Sandra Hanks Benoiton, who according to her bio "lives in the Indian Ocean island nation of Seychelles with her husband, Mark and her two youngest children, Sam and Cj, both Cambodian-born. Two adult bio [sic] kids [conceived and raised by her as a single parent] and one adorable granddaughter are in the USA.
"Sandra is actively involved in adoption issues in Seychelles and writes for both local and international audiences on this topic and others. She is also enjoys work in fiction and is presently compiling a collection of short stories."
Sandra is also, apparently involved in spreading libelous lies in a smear campaign.After posting on at least three different blogs - her own self-indulgent Paradise Preoccupied ("Trash adoption, sell a book)" one at adoption.org and another on her adoption.com blog ("When poop is just poop")...all trashing me and my books...citing a bunch of unsubstantiated quotes from Lori Carangelo that have never appeared in any of my writings...she then admits to having never read neither of the books she is criticizing!
This woman, who is the sister of actor Tom Hanks, is a one-woman NCFA - lies and all!
And adoption.com supports her. Why? Because adoption.com is a business that is set up for one purpose and one purpose only: to support adoptions through their paid advertisers. They are fond of the "controversy" stirred up by Sandra's lies. Every time someone clicks on the site to read it or to comment, every click - cha-ching! - the $ is flowing! Advertisers pay Adoption.com per click. And so, out of the "kindness" of their greedy little hearts they provide a playground for adoption reformers, so they cna make money off us too!
UPDATE 6/13/07: The Adoption.com editor Lisa Pietsch who had posted in support of this tripe has since seen the light and removed her supportive posts. Lisa, who writes in opposition to child trafficking claims to be on board Adoption.com to make positive changes, albeit slowly.
See also Boycott of Adoption.com
2 comments:
Actually, I read her blogs and she was criticizing your open letter to Angelina Jolie (that appeared online), not your books.
Her writing was at best very unclear and more likely intentionally so. As someone commented, one had to traverse a maze of links to determine what, if anything, her point was.
It started out about my books and then - because she finally admitted having never read them - used as an excuse to trash unread books the fact that she didn't like what I had said in some articles I wrote on international adoption.
If she wanted to debate the facts in an article about Angelina Jolie than she should have done that and not brought in quotes from outside sources that had nothing to do with anything but that she clearly presented as my beliefs.
She is a very confused lady. She doesn't know Origins from OUSA from AmFor...
She is a classic example of the saying: My mind is made up, don't confuse me with he facts!
Because teh fact is that nnothing I have ever said about international adoption is not well established by UNICEF, CRC and the Hague. Corruption in international adoption is an established fact. She - and many other recipients of internationally adopted children - want to live with her heads in the sand and pretend it's not so.
I am far from the only writer/journalist to report on public dislike for celebrity adoptions. I report the facts, I don't cerate them. She wants to kill me, the messenger.
Bush keeps the media from showing flag draped bodies being brought back from Iraq...in an effort to reduce negative publicity and pretend the war is not killing people. Others want to pretend the Holocaust never existed.
Corruption in adoption is as real as any other tragedy, and it will not cease until we are forced to face it, a shard as that may be. The lives of children are far too important to ignore the atrocities done to them.
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