Romanian orphan

Izidor Ruckel, 36, was one of many children filmed by foreign journalists in 1990, when news broke of the horrific conditions existing in Romania’s Communist-era orphanages.

Abandoned by his parents when he was six months old because he had polio, he ended up in an orphanage for children with disabilities in Sighetul Marmatiei, northern Romania. The facility was nicknamed “the extermination camp” in the ABC News documentary “Shame of a Nation.”

An American couple adopted him after the movie aired in the United States.

Almost 28 years later, he joined Romania’s Institute for the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism and Memory of Romanian Exile and filed an official complaint to the prosecutor’s office, to find the people responsible for hundreds of deaths in Romania’s communist orphanages.

According to the complaint, filed in September, over 771 children died in three centres for children with disabilities. Over 100 people are on the list of suspects.

From http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/balkans-heroes-people-who-saved-the-2017-12-25-2017 

Numbers of orphans in the world

It is encouraging that the orphan population is dropping albeit slowly. The orphan population is dropping but we do not know how many are caught in trafficking or on the streets or not accounted for.
According to UNICEF:
The estimated number of total orphans increased from 1990-2001 where it peaked at 155.4 million. Since 2001, the estimated number of total orphans has declined consistently but very slowly – at a rate of only 0.7% per year during this period
• 1990: 146 million
• 1995: 151 million
• 2000: 155 million
• 2005: 153 million
• 2010: 146 million
• 2015: 140 million

Back to the grind on research and writing

I am working on the definition of an orphan. The traditional view of an orphan is the loss of both parents.A UN expanded view in the 1990s states only one parent. They made this definition out of the AIDS epidemic in Africa. A wider view of social orphan includes a wide array of situations such as abandonment, separation due to war, legal such as loss of parental rights, trafficking, migration, etc.
The US Immigration has a definition for adoption purposes:

The United States defines an orphan for the purpose of immigration such as adoption. “The Immigration and Nationality Act provides a definition of an orphan for the purposes of immigration to the United States. A child may be considered an orphan because of the death or disappearance of, abandonment or desertion by, or separation or loss from, both parents”

Happy birthday to my wife

We interrupt this series to send a tribute to my lovely wife. Today is her birthday and I wish the most wonderful person in my life a happy birthday. I would not have completed the doctorate without her support and this journey to help orphans would be hampered without her encouragement. She stays next to me and we are quite bonded. I cannot muster the words of gratitude for my beloved Svetlana. I also seem short of the vocabulary to describe this amazing woman.

Balanced life

One of the observations I have is that I am much healthier now that I am approaching 62 than 10 years ago. Ironically I am in the window for retirement, yet I figured I would have to go until 70 years. With my current occupation as a professor that is a possibility.  Although I will retire from a job, I will never retire from my work for the kingdom of God. Right now I have a good balance of eating right, exercise, and sleep. The research says that older people sleep less. I must still be young because I sleep more than the average. The range is 7-9 hours and I am more like 9-10 which is still an acceptable range. However, I do not take naps as I used to so I pretty much go from 8-9 am to around 11PM. I was never an evening person. As a prior military officer, I got more done by 9am than most people did all day. Now that I work evenings and this term twice a week until 1o:40PM, I found that schedule very exhausting. That threw my life cycle off. Fortunately I do not anticipate that situation in 2018. I should, Lord willing be able to do much research and writing next year.

Orphan theory Research

I am making good progress now on the orphan theory. The biggest challenge I have regards setting the search parameters. Ironically (for me) orphan is used in computer,information technology research for parent-orphan relationships for data, orphan drugs in pharmaceutical research, and certain medical conditions. Much of the research on for my orphan study is on Africa. I do have a number of articles on Russia. I am finding the usual web of interlinked concepts and much research that may or may not contribute to orphan theory for now.

Personal update

I actually picked up this blog to keep me focused on the task of orphans. Keeping it in the forefront of my mind is important. I do foresee more time to write an article on orphan theory. I realized that no one has ever done that and it would provide the basis for many researchers. In my world, research and writing is what a doctorate is supposed to do. The information is definitely available. I just have to put it in a format for publication. The objective is clear, I simply cannot put a goal on the timeline. I should be able to publish it and then a dozen of so articles could come from it. Energy and time seem to be my biggest constraints. Lord willing, I am confident I will stay on course until completion.

Orphan identity

I finally finished the book on Korean adoption. The author is quite critical of the U.S. involvement in Korea, but the view of Japanese occupation still causes a negative view from Koreans. A pew poll shows that 75% of Koreans have a positive view of the U.S., but a 77% negative view towards Japan. For an occupation military, Pate did not consider this view in the research. Of the over 170,000 Koreans adopted to date, some probably had a bad experience. That situation is unfortunate, but pate did not consider the long term effects of simply leaving the children to starve and die. Even the Korean president wanted the orphans gone as their numbers presented a drain to the country. If some struggle with their identity thinking they must be American, then the adopted Koreans should reflect on the outcome had they stayed in their country. The overwhelming majority came from war or poverty. In our pluralistic society, it is fine to be Korean, Korean-American, or American.

Pate, S. (2014). From orphan to adoptee. U.S. empire and genealogies of Korean adoption. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press

US Military and prostitution

This book on Korean adoption definitely took me on a different spin than I expected. So I am looking at my own experience with the military and prostitution. I was never stationed in Korea, but heard many stories about the easy access to Korean women. When I lived in Vienna, I do not recall a red light district, but saw a street next to a large park where the women frequented. In Germany I do not remember any prostitution near the posts that I was stationed. Frankfurt seemed to be the center of that activity. Military colleagues talked about Sachsenhausen, but I do not remember going to that area of Frankfurt. There seemed to be the red light districts near the train stations in Frankfurt and nearby Mainz and Wiesbaden. I do not recall any near the posts of Wildflecken, Augsburg, or Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

On a funny note, I was in language training and stayed for 6 weeks in post housing in Munich. We stayed 3 linguists in a 3-bedroom apartment in the stairwells. One time I was heading out to town to get out and went out the door onto the landing. I ran into two young German women, so I struck up a conversation in German. They were local and studying at the university. They mentioned that they were waiting for a third girl and said that she was taking a shower. I noticed they had wet hair. Then it dawned on me the guys next door had hired the girls. It was strange because it was in the afternoon, perhaps that is why it took me awhile to assess the situation. I actually became embarrassed, because I did not catch their subtly to see if I was interested. I left before the third girl came out. I do not think I ever told anyone.

Marketing orphans for adoption

As I continue to read this book on Korean orphans after the war, the tone is quite critical of the US military efforts to take care of the orphans. However, the author also from time to time acknowledges the good work of the military to help the orphans. The Korean government was unable to support the orphans, so the American military and missionaries filled the gap. What is interesting is how the orphans were prepared for adoption. Pate describes the "Oriental doll" look to make the children palatable to prospective American parents. The children were all dressed the same with similar hair styles to level the playing field. Pate claims the orphanages tried to Americanize them to make the orphans more marketable. There was a race and cultural barrier to overcome in order to adopt from Korea.

I wonder if that was a deliberate marketing ploy or simply Americans trying to provide some type of order and life for the orphans. Americans would be more likely to add American ways because that is what they know. The author does not cover what would have happened had the American military and missionaries not built orphanages or supported the children. Would they simply just die? The destruction of modern warfare leaves a larger imbalance of dead and destruction of the land.


Pate, S. (2014). From orphan to adoptee. U.S. empire and genealogies of Korean adoption. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press

Military prostiution and orphans

Since I seem to be on a roll with the book on Korean orphans, trying to connect military prostitution to orphans is a challenge. With today's means to avert pregnancies in prostitutes, that number may be there but much smaller. I will have to do some research on the numbers.
What surprised me about Korean adoptions is that the peak was the decade from 1980-1989. Probably the collapse of the Soviet Union caused some of the shift after 1991.

There was a total of 162,665 overseas adoptions out of South Korea from 1953 to 2008.

Title Decade Intercountry Adoptions Out of South Korea From 1953 to 2008 2000-2008 18,129 1990-1999 22,925 1980-1989 66,511 1970-1979 46,035 1960-1969 6,166 1953-1959 2,899

Sources: Hübinette (2005) and South Korean Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs (2009)[4]

Military and sexual desire

As I continue to read this book on Korean orphans, the chapter is entitled Gender and the Militaristic Gaze."  Pate goes into some assumptions that the pictures and newsreels from the military occupation of Korea are filled with sexual desire of the military men and the rejection of the orphans of being invaded. Limiting the support of American soldiers to a sexual or desire of gender could be part of the picture. I hold the view that Americans are compassionate and wanted to help the orphans. Pate did mention once that that is part of being an American so the author tends to go in circles. Both the Japanese and American Armies had the prostitution camps nearby the bases. The Japanese left the orphans up to the Koreans to care for during WWII. The Americans came to rebuild after the Korean War and felt a compassion to help the Korean orphans. The question would be: What would have happened had the US Army not intervened on behalf of the orphans.

Pate, S. (2014). From orphan to adoptee. U.S. empire and genealogies of Korean adoption. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press

Orphans and guns

In my reading about the American occupation of Korea. The author called it "militarized humanitarianism." The American efforts were aimed to improve the US image after the war. The Americans were part of the destruction, but helped to rebuild Korea. One of the observations involved the giving of guns to the children at Christmas. Since the author takes a feminist view, guns would be considered a negative. I myself grew up with guns and served in the military. For me it seems normal for boys to play with guns. Even if they did not have toys they would use sticks. It would be natural for military men to put the Korean orphans in uniforms and give them toy guns. Whether it is right or not would depend on the one judging. With all the media such as movies and TV, the use of guns and violence is very prevalent. The author negatively criticizes the US Army for exploiting the Korean boys. Since they were military it would be expected that they would take this approach.

New view on Korean adoptions

After a bout of 5 days of the flu, I am collecting my marbles again. I started reading a book on Korean adoptions. The author contends that the adoptions were more political in nature than humanitarian. The Holt family which came to the spotlight in 1955 for adopting Korean orphans is the humanitarian focal point. The author says orphans go back to 1945 when the US military occupied the peninsula. The impact of the war and the GIs fostering children lead to the need for adopting the Korean children,

LIfe happens

Seems like I tried several times to sit down and write and something came up. Between life happens and getting distracted, the time went by. Anyway, today is the 4th of the month and I prayed from Kazakhstan in the middle of the night. That is how I counter the darkness of the night. I have fairly successfully trained my mind to just start praying. So much junk seems to flood my mind in the middle of the night. I have three statistics that I wrote down for each country. The aret of children left without parental care in Kazakhstan is 6,169. The total official number of children left without parental care is 78,293. The % of the population is 0.422%. That is a small number, but high as far as orphans go. I need to look into what the factors for this high 5 is.