That's not change, that's more of the same
On September 1, 2008, the bilateral agreement on international adoption between Vietnam and the United States expired and for now all adoptions from Vietnam have been suspended. A good situation one might say. Neither the US nor France for that matter, ever had any good reason to be in Vietnam and whenever they did, disaster followed.
And with international adoption from Vietnam, disaster followed. As in most sending countries, Vietnamese adoption is riddled with fraud, corruption and child trafficking. That's why we have been speaking against international adoption for years and for helping sending countries institute proper child protection systems, so children don't have to be deported to another country, to supply the demand for children in receiving countries.
That's the change we need in this world. Sending countries should either back off, or start helping sending countries without asking children in return.
Both the National Council for Adoption (NCFA) and its Siamese twin the Joint Council for International Children's Services (JCICS) have spoken out to quickly come to a new agreement with Vietnam. The NCFA plays the orphan card, while we all know that the vast majority of so-called orphans in Vietnam have families, just like most of the so-called orphans all over Asia.
The JCICS is a little more political correct in their assesment of the situation and pays lip service to the Hague Principles, assuming that the Hague has anything to offer when it comes to protecting children from adoption predation. Has the Hague improved the situation in India? Is India's central authority CARA free from corruption? Is CARA powerful enough to do something about corruption in orphanages? But despite the complete failure the Hague is, the JCICS want to change adoptions from Vietnam so they adhere to the principles of the Hague, whatever that means.
The JCICS says they want to change child protection systems in Vietnam, by promoting the institution of a collaborative process to report, discuss and resolve actions of suspected adoption abuse. Yes that's what we need... More talk and more paperwork. Haven't we by now learned corrupt officials are very good with both? Talk is cheap and paperwork can be falsified. Child traffickers will certainly shudder in fear seeing these changes coming there way.
Finally the JCICS want to change the standards of practices of agencies operating in Vietnam, as if the big shot agencies in Vietnam don't operate in similar fashion already and they all are completely ethical and subscribe to the highest standards possible. If they could they'd even sponsor Ethica. Standards of practice in the USA will certainly solve corruption in Vietnam. With standards of practice child traffickers will have an even easier job, because all American agencies operate alike, so if one can be tricked, they all can be tricked. Wonderful.
So the JCICS says they about change. Except -- and so I guess their whole angle is, "Watch out Vietnam, except for the outflow of babies, agency profits, serving the interests of adoptive families only and dipomatic pressure to create a new agreement. We're really gonna shake things up." That's not change. That's just calling the same thing, something different. But you know, you can put lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig.