Mr. Carlisle's letter [in the June 11 issue] contains a whole lot of misinformation about the international adoption landscape. He mistakenly puts numerous countries—Romania, Hungary and the republics formed after the Soviet Union disintegrated—in the same boat. I have no information about all the ex-Soviet countries, but Russia, in fact, still allows foreign adoption.

Romania allowed foreign adoption of Romanian orphans for a period of time, but not anymore. And Hungary has never allowed foreign adoption of Hungarian children; at least one of the prospective adoptive parents must hold Hungarian citizenship. This means according to Hungarian citizenship law—which is similar to that of Ireland—a U.S. citizen must first present documentation of having Hungarian ancestors; then he or she is able to seek adoption in Hungary.

About the so-called poor countries: yes, those countries show only about 10 percent of the income of U.S. citizens. But in fact an income of $2,176 (as of 1995) offers a comfortable living standard in Hungary; this income level is 77 percent higher than in Romania and 31 percent higher than in Russia.

And as to the chances of single mothers: Hungary offers health insurance as a citizenship right (family planning included); more than a year of fully paid maternity leave for all working mothers; and free state preschools for all children living there. The society caters to families in a way that the U.S. family can only dream of.

The notion of economic hardship making available more orphans is a crass misrepresentation of the situation. In fact, it is at least as hard to find young orphans available to adopt in Hungary as in the United States.

There are numerous other reasons than poverty why children end up in state care. Poverty's effect lies in minimal funding for orphanages. Communist Romania, for instance, declared it official policy to grow the population by forbidding family planning. The result was full orphanages. Moldova, populated mostly by Romanian nationals, but being a spinoff of Russia, is the poorhouse of Europe, with its per-capita income less than half of Romania's. Mr. Carlisle might have confused this country with Romania.

Ukraine, Russia and Belorussia have high divorce rates and widespread alcoholism, both inducing family instability.

Race is an issue in adoption, but there are other considerations in looking for a foreign adoption—e.g., U.S. regulations about the age of the parent candidates and the possibility of legal complications in U.S. adoptions, which are virtually excluded in legal foreign adoptions.

—Edit K. Rath, Cupertino


Former student attends Murphy retirement gala

I'm the ex-student who lives in Paris mentioned in the June 4 op-ed story on Gordon Murphy's retirement. I was at Fremont High School from 1967 to 1971, played percussion in the band under Murph, founded the FHS Percussion Ensemble in 1969 under his guidance, and was incited by him to compose the first piece the Ensemble played in the spring of 1970. I just noticed on the FHS web site that the school has a Winter Percussion Ensemble. Could it be the continuation of what we got going 34 years ago?

Anyway, I went to hear the American School in London's jazz and concert bands under his direction on June 8th. The spirit was wonderful and the kids clearly loved playing as much under Murph in his last concert as we did in his first.

The ceremony was quite moving, and mention was made of Murph's many musical achievements, peppered by fond and hilarious memories of his good humor and open-minded attitude. At a post-concert reception, the kids presented Murph with a Mississippi survival kit complete with hominy grits for his retirement near Hattiesburg and a very generous gift certificate with donations from Murph's current and former students in Sunnyvale and London to equip his new music studio.

During the festivities, in his characteristically humble way, Murph kept coming back to how the important thing was that the kids love music and that it become part of their lives. For many of us, it stayed that way, thanks to Murph.

—Stephen McAdams, Paris, France (smc@ircam.fr)


Community services find holiday coffers empty

Sunnyvale Community Services has stored tons of food and items for its Community Christmas Center in an empty store in the Sunnyvale Town Center for many years. Last month, someone took over $14,000 of food as well as gifts donated for the holiday program using four hand-trucks and six shopping carts to remove the goods.

Our agency provides financial aid, food, and a variety of other services to low-income Sunnyvale families and seniors facing temporary crises. This is the first theft we have ever experienced. The theft occurred just one month before volunteers would move everything from the 4,000 sq. ft. storage area to the agency's new building.

Volunteers and donors find the best bargains and take advantage of the great savings all year long. We helped 1,157 families (over 4,000 people) last December and had made a great start accumulating toys and practical gifts.

With need up and the economy down, we see no indication of the number of people coming to SCS for help going down—quite the contrary. Last year, with reduced donations of cash, food, and gifts, SCS spent more on the Community Christmas Center program than ever before. We cannot do so next fiscal year since we drew from our reserves for the first time this year just to balance the budget and for expenses connected with the new building.

For more information or to donate to SCS or the Community Christmas Center program, please contact Marie Barlahan at 738-4298 or mbarlahan@svcommunityservices.org.

Our new website is http://www.svcommunityservices.org.

—Nancy Tivol, Executive Director Sunnyvale Community Services