As the Haitian child exports are receiving a great deal of attention at the moment I’d like to welcome new readers and recommend a visit to my about page and my WTF page. They answer many basic questions and lay out my comments policy.

Prior to reading through this series, first look at the earlier articles on my Haiti tag for my posts to date as this series relies upon definitions of words such as “orphanage” that I’ve already discussed in my previous Haitian posts.

I am an adult adoptee, writing from an explicitly Bastard perspective on these matters.

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This Introduction is the first installment of what will eventually be an extended series broken into several parts.

Due to the pure scale of what I’m trying to write here (and let’s face it, the raw vileness of the subject matter), this may at times seem a bit disjointed. I apologize in advance.

The various parts are  interdependent, consider each a vignette of sorts that builds into a larger picture:

Part 1: Basic Haiti to the U.S. adoption statistics

Part 2: A snapshot of the Haitian Government reaction to the exports

Part 3: The Article I’m using as my framework for this series

Part 4: Kids not in an adoption process being exported, bullies and bribes & the Rendells’ Raid (perhaps the most important piece of the series)

Part 5: The Do It Yourself-ers (DIY) (skipped temporarily, see below)

Part 6: One of many American examples of a fundamental denial of the pre-quake corruption (skipped temporarily, see below)

Part 7: France and the European Union (published out of order, due to trying to be timely for Jan 25th, we’ll come back to 5 and 6)

Part 8: The Bethany Christian Services/ God’s Littlest Angels planeload of human cargo

Part 9: Kids disappearing and the “orphan” trade

Part 10: As if “being in process” alone makes Haitian adoptions somehow “ethical”

Part 11: Those that remain in Haiti- the race to protect the kids vs. “You don’t work, you don’t eat”

Endnotes

There are other theoretical pieces, and detailed backgrounders that underlie my understanding of everything I’m trying to say in this series.  In time, others and I may get to expanding on some of those ‘building blocks’, but it won’t happen within the context of this series. It’s simply too large, there’s too much video to upload,  and there are simply too many rabbit trails of detail to follow down.

When I began this blog I wrote about coming in in the middle. How sometimes one simply has to start where they are and move forward and back, writing and backtracking, forecasting and yet still writing from the here and now as best one could.

Without a doubt, this series will reflect that, writing what one can from where they are, starting-in-the-middle-ness.

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This entire series was begun before the arrests of the American missionaries. In short, events overtook the writing. I will eventually come back to complete the series as most of it is already written, just in need of some updating due to how quickly everything is moving.

Of the following posts, some were written just after the earthquake before I began the series, but the bulk of them were written later, after the arrests and detail the way the story has unfolded, only to fold back in on itself time and time again. They provide a context to the series and are still being added to at this point:

Haiti’s children and the American adoption market

Haiti, and the constant drumbeat of the demand for children

Adopted peoples’ voices on the Haitian baby exports

Haitian Government ***MAY*** have changed the exit requirements for children leaving the country

The Adoptees of Color Roundtable Statement on Haiti and the Adopted & Fostered Adults of the African Diaspora Statement coming Tues.

Adopted & Fostered Adults of the African Diaspora Statement

Adopting kids out of Satan’s Haiti, the For His Glory kids & the slowing of child export flights

Haiti, hiding information, and the romantic myth of international adoption- by Guest Blogger Mike Doughney

Introducing Bastardette’s new blog- End Child Exportation and Trafficking in Haiti

PersonalShopper.com CEO arrested while returning from child shopping trip to Port-au-Prince- by guest blogger Mike Doughney

The 10 arrested Christian Scavengers had an adoption centered “mission” for the kids they were caught trying to remove illegally

You’ve got the kids, I’ve got the cash, let’s make some adoptions.

The 3 additional American members (on the Dominican Republic side of the border) of the 10 arrested American missionary scavengers’ team

The 73 Haitian kids deserve genuine justice, not a premature release of the scavengers

NYT- El Salvador Investigates Adviser to Detained Americans in Haiti (Jorge Puello)

Haiti fails its children, releases 8 Child Scavengers on nothing more than their (worthless) word

Bastardette’s series of posts on Jorge Torres Puello/Jorge Torres Orellana & the Dominican Republic end of the team

Was the Silsby team’s current lawyer in Haiti, Aviol Fleurant, arranged by Jorge Puello?

Central Valley Baptist Church Used Its Tax Status For Donations For Laura Silsby’s New Life Mission

Laura Silsby’s pipedreams of a future in the child containment industry

the raw unvarnished audacity of of the (missionary) adoption mindset

Charisa Coulter’s release papers signed, Silsby becomes a useful scapegoat

Governor Rendell lied to taxpayers about the cost of his religiously based child scavenging raid

Charisa Coulter, “VP and co-founder” of New Life Children’s Refuge released from Jail in Haiti

Haiti- New Charge brought against Laura Silsby, “organization of irregular trips”

Haiti- The 33 New Life missionaries collected kids to be reunited with their families

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Also externally, see Bastardette/Marley’s  entire blog dedicated to the issue:

End Child Exportation and Trafficking in Haiti

which self-describes as

…a resource page for media, researchers, and the public interested looking for material and opinion on the ethics and legality of fast track adoption, babylifting, “humanitarian aid,”identity, historical and cultural erasure, and corrupt practices in international adoption, especially in the current Haitian earthquake crisis. It includes links to blogs, news articles, reports, and Haitian sources that are not available on The Daily Bastardette. We will publish occasional guest blogger

Other vital reading includes the incredible,

Adoptees of Color Roundtable‘s

Statement on Haiti

and

Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization‘s

Statement on Haitian Adoptions and “Babylifts”

as well as as well as The Daily Bastardette’s series of posts about Jorge Puello and

more generally, her posts about Haiti

particularly her “keystone Haiti entry”

Haiti Child Evacuation: A New Operation Pedro Pan

and my partner, Mike Doughney’s pieces

Haiti, hiding information, and the romantic myth of international adoption

and

PersonalShopper.com CEO arrested while returning from child shopping trip to Port-au-Prince

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As a final note before I begin, I also want to take a moment here in the introduction to thank those who are doing such a fantastic job of digging out links and helping me cull through to find what’s actually important here, examples and details. A number of friends, including Bastardette, her commenter AnonGuy, and most of all, my partner Mike, who when he’s not playing the role of incredible tech support, is busy supporting me through all this.