Some stories repeat on you like last week's chicken tikka masala. No matter how many times the things get regurgitated, someone is swallowing it all over again even though there most likely was nothing of substance there in the first place and the whole mess has grown progressively more unappetizing.

Occasionally, however, it is the illusive conjecture of deja vu all over again that prompts an unpleasant comeback, and that appears to be what we have here.

Back in May, a story seeped out of the Netherlands that tied kidnapping in India to adoption by a Dutch family. There was very little information available; in fact everything I could find could be followed to one report on one television program. (You may want to keep in mind that it was Dutch TV that perpetrated the famous kidney transplant hoax in June of this year.)

By September, although there had been nothing added to the story, Denmark had jumped on the halt-adoptions bandwagon and Dutch radio had pulled together a panel of three like-minded individuals to trash international adoption.

Now we have a story about the Netherlands "tightening rules", and citing not only the Dutch TV show from back in May, but also the Zoe's Ark debacle in Chad as a justification. "Tightening" is tricky wording when it comes to governments making changes, and given the prevailing tone toward international adoption in Holland at the moment, 'tighten' could easily mean constrict or strangulate.

Before I go any further, get this:

The Justice Ministry launched three investigations after a Dutch TV show said it was possible some families might not have voluntarily given their children up for adoption from 1995 to 2002, the ministry said in a statement.

Hold on! Wouldn't you think that THREE investigations by the Justice Ministry of the Netherlands, home of the Hague, seat of the International Court of Justice, would have turned up something definite if there had been something to turn up, rather than the scrawny and unconvincing ninety-pound-weakling of "it was possible some families might not have voluntarily given their children up for adoption"?

Really! What is that? It was possible some families might have been ax murders. It was possible that some families were tap dancing chimps from Mars. Send out investigators from the Justice Ministry and come back with a shot in the dark?

And before I close, let me once more mention that the Zoe's Ark story is NOT about international adoption.

It will, however, be the matter of projectile vomiting for months, if not years to come, and through a combination of skillful spin and general laziness end up blurred into adoption no matter the truth.


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