Haitian kids: people or puppies?
February 01, 2010 By: almostgotit Category: parenting
Haitian children wait in a police car after a group of Americans was stopped tryingto take them out of the country. Photograph: Reuters (guardian.co.uk)
They’re so cute in the pictures.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to sweep into their native environment, assuring our donors that we intended to spend as little time there as possible (because Haiti is so Ewww), and SAVE THE PUPPIES, er, the children in Haiti?
And, since Haiti is just a comic book world where real laws don’t exist and where people aren’t as complicated as they are back here in the real world, we don’t need to bother with any paperwork either.
The nice thing about working with cute little foreign children who simply need better homes is that we can just fix that for them.
There are a lot of children in America (particularly Idaho, I’m thinking!) who need better homes, too, but *American* children aren’t puppies, and we generally realize that it’s not our right to relocate and reassign them at will.
See, the whole “Haiti Earthquake” thing? It’s all just a little test that God set up for us real people, so that we can earn our “Good Christian” certificate and move up to the next level.
I’m a little scared, though. What if some nice Martian Methodists come to America next and decide to remove all the kids here who need better healthcare, healthier food, and better parenting?
The Almostgotits fed their kids M&M’s for lunch yesterday: we’re screwed.
What am I missing? And what do you think should happen now to the group of Americans now being detained for kidnapping in Haiti?
Cross-posted on BlogHer.com
February 1st, 2010 at 1:48 pm
The Methodists have been going to Haiti on missions forever, so I think they felt proprietorial about the country before the quake. And there’s your trouble: that sense of self-righteousness and laissez majeste; the entitlement that is so entrenched in the Saved; the insipid narcissism of the Properly Churched . I think I love you for this post. Let’s sentence them to work in some homeless shelters in Southern California and South Carolina for five years and yank their visas for ten.
February 1st, 2010 at 3:51 pm
I think they should go to jail, period.
I don’t mind the “saved” part, but the lack of Love part. They didn’t even bother to find out about the children they were “saving,” or what really was the best sort of help to give them… that’s not “Christian” (God = Love) at ALL.
February 1st, 2010 at 5:28 pm
They KIDNAPPED the kids- don’t we have pretty hard and fast consequences for that? Should be no different. They also provided further fodder for Unisef to ban ALL adoptions out of Haiti (or influence the governments) to ban all adoptions- even those that are basically finalized- just waiting for the final go ahead. STUPID! Two interesting blogs of missionaries in Haiti that talk about all this: rollingsinhaiti.wordpress.com and livesayhaiti.blogspot.com
Thanks for this post, Gotit.
February 1st, 2010 at 6:20 pm
Good post there! These kinds of disasters really open the door for some crazy things being done, “in their best interest” of course… Can you imagine the outcry if a flock of folks headed for New Orleans after Katrina and swooped up kids. Pandemonium!
February 1st, 2010 at 7:06 pm
Wow, I never realized Idaho was a francophone state.
February 1st, 2010 at 8:11 pm
@Nance: Baptists from Boise, Methodists from Mars… alliterative allusions to wrong-headed missionaries of all sorts, who yes have hit Haiti before.
@Felicia: I agree with you, too… faith-based groups have done tremendous good following the earthquake in Haiti, but this particular group doesn’t seem to be following the mind or heart of any God I would recognize.
@marsquat: how very sad that other children will suffer too, including legitimately-adoptable ones. And anything further to create distrust with a country that needs us is just tragic, straight up.
@Cuz: Yikes! Perfect image, one we should perhaps be teaching in the schools. And the sanctuaries.
@Lavenderbay: as in, imperialists hoping to recolonize Haiti? It is a beautiful place, Idaho, with some lovely people… but also some of the craziest people on the planet.
February 2nd, 2010 at 5:30 am
You hit the nail on the head almostgotit. SCARY!
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:25 am
Nazarenes from Neptune? Sanctified Brethren from Saturn? Unitarians from Uranus? I’ve got a call into the Men in Black!
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:33 am
As Aunt Catherine says, “There’s no right way to do a wrong thing.”
February 2nd, 2010 at 11:46 am
But God said to! Look, we have it in writing! Ummm, somewhere …
February 2nd, 2010 at 2:02 pm
I really really like “the insipid narcissism of the Properly Churched.”
Wow!
February 3rd, 2010 at 2:47 pm
I’ve got three they can collect….