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CIA to UNICEF, big aid has a very dirty secret

CIA to UNICEF, big aid has a very dirty secret
By Thomas C. Mountain
Online Journal Contributing Writer


Jul 20, 2010, 00:21
ASMARA, Eritrea -- Former national security advisor in the Clinton White House and failed nominee to head the CIA, Anthony “Tony” Lake is now executive director of the United Nations Children Fund, UNICEF.
Having a background in Western intelligence is a requirement to run a Big Aid “familia.” Every head of any of the major international aid agencies comes vetted by years of loyal service up to and including being a “made man” (or woman in today’s equal opportunity offender circles) like Tony Lake.
What are Tony Lake’s qualifications to run the number one children’s relief works in the world? Maybe his silence during the Rwandan genocide, when as national security advisor to President Clinton he admitted knowing about and “regretted” not doing something when hundreds of thousands of women and children were hacked to death in central Africa. Then there were the million and a half women and children in Eritrea who had to flee for their lives in the face of the Ethiopian invasion in 2000, something Tony Lake was intimately involved in helping instigate and direct.
Tony Lake was nominated to be the director of the CIA as a parting gift for his loyal role as consigliere in the Clinton White House, a gift taken from him when reports of corruption derailed his nomination.
War crimes, crimes against humanity and, least of all, just plain corruption, Tony Lake has done it all, even admitting to going on the payroll after leaving the White House as an agent for the Ethiopian government, they of ethnic cleansing and genocide infamy.
Tony Lake was an officer of the Obama for President campaign and resumed his role as consigliere pre-election to the president to be. He was listed as senior foreign policy advisor to Obama and was one of the last of the inner circle to be rewarded for his foresight.
From CIA to UNICEF? The charge that every person who has headed a major Western aid agency has an intelligence background has been proven time and time again. It may have taken some serious digging, some dogged investigation, but the fact remains that everyone of those supposed humanitarians that has been investigated has turned out to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. 
BIg Aid was created as a nefarious tool for dirty doings in the Third World by the powers that be in the West and only trusted capos from the inner circle are allowed to plan and implement their crimes. Of course, some good works have to be done or no one would allow them into their countries. It’s only from the inside that they can be really effective in buying off or if that doesn’t work, “neutralizing” those in power.
Whether it’s the World Health Organization suppressing news of the breakthrough in malaria mortality prevention, to the World Food Program trying to destroy food security/self-sufficiency, to Tony Lake taking over UNICEF, the word to the wise is beware enemies bearing gifts. Big Aid has a very dirty secret and the whole world needs to know about it.
Stay tuned to the Online Journal for more news that the so-called free press in the West refused to cover.
Thomas C. Mountain was, in a former life, an educator, activist and alternative medicine practitioner in the USA. Email thomascmountain at yahoo.com. 

Couple defrauded but not deterred

July 19, 2010

Couple defrauded but not deterred

Attempted adoption from Uganda went bad, but parents now have three kids

JOHN HULT
jhult@argusleader.com

A Sioux Falls couple who waited patiently for more than a year to bring their adopted children home say they got scammed, and are looking to the courts to help salve their broken hearts.

Cori and Chris Schmaus said they contracted with an Indianapolis company, Americans For African Adoptions, in early 2008 to adopt two Ugandan children whose mother supposedly gave them up after giving birth to them as part of quintuplets.

The Schmauses received photos, birth records and letters about the children, named Sowali and Fatina Bangi. Having paid $11,500 in initial fees, the couple began sending the agency $400 a month for the children's care.

Each month, they were assured the adoption paperwork was near completion. It wasn't. The Schmauses said there never was any legitimate paperwork.

Last October, they found out from a New Mexico couple trying to adopt the other two surviving quints that the Bangi children had lived with their mother since birth. The New Mexico couple flew to Kampala, Uganda, met the mother and learned that she never had agreed to give up her children.

Since then, the Schmauses learned that a Ugandan named Joseph Kagimu reportedly staged photos, forged documents and collected money for dozens of children such as the Bangis, then used the information to collect money from unsuspecting Western parents through the Indianapolis agency.

As of last October, the Schmauses had paid $16,800 to Americans for African Adoptions. Two weeks ago, they sued the agency in Minnehaha County, alleging that its director, Cheryl Carter-Shotts, was negligent because she failed to catch on to the scheme. A handful of others, including the New Mexico couple and another in Michigan, have filed or plan to file similar lawsuits as well.

Carter-Shotts claims Kagimu scammed her as well as the families.

"The most upsetting part for me was that I was emotionally attached to these children," Chris Schmaus said. "These were our children. It was like losing a child when we found out what was going on over there."

New opportunities

The Schmauses always had wanted to adopt. Cori Schmaus' family had adopted kids, and Chris Schmaus had worked with foster children at McCrossan Boys Ranch.

After hearing about Africa from missionaries at their Sioux Falls church, they decided to try for an international adoption. But international adoptions can be expensive. The average cost to adopt one child from most agencies is more than $20,000, Cori Schmaus said.

Still, when she came across Americans for African Adoptions and spoke with Carter-Shotts about the smaller upfront costs, she was sold. Carter-Shotts has a strong reputation. Her agency, founded in 1986, is widely credited as the first to facilitate adoptions from Ethiopia.

According to an Indiana court records search, the agency never has been successfully sued.

Carter-Shotts said Kagimu sent her a newspaper article about a woman in a Ugandan village who had given birth to quintuplets, four who survived. Carter-Shotts had met Kagimu 18 years ago, and said the children needed homes.

Uganda's strict rules for international adoptions had been loosened, she was told, and Kagimu wanted to begin working with her. He sent her documents that supposedly proved that the mother had relinquished her parental rights and sent photos from what supposedly was an orphanage.

Even on four visits to Uganda in 18 months, Carter-Shotts said everything seemed to be in order, though each time she went, she was told Kagimu needed more time.

Even so, Carter-Shotts was sure the children were being cared for. The Schmauses were sending money, other families were sending money for the other children in Kagimu's Kampala orphanage, and Carter-Shotts would pass on the money to him.

Growing suspicions

Back in Sioux Falls, things seemed to be taking too long, Cori Schmaus said. She wasn't the only one who felt that way, either. Don and Angie Guest of Michigan were working with Carter-Shotts on a Ugandan adoption, too, and met the Schmauses through an Internet message board.

The Guests were trying to adopt a 5-year-old girl named Michelle. About five months after signing their contract, they got a letter from a woman purporting to be Michelle's mother. The letter thanked them for sending payments to help her daughter but she asked the Guests to send money to her.

"We had a lot of trust in our adoption agency, so we didn't know what to think," Don Guest said.

Carter-Shotts told the Guests it probably was a hoax, perhaps an aunt who took the photos and sent the letter to scam them.

As the months passed, the Guests became more suspicious. "We were making our foster care payments, but we weren't getting any updates on how our case was progressing," Don Guest said.

Scam revealed

The New Mexico couple trying to adopt the other half of the surviving quintuplets flew to Uganda in October to confront Kagimu. They told the Schmauses and Guests the quintuplets still were living with their mother. When the New Mexico couple showed up unannounced at Kagimu's orphanage, the children weren't there.

They found the woman who wrote the letter to the Guests. She was telling the truth, too. They'd corroborated the stories with other couples who had flown to Uganda out of frustration.

Carter-Shotts looked into Kagimu's activities as families began to demand their money back. She hired lawyers in Kampala and learned the same thing the families did - Kagimu had been passing along fake birth and death certificates, and the children weren't staying where she thought they were.

"Through another family friend, we learned that there were foster homes, but they were being moved around," Carter-Shotts said. "It seemed they were being moved in when I was coming and moved out when I left."

The Guests and Schmauses said they haven't been repaid the fees they sent to the agency. Carter-Shotts insisted she has paid back the Guests in part but can't refund all the money and that some initial fees were understood to be non-refundable. Besides, she said, the fraud destroyed her business.

"Joseph took all the money. We don't have any income coming in," she said.

Who is responsible?

The Schmauses said Carter-Shotts should have figured out the scam.

"I don't think she was very business-savvy," Cori Schmaus said.

Guest doubts he'll see a refund, either, suspecting Carter-Shotts used the money to pay for day-to-day operations.

"I felt like if I let it go, she would win," he said. "I think Cheryl has been in business too long not to have known what was going on."

Carter-Shotts hasn't responded to the lawsuit in Minnehaha County, but her lawyers sent Guest a letter claiming that Michigan isn't the proper venue for the dispute. Carter-Shotts she thinks Kagimu is in jail. Calls to the Ugandan Embassy in Kampala and in Washington, D.C., were not returned.

Happy ending

The Guests still hope to adopt one of the children they'd learned about through Carter-Shotts. Michelle's mother decided to keep her daughter, but the Guests plan to fly back to Uganda this week to plead for guardianship of an 8-year-old girl.

As for the Schmauses, a website called Rainbow Kids connected them to 6-year-old Amanuel, 4-year-old Capital and 1-year-old Eyrusalem - three siblings from Ethiopia.

Their mother died in November, so the Schmauses flew to Ethiopia a month ago to adopt all three. Family members lent them the adoption fees, they said.

"These kids saved us," Chris Schmaus said of the Ethiopian children. "I didn't think I could trust anybody else."

Reach reporter John Hult at 331-2301.

Bethany Reports Adoption Increases Up 26 Percent for 2010

Bethany Reports Adoption Increases Up 26 Percent for 2010

 
 

Attributes Increases to New Socio-Political and Theological Movements

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., July 19 /PRNewswire/ -- As a result of increased attention due to January's earthquake crisis in Haitiand other external factors, Bethany Christian Services (www.Bethany.org), the nation's largest adoption agency, is seeing significant growth and interest in the U.S. adoption market, with overall international and domestic adoption placements up 26 percent over the same time period in 2009.

The organization is reporting Intercountry Adoption placements up 66 percent and Intercountry Adoption inquiries ahead by more than 5,000 requests during the same six month time period of 2009, totaling an unprecedented 10,567 inquiries.  Bethany ascribes these increases in part to the Haiti crisis and the need to find safe homes for children who lost one or both parents during the earthquake.

Domestic Infant Adoption inquiries are also higher than in 2009 with 8,037 in the first half of 2010.  Additionally, Infant Adoption Home Studies have increased 15 percent and formal Infant Adoption applications have increased 23 percent over 2009.

In addition to the Haiti crisis, Bethany attributes the increase in adoption to new movements within Christian churches, which are creating new attitudes for young couples.  Bethany has been instrumental in bringing more families forward to adopt by partnering with organizations such as Catalyst, Saddleback Church, Q Conference, Southern Baptist Denomination, and Christian Alliance for Orphans.

"The figures Bethany released show strong improvement as we confront the global orphan crisis, but the need still remains as there are still an incredible number of orphaned children who wait for their 'forever family'," said Bill Blacquiere, president and CEO at Bethany Christian Services.  "It is our vision that every child has a loving family, so we are working to find new families and identify supportive local communities.  We all must contribute to take measurable and immediate action in order to find more families who can provide loving homes."

Bethany has been at the forefront of partnering with church leaders to support foster care, adoption, and orphan care programs within their ministries.  Most recently, the Southern Baptist Convention announced a new Adoption Fund, which subsidizes the cost of adoption for pastors by $2,000.  In addition, Rick Warren's Saddleback Civil Forum focused heavily on orphans and adoption and other popular conferences, such as Catalyst, Together for Adoption, the Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit and Adopting for Life, have put adoption at center stage.

 

SOURCE Bethany Christian Services

Women may get equal rights in adoption of children

Women may get equal rights in adoption of children
PTI
Sunday, July 18, 2010 11:53 IST
 
 
New DelhiWomen in India are likely to get equal rights in guardianship and adoption of children.
The Personal Laws Amendment Bill, 2010 -- introduced in the Rajya Sabha on April 22 -- has been referred to the parliamentary standing committee on Law and Justice for eliciting public opinion on the issue.
It is learnt that all members of the Committee were unanimous in supporting its provisions. "We will meet on July 29 to adopt the report...there was no dissenting voice in the committee," a member of the panel told PTI.
With this, the proposed Bill, which seeks to amend the Guardians and Wards Act (GWA), 1890 and the Hindu Adoption Maintenance Act, 1956, is likely to be tabled in the Lok Sabha in its month-long session beginning July 26.
According to the GWA, which applies to Christians, Muslims, Parsis and Jews, if a couple adopts a child, the father is the natural guardian.
The proposed amendment to the 120 year-old Act allows the mother along with the father to be appointed as a guardian, making the process gender neutral.
The Bill provides for the mother to be appointed as a guardian along with the father so that the courts don't appoint anyone else in case the father dies.
The second amendment, proposed in the Hindu Adoption Maintenance Act, 1956, (applicable to Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs) aims to remove the hurdles in the way of a married woman to adopt and also give a child for adoption.
Presently, unmarried and divorced women as also widows are allowed to adopt a child but women separated from their husbands and engaged in lengthy divorce battles cannot adopt a child.
The new amendment would allow a married woman separated from her husband to adopt with the consent of her husband even during the time of divorce proceedings.
However, if he changes his religion or is declared to be of unsound mind, no consent from the estranged husband would be required.
"Bills which are forward looking and are in the interest of the society and the country are usually cleared unanimously," said another committee member.

Another adoption tragedy taints Tennessee

July 18, 2010

Another adoption tragedy taints Tennessee

Death of child may cause international backlash

By Jennifer Brooks
THE TENNESSEAN

This was supposed to be Kairissa XingJing Mark's forever home.

On March 29, the 4-year-old's new family brought her home from China to a big brick house in a cozy Mt. Juliet subdivision that is the picture of the American Dream. There was a big fenced-in yard for her to play in and pretty pink curtains in the upstairs bedroom window. In the window next to the door, someone had taped a child's coloring of a religious scene, the Good Shepherd guarding his flock.

But three months after her adoption, Kairissa is dead, her adoptive family is shattered and the international adoption community is reeling from the news of yet another horror story out of Tennessee.

Kairissa's mother, Dr. Deborah Wen Yee Mark, a pediatrician,http://www.tennessean.com/article/20100713/NEWS03/7130323">stands accused of beating her to death. Last week, a Wilson County grand jury indicted Mark on one count of first-degree murder and eight counts of child abuse. It also indicted her husband, Steven Joshua Mark, a stay-at-home dad, on multiple counts of aggravated child abuse, child abuse, failure to protect and of being an accessory after the fact.

The couple's 8-year-old biological daughter is in foster care. Police say she told them she witnessed some of the attacks on her little sister.

Court date set

The Marks will be arraigned Friday and they intend to plead not guilty, said their attorney, Jack Lowery Jr. Kairissa died at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital on July 2, one day after police were summoned to the family home by a report of a child in distress. Lowery said the fact the case is already heading to court shows signs of a "rush to judgment."

The fact that a pediatrician, someone who devoted her entire career to protecting other people's children, is accused of killing one of her own adds to the horror of this case. Those who know the Marks best aren't talking — their neighbors, their congregation at the Donelson Fellowship Free Will Baptist Church, where they worshipped, her colleagues at Centennial Pediatrics in Lebanon.

"She's a lady who, in the past several days, I have received numerous calls in support of, telling me what wonderful care she took of (her patients') children," Lowery said. "This is just a quality family. They attended church here. They were very involved. They have suffered. Their lives have absolutely been turned upside down."

The Marks, he said, spent a number of years attempting to adopt from China. It's a process that has become increasingly difficult over the years, as more and more countries have tightened their restrictions on international adoptions to the United States.

Russian case was shock

In April, news broke that an adoptive mother from Tennessee had put her 6-year-old son on a plane back to Russia, with a note saying she no longer wanted him. The incident sparked an international uproar and threats of a moratorium on further adoptions from Russia.

"We do expect changes to happen," said Chuck Johnson, CEO of the National Council for Adoption, who has been in contact with the Chinese government about the case. Overall, rates of abuse of adopted children tend to be lower than among biological children, he said, but "every tragedy is one too many."

China probably would hold off on any policy changes until there is a conviction, but Johnson said there is already talk of requiring additional follow-up visits after an adoption. Right now, China's minimum requirements are home visits at the six-month and one-year mark after an adoption.

"It's so unfortunate. Our hearts just break," Johnson said. "We see the motivation and desire of most families who just want to bring a child out of an institution and give them a home, have someone to call them Mom and Dad. … And then to see something like this happen."

China cracks down

Local adoption agencies also are bracing for a possible backlash.

China has already cracked down on U.S. adoptions in recent years — it now bans adoptions by single women, anyone who has ever taken medication for depression and anyone with a body mass index of 40 or higher.

International adoptions have nosedived from a peak of 22,739 children brought into the United States in 2005 to fewer than 13,000 in 2009. The average wait to adopt a child from China ranges from more than four years, for parents who want to adopt a perfectly healthy child, to an average of nine months to two years for those willing to adopt a "waiting child" — one with a diagnosed health problem.

Families screened

Prospective families undergo rigorous scrutiny, including background checks, home visits and interviews with friends and family members. The Marks worked with an as yet unidentified Nashville adoption agency, but most agencies in the area follow the same basic precautions.

Bethany Christian Services, a national adoption agency with an office in Nashville, declined to say whether it was the agency that helped the Mark family adopt Kairissa. But Tammy Bass, director of Middle Tennessee Bethany, noted that any couple looking to adopt overseas would have to run through the same rigorous background check — starting with local criminal history checks and running all the way up to a screening by the Department of Homeland Security, not to mention financial history checks and visits from social workers.

Bethany checks in with its new families two weeks after an adoption and again at the six-month and one-year marks, she said. Social workers check to make sure the children are bonding with their new families and look for signs of attachment disorders or other problems.

Adoption "can be a shock to your system," she said, explaining the reasons for the home visits. "We stress the importance of staying connected with the family, not just the two-week visit but beyond."

The local Bethany office has placed 25 children with new families so far this year, Bass said.

"This isn't the norm, when you look at how many children" are thriving and happy in their new homes, she said. "But the fact that a lot of (adoptions) are going really well doesn't take away from this tragedy."

Egroup: Romanian citizenship and adoption

Re: [RO-maniacs] Re: Entering the EU Through the Back Door

"why was this provision needed, why withdraw the Romanian citizenship from children adopted abroad, when Romania accepts double citizenship?"
 
EXACTLY what crossed my mind, as I was reading your words. Could the logic be a holdover of the time when an emigre from communist Romania had to renounce their citizenship before being allowed to leave? I see no provision that forbids the child from reacquiring citizenship upon reaching adulthood in much the same way those communist-era emmigrants can. Could they not make the legal argument their permission was not obtained?
 
John




From: Vali <valinash@...>
To: RO-maniacs@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sat, July 17, 2010 7:06:00 AM
Subject: RE: [RO-maniacs] Re: Entering the EU Through the Back Door

 
I have been researching the Romanian legislation, reading the articles of laws concerning the citizenship matter.  Here is what I found:

First of all, here is what the Romanian Constitution says about Romanian citizenship:
 
"ARTICLE 5
(1) Romanian citizenship can be acquired, retained or lost as provided by the organic law.
(2) Romanian citizenship cannot be withdrawn if acquired by birth."

Now let's see what the specific organic law has to say about the loss of Romanian citizenship (Law no. 21 of March 1st 1991, modified and republished in the Official Bulletin no. 98 of March 6th 2000):
(I wasn't able to find any official translation, so please find below my translation of the relevant paragraph)
 
"CHAPTER V.  Loss of Romanian citizenship
Art. 23. - Romanian citizenship is lost by:
a) withdrawal of Romanian citizenship;
b) approval of renunciation to Romanian citizenship;
c) in other cases provided for by law.
 
[...]
 
C. Other cases of loss of Romanian citizenship
Art. 28. - The under-age child, Romanian citizen, adopted by a foreign citizen, loses Romanian citizenship if, upon request made by the adopter or adopters, receives their citizenship in accordance with the foreign law.  The minor who is over 14 years old is required his consent.
The date of loss of Romanian citizenship as detailed in the paragraph above is the date when the minor receives the adopter's citizenship.
In case the adoption is annuled or cancelled, it is considerred that the child under 18 years old has never lost Romanian citizenship. "

 
So the law clearly states that a Romanian child adopted by a foreign citizen loses Romanian citizenship if, upon request made by the adopter or adopters, receives their citizenship in accordance with the foreign law.
 
And since the adoptive parents need to make the child a legal citizen of their country (or re-adopt the child in their country), the child is forced by law to lose Romanian citizenship.
 
However, the question is this: why was this provision needed, why withdraw the Romanian citizenship from children adopted abroad, when Romania accepts double citizenship?
 
------------ --------- -------
 
Vali

Jumani is not Kamuzu's son says mother

Jumani is not Kamuzu's son says mother PDF Print E-mail
Written by McDonald Chapalapata   
Saturday, 17 July 2010
kamuzuson1Mirriam Kaunda-Johansson, the biological mother of Jumani Immanuel Masauko (Jim) Johansson has cleared the air surrounding the paternity of his son saying Jim’s biological father is not Malawi’s founding father, the late Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda as Jumani claims.

A Malawi News week-long investigation has established that Jumani’s father is a Malawian of Indian descent who is now based in England.


In an exclusive telephone interview from Sweden on Thursday evening Kaunda-Johansson said Jumani’s father is Muhammad Jogee, a chartered accountant.


“It is important to note that I am the biological mother to Jumani. I gave birth to this child and what he is saying [that the late Dr Banda maybe his father] is not true.”


Jumani“His biological father is Muhammad Jogee. He is a Malawian of Indian descent, a chartered accountant who moved to England years back. I told him of his biological father when he was a little boy. I even gave Jim his father’s telephone number. If you saw him, you would agree he looks like him,” said Kaunda-Johansson.


“I am shocked and I apologise to everyone concerned [for what Jumani is claiming],” she added.
But why is Jumani making claims that the first president might be his father?


“I don’t know. But I am sure Jumani is not feeling well right now,” said Kaunda-Johansson.


Asked if Jumani has a medical condition which could affect his thinking, the mother said he only knows that his son has a heart problem and has not been “diagnosed of any other ailment”.

But Jumani contends that only a DNA test will resolve his claim that the late Dr Banda was his father.
 
But the mother thinks otherwise: “You don’t need to go to Malawi and do a DNA test. I don’t think there is any need for a DNA test. I am his mother and I know who his father is. I am concerned about him as well,” said Kaunda-Johansson.


The local press insinuated that Jumani may have ideas that the late Kamuzu was his father because his mother worked with the late Dr Banda.


But Kaunda-Johansson, who was crowned Miss Malawi in 1976, said she worked as a Chief Air Hostess with Air Malawi in the 70s.


“When there were presidential charters, I used to be on those flights with many others when the late president was flying abroad,” she said.


motherjuKaunda-Johansson also said his ex-husband Hakan Johansson adopted Jumani when he married her when Jumani was about six years old.


“We brought him up in a secure and good lifestyle home. We had a good life. He has not lived a poor life. I thought he was going to Malawi to find his roots,” said Kaunda-Johansson.


In another exclusive interview Jumani’s aunt, Patricia Likaku who is Kaunda-Johansson’s sister, revealed that Jumani was born in Mzuzu in 1973 and before he was adopted by Johansson, he was brought up by his grandmother a Mrs. Kaunda who now stays in Bangwe, Blantyre.


Likaku said she raised Jumani [when he was staying with his grandmother] and that when he first arrived in the country in 2008, he stayed with her (Likaku) at her Area 12 home in Lilongwe.


She said she was shocked that Jumani is making claims that the late Dr Banda could be his father.
“I think Jumani needs help, he needs to go to the hospital. He needs divine intervention,” said Likaku.


She recalled that one day Jumani asked her if Kamuzu was his father and she laughed off the matter, thinking it was a joke. This did not please Jumani who eventually left her house to live with his grandmother in Bangwe.


Likaku also challenged Jumani to go ahead with the DNA test.


“He can go ahead with the DNA test and I am sure, the DNA will show that the late President was not his father,” said Likaku.

“As a family we are extremely disappointed with what he has done,” she added.


She also said Jumani is a graduate and has two children, a boy, Jumani and a girl, Modesty, with a Swedish wife.


Likaku also disclosed that Jumani changed his name to Jumani Immanuel Masauko Kaunda when he came back in 2008.


Jumani could not be reached on his mobile number but his lawyer Wapona Kita said Jumani has been receiving threats and that is why he might have switched off his mobile phone.


Jumani’s maternal grandmother Joyce Kaunda who raised him since he was two months old, until he was taken abroad when he was six years old, said in an exclusive interview at her Bangwe home in Blantyre Friday that she suspects that the time Jumani served in prison in Sweden for a year may have had an
effect on his thinking capability.


Kaunda said Jumani was jailed for almost a year for allegedly slapping his Swedish wife.


“His mother told me that when he came out from prison he was so sick and he had to go to hospital for treatment. Maybe that is why he is behaving like this but he was a sweet boy when he was little,” said Kaunda.


Kaunda, 72, said she noticed that Jumani had difficulties to understand and take in some advice from the elders when he returned home in 2008 and said this could be as a result of differences in culture and his long spell in Sweden.


“He left when he was six and came back when he was 36. Sometimes he could not understand when I tell him that in our culture you cannot call elders by their first names,” said Kaunda.


“As a family we are saddened with what he has done and we apologise to the Kamuzu family,” she added.


Jumani has flighted adverts to change his name from Jumani Immanuel Masauko Johansson to Jumani Immanuel Masauko Kamuzu Banda within 14 days from last Sunday.


But speaking on behalf of the Kamuzu family, Jane Dzanjalimodzi, who is grandniece to Kamuzu, said she knows Jumani well, saying his father was an Indian but it was sad that he has not been told the truth about his real father up to now.


“It’s true I know him and I know his mother. His mother was Mirriam Kaunda, the first Miss Malawi,” said Dzanjalimodzi, adding Kaunda married an Indian who fathered Jumani and left the country.


“He (Jumani) is an Indian man, his grandfather is in Ndirande (Blantyre Township) now,” added Dzanjalimodzi.


mirriamkaundasisterDzanjalimodzi, who confirmed meeting Jumani several times, said it was understandable for him not to know his real father because he left the country when he was young after his mother married another man in Sweden.


Dzanjalimodzi said she was aware that Jumani’s mother, Kaunda, was now living abroad after the dissolution of their marriage in Sweden, forcing Johansson to come back home to look for his real father.


She said the Kaundas were family friends with Kamuzu’s family because they lived together in Kasungu for a long time when their father was a Headteacher at Kasungu Secondary School.


“It’s a family we know very well, we have lived together. They come from the north,” explained Dzanjalimodzi.


She suggested that it was possible that Johansson was confused about his true identity after researching on the Kamuzu family, and challenged him to go on with a DNA test.


“Let him go for DNA test, his father was Indian. He is coloured, Kamuzu was not a coloured and we don’t have coloureds in our family ,” she said.

No father on Kamuzu’s ‘son’ certificate

No father on Kamuzu’s ‘son’ certificate

The official birth records and

adoption

2 procent van toegezegd geld bereikt Haïti

2 procent van toegezegd geld bereikt Haïti 

Uitgegeven: 15 juli 2010 06:01
Laatst gewijzigd: 15 juli 2010 07:55

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Van de bijna 8 miljard euro aan hulp die de internationale gemeenschap heeft toegezegd voor de wederopbouw van Haïti is tot dusver minder dan 2 procent in het Caraïbische land terechtgekomen.

AFP
Aardbeving Haïti

Dat heeft Leslie Voltaire, de speciale gezant van Haïti bij de Verenigde Naties, woensdag gezegd.

Onder de landen die wel met geld over de brug zijn gekomen, zijn Brazillië en Noorwegen. De Haïtiaanse gezant van de VN klaagde dat de wederopbouw van Haïti door het gebrek aan geld niet echt van de grond komt.


Voltaire stelde dat circa 1,5 miljoen mensen nog altijd in tentenkampen leven. De Amerrikaanse oud-president Bill Clinton, de speciale VN-gezant voor Haïti, zei dat hij regeringen onder druk gaat zetten de beloften aan Haïti na te komen.

Haïti werd 12 januari getroffen door een allesverwoestende aardbeving. Daardoor kwamen naar schatting 230.000 mensen om het leven.

From Empty Nesters to New Parents

Late-Life Adoptions

From Empty Nesters to New Parents

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Getting a 4-year-old to eat his lunch of pizza and applesauce on a recent Saturday afternoon wasn't exactly what Sam and Diane McMutrie thought they'd be doing after their three kids grew up.

The couple, in their 50s, are raising Fredo after his birth mother in Haiti gave him to an orphanage.

"In so many ways he's changed us," said Diane McMutrie. "I'm glad that he's here, I'm glad that we can make a difference in his life."

"He makes us smile everyday, he makes us laugh, he says the cutest things and he's just now the love of our life."

Fredo arrived in Pittsburgh six months ago -- just a week after the January 12 earthquake devastated his home country and destroyed his orphanage.

The McMutries' daughters played a key role in getting Fredo out of Haiti and into their parents' lives.

About two years ago, daughters Jamie, 30, and Ali, 22, were working at an orphanage in Haiti when they called with an unusual request: They wanted to know if their parents would be willing to adopt Fredo.

It was the beginning of a long process -- and the McMutries didn't go into it with any illusions.

"I don't consider ourselves special," said Sam McMutrie. "We just happen to be adopting a Haitian boy who our daughters love and thought it would be great for us."

Sam McMutrie admitted he needed some convincing, but in the end, both he and Diane knew what they were getting into.

"It changes your life, just like when you're first married," he said. "It's an adjustment, but it's an adjustment you make that's important."

He and Diane, who have been married for 33 years, look at their grown children as examples of how to live life with passion.

Jamie started traveling to Haiti to volunteer in 2002 and in 2006 the two sisters moved to the island nation to work at Brebis de Saint-Michel de L'Attalaye (BRESMA) orphanage in Port-au-Prince.

"My kids have taught us about what it means to sacrifice and help someone because that's what you're supposed to do," said Sam McMutrie.

"To live your dream means more than anything to me. I'm so thankful that we allowed them to do what they wanted to do."

After the earthquake ravaged Haiti's capital and damaged the BRESMA orphanage beyond repair, Jamie and Ali had 54 kids with nowhere to go.

They refused to leave Haiti without the children in their care.

Back in Pennsylvania, the McMutries and their son, Chad, 27, started calling local politicians pleading for a humanitarian waiver that would allow the children to come to the United States and be placed with other families across the country.

A week after the earthquake, their calls were answered.

Jamie, Ali, and the 54 kids from the orphanage flew to Pittsburgh on a trip organized by Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire.

Among those children, was their new little brother, Fredo.

"We are so excited about our parents' adoption, we really couldn't be happier," Jamie wrote CNN in an e-mail from Haiti.

"Actually getting to be with Fredo and watch him grow and develop, and seeing the love and happiness he has brought to our whole family is so special for us. Our parents are completely in love with him, and he's the best little brother in the world."

The other kids from the orphanage, like Fredo, have been matched with families across the United States and most are in the process of being adopted.

Jamie and Ali have since started their own nonprofit organization, Haitian Orphan Rescue, in hopes of building a new orphanage.

The McMutries, who had expected Fredo to arrive later this year, are still working out the details of the adoption process. That doesn't mean he won't be able to keep his ties to his family in Haiti, they said.

"We already told his mom that when he's old enough and if he wants to go back to Haiti, that we would not hold onto him," Diane McMutrie said. "We'll do what we can for him and then when the time comes, we'll let him make his decisions."

Fredo now speaks English and has recently begun talking about Haiti and the earthquake.

"It just happened one day when we were in the car," said Diane.

"I am so glad he's starting to get it out. He's young enough to be traumatized, but also young enough to work through it."