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Roelie Post publishes a remarkable book. A book about export of Romanian children for adoption. A book, that when one reads the first chapters, overwhelms you if the issue is new. Unfortunate for the undersigned it is not. I even wished that a similar empirical and personal book had been written by the sort of researcher as Roelie Post at the time in Korea and now in China.

Roelie Post dares to describe a taboo-issue at a level that can compare with the works of Noreena Hertz and the movie Constant Gardener. Unfortunately such reporting in general does not receive a lot of media attention, because of its political sensitivity. If you read the book, you find out why. A nest of scorpions of big (business) interests interwoven with political and social actors, and the large demand for adoptable children, creates indeed a market functioning that until now was systematically denied. As a result the discussion remained in the margins of society.

The introduction of the book about a mini-breakfast conference of her children concerning this issue illustrates in my opinion that we have gone far beyond the real and primary question, which still is: what is the interest of the (adoptive) child?

Best regards,
Hilbrand W.S. Westra
Coördinator - United Adoptees International - Netherlands