Missionary Stumbles on Road to Haiti

The Wall Street Journal ^ | February 4, 2010 | Joel Millman

[Alkhin]

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—In a closed courtroom in one of the few government buildings still standing here, Laura Silsby and nine other American missionaries were charged Thursday with abducting children from this earthquake-ravaged capital.

When the proceeding was done, the 40-year-old from a mountain valley in Idaho walked out of Le Tribunal de Paix, past a scrum of microphones, cameras and seething Haitians and into a government minivan with a co-defendant. As they waited to return to a fetid cell with mattresses on a concrete floor, they appeared to pray.

[Alkhin]

This is what is happening in the adoption industry.

[RightOnline]

Good, Christian intentions (and I do believe they had good intentions) do not forgive stupidity. What they attempted to do was full-on stupid. Can’t serve the Lord effectively with your head up your arse.

[chuck_the_tv_out]

Maybe if they’d prayed for God’s will before they did this they wouldn’t have done it.

[Alkhin]

I agree totally - I just wanted to post this to back up the assertion many adoptees have in calling attention to the fact that adoption has become corrupt and there is a lot of abuse being done in the name of good intentions. The Haitian tragedy is a good example of it.

[RightOnline]

Amen to that, FRiend; amen to that.

[PghBaldy]

So the media and the govt have decided they are guilty already?

[MaxMax]

History is riddled with the bodies of good intentions. Yes, they were out of line.

[Liberty1970]

As I understand it, it's been proved and reported that the parents of the non-orphaned children gave their children to the missionaries to be taken to a facility in the Dominican Republic where they could attend school, etc., and be cared for at no cost to the parents. Those kids were not going to be put up for adoption, and the parents could reclaim them at any time.

If this is correct, it seems to me the case against them evaporates. How can it be called abduction when the parents eagerly handed their children over (the reports I saw said the whole village was aware of the offer to take the kids, and they would have given more kids to the group had there been more time and space on the bus), and could freely take them back?

[agere_contra]

So the media and the govt have decided they are guilty already?

And Free Republic. We got there first!

I don't doubt they are guilty - of some act against the laws of Haiti. Indeed they may have acted immorally - or they may have simply been trying to rescue Haitian children from destitution.

But compared with the UN's infamous behaviour in disaster zones, these people are as white as snow.

[HelenChicago]

Liberty — Yes, I read something similar in recent news coverage. One woman who’d given up her 10-year-old daughter to the do-gooders said she was glad to do it. The village would have forfeited more of their children, but there was no more room on the do-gooders’ bus.

[Eyes Unclouded]

Ah yes the noted “Well at least we weren’t raping them” defense.

[Liberty1970]

"Residents in the village of Callebas told an Associated Press news agency reporter they had handed their children over through a local orphanage worker who said he was acting on the Americans' behalf.

The worker is said to have promised the families that the missionaries would educate their children in neighbouring Dominican Republic.

A number of parents in the badly-damaged village said they would find it difficult to provide for their children if they came back."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8499401.stm

"In interviews with parents of the children, some said they were told the children would be taken to a place in the Dominican Republic where they would be educated and then be able to return to Haiti to help their families.

But the American team on its Web site for the orphanage said the children would be eligible for adoption, raising concern whether the Haitian parents were given the correct information."

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100204/u-s-missionaries-in-haiti-charged-with-abduction/index.html

If the investigation shows that the children could have wound up adopted, then there's a problem that needs to be addressed. (The fact that the website says they do adoptions does not prove that everyone at the facility would be considered eligible.) One would hope even if a mistake were made and an adoption started, the child would speak up about having a parent and that would prevent things from continuing. So unless there is evidence the group was prepared to put kids up for adoption despite them not being orphans, this boils down to a tangle over paperwork, which is frustrating and absurd considering the circumstances.

[VRWCTexan]

News reports - including direct quotes from the attorney representing the 10 Americans states that the group “leader” was told in advance by officials in the D.R. and also in Haiti, that no child was allowed to depart the country without proper written approval / documentation by Haitian officials.

This was ignored.

Appears that nine in the group were duped by their supposed leader into going along.

[Deb]

The more I hear about this woman, the creepier she gets. No one goes trolling for children before they have a working orphanage already up and running.

[trumandogz]

Hopefully those poor Haitian children at are orphans will find their way into good homes here in the US.

However, such adoptions need to be done with a respect to Haitian laws and the Haitians should deal with these child traffickers according to their own laws.

[MaxMax]

Thank you for the update, is this another MSM drive by?

[snuffy smiff]

I caught part of a “news” report on the so-called leader last night-if true, she has lots of ‘splaining to do! Her house has been foreclosed on, business problems, multiple lawsuits from unpaid bills and former employees-just a bad egg all around.

[Liberty1970]

I think it is largely a case of lunatic anti-Christian bias, but not entirely. It appears (as documented above) that the leader is lacking in some organizational/financial skills and judgment. If this is a fair picture of her, the rest of her team and church should not have elevated her to a position of leadership without appropriate help in any areas of weakness to avoid such pitfalls. Or better yet, they should have had a different leader.

Here's a bit more regarding them not having a facilities ready, which I think shows them to be reasonable and having a plan at least:

"The leader of the Baptist team, Laura Silsby, 40, said the group was bringing the children to a 45-room hotel in the Dominican Republic, where they would stay until a permanent orphanage could be constructed.

Silsby said plans for building an orphanage in the Dominican Republic for Haitian children were in place before the 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the Caribbean island on Jan. 12. The hundreds of thousands dead and millions homeless prompted the group to move quicker on their plan to establish an orphanage, she said."

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100204/u-s-missionaries-in-haiti-charged-with-abduction/index.html

The impression I'm getting is that they already planned to have an orphanage, so naturally the website would have spoken of adoption. But after the earthquake they were willing to take in any child that needed help. What's not clear is whether they'd have confused the two categories (orphans, vs. voluntarily given kids they were caring for). But I don't think it would be fair to presume that website statements meant to apply to orphans only would be applied to non-orphans without further evidence.

[Saundra Duffy]

You don’t go into another country and thumb your nose at their laws. All of the parents in Haiti are desperate - especially after the earthquake - and they are vulnerable. I’m sorry but this stinks.