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JoongAng Daily
July 30, 2008
500 Korean adoptees from 15 countries to gather
Hundreds of Korean adoptees will gather in the heart of their birth country this weekend.
GOAL (Global Overseas Adoptees’ Link), a Seoul-based NGO founded to support Korean adoptees worldwide, said in a release it will host its annual conference for three days from Friday at the Seoul Olympic Parktel in southern Seoul.
More adoptees will attend this year’s conference than before, the organization said, as it is the 10th anniversary of its founding.
“In previous years, around 200 to 300 adoptees attended the conference,” said Baek Joo-yeon, who is helping to organize the event. “This year we expect up to 500 adoptees from 15 countries to come for the event.”

Yonhap News agency
2008.08.02
해외입양 중단 촉구 휘비네트 박사
스웨덴 입양인 출신 이민.입양문제 전문가
(서울=연합뉴스) 홍덕화 기자 = "한국 정부가 일각에서 제기되고 있는 해외입양 중단 요구에 소극적으로 대처하는 이유중 하나는 복지예산의 급증 가능성일 겁니다."
스웨덴 입양인 출신으로 해외입양의 문제점을 날카롭게 지적, 국내외에서 주목을 끌어온 토비아스 휘비네트(37.한국명 이삼돌) 박사는 2일 "유럽에서는 아직도 한국이 '아기수출'로 달러를 벌어들이는 것으로 인식하는 사람이 적지 않다"면서 우리 정부에 대해 "조속히 해외입양의 문제점을 직시해 적극적으로 해법을 마련해야 한다"고 주문했다.
모국으로 돌아와 활동하는 입양인의 모임인 (사)해외입양인연대(GOA'L)의 창립 10주년 기념행사 참석차 방한한 휘비네트 2일 행사장인 서울 올림픽파크텔에서 연합뉴스 기자와 만나 이 같은 "가슴 쓰린 심정"을 토로했다.

www.ethicanet.org
Majority of Global "Orphans" Have Families
Ethica welcomes UNICEF's recent clarification on the number of global orphans and that the majority of these children, in fact, have one living parent or extended family to care for them. Over the years, the inclusive UNICEF definition of “orphan” has been cited by various sources as the basis for decisions on where to expend funds and create programs. For many people, the word “orphan” brings to mind children who have no parents. Therefore, we applaud UNICEF’s clarification that of the estimated 132 million orphans, about 10% or 13 million orphans have lost both parents. This distinction lends some clarity into issues impacting international adoption. Over the years, the oft quoted figure of 143 million orphans has been used to justify a lack of regulation, rebut contentions of adoption fraud, and question the significant numbers of children placed in some small countries because the prevailing myth is that all “orphans” from developing countries have no families or communities to care for them.
The rising number of cases of adoption fraud have tested this myth in countries such as Cambodia, Samoa, Vietnam, Guatemala, Haiti, and Liberia. Sadly for the families and children involved, case after case has revealed situations in which supposedly orphaned children actually have living parents or relatives who have cared for them or can care for them, and as a result, are not necessarily eligible for international adoption. In light of these findings, a continuing concern is how many children come into care and remain institutionalized, or are adopted, without attempts to preserve or reunify the family of origin. .
13 million orphans is still a vast sea of needy children, and a number which far exceeds the number of children adopted each year. But of special note is UNICEF's comment that 95% of all orphans are age 5 and over. This contrasts sharply with the demographics of adoptions to the U.S. According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services 2006 statistic on orphan visas granted to American families adopting children from abroad, only 3,337 of the total 20,705 children adopted that year were age 5 and older. Ethica recognizes that the majority of younger children who have been internationally adopted legally qualified as orphans under U.S. immigration law, and were recognized as orphans by their birth countries. However, these statistics indicate that babies orphaned through parental relinquishment do not constitute the majority of the orphan population. While it is true that many children who have a surviving parent may still require placement in adoptive families, these statistics also challenge the adoption community to look carefully at assumptions that current practices are based upon.
By narrowing the definition of “orphan,” we can better understand how to respond to children’s needs through support for family preservation efforts, domestic adoption alternatives, and international adoption. NGOs and social service organizations can, and should, lead the effort to assist vulnerable children in the ways that most closely meet their needs. This insight into the orphan population must lead to additional efforts in identifying orphans' true needs and creating appropriate responses. Ethica encourages NGOs, local governments, and the greater child welfare community--including first families, adoptive families, and adoptees—to cooperate and dialog on these important issues.
http://www.ethicanet.org/item.php?recordid=orphanstat&pagestyle;=default

Korea Herald
2008.08.02
Korea`s GNI ranking falls to 13th in 2007
Koreas gross national income ranked 13th among 209 nations in the world in 2007, one notch down from the previous year, a report by the World Bank showed yesterday.
Asias fourth-largest economy logged $955.8 billion in GNI in 2007. The nations GNI ranking was 12th in 2006 and 11th in 2005. GNI takes into account gross domestic product and the net flows of factor income such as profits and labor income from abroad.
The World Bank said Koreas ranking in gross domestic product, the key measure of an economys scale, remained the same at 13th last year from a year earlier, after falling from 12th in 2005 and 11th in 2004.
The United States was the worlds largest economy with GDP standing at $13.81 trillion in 2007.

The Korea Herald
2008.08.04
Adopted U.S. dancer looking for birth family

In this years American Ballet Theater tour, Jennifer Whalen, one of the corps de ballet dancers, is visiting the country to perform and find her birth parents.
Its my first time visiting Korea since then and I really wish I could stay longer, said Whalen, 23.
Whalen, who was adopted into an American family when she was 3 months old, is not getting as much attention as the leading dancers, but intends to find her family during her stay here.

JoongAng Daily
August 01, 2008
Judges overturn law on gender test
Say nation's preference for sons has 'largely eased'
The Constitutional Court ruled yesterday that the nation's medical law that bans doctors from notifying parents of the sex of their unborn child is unconstitutional, but stayed enforcement of the ruling for over a year.
According to the 8-to-1 decision, the nation's medical law violates the doctors' professional freedom and a mother's well-being.
To minimize confusion and a legal vacuum that would come from an immediate overturning of the law, the court said the statute will remain in effect until a revision is worked out. The court said related laws must be revised by Dec. 31, 2009.

JoongAng Daily
August 04, 2008
Professional gamer reunites with mom
Johannessen and his birth mother meet the press at Setec. By Kim Seong-ryong
Once one of the most feared professional gamers, adoptee Jorgen Johannessen was reunited with his Korean birth mother after 21 years of separation. Now retired, Johannessen whose Korean name is Lee Young-beom ? was in Seoul as the manager of Team West in e-Stars Seoul 2008, held July 24 to 27 at the Seoul Trade Exhibition and Convention Center in Daechi-dong, southern Seoul.
The 184-centimeter (6-foot) tall Norwegian speaks three languages, but not Korean. Johannessen's reunion with his mother occurred on July 23 after a search that lasted merely two days.
An article was written about him on July 16 and an aunt who sent him to the orphanage recognized his picture. Johannessen and his mother met at Seoul Namsan Animation Center for a tearful reunion.

Yonhap News Agency
Aug. 1, 2008
Overseas Korean adoption has roots in history, scholar says
By Kim Young-gyo
SEOUL, Aug. 1 (Yonhap) - In 1972, at the age of one, Tobias Hubinette was brought from his birthplace in South Korea to Sweden, where he was raised by a Swedish couple. Today he is one of a handful of scholars researching the long-term
causes and consequences of Korea's transnational adoption program.
"As soon as you start to investigate adoption issues in Korea, you will be immediately confronted with other issues, much bigger issues, which need to be solved," said Hubinette in an interview with Yonhap News Agency.

JoongAng Daily
Expat volunteers work on their Seoul
June 11, 2008
Rachael Fox, a 26-year-old English teacher, got a phone call from a friend three months ago, who said that Fox may be interested in Volunteer for PLUR (Peace, Love, Unity, Respect), an online-based expat volunteer group in Korea.
Fox immediately checked out its Web site (www.idealist.org/en/org/169631-40) and discovered the group is doing the same volunteer work she used to do at home in Canada ? feeding the homeless.
She has attended every volunteer event available since, Fox said.
“I like doing it,” she said, after finishing distributing meal trays to hundreds of homeless people at the Resurrection Center near the Sookmyung Women’s University subway station in Seoul last Friday.

Information, Danish newspaper
16. juni 2008
Af: MAJA LEE LANGVAD
ADOPTION
International adoptioner en industri
Forskellen på adoptionsbranchen og andre brancher er, at der i adoptionsbranchen handles med mennesker. Men i og med, at det er en industri, har adoptionsselskaberne også en interesse i at fokusere på de gode historier
Information bragte den 23. maj en kronik af Anders Christensen (formand for adoptionsselskabet AC Børnehjælp) (AC) og Gitte Cordes (næstformand for AC Børnehjælp) (GC), som er bekymrede over den stigende kriminalitet i international adoption. AC og GC tegner et forsimplet billede, og deres forklaringer er kun overfladiske. Man må grave et spadestik dybere for at forstå dynamikken i international adoption og dermed også den voksende kriminalitet.