Gay arrived home today after a couple of weeks away, most of it spent in Cambodia. The point of the trip was her second house building adventure with Tabitha USA, and was again successful with her group completing seventeen houses in two villages... more

After a brief foray into UN-inspired governing techniques, paraphrasing the old Westerns I now say, "meanwhile, back at the oil ..."

A bunch of international companies ... Chevron, the Japanese firm Mitsui and South Korea's LG ... are coming together for a feasibility study on the building of a pipeline from Cambodia's offshore sites to Sihanoukville.

At... more

With so much happening in Cambodia this week, the wrap of the week’s news is sloshing over from Friday right into Saturday.

We have looked at a trafficking task force and some issues with the courts, but will start today on a brighter note. Things are improving in Cambodia, and some are predicting it will be the next "Asian economic tiger".

A... more

With this being the end of the week, it's time to wrap up the news coming out of Cambodia in the last seven days. Starting with a BBC report about a trafficking crackdown ... the Cambodian government has launched the country's first anti-trafficking task force that is designed to take ministries, law enforcement and international agencies and tie them together in hopes of creating a clear picture of what's really happening.

With somewhere around 200... more

After taking more than a little bit of my time to compose a response to a request for comment on Angelina Jolie's adoptions from a reporter from the New York Post, I was irked, but not surprised, to see what ended up in print.

My comments came from both heart and head, were reasonable, fair and balanced. Not, apparently, what they were going for at the Post.The... more

A while back I blogged about the media warp around Angelina Jolie's adoptions. A bit later, I wrote another about the surprising appearance of a misquote from that blog... more

With the virtual shut-down of Russian adoptions coming as the last US agencies lost their licenses to conduct adoptions in that country yesterday, the danger of backlash to news hype shows its ugly face. As the feeding frenzy that followed the Masha Allen case of sexual abuse and degradation flew into high gear, many people in the international adoption community were quick... more

Some people may wonder why I expend so much of my precious and rather limited energy endlessly beating this drum of mine that says 'media manipulation of adoption-related news is extremely dangerous', or a rhythm to that effect. Today's news out of Russia makes my point perfectly, I'm very sad to say.

... more

Sour Sdey Chhan Thmey !!! (That's Happy New Year in Khmer, the language of Cambodia.) Normally, I post Cambodian-related items on Friday, but with many communities in the US preparing Cambodian New Year (Chaul Chnam Thmey) festivities beginning on Saturday, I thought I'd get the information out early... more

Since I've made such a point of addressing celebrity adoptions, defending the rights of movie stars to be real live people, and reminding anyone I can that there's manipulation in them thar hills of media pap, I thought some reflection... more