Fenris didn’t need to write out that long ass parody. The linked post was enough to have me dying laughing. I don’t know how I missed that the first time it was posted, but it was some stellar comedy. Can’t figure out if it was maybe a bit tongue in cheek.
This could’ve been an interesting thread, but once again, people have to make a joke out of whatever **even sven **posts. Guh.
I see your point. I don’t think even sven deserves her threads hijacked. But did you read the link Fenris posted? Surely she had it coming with that one.
Oh, yes, I think we can all think of better things to do with puppies than kick them!
I enjoyed Fenris’ parody. This thread is so sanctimonious that I want to kick something too— but no puppies! Msnbc’s Joe Scarborough could use a good beat-down, why not him?
As for you,** even sven, **you mean well,and write well, but you come across as an unbelievably annoying, condescending, little know-it-all brat that most of your good points are wasted. It doesn’t have to be that way and it would make your posts easier to read.
I read her posts with the J Peterman voice from Sienfeld.
We may have different frames of reference as to what constitutes value, and what constitutes chardonnay socialism.
Oh for fuck’s sake. How about something other than ad hominems and worn-out jokes? And Chardonnay? Well, excuse me, Miss I-Can-Spend-$4-On-A-Bottle-Of-Wine.
Wow. Your cleverness really put me in my place. Anything else I can help you with?
The Dead Kennedys, Holiday In Cambodia. Live it, love it, learn it.
So you been to school
For a year or two
And you know you’ve seen it all
In daddy’s car
Thinkin’ you’ll go far
Back east your type don’t crawl
Play ethnicky jazz
To parade your snazz
On your five grand stereo
Braggin’ that you know
How the niggers feel cold
And the slums got so much soul
POL! POT! POL! POT! POL! POT! POL! POT!
I’m not clear on why he didn’t post his Fenris Opus in the original thread. Or Pit her at the time, or whatever.
Board not working, dear?
It’s like a pawn shop for children.
That’s…I don’t know how to feel about that yet.
Not having the time to keep a score on every poster here (I can barely remember my own birthday) I am going to take what even sven says at face value. I don’t see anything wrong with this pitting, and am baffled by the response.
There seems to be a lot of straw men building here. Largely I agree, people need to do some basic homework when adopting, maybe starting by reading the news coming from the country in question and finding out the state of its regulatory institutions.
And for the record, some third countries are way more difficult to adopt from than others. If you adopt from the Dominican Rep. (fat chance, there are more potential adoptive parents than children to adopt. The cultural norm is that children be taken by other relatives to keep them within the family) be prepared to spend a year living here, the law says the child should be available to the child welfare authority (the only one authorized to process adoptions) for at least a year of random, frequent visitations. If they are satisfied that the child and family will do well then it is approved. This makes adoption difficult, even to locals (although I personally know a Spanish couple who lived here for more than a year waiting for their adoption to clear), but it also makes it darn near impossible to obtain a child from nefarious sources.*
As a starter point I would suggest that people choose countries with no known record of this type of scandals. Which sucks for a lot of countries and children, but perhaps a slow down in demand will mean that only children who are really orphans will get adopted.
Have your eyes on a 3D TV too? 
I guess we didn’t read the same thread. There are a lot of disingenuous posts here alright, none coming from the OP.
That’s about the right- sort of a breathy and overwrought travelogue,
True story, that for some reason that escapes me know I though would be fun to recount in the voice of a desperately overwritten travel novel. People in the thread seemed to “get” it and have fun with it, but apparently the offenderati isn’t quite that sharp.
Ah. So it was sort of tongue in cheek. Ok.
ETA: I admit, I didn’t read the whole thread.
Well, list me among the ones who didn’t detect the ironic undertone. Always seemed pretty sincere to me.
No, it’s like a place where a child can be fed and cared for, and where the parents can visit occasionally and, if their circumstances change, bring the child home. This isn’t a new concept. It’s how American orphanages worked into this century.
This.
I find poverty tourism masquerading as charity work extremely tacky. It’s not the end of the world, but I do find such behavior worthy of a few humorous jabs.
The “we have much to learn from them,” crap is based on the fact that people often hand waive away seriously messed up aspects of other cultures. Now historically, most cultures have taken the view that if other people do things differently, they must be doing things wrong. And it’s good that Western culture has moved away from such a narrow minded view. But when you read a post about what a wonderful culture these Cameroonians have, and the same post casually drops that they buy women from their fathers like chattel, I don’t come away from reading that post with much respect for Cameroonian society.
What the hell are you talking about?