Wombs for Hire

by Eco.Soul.Intellectual

In Aba, Nigeria, Dr. Hyacinth Orikara is being detained for running a clinic that housed pregnant teens and eventually purchased the children to be sold throughout the world for various reasons.

There have been claims of the babies entering into a world of underground sex slavery, to illegal international adoptions. This sordid trade of babies is not new in a world that has traded and sold flesh for thousands of years.

Do you remember when the Tsunami in Indonesia and Sumatra also revealed a large child sex trafficking trade? Or the prostitution ring that is alive and well in the US, and is fueled by foster-care and neglected children?

More specifically, in Enugu, Nigeria in 2008, a baby farm was raided and the teenage mothers reported that they were repeatedly raped by the doctor of the clinic and local youth.

The Nigerian baby farms raise more awareness with the gross exploitation of women in developing countries who have extreme difficulty in generating income and taking care of their families. It also brings up the painful past of breeding farms during US slavery and the disruption of families in general in the slave trade.

In breeding farms, women and men who were seen as "good breeders" were housed and forced to copulate. Revered historian, John Henrik Clarke's grandfather was enslaved on a breeding farm, forced to bear numerous children, only for them to be sold. Clarke re-tells that his fore-father walked from the East Coast to the West, looking for his progeny and other family members.

Now lets slightly re-direct the billion-dollar trade of families in developing areas paying women to have babies for $26-a-day in countries like India. The "trend" is called "Wombs for Rent" and are exchanges between wealthy or upper middle class people from all over the globe, but highly concentrated in the UK and USA. These people create inequitable contracts with poor women who breed babies as a way to make money.

Somehow, this type of baby trade gets lost in baby trafficking.

I guess if Madonna or Angelina Jolie scoop up a couple of African babies, they are exempt? Hunh, but what is the difference. It is legal baby trading?

Men lie, women lie, but numbers don't - let's talk about women and poverty shall we?

If you're like me, after watching the above video of a 19yr old single mother talk about her struggle, you feel bad for her. Her story is nothing new, and can be heard all across the country. The one thing that stands out, was when she said that she hadn't seen the father of her child since her delivery 8mths prior to shooting that interview. Her being Black it's easy to assume that she's just another sister who has to suffer at the hands of an irresponsible Black man. Yep, you know how that infamous 70% of Black kids being raised in homes lead by single mothers line has us programmed to believe that Black men aren't shit. But see ladies and gentlemen, the problem is way beyond what's perceived.

You see, many of you may think the woman in the video above represents the norm. That would be, a single unmarried female who has kids out of wedlock, but this is not true. In fact, many currently unmarried mothers were married at some point, but too often, the loss of a husband greatly increases a family’s likelihood of falling into poverty. In 2008, 36% of poor unmarried mothers were divorced, widowed, or separated. So much for the notion that all poor unmarried mothers, making the mistake of having children out of wedlock, right? But keeping it real as I always do, I can't help but to note that risk of poverty for women of color is even greater, especially for those who are unmarried. Thirty percent of unmarried black women and 29.5% of unmarried Hispanic women - of any race - were poor in 2008, compared with 18.5% of unmarried white women. Hmm, so I guess Hispanic men, just like Black men aren't shit, right?

Ultimately, the real problem here is the inequalities faced by women with or without children. But lets be honest: women with kids fare worse. This is America folks, and one can only imagine how much these numbers have been inflated from last year given our current economy. Speaking of which: Did you know that the majority of adults living in poverty were women? As a matter of fact, per recent U.S. Census results, 59% of adults in poverty are women; and 13 percent of all adult women are in poverty. Yeah I know, that's a lot of single women with kids left holding the bag, right? Well, that's not exactly true. According to the report, the majority of unmarried women living in poverty are elderly.

It's sad but true; more than one in five (22.2%) women living in poverty are elderly women age 60 and older. Losing a husband to death or divorce can be devastating to women’s quality of life and greatly increases risk of poverty. Because the vast majority (95%) of today’s elderly population has married at some point, older women who are poor are almost all previously married. The new Census figures bear this out. Widows accounted for nearly half (45.6%) of poor women age 60 and older in 2008, and 65% of those over 75. So next time you think about ridiculing Black men for the problems Black women face. Take a minute to remember that the problem of women in poverty is not just a Black thing. And more importantly, remember or realize that our society is not as egalitarian as we would like to think it is.


Data Sources:

U.S. Census Bureau, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2008

U.S. Census Bureau, Data Ferret, Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement, March 2009 (Link)

ADVENTURES IN POTTY TRAINING

Here's a couple things in life that I just don't understand. Actually, there are many things in life that I don't understand. Maybe in your commentary after reading this you can share with me what you've learned here today. Hopefully you do learn something, or maybe you'll be able to help me out.

Why is it that after you sit on the toilet and take a dump, before you flush, you always have to look at the turds? I mean really?!! Why do we always look at the turds? What do we expect to see? A $100 bill? Lottery tickets? What??!! I've been doing that "looking at my turds before I flush" stuff since I was potty trained, and I don't understand why.

I mean, when I was a kid, it was cool to look at them and try and see the stuff I ate. You know, like pieces of corn and stuff like that. But I had no idea that at 38yrs old, I'd still be doing it, and doing it unconsciously. And don't gimme that "RiPPa you're just weird" stuff either. I know just as well as you do, that you look at your turds before you flush. Now I could understand looking at your turds after having to put teeth marks into your toilet bowl in an attempt to force out a log or two. But after every dump? And speaking of turds and dumps, I think I am about to face my biggest challenge as a parent thus far: POTTY TRAINING. Yup, my wife recently bought a new potty for our now 15 month old. The damn thing even talks to you when you flush! When did they start making stuff like that?!!

Honestly, I'm scared and nervous about this whole thing. Why am I nervous? Well, as anxious as I am to teach her about life and stuff, I'm just not the same about the whole using the potty thing. The reason why? I don't remember being potty trained. I could remember some stuff from my formative years; hell I still remember learning Spanish from Sesame Street. But the thing that bugs me is that I don't remember being potty trained, and as a result, I'm afraid that I might fail with my daughter. When you think of it, that's a lot of pressure as a parent. Nobody wants to have to be the parent of that stanky booty little boy or girl, when they're in pre-school or kindergarten.

The last thing you want is a bunch of other people's kids running up to you telling you that your child shit on himself/herself when you show up to pick him up for the day. I mean, its bad enough that the teacher has to explain why your kid is wearing that ugly ass pair of shorts that doesn't even match, or look anything like what you dressed him in for school that day. Yup, that's bad enough, and then you have to act all nice to your kid and make him feel like it was just an accident so as not to traumatize him/her with the thought of him/her being a failure, for being the stinky booty kid. Trust me, nobody wants to be known as the stinky booty kid.

Matter of fact, I'm sure that most violent crimes in our country are commited by one time stinky booty kids. Usually we hear stories or explanations for criminal behavior being chalked up to a bad childhood. We hear about dysfunctional families, abusive situations involving children, poverty, absent fathers etc. But we never hear about the stinky booty kid, and how he or she was teased in school. And I'm sure everybody remembers that one kid who smelled like pee everyday. See what I'm saying? Where are those kids now? Hopefully most of them are probably in prison after having been caught. But there are many of them who are still running around right now free as a bird; free to wreak havoc on the lives of many. Hell some of them are probably even blogging and you don't even know it. Next time somebody shoots up their place of employment, hopefully you'll rememebr this blog.

So you see, this is why I'm nervous about my daughter. I don't want her to grow up to be that stanky booty girl like her father once was. If she does, it would mean that as a parent I failed. Never mind my occasional shit stain as an adult. The ultimate failure as an adult is being the parent of a stank booty child. A child who has to continue that vicious cycle of shame and degradation. Which is really sad when you think of how much easier it could be if they just learned how to wipe their ass without having to be taught by another person. You know, kinda like how learning to walk was natural?

Hopefully my baby girl gets it down really quickly. Hopefully my wife never had the problems I had growing up and would serve to be a better teacher than I could ever be. Hopefully my baby girl is content to not look back at her turds when she gets off the potty or even try and pick them up. I don't remember being potty trained as I mentioned before. But I vaguely remember getting a beating for picking up my turd after sitting on a cold white metal bowl one time.