Continued from here ...

Now, some of the questions that pop into my mind when reading the stories about Nepali adoption that are cropping up just about the time a conference on international adoption is to begin ...

How does someone "pose as British parents wishing to adopt a Nepali child"? Did they show up at the "Child NGO Federation" complete with dossier, including a homestudy, police clearance and all other other documents absolutely necessary before any real adoption discussion can begin?

If so, how? If not, what sort of conversation did they suppose they would have walking in off the street? Would Nepali adoption people be expected to take them seriously as parents, or perhaps only to humor someone obviously delusional on adopting?

Another. How can adoption be such a "high stakes market" that caution is required in even talking about it because, "powerful people are involved" ... supposedly, there is fear of retaliation from the "orphanage and adoption lobbies" ... when the numbers are as tiny as they are? Eleven Nepali children have been adopted by Brits since 2000 and 194 have gone to US families. Given a total population of more than 27 million, we're not talking about a crowd here.

Moving on to the timing, though ...

This is how Mr. Bell introduces the International Conference of Inter-Country Adoption:

The meet, organised by the Child NGO Federation, the Ministry for Women, Children and the Central Child Welfare Board, aims to improve the process of adoption from Nepal and get feedback from adoptive families on “whether their desires and wishes … have been well facilitated”. On another website, the conference is described as designed to help eliminate “existing rumours and negative attitudes regarding adoption of children by foreigners” and its main focus will be appointing adopted Nepalis as “Goodwill Ambassadors to the respective countries to where their new parents belong to, and will be assigned the duty of playing key roles in establishing a strong bond between the two countries.” There is no mention of the best interests of the children, or how to make a notoriously murky process more transparent.

Vinod Adhikary, joint secretary at the ministry and coordinator of the Adoption Recommendation Committee composed of government and NGO representatives emphatically denied there could not be even one in 10,000 cases of dubious adoptions because “we are very strict about it.” He also denied that adoptions were being pushed through faster ahead of the conference.

Does this, or does this not, sound like an attempt to engrave the word "sleaze" into the conference dais?

Here's another way it could be stated:

Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare Urmila Aryal inaugurated the three-day conference. 150 delegates from 15 countries including the USA, Norway, Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland and United Kingdom are participating in the conference that will discuss ways to protect the rights of adopted children and regulate in-country and inter-country adoption process.

Hmmmmmmm.

Continued ...