Made In India

Adoption

Adoption and Human Rights

Does international adoption by American families break any human right laws?

10,000 international adoptions to American families occur each year
-majority from American Adoption Agencies
Children's most basic human right is to grow up in a family
Is the child and object of a business transition?

Article 3: "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person."
Adoptive children can not know the information of their birth parents. They do not have security of person because they were given to strangers for adoption

o Article 4: No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Are these children bought?

International Human Rights Project

I would like to research adoption and how that fits into human rights. I have read a lot about people who think adoption is going against many human rights, but isn't a child's right to family so much more important? I would like to look at different arguments and figure out which is more important- that a child stay in orphan, but stay in his own country, or that a child has a safe home and family.

Debate of Adoption and Human Rights
http://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/articles/international-law-and-human-rights/international-adoption-human-rights-position

http://www.amfor.net/humanrights.html


Is it human right for a child to be in a family? Or to stay in their country?

Some argue- it goes against their right of security
-because they can not access the information about their birth family

Maus Seminar 1

I think this Maus seminar went ok, but it could have been better. I think a lot of people's views got shut down after they would say things, or that people did not always elaborate on questions asked or ideas shared. But, I am still very curious about masks, and the significance of the masks. I would love to learn more about the meaning of the masks and why they are worn even when the author talks about more recent events instead of just in the pictures of Auschwitz.

Free Write on Rights

1. Write about a particular statement from today's activity when you noticed your thinking change
What was said to sway your oppinion
2. How is your understanding of which rights are important a reflection of your own identity and life experiences

2. I think life experiences are really important to which rights you think are important. Things that I have seen, or things that have affected me or people I am very close to has changed the way I think about things. In particular, because of Kivu and the Braners I have an oppinion about a lot of things that I wouldn't be passionate about. After experiencing Slum Awareness day at camp, I realized how crucial things like water and freedom are. I learned about sex trafficing and how horrific and awful that is. Though the day did make me thankful for the things I have and my freedom, over all it made me want to do something. To take action on these kind of things.

Seven- Issues In the Congo Now

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/10/01/congo.atrocities.un.report/index.html?iref=allsearch

-human rights violations past ten years were heart breaking
"Tens of thousands of people were killed, and numerous others were raped, mutilated or otherwise victimized during the decade," the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said.

"Far too often, Congolese voices go unheeded. I truly hope that this time it is going to be different."

UN released a report of deaths in the Congo. Interesting how the human rights violations are still continuing through the Congo now. The killings of the people from the past ten years is interesting when compared to the Congo in Leopolds time. It also discusses how the voices of Congolese do not get heard, which was also seen in King Leopold's Ghost

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/09/24/congo.un.rape.report/index.html?iref=allsearch

Different report on how UN is saying that leadership in the Congo did not prevent mass rapes.
"I fully recognize the enormous difficulties this involves, but we have to do better. Impunity for rape in the past, and now, will simply breed more rape in the future. The cycle of impunity for sexual violence in this part of the DRC must be broken,"
Rape, death, and violence are still problematic in the Congo. And, like with King Leopold's time, officals still arent

Six- Current Event Notes

Article:
Vatican Bank faces money laundering Probe
by the CNN Wire staff
posted September 21
from CNN.com

There is an investigation by italian authorities over a violation of the money laundering regulations in the vatican. A different Italian bank alerted investigators that they had found 2 vatican transactions that did not fit into their requirements. The Vatican Bank is the most secret bank in the world, and no one actually knows how much money it controls. The requirement that was not met in the transaction was that the bank did not give enough information about the transfers, the transfers were one for twenty million euros and one for three million euros.
it gets tricky because vatican city is technically a sovereign state- italy only has
certain powers over them
pope created the account for only holy causes
the two transactions did not give enough detailed information

i i thought it was interesting how there is a top secret bank account, and since the vatican is its own state how it has its own special regulations.

it was slightly biased because not much information is being given from the vatican, not enough to give reasonings for the two transactions, or even what rules the bank has, and where and what is the money directly going to.

FIVE- First Small Group Discussion

I was really pleased with how the discussion went. I finally felt like I could voice my opinion and everyone was very respected and listened to. A lingering thought about the discussion I have, is the question of King Leopold's ghost. It was interesting to see how we have individually figured out an answer, and after discussing, I feel like we have a really good understanding of what the ghost might be. No one felt the feeling like they wouldn't be listened to or respected, which really created a good environment in which every one shared their thoughts.

Four- King Leopold's Ghost First Response

It was really interesting reading about Stanley and how he wants to recreate his history. It was just an interesting idea.
“Stanley not only gave himself a new name;he tried for the rest of his life to give himself a new biography” (23)
It made me curious if any other people in history have done this. Is this a common thing? It was really interesting to read about, and I'm excited to learn more.
What other parts of history have been twisted?


Why is there a need for Stanley to twist his biography, when he is the main character?

What does the slavery of Alphonzo's nephews say about the culture?

Three- Thoughts on Imperialism Lecture

I learned what imperialism was in general, which was pretty neat. I want to learn more about the effects of the imperialism or colonialism on the country was. After the mini research I did on Rwanda, it was interesting to see why the genocide happened. I would be very interested in seeing the other effects on different countries.

Two- Current Event Practice

1. What's being discussed in this article?
The one child policy in China is being discussed. A law lecturer had a second child, and was fired from his job. It is also discussed whether the law should be changed because scholars and the public all thought that giving birth was a basic right and should not be punishable.

2. When did the event happen? (Is this breaking news or something that's been analyzed and discussed for a while?)
The event occurred in March of 2010. This is something that has been analyzed and discussed for a while, not breaking news.

3. What questions do you have that would help make this article make more sense to you? What more do you need to learn about to be able to report on this event?
What are they 'overdoing'? I don't understand the new thought that it should change, and why should the replacement level be 2.1?

One

Blogpost Entry:

When I spoke to my mom, I was surprised that none of her historical events matched up with mine. Her top three were

1. 
   
   When Elvis died
2. 
   
   When the Challenger blew up
3. 
   
   When Ronald Reagan was shot

My top three were very different, mine were

1. 
   
   9/11
2. 
   
   When Princess Diana died
3. 
   
   When the plane landed in the water in New York on January 15, 2009

The things I remembered were not the exact events, but more what I remember from where I was when they happened. When 9/11 happened, I was in the third grade. My cousin Drew had just been born just two days before and we were at my aunts house in Illinois. Being a third grader, when word of this happened I was much more interested in watching the cartoon show “Recess”. But my mom made me change the channel, and now I know how silly I was for not wanting to watch it. When we got home later that day, I called my friend to see if volleyball practice was still on since of all that was happening. I then found out that at my grade school, they were not allowed to talk about what happened, and if they did they got sent straight to the principles office.

When Princess Diana died, I was very small. But I remember being in the family room at our house at the time very, very early in the morning watching the funeral with my mom. I remember that my mom was crying, and that I was infatuated by the gorgeous dress that the princess was wearing when they were replaying moments of her life.

When the plane landed in the Hudson River, it was my sixteenth birthday. I got home from school and my family and I watched on the tv in the kitchen. We were so amazed by what was happening, and I knew that I would always remember this because it was my sixteenth birthday.