Adoption involves lots of red tape, by all accounts. So imagine having all the Is finally dotted and the stars magically aligned, only to find the birth parent coming out of the woodwork and trying to stake their claim on the child given up for adoption? Yeah, that.
According to an article in the Huffington Post, a little girl with Cherokee heritage was set to be adopted by a South Carolina couple when the biological dad stepped forward and asked them to reconsider, claiming the girl's "emotional well-being" was at risk.
"Please, for Veronica's sake, just stop. Stop, and ask yourself if you really believe this is best for her," said birth father Dusten Brown.
This, after adoptive parents Matt and Melanie Capobianco had already been raising the girl for the first two years of her life when a court ruled that three-year-old Veronica was to live with her father due to his American Indian heritage.
To complicate matters further, the U.S. high court later overruled that decision, since Brown wasn't married to Veronica's birth mother, nor had he provided her with any support under the Indian Child Welfare Act.
The Capobiancos are now waiting for custody to be returned to them, though Brown is fighting back, concerned that the little girl will feel "fearful, scared, anxious and confused" under their care.
"[She] may cry herself to sleep," Brown said. "I will not voluntarily let my child go through that, no parent would."
(Interestingly, Veronica's mother approved of the adoption by the Capobiancos.)
What's worse than hearing an 11-year-old Yemeni schoolgirl's plea to stop child marriages? Finding out that same girl lied to the camera, and to the world.
An article in Majalla claims that the whole yarn spun by Nada Al-Ahdal was a set-up. A ploy by her uncle, a television producer, to thrust her into the limelight and profit from her sob story.
And what a sour taste it has left in the hearts of reporting journos (yours truly included) everywhere. Though it is true that forced child marriages are a blight upon Yemen, the "the most populous and poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula," Nada's story seemed so heartfelt that no one thought to verify its authenticity—until now.
In fact, her emotional tale struck such an emotional nerve that it was viewed some 7,772,156 times on YouTube.
And while it was true that Nada was living with her uncle, Abdel Salam Al-Ahdal, she wasn't doing so to evade a marriage forced upon her by her parents.
Now in the care of the Yemen Women’s Union, Nada will likely be returned to her parents’ custody, remembered as a victim of another sort of exploitation.
Does the fact that her story was a lie detract from this issue, and diminish its gravity, or is any media attention worthy?
In case you've been lying awake at night wondering what the difference is between real sex and porn, you're in luck. The good people at the New York-based KB Creative Lab production company via Laughing Squid have—in a manner of speaking—done the dirty work for you. It's food-based, but you might want to plug in your headphones: the voiceover is playful but definitely NSFW.
In an amusing infomercial style, a British woman highlights said differences using food as props.
I will say one thing alone: you will never look at Nutella in the same way again! Enjoy...
Any surprises here? In case you're scratching your head and left wondering whether your sex life is 'normal,' read on.
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