UPDATE: Andrew Bolt has retracted that it was J.A. Soer after contacting him and he denied being the person:
CLARIFICATION: We named the man who is indeed listed as vice consul or deputy consul general and asked if he was the person involved. In fact, that man, Jan Soer, says he has never adopted a child, and the person involved is not him. News reports that the vice consul adopted the child are incorrect. Mr Soer says he will not comment about the diplomat involved. I apologise for any embarrassment caused to Mr Soer.
This just means instead of the parents being eco-loons they are just a**holes.
Who could possibly do something like this?:
A high-ranking Dutch diplomat and his wife, who adopted a 4-month-old Korean girl in 2000 when he was posted in Korea, gave up the child last year, officials here said.
Now, officials here are looking for someone to take care of the school-age child.
The girl, Jade, is still a Korean citizen because the adoptive parents, whose names were not released, never applied to give her Dutch citizenship, according to an official at the Hong Kong Social Welfare Department.She doesn’t speak any Korean. She speaks only English and Cantonese, according to people close to her. And she doesn’t have Hong Kong residency status, either.
The Hong Kong Social Welfare Department, where the Dutch diplomat left Jade in September last year, has had responsibility for her ever since, the official said. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
To echo the sentiment of Nomad and Marmot, who are these people and what the heck is wrong with them that they would get rid of the child they adopted seven years ago like it is a piece of garbage? The various news articles on this topic have only identified them as a Dutch diplomatic couple, but fortunately due to Andrew Bolt, one of my favorite bloggers from Down Under, he has tentatively identified the Dutch diplomat as Dutch Deputy Consul General J.A. Soer.
What would cause Soer to give up his adopted baby? Andrew Bolt has linked him to the International Conference on Climate Change. Could the couple have given up their daughter because of global warming? Eco-loons have been recently promoting a baby tax for anyone with more than two children:
Writing in today’s Medical Journal of Australia, Associate Professor Barry Walters said every couple with more than two children should be taxed to pay for enough trees to offset the carbon emissions generated over each child’s lifetime.
Professor Walters, clinical associate professor of obstetric medicine at the University of Western Australia and the King Edward Memorial Hospital in Perth, called for condoms and “greenhouse-friendly” services such as sterilisation procedures to earn carbon credits.
And he implied the Federal Government should ditch the $4133 baby bonus and consider population controls like those in China and India.
Professor Walters said the average annual carbon dioxide emission by an Australian individual was about 17 metric tons, including energy use.
“Every newborn baby in Australia represents a potent source of greenhouse gas emissions for an average of 80 years, not simply by breathing but by the profligate consumption of resources typical of our society,” he wrote.
“Far from showering financial booty on new mothers and rewarding greenhouse-unfriendly behaviour, a ‘baby levy’ in the form of a carbon tax should apply, in line with the ‘polluter pays’ principle.”
Australian Family Association spokeswoman Angela Conway said it was ridiculous to blame babies for global warming. [The Advertiser]
It doesn’t help your cause to demonize people with more than two kids if you have three kids yourself. If these parents’ behavior is not because of them being eco-loons than at a minimum they are extreme a**holes of the highest order for abandoning their daughter to an orphanage. I generally don’t support VANK, but if there ever was a time for the VANKers to go after someone, this is it.
Antismoking arguments...
9:36 pm on December 11th, 2007 1
While I agree that you shouldn’t adopt if you plan on giving the child up for adoption later in the event you have kids ‘of your own’, I think the part about “…. like a piece of garbage” is a bit unnecessary. Perhaps we should ask the child’s birth parents the same question, as the adoptive parents only assumed responsibility for the child after her birth parents gave her up.
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11:53 pm on December 11th, 2007 2
Peter Pan,
What’s your point here? The outrage of this story is not fueled by the fact that kids are put up for adoption. I can think of a lot of legitimate reasons to put a kid up for adoption. You seem to be asserting that all adoptions are bad.
This story is about a family that basically returned a child as if she were purchased at Walmart — after 7 years of parenting, no less. They adopted this child when she was just 4 months old. I can’t think of any legitimate reasons to do this.
That’s why the piece of garbage analogy fits. It’s heartless.
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3:05 am on December 12th, 2007 3
I’m not asserting that all adoptions are bad, but I just wonder why the same comments of wishing for physical harm to come to the former adoptive parents we can find on The Marmot are nowhere to be seen in regard to the child’s birth parents, or any of the other nearly countless parents that put their children up for adoption.
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4:46 am on December 12th, 2007 4
I still don’t understand what you’re asking. People aren’t outraged because the adoptive parents put the child up for adoption. They’re outraged because the child was theirs for 7 years and is now essentially being discarded. There’s a huge difference.
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5:04 am on December 12th, 2007 5
Like knickerbocker said there are plenty of reasons for people to put a child up for adoption but there is no reason for the Dutch couple to discard the adopted child like a piece of garbage. I do not wish physical harm to them though I wouldn’t mind the VANKers drawing attention to what they did.
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5:25 am on December 12th, 2007 6
Check out Andrew Bolt’s site. It’s not Soer. Global warming advocacy didn’t cause child abandonment after all.
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10:44 am on December 12th, 2007 7
I’ll chime in against Peter Pan. At least the birth parents gave up the child as an infant, before she had a chance to bond. The Dutch couple clearly wanted to be parents, hence, the adoption and subsequent pregnancies.
A friend of mine adopted two Chinese girls. I recall how the first daughter joined the family at one years old and clung to her new mother for weeks and often cried for “grandmother.” The parents were advised that their new one-year-old daughter would need special care in making the transition from one family to another and bonding with her new family. To facilitate the transition, Mom spent most of her time with the girl while Dad’s contact was increased gradually. If a one year old needs this kind of special care to avoid trauma, I can’t imagine what this poor seven-year-old must be going through.
Abandoning a child who’s old enough to understand she’s been abandoned by the only family’s she’s known is heartless. One expects that sort of callous shirking of responsibility from a crack addict not an esteemed diplomat.
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11:15 pm on December 12th, 2007 8
So there is some kind of age limit on adoption then? Can we get a definition for that one please?
My objection is with the terminology of ‘abandoned’ and ‘garbage’. Was this child really found on the side of the road, or was she brought to an adoption agency? No, she was not thrown out of a moving car to the side of the mountain, she was given up for adoption in a system that allows for it, which is exactly why her birth parents were able to give her up in the first place.
If this is abandonment and garbage, then what did her birth parents do? Send her to Disney Land?
I personally think what they are doing is wrong, but, I also think it’s pretty amazing that Korea, a country who’s biggest export for many years was and still is little girls for adoption, is freaking out in such a way. Hypocrisy is the word that comes to mind.
If the society is going to allow adoption, then it must be prepared to see adoption.
I’ll perhaps better understand the situation when we get the online ex-pat community wishing for the VANK crew to terrorize the birth mothers who throw their babies in dumpsters. But until then, I can only view this as another example of “Special Corean Situation — We Birth, You Adopt … And Give Money”
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12:52 am on December 13th, 2007 9
“I personally think what they are doing is wrong, but, I also think it’s pretty amazing that Korea, a country who’s biggest export for many years was and still is little girls for adoption, is freaking out in such a way. Hypocrisy is the word that comes to mind.”
Wow.. just as suspected, Peter Pan from Japan using this child to spew off more anti Korean rhetoric. Just think what would be like if this story was about Korean parents, not Dutch parents. Peter Pan would be singing a different tune. Nobody in Korea is ‘freaking’ about this, you freaking shit head, so don’t exaggerate and spare us your righteous lecturing against evil Koreans. What some of us do find after reading this story (which is a legitimate news), is a bad taste in the mouth, helped by you.
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1:07 am on December 13th, 2007 10
[...] to be hard to find in Korea and it didn’t start in 1995 and it shows no signs of ending today. Eco-loon Dutch Diplomat Abandons Korean Daughter Published by GI Korea December 11, 2007 in Korea-General Topics. Who could possibly do [...]
2:31 am on December 13th, 2007 11
“If this is abandonment and garbage, then what did her birth parents do? Send her to Disney Land?”
Peter Pan,
In terms of trauma to the child, the two situations couldn’t be more different.
If you still can’t comprehend the difference between these two scenarios you may want to check with your doctor. It’s possible you don’t possess a brain.
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9:47 am on December 13th, 2007 12
It amazes me, Peter, the lengths you are going to defend the decision of a couple whom you think “did wrong.” People give up children for a variety of reasons, some understandable, some not. We do not know the circumstances of the birth parents, so we cannot compare them to the Dutch couple, who chose to adopt the child and have the means to raise it. By bringing the child to a child welfare agency rather than dumping her on the side of the road, the diplomat and his wife were demonstrating respect for the law and minimal concern for the child’s welfare. It was legal, but cruel.
Tell me I’m wrong, but I’m guessing you’ve never been a parent, Peter Pan. If you have known parental love of a child, you would understand why so many people are appalled that two parents who brought an infant into their home and raised her as a daughter for seven years could return her like a sweater than didn’t fit. Whether or not Koreans are willing to adopt is irrelevant. If a Korean middle class couple gave up parental rigts to an older child, whether than child was theirs by birth or by adoption, I suspect most Koreans would react angrily to able parents shirking their responsibility.
I don’t know why I bother to respond to you, as it seems you’ve made up your mind that since Koreans don’t adopt, they have no right to feel any concern over the welfare of Korean adoptees. In any case, I’m not Korean, so I guess it’s okay for me to be indignant. Lest you blather on again about the Korean girl’s birth parents, please reread the second and third sentences of my post.
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11:22 am on December 13th, 2007 13
…and the connection between this person’s presumed environmental activism and abandonment of an adopted child…is what?
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11:26 am on December 13th, 2007 14
The more I think about this, the more it boils me… uhhhhh…
Using this poor abandoned girl who was abandoned to make a diatrab against the evil Koreans. Why am I not surprised, I fully expected it. Sigh..
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1:26 pm on December 13th, 2007 15
Unbelievably I find myself in agreement with Tom. Has this ever happened before?
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6:40 pm on December 13th, 2007 16
Again, I’m not defending the couple that put the girl up for adoption, I’m just impressed by the hypocrisy we’re seeing here when the story takes place in Korea, with it’s history of adoption. How many children do you think we can find in the adoption agency that were also ‘abandoned’ after many years of being raised with their family because the parents get divorced?
I’m not saying these people aren’t wrong, I’m say there are thousands upon thousands of other cases of people in Korea who do the same thing, and are also wrong, yet receive no grief for it either. Hence, the hypocrisy.
However really I’m not surprised by the reaction from the mob that is the online blog scene.
Impressive. Talk about following every stereotype in the book. I criticize you hypocrites, and it’s just an attack on Korea? And somehow this is all Japan’s fault too because I’m in Japan? Impressive to say the least. If we can just got someone to chop off their finger in protest, we’ll have covered all the stereotype bases.
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6:41 pm on December 13th, 2007 17
Oh yes, and I don’t posses a brain? That’s classic.
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8:08 pm on December 13th, 2007 18
Because Korean children are often adopted overseas,I, as an American, cannot feel upset about this child? Um, okay. I’m sure there’s some logic in there somewhere.
Not many. On an adoption-related blogpost at DPRK Studies, Richardon clarified for me with supporting links that most children given to orphanages are from single mothers. Certainly not all, but most. As for parents who would give up their children after a divorce, well, obviously that’s irresponsible. Give me some names and I’ll be glad to condemn them, too.
Peter, how do you know there are thousands upon thousands of other cases of people in Korea who do the same thing? If by “do the same thing,” you mean give a child up for adoption, well, yes, adoption exists on every planet on this earth. However, as I have already stated, there are legimate and not so legimate reasons for giving up a child. If you’re going to keep insisting that Korean couples giving up a child they are able to care for is common, you’re going to need to produce some evidence.
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8:15 pm on December 13th, 2007 19
It’s tempting to attribute Peter Pan’s attitude to his residency in Japan, but let’s avoid that common pratfall, and stick to poking holes in his logic and generalizations. I look forward to seeing Peter Pan prove his assumption that there are “thousands upon thousands” of similar cases in Korea so that I can condemn those irresponsible couples and demonstrate fairness.
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10:51 pm on December 13th, 2007 20
For me this issue has nothing to do with Korea, aside from the ethnicity of the girl, who now knows nothing of Korea or Korean culture. The issue in this specific case is child abandonment by the Dutch couple.
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12:38 am on December 14th, 2007 21
Peter Pan,
You really should quit while you’re behind here. Surely even you can see that you’ve now changed your position. You’re now NOT condemning this little girl’s birth parents as you did before.
Now you’re saying that other parents who put kids back into the system after years of parenting are EQUALLY bad.
Okay, so you’ve finally conceded the point.
Everyone here agrees with that point, mostly because it’s so obvious.
You get an A in this class for most improved Netizen and an F for debating skills.
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12:39 am on December 14th, 2007 22
“For me this issue has nothing to do with Korea, aside from the ethnicity of the girl, who now knows nothing of Korea or Korean culture. The issue in this specific case is child abandonment by the Dutch couple.”
Exactly. And just because a Korean newspaper reported on the FACT, doesn’t mean “Koreans are freaking about it and being hipocritical about it”. What hits my nerve is he making things up and using this material for a hate on. Japan has nothing to do with it, but being a Japanophile does.
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1:01 am on December 14th, 2007 23
http://korea.adoption.com/
1.6 thousand adopted to by Americans in one year alone. Certainly not 100% are adopted every year, and even more so, not 100% percent of those that are adopted are adopted by Americans. Thus, there are many, many more where that come from.
Again, I still fail to see how Japan has anything to do with this. Frankly, I think it’s just like a 15 year old saying “he’s gay” and then declaring themselves the winner of the argument. I think it’s childish. But that’s what I’ve come to expect on blogs.
Perhaps there should be some sort of limit established for how old a child can be in order to be put up for adoption, but until that’s the case, these people did nothing different than anyone else who put a child up for adoption. If these people are do go under the attacks that many are wishing they go through, then it only seems right that all who do the same, put a child up for adoption, go through the same. Yet that is not happening, and that is where I take issue.
Also, could we please refrain from the insults. I’ve made no personal attacks, yet almost no one has managed not to throw personal attacks at me. Quite telling of the audience I must say.
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1:11 am on December 14th, 2007 24
Peter Pan, nobody said Japan had anything to do with it. But you are from the occidental site aren’t you? What’s childish is you and your colleague “Garlicbreath” using this child’s case to spew out more hatred.
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1:34 am on December 14th, 2007 25
I believe I’ve read Occidentalism before, and perhaps made a comment. But somehow that means I’m responsible for the comments of others? If there is something I fail to understand, that is indeed it.
Indeed Japan should have nothing to do with it; please tell that to the authors of these comments:
Oh wait, that was you…. Sorry, am I supposed to hate Japan in order to be creditable? Perhaps I need be a ‘Koreaphile’ instead? I just can’t get over how someone living in Japan is supposed to be an insult. Perhaps me living in Japan gives me a bias? Wouldn’t one living in Korea also have a bias then, or is it a one-way street? Must be more of that Special Corean Situation stuff.
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2:27 am on December 14th, 2007 26
Peter Pan: “1.6 thousand adopted to by Americans in one year alone. ”
Good. I’m happy to hear about people adopting kids. It’s educated, well-to-do people who adopt them then return them after seven years who incense me.
Sticking up for this Dutch couple makes you the founder of the “It’s Okay to Hurt Orphans Club.”
How does it feel?
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3:50 am on December 14th, 2007 27
“Perhaps me living in Japan gives me a bias? ”
I don’t understand, if this child being Korean is relevant to your anti Korean bile, why is it not relevant here that you’re a typical co*k suc*king Japanophile? So you’re saying your intentions were concerns for all those Korean orphans? Please. You and your kinds’ tactics are very familiar to me, so say sayonara.
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3:51 am on December 14th, 2007 28
Glad to see you still haven’t bothered to read anything I’ve said.
I’m not sticking up for this couple in any way shape or form. What I am doing is calling hypocrisy for all those who attack this couple yet have nothing to say for the birth parents who gave the child up in the first place.
I think I’ve had to state this 5 times by now.
Talk about a straw-man.
Please, do read at least one of my comments, any of you, I think it would clear a lot up.
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4:22 am on December 14th, 2007 29
Peter,
The problem with this couple’s decision is that they chose to give up ONE of their three children, and that one waas the child whom they adopted from Korea. The act is not only heartless, it has xenophobic overtones.
Your argument, that they are doing only what thousands of other parents do, would only be applicable here if they had given up all three of their children. That act on thier part would be an admission that they do not want to be parents, full stop. By giving up the Asian child that they had adopted, and by keeping their two natural children, they are saying that they do not want to be the parents of that one child.
Their actions differ significantly from the actions of the girl’s birth parents simply because of the emotional impact it will have on her. Not only has she been abandoned by the parents she has lived with since she was a baby, she is old enough to realize what they are doing. That is why the people on this board are upset.
The parents have done something that is completely reprehensible. Parents who give a child up for adoption because they cannot care for that child are to be commended. Parents who give a child up for adoption because her face doesn’t fit with the rest of the family’s are disgusting.
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4:27 am on December 14th, 2007 30
Tom, this child is not relevant to my “anti Korean [sic] bile”, because I do not have one. You are insisting that I have an ‘anti-Korean bile’ simply because I am based in Japan. I’m saying that is no different than me claiming you have a bias because you are in Korea, something I am not actually claiming. Please, do read, and please, refrain from the profanities. It only shows you’re inability to talk about the issue at hand without getting out of control.
But I will have to say ’sayonara’ (a cleaver gag wasn’t it — I get it, I’m in Japan, so you say something in Japanese right?) because you (nor a few other commenters) have proven for all your inability to read, discuss, and to be mature and do all of this without waging personal attacks and reducing yourself to profanities like a mature adult.
I’ll have to apologize to GI Korea for mistakenly commenting on his blog with a disagreement. I was wrong to believe his readers were capable of discussion without the hate. I hear that lesson loud and clear now. Return to your circle jerk of hypocrisy, with ring master Tom.
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4:32 am on December 14th, 2007 31
And, according to the International Herald Tribune, the child was given up to social services because she has an emotional disorder, so I retract my earlier comment about the child being given up because she was Asian and apologize for perpetuating wrong information.
Apparently the child has bonding issues, which is not uncommon in children who are adopted from abroad. However, those case are usually found in children who were adopted at a much older age and who were adopted from countries with less regulated adoption programs than South Korea’s.
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5:38 am on December 14th, 2007 32
Kathleen,
I read the Dec 11 piece in the IHT and it didn’t say anything about an emotional disorder. It’s the same Associated Press piece that was cited all over the Web. Trouble adapting to the “culture” and “food” were the reasons cited in the article.
I’d also like to take issue with a point you made — the ethnicity of the girl is not the issue here. I think putting an adopted child up for adoption after seven years of parenting is a horrible thing to do to any person, regardless of nationality, race or gender. I’m guessing everyone agrees with that point.
The adoptive parents have made a conscious commitment. In fact, I’d argue that it’s more of a commitment than many birth parents since birth parents haven’t necessarily DECIDED to have kids.
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6:53 am on December 14th, 2007 33
Peter Pan,
As far as Tom being a “ring leader” around here I find humorous because usually commenters are ganging up on Tom. Like I said I think this is the first time the majority of commenters are in agreement with Tom.
The fact that Koreans put many babies up for adoption is a separate issue from this one. There is a big difference from a single mother putting her baby up for adoption after birth and the Dutch couple in question who chose to adopt and then after seven years giving up the child because it was to much work.
If one of their biological children had emotional problems or did not like the food they ate would this couple have given up the biological child?
Maybe the child is hyperactive and took a lot of parenting to take care of but does that give someone the excuse to get rid of them because they take to much parenting to care for?
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10:16 am on December 14th, 2007 34
I’ve criticized your reasoning and your generalizations but not you. Please don’t go before providing data to support your claim that “thousands upon thousands of Koreans do the same thing.” You cited statistics showing that 1,600 Korean children were adopted by US families. This statistic implies that you make no distinction among the reasons why parents put their children up for adoption. In other words, the parents of the 1,600 infants plus others remaining in Korea or adopted by other international families “did the same thing” as the Dutch couple. You wrote:
This statement and your statistic imply strongly you think that all parents who give up children for adoption are equally wrong. I disagree vigorously. A single teenager got pregnant because she had unprotected sex with her boyfriend and isn’t ready to be a mom is doing the child a favor by giving it up. A couple with three children deeply in debt are making a desperate choice. We do not condemn the birth parents because A) we do not know the reasons why they gave up the child; and B) we believe that there are some legitimate reasons for putting a child up for adoption. If you think parents giving children for adoption is always wrong, then you will disagree with us, but that does not make us hypocrites because as I’ve stated a number of times: We do not know the circumstances of the birth parents; therefore, we cannot evaluate their decision.
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11:32 am on December 14th, 2007 35
Peter Pan huh?
Does this allude to your own childhood experience? Is your anger against parents who give up their children stem from your own experience with it?
It just sounds like your bitter there Peter. Are you also korean? I don’t see why your so bent against “people in Korea” when every country in the world has orphans and have put them up for adoptions.
Also i would like you to elaborate on the 1000 adoptees of korean orphans to America. I want to see what percentage of the American Parents that are adopting korean babies or orphans are korean. After all you have heard of L.A. koreatown? That is the largest population of Koreans outside of South Korea.
Seriously, you need to stop hating. If you already acknowledged that what this dutch couple has done is wrong, why do you continue this farce of an argument?
Everyone already knows its bad that people give up their kids. its not only South Korean people that do it. Hell i’d be really interested to see how many Japanese orphans there are in Japan?
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11:53 am on December 14th, 2007 36
Please rescue my comment from the spam trap when you get a chance, GI.
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12:21 pm on December 14th, 2007 37
If you’re at all curious about what the adoptive parents look like, as well as the little girl:
http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/2762360/_Jade_het_wegwerpkind__.html
The Dutch couple is Raymond and Meta Poeteray. The girl’s name is Jade.
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2:54 pm on December 14th, 2007 38
[...] details have now been released about the Dutch couple who gave back their adopted Korean daughter after being the child’s parents for seven [...]
6:16 pm on December 14th, 2007 39
in case you’re all wondering, and can’t read dutch. the article says that the girl at first wasn’t doing well, but that she’s now happy, normal, and doing well. there’s absolutely nothing wrong with her. a lovely little girl. she’s probably relieved to be away from those terrible people! the article also says that she speaks three languages! english, dutch and cantonese. what a smart cookie! in holland people always say, “do normal.” she was probably too exceptional a child, formed a threat to their own progeny, because of her excellence, and intelligence. talent isn’t easily accepted in holland. it’s one of the criticisms of this culture, and something they’d like to change. everyone has to be “normal,” or average. i hope they loose their jobs. jade will find a better place to be, i’m sure. certainly better than their home. the woman doesn’t exactly look like an appealing mother figure. she spends too much time in the tanning salon. scary. thank goodness jade is free of them! they should have to pay child support for her until she’s finished with college!
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7:51 pm on December 14th, 2007 40
Here’s the e-mail I sent to raymond.poeteray@minbuza.nl and hon-az@minbuza.nl:
Mr. Poeteray:
Like the rest of the world, I am outraged by your grotesque rejection of your adopted daughter. You have not only traumatized an orphan, but you have robbed her of seven crucial years of her life that might have been spent bonding with better people. Decent people.
Rest assured that I will not be the only one out there who will always remember your name.
Finally, please also know that there is a special place in hell reserved for you and your wife.
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2:00 pm on December 19th, 2007 41
[...] http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/index.php?name=MDForum&file=... [Found on Google, Yahoo! Search] 3. Eco-loon Dutch Diplomat Abandons Korean Daughter at ROK Drop 40 Responses to “Eco-loon Dutch Diplomat Abandons Korean Daughter” ….. I think putting an [...]
4:01 am on January 2nd, 2008 42
Peter freakin Pan.
You are one hilarious idiot!
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12:15 pm on January 31st, 2008 43
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