…

Formula One Talk on Tedx…

Talk is by Peter van Manen from McLaren

“Can we look at patterns in the data to do things better?”

We can use the same technology that evaluates faults in Formula 1 race cars to solve problems off the racetrack, says data analyst Peter van Manen. From detecting warning signs of heart failure in infants to designing ambulances that monitor patients on the way to the hospital, F1 technology is for more than just cars.

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Thinking about the type of data collected in adoption, or should have been collected, even just over the last twenty years - what it could offer, tell, the questions it could answer.  I worked with customer data for years, I know the power of it (I am not an expert in it – just a user of it and knowledge that questions can be answered).  Pure, raw, data, what if each agency had collected the right data and shared honest, robust data, combined with other data available and analyzed by country, used to work on a micro level for a family, so that real help was provided so there was no need for family separation, when possible.  Providing in detail what mothers (the widows), or fathers (the widowers) in Ethiopia, or Uganda, or the DRC, or any other country, would specifically need at a family level, by area, to be able to raise their children (the “orphans” that are so often those adopted) to adulthood, a future filled with opportunities.

Just imagine if that data had been, or was collected, and analyzed with the intent to end the need for adoption for many, not all, but many.

That would be a good thing – wouldn’t it?

Make sure you read Kevin’s post from Land of a Gazillion Adoptees – it also ties in – showing what the focus really is…

 

Questions of the day…

By TAO

I have seen a lot of hand-wringing and posts pop up in rebuttal, or response to Kathryn Joyce’s article in Mother Jones. 

I just read this post about it, which includes a Q&A from various people within the Evangelical Adoption Movement…and this statement was the impetus for this post.

Rick Morton: [...] International adoption is a multi-billion dollar industry, and it must be policed to keep out those who would engage in illegal activity. That is ultimately a responsibility of civil authorities. [...]

So, based on the fact that Christian Adoption Agencies have been around a long time, and this type of international adoption since the end of the Korean War…surely there is a track record of the policing, or at least making it a priority to assist the civil authorities by bringing these activities to light.

1.  How many adoption agencies have publicly denounced another agency for unethical, or illegal activities, and worked with the civil authorities to get the agency closed down?

2.  How many adoption agencies, or adoption industry lobbyists, have petitioned Congress to include “trafficking for adoption” in the official definition of trafficking?

3.  How many adoption agencies publically owned up to any of the problems that shut down Guatemala, Vietnam, Cambodia, Nepal, or reported illegal activities to the authorities?

Of course some great adoptive parents have spoken up, created groups like PEAR and REFORM TALK and ETHICA (closed).  Other adoptive parents have posted blog entries, repeatedly, like this series of posts about adopting in the DRC, and have been attacked by others for daring to speak up.  Others like Prof. David Smolin who has published papers, and spoken at conferences on child-laundering for adoption.  But I never see anyone in the “adoption industry” trying to do anything other than make more adoptions happen, faster.  I am open to being proven wrong, but I cannot remember ever seeing otherwise.  Perhaps if they walked the walk…

How many wrongful adoptions are too many? 1, 100, 1,000, 10,000… How many?

Updated to include: Must read from Rileys in Uganda – The Child Catchers, Review and Interview with the award winning author, Kathryn Joyce by Mark Riley