Saddened Poles on Russian returns without other prejudices

Another Pole lost in Russia

The week past had a few things rattle us but somewhat show the amazing collage of life and its events that we live in to experience and contemplate on.

Just yesterday we were greeted with an unfortunate tragedy which cost the life of the President of Poland [1] on Russian soil as he was on his way to commemorate the massacre of the Polish elite by Soviet Russian forces 70 years before.

Our hearts go out to the people of Poland on this great loss, sometimes history pens itself long before have the time to collect the thoughts around us to understand the significance of how it would affect us – but today, it is sympathy and condolences that matter.

The theatre of the caged primate

In the middle of the week, we were offered a glimpse in a future that the ruling party of South Africa would do well to avoid. A youth leader who had become a law unto himself spewing out rhetoric that belongs to times we would rather not remember.

I was compelled to write [2] that Julius Malema was the face of the worst of African youth, many commentators were forced to agree even though the young man seems to have a populist message that appeals to the basest of our instincts with the ability to inspire to the reprehensible and the despicable.

This embarrassment of a person had quite embarrassed the leadership of the ANC that they were forced to release a statement [3] reprimanding the miscreant and they set out a range of principles and views as to how anyone in leadership should conduct themselves for the good of South Africa at large.

One would hope Mr. Malema’s propensity for the theatre of the encaged primate would be restrained for the redeemed character of a probably rational human-being with a sense of responsibility and comportment – my expectations of him are however not that high.

Artyom Savelyev

The story of the 7-year old Russian boy returned like a malfunctioning toy [4] to the “shop of adoption” by a 33-year old [The original news story say she was 27] American nurse still riles and irks beyond comprehension.

The more one reads of the tale, the more incensed one gets as they try to paint themselves as victims [5] in the light of their utterly abhorrent behaviour.

The questions pile up from how two supposedly motherly women (this includes the adoptive grandmother) could have schemed to commit this heinous act to how isolated they are in their community.

In the light of other adoption mishaps [6] of Americans on children of Russian progeny, one can almost thank the heavens for Artyom’s good fortune of not being murdered and buried in the back garden where his toys lay idle [7].

It is amazing that they did not seek professional help to address the issues they raised in their adoption annulment note but with the use of the Internet which is a revelation of the bad influences of seeking information and assistance online probably obtained legal advice and then procured a stranger to help dump the child 7 time zones away from his source orphanage.

A Nobody if not American?

However, what matters the more is the reaction of society to this contemptible travesty of humanity and care – the idea that this child has no rights in the United States because he had not yet been registered as a citizen even though the adoption had been finalised and he had been with his adoptive family for at least six months is inexcusable.

Surely, your life and welfare cannot be insignificant and inconsequential because you are not American, though if he were American the basic charge of child abandonment would have been leveled.

Indeed, it is probably for some of the most particular import to bear American citizenship but in this case, to split hairs about the citizenship Artyom whilst Russians take umbrage and Americans assume a position of indifference and the legal inability to act is just unspeakable at best – meanwhile, that rotten family obtain vindication by default.

I fear, it sets forth a precedent that affords the abuse of non-Americans with impunity and without consequence. There must be some responsibility and accountability for what happened to Artyom regardless of the fact that many Russo-American adoptions are a reflection of failings within the Russian system.

Add your voice to this matter by joining the Facebook [8] page that supports Artyom Savelyev.

Sources

[1] BBC News - President Lech Kaczynski's body returns to Poland

[2] South Africa: Malema, the glaring face of the worst of Africa's youth [akin.blog-city.com]

[3] allAfrica.com: South Africa: Zuma Repudiates Youth Leader Over Attack on Journalist

[4] Artyom Savelyev deserves a loving mother [akin.blog-city.com]

[5] Grandmother: Boy terrorized adoptive family in US : News from the Associated Press

[6] Russia furious over adopted boy sent back from US

[7] In Tenn., Reminders of a Boy Returned to Russia - NYTimes.com

[8] Facebook | Support Artyom Savelyev

Artyom Savelyev deserves a loving mother

It cannot be true

I could not be consumed with greater indignation when I read this story which was pointed out to me by a friend.

The news article headline read – Unwanted adopted boy sent back to Russia [1] – it was the kind of story that drew you into the detail, you just wanted to know why.

Something about our way of life and comforts in the West can sometimes lure us into a sense of entitlement and the drive to acquire any faddish thing that twinkles or sparkles to satisfy a whim.

In the case of Torry-Ann Hansen a 27-year-old unmarried “nurse” from Tennessee in the United States, it took her 6 months to realise that what she wanted was not a child but a Tamagotchi [2], however we now find ourselves in the midst of what by all means is cruelty beyond expression meted out to an innocent child by a selfish, inconsiderate and irresponsible adult.

An excursion to Moscow

This 7-year old child, Artyom Savelyev who apparently has a living birth-mother who in 2008 was relieved of her motherhood rights was adopted from an orphanage in the autumn of 2009, he has now been returned as a unaccompanied child on a 10-hour flight back to Russia with sweets, biscuits and colouring pens in his rucksack and welcomed by a stranger who was paid $200 by Ms Hansen to make him part of her history – a closed chapter.

Ms Hansen is unfortunate to have a name that sounds like that of the boy in the Hansel & Gretel [3] fairy tale but has cast herself most ominously as the evil child-eating witch in the story.

A 7 year old reality of life

There is no 7 year old child that comes with a zero-memory life whose behaviour defaults to a foetus template ready to be moulded like plasticine into some fancy toy perfect kid – even puppies at times need behavioural classes.

Whilst there might have been no clear information as to how and why the child ended up in the orphanage by reason of his mother losing the privilege of parenting, it is possible that it would have had some impact on the child. [Video in news story says the mother was drunken.]

The appearance of Ms Hansen as an adoptive mother might have been like a God-send for the child but the mothering skills of Ms Hansen are now more than questionable, her mental state must be suspect and as a nurse, her professional capability probably leaves patients in danger of serious harm.

Reprehensible indeed

Regardless of the supposed behavioural problems of Artyom, this impatient malcontent of a woman cannot have in 6 months decided that work of parenting was so impossible to dispatch that the motherly instinct that sent her on a journey to the far East of Russia in the Primorye Krai [4] region (Siberia to you and me) had been exhausted.

What this exemplifies is a fundamental flaw in our society which oozes of privilege, opportunity and inordinate acquisition; a shopping-mall complex that feeds the addictive yearning of a shopaholic who grabs at every luxury item without any thought of how it would eventually be paid for until the bills finally come in.

In this case, what was shopped for was a child, once the novelty had worn off the warranty allowed for the return of goods with a valid receipt.

In the bizarre case of life imitating the absurd is the heartlessness of this contemptible woman who subjected this child to a sense of indifferent detachment that would rarely be found in lower forms of life by telling the boy he was going on an excursion, then arranging for a complete stranger to pick him on arrival in Moscow and that was still about another 7 time zones from his native land.

The return slip? “I no longer wish to parent this child”, he lived with her for six months and he is still this child? [Cool me down with a pail of freezing water, please]

A hateful, spiteful woman

She passed the responsibility of return on to others when the least she could have done was to hand him back to the orphanage where she first acquired this bundle of love without consideration of the cost – the cheapest flight by Aeroflot to that region would have cost another $500 but it was convenient to entrust the care of the child to an Internet stranger for $200.

It must have been such good fortune on the child to not have fallen into the hands of traffickers or abusers, though the greatest abuse had already been meted out to the child by twice having motherly care withdrawn from him.

What the poor child could have done to have such great evil befall him from such an unstable person who no doubt is in need of supervised and regimented care escapes me but the saga must not end there.

It is an outrage that this woman would ever think she could walk away from this issue completely exculpated and vindicated; already this selfish action of hers has lead to the Russian authorities suspending the adoption of Russian children by US citizens.

This is right and just because there might really be the need for some re-education about what adoption entails and the attendant responsibilities of parenting which Ms Hansen appears to have lacked.

Justice for Artyom

Much as one would want to rain abuse on the woman, there has to be a criminal dimension to this woman’s actions if she is considered to be mentally stable and in control of all her faculties.

Society, no matter how liberal, tolerant and amenable should not countenance this without the utmost disgust, umbrage, scorn and retribution – NO CHILD – deserves to be treated in such a way and in almost unquenchable ire with exhausting exasperation, I say – Lock this woman up and throw away the key.

And honestly, that does not begin to bring a sense of justice to the plight of Artyom Savelyev.

Sources

[1] Unwanted Adopted Boy Sent Back To Russia - Yahoo! News UK

[2] Tamagotchi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[3] Hansel and Gretel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[4] Primorsky Krai - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia