My little boy is eight years old he believes that his father's plane crashed over the Congo and the man met with man eating chimps/ big snake/ crocodile. This was having watched him lie on his bed and weep for his father. When he says to me 'this would not be happening if my daddy was here' I know I have told him the right thing. The truth is his father was an American economist with USAID who with the collaboration of USAID abandoned his little boy. South African courts had their hands tied because there was no legal treaty with Florida nor the Democratic Republic of Congo where he was hurriedly moved after his baby's birth. I have been told repeatedly that as a non American I have no legal rights. Is this true? If so, you guys should be spending a lot more on your legal system. It really does not inspire confidence.
Still horrified.
South Africa

Legal rights to what? I'm not clear at all what your question is. I would also ask how you know what the truth is and why your son believes what he does.

If you and your son are South African citizens, then whatever rights you have in the realm of Family Law are what is granted by South Africa and whatever treaties they have with the US. So maybe you should be blaming South Africa instead of the US.

Your post is incoherent and, as a consequence, I have no idea what you are talking about. I assume one of the words you use in the title of this thread should be "corps". No big deal: our president is prone to the same mistake.


My little boy is eight years old he believes that his father's plane crashed over the Congo and the man met with man eating chimps/ big snake/ crocodile. ...

His father met with some other man, after the crash, and they were eating these animals? This is a dream the boy had?


... The truth is his father was an American economist with USAID who with the collaboration of USAID abandoned his little boy. South African courts had their hands tied because there was no legal treaty with Florida nor the Democratic Republic of Congo where he was hurriedly moved after his baby's birth. I have been told repeatedly that as a non American I have no legal rights. Is this true? ...

What is it the South African courts would do, if there were appropriate treaties? For your information, U.S. states such as Florida cannot make treaties. And whether there is a treaty between SA and Congo is not the responsibility or concern of the U.S. legal system.

You don't have to be an American citizen to sue in U.S. state courts. What "rights" do you need?

Yes. I realised that I had spelled corps wrong shortly after sending a hastily scribbled note. Do you realise that your government never signed the United Nations Treaty on the rights of children? I hope your other clients do not receive the same hasty summation that you have offered me. I told my son that his father was dead because it is less painful for the child than imagining him alive. I sincerely will always believe that he was whipped away from the access of South African courts by an institution who does not care about children's rights. I have to be in USA to successfully co ordinate any kind of action that is impossible for me and that was official knowledge.

Aaah! But USAID claims to be an altruistic humanitarian institution who shortly thereafter promoted this man to a first class foreign citizen.

What are you asking? No one here understands what you're looking for advice on.

After re-reading you initial post, my best guess is that an American citizen fathered a child with you. You are a South African citizen(I'm assuming) but want the United States to assist you in going after the father for child support... is that correct? If so, then as Scott said, you should be blaming South Africa and not the US - the jurisdiction lies in the country where the child is a resident.

If this is not your situation, please clarify.

Also, I fail to see what his promotion to "first class foreign citizen" has to do with anything. It appears that you had unprotected sex with this man, became pregnant, and he took off - it's an age-old story and not common to any one country.

First, If you have a follow-up question or info, please use the Answer options, not the Comments.

You still haven't answered the questions. This site is a Q&A site for getting help with the a problem. Its not a site for complaints or rants about something you feel wronged about. We have no direct control over actions by the government (other than our votes).

As to lying to your child, In my opinion that is the wrong move. At some point in time he may find out the truth and it could backfire on you.

But there are many things that we don't know about this situation that may change the way we look at it. Right now we only know your side and precious little of that. We don't know if you were married to this man or whether his paternity has been proven or acknowledged. We don't know the circumstances of his assignment. We don't know whether USAID was aware of him fathering a child (you say you believe he was "whipped away" but have offered nothing to justify that belief). We don't know, what, if anything. You have done to assert your rights. We don't even know what your question (if indeed you aren't just ranting) is.

So, my question to you is do you want some help with your situation or do you just want to whine about it. If you want help then describe what you want help with and give us more info about the situation. Otherwise, if you just want to rant, please choose another site to do so.

There is never an excuse for lying to your child about who or what happened to his father.

But heck after several posts I have no idea what happened to his father, your posts make no sense what so ever.

And no idea what you want, a dead beat dad is a dead beat dad.

What nation are you living in ? I assume father is not in the US now. Is he living there on US Passport and visa,
Have you went though the US courts and got custody and a order for chlid support ?

And no the US does not sign and belong to many treaties that also contain 1000's of things not acceptable to many people.

But if this is one of the same treaties as I know, it would also make illegal home schooling, take away a lot of rights of parents and more. Some things can appear good, but when many other issues are thrown in, it makes a law unacceptable

And no the US does not sign and belong to many treaties that also contain 1000's of things not acceptable to many people.

But if this is one of the same treaties as I know, it would also make illegal home schooling, take away alot of rights of parents and more. Some things can appear good, but when many other issues are thrown in, it makes a law unacceptable

This is very true. There have been several such UN "treaties", that have been formulated specifically to embarrass the US. On the face of them, they appear to be very upstanding, but when you read the fine print, they often contain language that specifically limits the US requiring the US to actually do less than they do now.

The only thing that is clear here is that the father of your child has abandoned you and his child and even that's not 100% clear. We know nothing of the true situation since you have, so far, declined to answer our requests for more info. All too often we get people here with an axe to grind. They rant about something looking for people to agree with them. But that's not what we are about here. We are about giving accurate advice. To do so we need facts. We aren't here to commiserate or tell you what you want to hear. So, if you truly want help, then tell us what you want help with and answer our questions.