My friend Erin Siegal is in the midst of writing a book about illegal adoption. Through the lens of one specific case of adoption from Guatemala to the US, Finding Fernanda: A True Story of Crime, Corruption and Faith examines the pain on both sides of the equation, and the complex forces that drive this industry. (read a summary here)
Erin has done A TON of research, and continues on this track. Actually, when I met Erin, I was surfing. I would go out, she would be working. I would come back. Working. Go surfing again, come back. Working. Eat. Working. etc. Often she wouldn't even talk to me if i said hi, or would occasionally shoot a 'stop being idiots' glance at me and her partner in crime if we were laughing hysterically about nothing, much too close to her (fair enough). Dedicated to the cause is the point I am making.
As I know a lot of Esteyonage readers have interest in adoption, and email me about it here and there (keep it up!), I thought I would mention this: Erin's project is currently on kickstarter, a site that helps raise money for developing projects. One really cool thing is that if you give money to the project - even $ 10 - you get updates on the project, about what Erin is working on at the time, and other developments in the book. If you think that is rad, this is the link to the project. I guarantee any money will go directly into hard work.
On a side note, while making dinner for my roomies the other day, I listened to a This American Life episode called 'No Map', where the second half is about an unjust adoption from Samoa to the US.... it damn near choked me up. Love that show.
Another friend, Roberto Abadie, has just published a book on the unregulated world of drug testers. The Professional Guinea Pig: Big Pharma and the Risky World of Human Subjects reflects months of Roberto's work living within communities of people who often test drugs. More so, this book is the product of his obsession with this topic, and is a more "official" follow up to a multi-year study he did following anarchists who use money from drug testing as a means of survival (yes, I think it would be a pretty interesting addition to the G-by series).
Says Roberto in an article in the Chronicle,
"Throughout my life, I had been studying drug users and how they understand risk," he says. "That's what I thought I would do as a medical anthropologist...
...When I first found this topic, I was so engaged with it that I couldn't sleep."
I just heard yesterday that Time is doing something on this book, so look for that. Also, you can buy it directly from Duke Press, or, of course, from the bigger places.
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2 comments:
Unsure if you saw this, but the New Yorker had a piece on adoption in Haiti back in May: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/05/10/100510fa_fact_seabrook
Written by John Seabrook, it tells of his decision to adopt prior to the earthquake and what happened after the earthquake that altered the process. While he is clearly for int'l adoptions, he does a reasonable job of including criticisms of the practice and how it has developed and changed over the past few decades.
Definitely worth a read in my opinion.
Really digging the blog as I have stumbled upon it recently. Do you use twitter at all? You should if you are not on it as there are lots of conversations centering around what you blog about. If you are, what is your handle?
Thanks for the great article - great read for sure.
Twitter, not presently. IT kind of frightens me in equal portions to interesting me.
Un dia?
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