Continued from here ...

News is slow to travel in Seychelles, and with the power out we were cut off. Cell phones weren't working effectively, but eventually calls starting coming through from people on the east side of the island: town was flooded; bridges were gone; there were fish on the runway at the airport. Since Mark's parents live right on the beach, we decided we should get home while the getting was good so he could... more

Living as I do among many Brits, and with Mark being half English, we've developed a Boxing Day tradition in our family. In some ways, I prefer it to the Christmas frenzy, as although it still involves friends, it's a smaller, more relaxed group, and since the meal we congregate over consists entirely of leftovers, it's a low-prep, easy-clean version of the previous day's feast. We do this at Gay's, because that's where the leftovers were left. Adhering to no schedule, we're sometimes even enjoying a bit of dessert while waiting for gravy to... more

Continued from here where the topic is female infanticide ...

Government officials and UNICEF are shocked and up in arms. Give me a break.

In a statement marking International Women's Day, UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy issued a strong attack against culturally-sanctioned homicidal violence directed at women and girls around the world. She said 'honour' killings, acid violence, female infanticide... more

I wrote the other day about how sex selection among immigrant groups is affecting the population in Canada.

... there's enough pre-natal sex selection going on in that country these days to skew the demographics much like they skew in China and India.

There the issue is the aborting of female fetuses ... quite the dichotomy for pro-choice feminists with abortion on demand deemed a basic right,... more

I'm ranting today.

Over on the Older Parent blog I ranted about book banning, and here I have yet another bee in my burkha. I began to feel the itch of annoyance when I came across this story out of Pakistan.

The National Assembly of Pakistan has passed the... more

I had email from a friend in California today that had attached something that made her very queasy.

This friend is not in any way associated with adoption, other than being my friend, of course, and has never asked anyone for any information about anything adoption related.

Nevertheless, this is what she found in her inbox:

From: "adopting": (email address) To: Subject: Adopting in Russia Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 22:51:13 +0300 X-Priority: 3

Our company, for a long time, gives qualitative... more

Happy Halloween.

There's no celebration here ... no costumes or pillowcases-full of candy or jack-o-lanterns, no tricks or treats. I'm not going to let a little thing like the culture of the country I live in stop me from getting into the spirit of Halloween, though. No way. As I type, I'm wriggling into my costume. By the time the next sentence oozes from my fingertips I will have transformed myself into ...

Ta Da!!!

Adoption Advocate Blogger Chick!

Festooned with Baby Bjorns and Huggies and sporting... more

More on the persecution of journalists continued from the previous post ... Speaking of Reporters Without Borders, that organization that strives to protect journalists from persecution, imprisonment and murder is not happy with the UN. A report titled, "UN Human Rights Council misses chance... more

For anyone adopting internationally, one of the first steps along the road that makes up the adoption journey will be toward learning about the countries you'll be considering for the place of birth of your future children. Doing a Google Search will net you lots of material. Web sites like the US State Department's listing of countries and Adoption.Com can give detailed info... more

Still in the mood to trash Emma Nicholson ... and she makes it SO easy ... here's a recent story out of Romania that, on top of the news from yesterday, makes me want to throw up.

Romanian... more