Finding Long Lost Family Member

[Moss]

obvious troll is obvious, cmon now

[Chicomagiko]

I'm just being realistic. Blame it on being old and jaded. OP's naivety is the real troll here.

[Saga]

I'm just being realistic. Blame it on being old and jaded. OP's naivety is the real troll here.

I mean yeah, whatever the "plan" for him is it seems really ambiguous, but at some point you have to drop it and just let people do their business. You probably won't dissuade him, and I'm sure in due time he'll grow as cynical and jaded as you are. Isnt that every cynicist's dream?

[Chicomagiko]

He's 28. I doubt it. I'm sure every cynicism enthusiast is a Nihilist , so dreams are worthless.

[Saga]

Oh whoops. I meant "isn't that every cynicist's bleak hope?"

[Chicomagiko]

lol

[Shuvo]

You have too little info to do anything. Their's probably nothing you can do but try to track down the doctor get more info. He'll probably be hesitant to give much information (I assume out of a sense of preservation) but at least try to track down info like gender, name and age. Then at least you could try scraping facebook or checking phone directories etc.

[LostFamily]

Well, I'm not sure if its worth even bumping this but I dunno, a few people seemed to be interested where this went.

My July investigation got accelerated to ... well ... 10 minutes ago at an unplanned Memorial Day event. In the days leading up to today my confidence got floored cause my mom foiled my plans by calling my Aunt and asking herself a few weeks ago... to which my Aunt completely played the "What are you talking about card" and played completely dumb. She claimed that she never said any such thing ever. So going into today I was nervous bringing it up again (Yes, I admitted I'm a pansy, whatever).

It seems my original suspicions were correct, asking in person is WAY more effective than a phone call, because my Aunt didn't play dumb for even a second, which suprised me cause my mom walked back in the room which made me think my Aunt would stick with her original play dumb methodology so as not to get caught. Anyway, she answered what questions I managed to ask ... yes there was a child, yes it was sold to get the money to bring the mother here to America, and shes almost certain it was a boy (which makes a LOT of those bad assumptions about child trafficking virtually completely null ... men are not exactly a sexual trafficking commodity).

Unfortunately I couldn't pin down better dates as my Aunt is not sure if the marriage or the child came first, but both definitly occurred in the Phillipines. And unfortunatley again it was at this point my cousin-in-law arrived to pick up my Aunt and take her home ... but boy did she manage to overhear it ... and her jaw definitely hit the floor. However you look at it, this stuff is on the table now, so I'm going to see if I can come up with a way to bring this up again in July without making them wondering why I'm asking again. I don't want them to know I may end up searching for the child until I get a feel for it that would cause them to help more or help less. The reason I wonder that is because my Aunt told me she doesn't think its her place to tell her granddaugher about her long lost brother, so I'm afraid if she knew I was searching then she'd fear that I'd tell her granddaugher (which well, I would, especially if I get enough info to succeed).


Anyway, no idea if it was worthwhile to provide an update to the thread, but I figured why not. I wish I got more time with my Aunt today (I spent most of the day trying to get her alone) and come July I'm going to see if I can get more info on dates, namely discharge dates of my cousin and immigration dates for the wife. They should help give me a better idea. Also, since my cousin-in-law overheard and since my mother was in the room, I'm going to see if they have interest in being allies with me in the event my Aunt recoils if I were to propose getting a private detective in the Phillipines. If they don't, then my final plan will be to risk telling my Aunt the plan hoping she doesn't shy at the idea, and if she would ask her son/daughter-in-law directly (since as far as they know, only my Aunt should even know this).

P.S. If my post seems like a ramble, its because I'm on a laptop at the event and don't have time to proofread.

[Tyche]

Bangkok has him now.

[Silenka]

it was a boy (which makes a LOT of those bad assumptions about child trafficking virtually completely null ... men are not exactly a sexual trafficking commodity).

Um... =/ I don't think that's exactly true...

[LostFamily]

Um... =/ I don't think that's exactly true...

It doesn't rule it out, but the odds are significantly lower. I'm also factoring in that my other Aunt thought it was sold directly to the deliveing doctor, its doesn't technically mean anything, but the prevaling theory is that he wanted th child himself. Eh, I gotta stop assuming things ... just let it be known that I made progress, nothing more.

Edit: And yeah, I meant the prostitution angle. While men are trafficked a lower percent of the time, prositution accounting for 50% of all trafficking and 94% of those being female, the males that do get trafficked end up in manual labor usually, so yeah, if he was, his life would suck ass and he'd be pretty untrackable as well.

[Tyche]

From an article I had laying around.

[LostFamily]

Intriguing, not the exact same statistics I saw and I'm sure the stats vary by world region, but still reinforces the fact that its mainly women. Here's hoping this long lost cousin (once-removed) got to live at least a decent life.

[BaneTheBrawler]

Bangkok has him now.

http://cdn.pimpmyspace.org/media/pms/c/k4/4w/wo/fg.jpg

[Apelila]

Well damn. Was hoping it was a situation where someone was reading more into someone else's paranoid ramblings than a flat out straight up shit storm.

When you 'confront' the aunt again just tell her what you want to do; IE look for the person. Don't come at it sideways, if she doesn't want to she'll back out.

[Seanr]

my younger sister who I had never spoke to contacted me on facebook a few weeks back, made me think of this thread, I supposedly have an even younger sister that i have yet to talk to

[kyod]

Intriguing, not the exact same statistics I saw and I'm sure the stats vary by world region, but still reinforces the fact that its mainly women. Here's hoping this long lost cousin (once-removed) got to live at least a decent life.

One of my friends studies human trafficking in East Asia (most of her studies/research were Thailand, I think) specifically focusing on the sex trade. If the boy was younger, odds are much higher he was taken for sexual exploitation reasons over forced labor. But this doesn't rule out he was trafficked for sexual exploitation and then later made to do manual labor. My friend says the stories she's heard are the kind that keep her up at night.

[LostFamily]

One of my friends studies human trafficking in East Asia (most of her studies/research were Thailand, I think) specifically focusing on the sex trade. If the boy was younger, odds are much higher he was taken for sexual exploitation reasons over forced labor. But this doesn't rule out he was trafficked for sexual exploitation and then later made to do manual labor. My friend says the stories she's heard are the kind that keep her up at night.

You sound like the kind of response I was lookin for (well you and that P.I. link from last go round). Can you ask your friend what they feel the odds of finding such a person are ... I'd assume slim to none, but ur friend may be aware of groups or something dedicated to raising those odds. In addition, can you see if your friend has an opinion on my odds of finding him if he wasn't trafficked as well? I know nada about how well East Asian countries document the people living there (ya know birth certificates, equivalents to how the US gives everyone a SS number, etc), this may be too hard even if trafficking is not involved.