David Cameron used his party speech to bring child adoption to the front of his agenda highlighting the woefully inadequate placement of children. With children from ethnic minorities the figures are worse as an ethnic match is preferred but ethnic minority families seem more reluctant to put themselves forward.
Every now and then since my teenage days to the recent Pakistan floods my sister and I would ask my mum if she would consider adopting a child. My mum always said that she would not as she would fear for her safety when the child grew up and would worry that the child’s parents would turn up demanding money and assets. My mum is a very kind and generous woman who has donated to charities in the UK and abroad her entire life but is wary of this life-long commitment and potential back stabbing. I wonder if these Bollywood type fears are not hers alone in ethnic minorities.
One of my friends in Delhi has had children thrust upon her by low income parents offering them for adoption and the parents very obviously would stick around for handouts and trips abroad. I’m not in a position to adopt at the moment but I would like to think it is something I would consider. My images of adoption are different to my mum’s: my Hollywood connotations are of Tom Hagen from the Godfather- trusted consigliere to the Corleones or Angelina Jolie and Madonna who have both made adoption seem a normal aspect of modern family life.
If Salman Khan adopted a child, would it have positive consequences?
Bubbly