For American adoptive parents in China no matter where you spent the last week picking up your child all roads lead to Guangzhou, home to the only American Consulate that does entry visas for these children about to become American.
Around 3:00 Tuesday afternoon, 31 sets of parents boarded a bus at the White Swan Hotel and took a 30-minute ride to the American Consulate. We took an oath that everything stated in the US Immigration paperwork was true and then received our entry papers to the United States of America for our adopted child.
The moment we land on American soil (beautiful New Jersey) Jada becomes an American citizen.
In Guangzhou we lost our novelty status as we shared the streets with about 100 other western couples with Chinese babies all staying at the White Swan. And like us, many of them were on their second or third adoption.
It was an odd mix of Average America—most of the couples older, many of them overweight. In fact, the majority would not survive the newer stricter adoption regulations recently enacted by China.
We are now heading to Hefei, capital of Anhui Province a small city of 2 million, where we will once again be an oddity. We will stay at the Novotel (a nice 4 star hotel half the price of the White Swan). In 2002 we first met our daughter Kira in their ballroom.
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley One Ashburton Place Boston, MA 02108 July 7, 2008
Dear Attorney General Coakley,
On May 20 I requested you undertake a ‘quo warranto procedure’ to remove from office Amherst Town Meeting member Robie Hubley. On April 10 Mr. Hubley signed a ‘Homestead’ declaration for a residency in South Hadley and also signed (with his wife) an FDIC mortgage from Florence Savings Bank that also requires “primary residency” at the South Hadley home.
The Amherst Town Attorney wrote to you and politely suggested you stay out of the matter until the local option occurred, G.L.c. 51, 48—a hearing before the Amherst Board of Registrars.
On Thursday, July 3’rd the Board did meet (as I am currently in China adopting a second daughter, I did not attend) and according to the Daily Hampshire Gazette both Robie Hubley and his wife Anne Awad (who recently resigned her Select Board seat) attended but did not speak, because—amazingly--the Board of Registrars did not ask them any questions!
The issue of the “Homestead” declaration was not discussed and the bank mortgage “primary residency” requirement was dismissed as a “private” matter.
One of the three Registrars, Harry Brooks, is a personal friend of Anne Awad and failed to recuse himself from the proceeding.
The Town Clerk (who moderated the meeting) serves at the whim of the Amherst Town Manager. Anne Awad and Robie Hubley were both Amherst Select Board members two years ago and made the decision to hire him. Town Manager Shaffer has steadfastly defended the couples right to declare Amherst their home no matter the evidence to the contrary.
Since this initial July 3 hearing was simply exploratory to ascertain whether “sufficient grounds for an investigation” exists, it is beyond comprehension the Board of Registrars unanimously decided that no such grounds exist —right up there with the earth is flat, Apollo 11 never landed on the moon and Elvis is alive.
Obviously the proceeding was far from impartial and if allowed to go unchallenged will undermine the confidence of Amherst voters in our system of democracy.
Could you now, please, bring your office into this matter?
Sincerely Yours,
Larry Kelley Amherst Town Meeting Amherst Redevelopment Authority 5’Th generation Amherst resident
Those who can afford Guangzhou’s luxurious five-star White Swan Hotel, and everybody else.
At $150 night (Internet an extra $15)--twice the room rate of the Regal Hotel we just came from, plus $45 for a dinner entrée (a la carte) $5 for a 12 once can of diet coke and with $1,000 statues and artwork available in the numerous boutiques a hip young Chinese couple could easily spend in one weekend what a farmer in Guiyang makes in an entire year.
The White Swan’s window washers, bellhops, cooks and maids are like Amherst’s police, fire, and DPW: they built and keep the operation running, but could never afford to call it home. The Community Park around the corner Monday morning:
Here in this far flung city in the South West region of China—consider the “boonies”—I can have breakfast at Starbucks, lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken, dinner at Pizza Hut, catch a cab instantly to go shopping at Wal Mart and then retire for a luxurious night at the Sheraton.
Other than seeing only one other westerner over the past week, this city of 3.5 million could easily pass for Boston or New York (locals even wear the white “I love (red heart) China.”
China Daily, the overly pro-establishment newspaper, (kind of reminds me of the Amherst Bulletin) carried a Front Page tearjerker article yesterday including a photo of an attractive young woman in a wedding dress clutching a framed photo of a soldier in uniform.
He had recently perished of “acute exhaustion” after a month of performing earthquake relief. He was being hailed as a “martyr.” A few pages later another photo shows a supine child on a stretcher saluting the “Peoples Liberation Army” soldiers carrying him out of the rubble.
Another Front Page story briefly covered a riot of 30,000 citizens over the death of a 17-year old middle school girl. Rioters thought she was raped and murdered by the relative of a government official. The government denied the charge and claimed she committed suicide. And I’m sure that is the end of the story.
Because the one thing that distinctly differentiates this county from home is that one dare not criticize the government.
In China, my repeated requests to remove a public official over residency would probably land me in jail. And in fact, if the right Chinese official happened to see the AP wire story where that high-ranking local Amherst official branded me a “stalker” the adoption would have been cancelled (at that point I probably would have become a stalker).
At the recent Select Board discussion of the July 4’TH Parade, His Lordship SB Chair Gerry Weiss described America as a country that slaughtered native Americans, enslaved blacks, and withheld from women the right to vote.
But that is the America of the past. Like the dragons in Chinese architecture, I prefer to look forward. America is, quite simply, the best--and she continually strives to become even better.
Something to celebrate!(There but for the grace of God...)
Like the opening scene of a classic Godzilla movie the monster is heard way before being seen.
Huangguoshu, or The Grand Falls, is the largest waterfall in Asia and a Mecca for folks all over the continent, including China’s last half-dozen leaders.
It was drizzling as we boarded the 7-passenger van with our driver, Mr. Hung who just recently returned from earthquake relief volunteer work. And our guide/interpreter, Xiao Xiao (pronounced show show).
The falls were a two-hour drive from our hotel thru some of the most scenic farmland in China.
This province, in spite of the modern city of Guiyang, is predominantly agrarian and one of the poorest in China. We would pass huge open fields of rice segmented like a patchwork quilt. Some of the fields were flooded, the crops lost. Rice and corn seemed like the predominant crop and many rows of corns were planted in terrace like steps up the side of mountains.
The round trip cost 1,5000 yuan or $225. With the price of gas (also a little over $4/gallon) and the tolls ($40 round trip) we thought it was well worth it…even though it was raining.
By the time we arrived at the main building to get our tickets ($30 each, plus 30 cents mandatory insurance, children free) it was pouring. The price of admission also included a rain poncho like the kind you can buy at Disney or Bush Gardens for $10. The Falls were about a mile trek with a 900 foot vertical drop negotiated by stone stairs far more refined than the ones we used to climb the top of the mountain to the ancient Buddhist temple.
Before the descent we passed thru a Banzai Garden (some of the trees are over 100 years old) and within minutes we could hear the distant roar of the monster falls. After about a half-hour of careful walking we caught our first glimpse and for the next 10 minutes it was constantly in view. The trail under the falls was closed due to high water levels but we got close enough to where Kira was getting spooked. After a few minutes trying to shoot video in a pouring rain and shrapnel like mist coming off the falls we decided to head back, almost continuously upward.
Three older matronly women gently accosted me, complaining about Jada not being properly protected from the elements (both the mist of the falls and the driving rain). They realigned my poncho and suggested I tuck Jada under my shirt. As they were “helping”, two other younger women snapped pictures.
As we excited the attraction you had to pass a gauntlet of booths selling all sorts of food, souvenirs and clothing. Donna purchased a metal ornate teapot marked 300 yuan ($45) but he ended up taking 100 ($15). It pays to bargain, and it helps to have a translator. We had lunch at a little fat food restaurant near the main parking lot. An old woman dressed in black aggressively tried to sell us a kid’s trinket for 2 yuan (30 cents) and Jada started screaming. The shop owners chased her away.
It continued raining the entire two-hour trip home. The driver talked non-stop to our guide. As we pulled into our hotel Kira announced she was going to puke.
Donna leaped up grabbed her head with one hand and opened the sliding door with the other…barely in time.
Just then the sun broke through the clouds.
Taken about 10 minutes after the first video after the rain stopped and I no longer feared for my life.
