“Madonna and child”
Clever title AOL gave this news story.
Most of singer Madonna’s music and performances disturb me, which is I’m sure part of her plan. But there are a couple things I admire about Madonna, her personal discipline and her willingness to adopt an African baby as well as fund African orphanages and make a documentary spotlighting the plight of poor African children.
Some say the adoption was a publicity stunt. If so, it was a life-altering one. From the Associated Press, May 28…
Lilongwe, Malawi – A judge on Wednesday approved Madonna’s adoption of a Malawian boy she met in an orphanage in 2006.
The 49-year-old pop star wasn’t in court for the ruling, which took Justice Andrew Nyirenda an hour to read. Nyirenda said he was satisfied that Madonna and her British filmmaker husband, Guy Ritchie, “are perfect parents” for David, who will be 3 in November….
Madonna and Ritchie have been caring for David in London.
“It’s now official, David is Madonna’s baby,” the singer’s Malawian lawyer, Alan Chinula, told reporters.
David’s mother died when he was a month old. His father, Yohane Banda, has said he believed he could not care for him alone, and that placing him in an orphanage was the best way to ensure David’s survival. The father has said he didn’t object to the adoption.
Yohane Banda said Wednesday he was glad the adoption was successful.
“I am glad it’s all over,” said the 33-year-old farmer, who ekes out a living growing tomatoes, maize and onions. “I am glad David has a new, good home.”
Critics had accused Madonna of using her celebrity status to circumvent Malawian adoption laws – allegations she denies.
Malawian law is fuzzy on foreign adoptions. Regulations stipulate only that prospective parents undergo an 18- to 24-month assessment period in Malawi, a rule that was bent when Madonna was allowed to take David to London.
Speaking to reporters last week at the Cannes Film Festival, Madonna said the criticism hurt.
“It was a big struggle, and I didn’t understand it,” she said, comparing the process to the pain of childbirth. “But in the end I rationalized that, when a woman has a child and goes through natural childbirth, she (also) suffers an enormous amount.”
Madonna and Ritchie also have a son, Rocco, 7, and Madonna has a daughter, Lourdes, 11.
Madonna met David while establishing charity projects in Malawi. She is funding her own and six other orphanages in the country.
Her Raising Malawi organization also announced that the singer is funding a multimillion-dollar academy for disadvantaged children in Malawi.
I Am Because We Are, a new documentary that Madonna produced and narrated, shows poverty and disease devastating the lives of Malawi’s children, and urges people to volunteer.
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Wouldn’t it be incredible if Madonna came out against abortion – since she makes herself to be so holier than thou. Does her Kabbalic religion forbid abortion?
I think it would have been even better if somehow Madonna could have used her millions to help David’s dad so he could become self-supporting and still have his son with him.
I’d be supportive of this if David ends up being a well brought up adult who goes back to his country and works to help make things better. As it is, I just don’t think the environment he will be raised in will have these results. Only time will tell.
I think it would have been even better if somehow Madonna could have used her millions to help David’s dad so he could become self-supporting and still have his son with him.
Not only do we have the attitude that if we DON’T want babies we can kill ’em, but now we have the attitude that if we DO want babies, we can take ’em.
I couldn’t agree more. I’m sure there are plenty of orphans that she could have adopted. What would it have cost her to set up Davids dad for life? A couple of thousand dollars?
mk: yes I agree
Madonna also could have probably set up a hospital in the area and a school and likely funded BOTH without missing the money.
Someone on a recnt post cited Madonna’s 14 or so abortions. If true, would that disqualify her as Jill’s Mother of the Year, and give that honor to Courney Love or Nicole Richie?
I vote Elizabeth for mother of the year! Yes!
It’s easy to be a great mother when you don’t want for anything and have a spouse to help you.
Mario she’s not part of that religion anymore. She said it cost too much money. Plus it’s not so trendy anymore.
How many people here would just pee in their pants if Catholicism became the new trendy religion. *Raises hand* Although I think we’d be surprised for different reasons.
Patricia, I don’t know. It’s a cross between Elizabeth and Bethany. Maybe we need a talent competition?
Jess: naw – just give it to ’em both. They can share! I forgot about Bethany. (my bad)
How many people here would just pee in their pants if Catholicism became the new trendy religion. *Raises hand* Although I think we’d be surprised for different reasons.
Posted by: Jess at June 2, 2008 11:07 AM
Miracles do happen…….
Catholicism is always in style, even more so now since all it’s doctrines are counter-cultural! – look at all the people converting in asia
What if Madonna had taken all the money she spent obtaining this baby, and the millions she undoubtedly will spend raising him, and had given it to the orphanage. Think of how many lives she could have improved.
But I guess then she wouldn’t be keeping up with the Jolie-Pitts in amassing brown orphan babies.
Bee
Patricia, I don’t know. It’s a cross between Elizabeth and Bethany. Maybe we need a talent competition?
Posted by: Jess at June 2, 2008 11:09 AM
Jess: naw – just give it to ’em both. They can share! I forgot about Bethany. (my bad)
Awww!
Sometimes throwing money at a place or an organization doesn’t ensure its improvement.
I think it’s great to try to do that, but some celebrities want to do something more personal. Donating to charity…. is a really lifeless act. A kind one, but a lifeless one. You don’t get to interact with the people you help, you don’t get to be there as the money is being used. Sometimes you don’t even know where that money is going. I’m sure Madonna wanted to do something a little closer to home by adopting this child.
And who says she didn’t help provide funding for the orphanage?
Ok Bethany, so which one am I? How about the lady with the purple hair and the sunglasses?
Edyt: I’m sorry but I just can’t see Madonna contributing anything positive to this child’s development, God forgive me.
Patricia, I’m sorry that you think so. The judge and David’s father thought otherwise, and fortunately their thoughts are the only ones that matter.
Edyt: who knows how much David’s father knows about Madonna and her lifestyle.
Secondly, just because a judge says so, doesn’t mean he necessarily knows his ass from his elbow – believe me I’ve been in court and seen quite abit. It’s said that things are decided “in the best interests of the child” but anyone with any experience in court knows that children have no rights and that it’s all about the adults – in this case the right of a very famous entertainer to get herself another kid.
And it’s rather unfortunate poor David had no one else to intercede for him. Let’s pray he has all of heaven’s angels watching over him.
Awww, you guys are the sweetest!
Can I still be Mother of the Year even though Gabriella is eating a Happy Meal right now? lol, I got her the apples instead of the fries!
Patricia, do you think the child would have been better off left in that orphanage?
I also balk at Madonna’s adoptive act as positive.
Her pornographic videos have created far too many “unwanted” pregnancies, “resolved” in different ways. Sending an innocent motherless child to that family is a crime on several levels– some already mentioned. Madonna changes idenditities as often as she adopts styles of clothes . Whether she’s costumed as a mother who forbids TV, an author of children’s books, or as a serious competitor to Angelina Jolie & Oprah for the global poverty awareness award, she is an active agent of evil.
“Her pornographic videos have created far too many “unwanted” pregnancies, “resolved” in different ways”
Really? Can you name one unwanted pregancy created by those videos?
Wow Topeka – judgemental much? any evidence to back up ANY of what you said? Do you have any evidence that changing her clothing and music style have any effect on her parenting ability? Would you also “balk” at her parenting of her biological child?
Congratulations Bethany and Elizabeth!! :)
Patricia – whoah…I agree with you about something… *world explodes*
The second I stepped foot in Africa, I fell in love with everything about it, and was grateful beyond imagination to be able to help out, even if just a teeny little bit. If I had Madonna’s money….*sigh*…. I’d be living there full time, running a school or an orphanage or a public health center. If I won the lottery, I’d have my bags packed before the check arrived. I wouldn’t be able to do what Madonna did – meaning I wouldn’t be able to look at an entire orphanage of children and walk out with ONE, knowing that ONE child would end up leading a life of opulence while god knows what happens to the others. I just know I couldn’t do it – especially knowing his Dad would have been more than happy to raise him if he’d been able to afford it.
Awww, you guys are the sweetest!
Can I still be Mother of the Year even though Gabriella is eating a Happy Meal right now? lol, I got her the apples instead of the fries!
Posted by: Elizabeth at June 2, 2008 1:24 PM
Absolutely!
:-D
Patricia, do you think the child would have been better off left in that orphanage?
Posted by: Edyt at June 2, 2008 1:33 PM
Spiritually yes, and likely physically as well. I can’t even begin to think of the number of demons this woman has attached to her. Ugh.
Ahhh… the world just unexploded.
Patricia – how is that ANY different from a pro choicer saying a child is better off being aborted?
Either way, its someone injecting their own personal opinions in to someone elses’ parenting choices and making value judgements about what THEY percieve to be better for him/her.
FTR, I disagree wholeheartedly with that notion from BOTH ends.
Also, I suggest actually going to an orphanage in Africa. You’d take back that statement about him being better off there. Because its patently false – opinions or not.
Now wait a minute!!!!!
I’ve got a 27 year old felon. A twenty six year old that lives in California with only two lawn chairs and a blow up mattress (at least he has running water in this apartment), a 22 year that’s pullin’ a Tommy Boy and starting his 7th year of College (and NO he’s not gonna be a doctor…wants to be a professional frisbee player…@@), an 18 year old that just a had a graduation party where the cake said “Congratulations on ALMOST Graduating”, and an 8 year old that eats his shirts. And let’s not forget the granddaughter that’s been raised by wolves!
I want to be nominated!
Amanada, Maybe not physically, but spiritually there are much worse places than an orphanage in Africa – and Madonna’s home is one of them IMO.
Patricia – how is that ANY different from a pro choicer saying a child is better off being aborted?
Elementary, really – David gets to live, the aborted child is DEAD. I want life to full for David and I don’t think Madonna is capable of that. He may not have Gucci loafers in Africa but I think he would be genuinely loved.
There are somethings in this world worth passing up Amanda – Madonna’s one of them.
no dice mk! If you are getting nominated I am too and I also want a nomination for “best wife” award to make up for the “bad wife” speech I got from my mother-in-law 4 years ago!!
lol
sorry that’s my “ex” mother-in-law (some things you just can’t KILL)
” David gets to live, the aborted child is DEAD. I want life to full for David and I don’t think Madonna is capable of that. He may not have Gucci loafers in Africa but I think he would be genuinely loved. ”
Oh really? Do you know what the life expectancy of an African orphan is? Especially a male? Late teens, early 20’s in most countries.
Ever heard of child armies? Where do you think they get their recruits? Have you ever even seen an orphanage in Africa? Who do you think is “genuinely loving” those kids? You know most of them end up developmentally delayed because they don’t get enough contact with people? In most of those places, the older orphans take care of the younger orphans. Malaria spreads like the cold, and digestive parasites are about as common as pollen allergies are here.
Not trying to sound condescending here Patricia, but perhaps you should actually step foot in one of those places before you go making judgements about whats best for a child being raised by a woman you only know through media coverage.
Even if Madonna is a terrible caretaker (which you don’t know, BTW), David will most likely be cared for by loving nannies. He will have opportunities handed to him on a silver platter — something he wouldn’t have had if he was in Africa. He will have the ability to go back to Africa and help other children SIMPLY because he is now Madonna’s child. Not all adopted kids could say that.
And Madonna made a documentary about the orphanages (as well as help fund them) so that all those kids could get more help/care from people who recognize the problem and want to help.
If you really want life for David, he has a much better chance of it now, as do all of the orphans in those orphanages. If he’d been left there, he could have died or become really sick, he could have never gotten a chance to help anyone else from the same circumstances. But now he does. And that’s more “life-giving” than leaving someone to rot in an orphanage, IMO.
Patricia,
Ah well. We’ll just have to have a “losers” party all by ourselves.
Bethany makes aprons, and home cooked meals, and bird mobiles and…
Rosie makes little baby shoes (MAN ARE THEY SWEET!)
Val makes banners for her church and hand embroidered totes…
I just make beds.
Well Amanda, I do know that the life expectancy for males is considerably lower but what do you want – to remove the entire male population of Africa?
The answer is to change those factors which affect life expectancy (some of which you mentioned).
The issue is whether Madonna should adopt this child. I say no, because she is poor mother and role model for a child of any age. In fact, I’m not in favour of ANY movie star or famous entertainer adopting simply because I don’t believe their lifestyle is stable enough. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman are one notable example.
At any rate, I have to go work. Ciao
mk:2:45: Patricia, Ah well. We’ll just have to have a “losers” party all by ourselves.
Bethany makes aprons, and home cooked meals, and bird mobiles and…
Rosie makes little baby shoes (MAN ARE THEY SWEET!)
Val makes banners for her church and hand embroidered totes…
I just make beds.
mk, You’ve got me beat. Per your previous post, you have my sympathy vote. :) Can I join your party?
Ooohhhh I see now.
So only parents who YOU believe are “stable” should be able to “allowed” to adopt children? Shouldn’t we extend that to only people who YOU believe are “stable” should be able to have their own biological children as well!? Whats the difference really? Or do you still want to make the argument that these kids are better off dying or languising in orphanages? Seriously?
Where do you come off pretending to know what kind of mother Madonna or Nicole Kidman is? You have NOOOO IDEA.
Should someone like you be able to decide based on what you read in the tabloids who is deserving of being able to adopt or have kids?
Well Gee wizz, that sounds like eugenics!
And thats going to help stop abortions how, exactly?
MK,
Your 8-year old eats shirts? WHOA!
:hands over Mother of the Year Award:
We’ll share it.
In fact, I’m not in favour of ANY movie star or famous entertainer adopting simply because I don’t believe their lifestyle is stable enough. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman are one notable example.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is HILARIOUS-
You’re a single mother with four kids…
In fact, I’m not in favour of ANY movie star or famous entertainer adopting simply because I don’t believe their lifestyle is stable enough. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman are one notable example.
That’s such a supercilious viewpoint! I’m sure any of those orphans would love to have those people adopt them, if only to have someone actually provide for their well-being. Yet you would rather they suffer malnutrition and disease than go to the hands of someone whose lifestyle you don’t approve of!
Like I said earlier, fortunately, you do not have the deciding vote.
Edyt – the girls I met in the orphanage in Tanzania all asked me about only ONE thing… what it was like to go to a real school.
Thats ALL they wanted. To be able to go to school. To have real text books. To be able to type on a computer.
But no, they should all just stay there in the orphanage… because its so “stable” there. *eyeroll*
Amanda,
It sounds like you had such an amazing, eye-opening experience there. I’ve been reading a lot about adoption and it sounds like the only people who have REALLY had a hard time adjusting are the parents! Most children seem genuinely grateful and happy to be in a place where they are loved and cared for. Many parents said their foreign-born children were happily well-adjusted within a matter of months.
Unless a couple is abusive, I don’t see any reason why an agency should deny certain people the ability to give orphans hundreds, if not thousands, of opportunities they would never have the access to if they remained in their home countries.
How did you end up traveling there? I’d love to get involved in a program that does outreach and aid in other countries. I’d love to write about those experiences.
Amanda,
have you read “Three Cups of Tea” yet? You might get an idea from that book what it would take to open a school…That guy did it, and he didn’t have enough money for a new shirt at the time!
mk: have you read “Three Cups of Tea” yet? You might get an idea from that book what it would take to open a school…
That sounds like a great story!
Edyt – the girls I met in the orphanage in Tanzania all asked me about only ONE thing… what it was like to go to a real school.
Thats ALL they wanted. To be able to go to school. To have real text books. To be able to type on a computer.
But no, they should all just stay there in the orphanage… because its so “stable” there. *eyeroll*
Oh Amanda, that is heartbreaking.