Is there an echo in here? I mean, in here, in my head. Or is it out there, in the big wide world. Or both? Maybe I’m having a flashback… or a hot flash… nope, can’t be that, since it’s “that” time of the month. Hmmm. Well, maybe you can tell me what’s going on… I keep having these visions:

It’s the 70’s, Schoolhouse Rock... “Energy … we’re looking to try and find some new kinds of …... more

[Continued from HERE.]

Birthing children is clearly no problem in Rwanda: staying alive long enough to actually raise, protect and support them IS a problem. Forget about malaria and the perpetual threat of re-emerging violence, perhaps even war. Forget about poor safe water sources and basic hygiene facilities/infrastructure. Let’s talk about HIV/AIDS, the leading cause of death in Rwanda. According to the most... more

[Continued from HERE.]

The fact is any discussion concerning population issues in Rwanda can not be had without a discussion of land (not the case with China.)

Despite the genocide just over a dozen years ago, Rwanda is so small, so crowded, that there is a dire shortage of land upon which each family can raise their children. Back in the day, after independence, family plots were given of... more

Word out of Rwanda about the introduction of family planning measures that will, ideally, decrease population growth has been met with quite a mixed response from the general public and media outlets alike. It seems as though people have a need to over-compartmentalize, comparing situations that don’t have much in common simply because they address the same topic, in this case efforts by China to curb its population and those being considered by Rwanda.

Irony, folks…... more

As some of you may have read in the comments section of Who Knew, this will be my last month blogging.

The truth of the matter is I am just too bloody slow to make this worth my while. I’m one of those writers that will sit and write for three hours (often after a few hours of research or more), edit for another two hours, whittling away, nudging, adding, subtracting, deleting, inserting, switch-a-rooing, cut-and-pasting... more

[Continued from HERE].

I guess this eyebrow-furrowing phenomenon might come from the fact that we Americans often extol the virtues of exchange and sharing ideas. We idolize conversation, debate, protracted salubrious spittle-infested blather. We cherish our soap boxes and our pseudo-mediatory dialogue with equal relish. And yet, in our modern incarnation, we find it incredibly difficult to actually read what someone... more

[Continued from HERE.]

I’ve addressed the whole ‘denial’ thing before. I find the accusation a lame attempt at somehow discrediting me and/or any other relatively happy adoptees simply for not being miserable, for not adding to their basis for rationalizing that adoption is, in general, a horrible thing because... more

It seems as though what made it to the bottom of the mountain after my avalanche of words trying to clarify truly adoption related ‘issues’ and how well the majority of adoptees are adjusted (or not), was that my perspective marginalizes and robs adoptees and birth parents who are traumatized by their adoption experience and/or ‘working through’ their problems from the same. Apparently, I am insensitive with completely unfair, judgmental and unrealistic perceptions of the ‘issues’ plaguing adoptees. There are those convinced that... more

[Continued from HERE.]

If you are an international adoptee and feel you would have been better off in your own country, DO go there, but don’t stay in fancy hotels or with expats. Go live in a village and study the language. Get a real sense of the life that may have been yours. If you can, don’t do this for a couple of weeks, do it for a year, at least. The great news is if you really feel that... more

[Continued from HERE.]

The ‘take action’ options are so multitudinous I could not ever think of them all. What I do know, am thinking, is that mobilizing yourself empowers you. Wallowing, suffocating, in your pain, in the feeling that you have been victimized, does not empower you, it chains you to that pain so that there may come a time when you CAN’T come up for air, even if you want... more