Is there anything suspect in the timing of a story coming out of Nepal that casts international adoption in a negative light coinciding with the first International Conference of Inter-Country Adoption in Kathmandu?

Pardon my cynicism, but I can't help but notice the potential for not-so-hidden agendas in them thar Himalayas.

Was it coincidence that had reporter Thomas Bell writing a story for the Nepali Times that that starts out like this:

In the cramped Anamnagar office of an adoption broker and his dusty orphanage in Ratopul, Nepali Times this week made arrangements to buy a child for adoption.

News? Drama? Which is it?

When he tosses large numbers around ... $5,000, $10,000 ... and puts quotes around worlds like "going rate" and "donations", he certainly sets the tone for telanovella-like plot lines.

Of course, selling it just once won't do, and it was a UK Telegraph story to begin with, so he opened that one like this:

Dishonest agents and orphanages in Nepal are running a multi-million-pound international adoption racket, frequently sending children abroad without their birth parents' consent.

The story is, of course, spinning out now, and Thomas Bell's version of events he put in motion is beginning to be taken as factual proof that the entire Nepali adoption program is nothing but a web of deceit and greed.

Aside from the fact that Mr. Bell's story is chock full of statements attributed to "senior government officials", "a government child care official", "a local lawyer" and "staff at a well-known international children's organization" ... none identified, but justified with a perfunctory, "None wanted to be identified, citing the power and influence of the adoption lobby, but they told the same story of corruption" ... the report and its offspring are quite disjointed.

To take a look at just how convoluted this is becoming, read this version, titled evocatively "Stolen Childhood" from Bizarre but True, and notice that it remasticates the bits ... including a quick regurgitation from the one person actually identified ... and offers what it spits out as truth.

Continued ...