I have no doubt Madonna's motives for adopting a one-year-old Malawian boy are only the noblest.
She gives time, energy, money, and access to the media to her Raising Malawi organization, dedicated to "offering lasting solutions to the orphans of Malawi," of whom there are over 1 million in a country of only 12 million due to the ravages of famine, drought, poverty, and diseases including HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and hepatitis.
Madonna has committed to generating at least $3 million to help Raising Malawi build an orphanage and child care center, which will benefit as many as 1,000 children a day. All the proceeds of her new book, The English Roses: Too Good to Be True, being published later this month, are going toward the cause.
So that's all really good - she is helping raise the standard of living and prospects for thousands of people in one of the most grim human habitats on earth. But it strikes me as a somewhat creepy, even emotionally selfish form of personal imperialism to then swoop down on this benighted land, Jolie-style, and pluck one—just one—impossibly lucky child from a short life (Malawian life expectancy: 40 years) of deprivation and pain and magically give him a life of rarefied luxury and privilege as the child—not just ward or beneficiary, but adopted child with all the emotional and physical usurpation that goes with that relationship—of one of the most famous women on earth.
Even more complicating, the boy isn't even really an orphan, though he has been living at the Home of Hope Orphan Care Center in Mchinji, a village near the Zambian border, since his mother died from complications of childbirth one month after the boy was born. His father is still alive and is in fact the one who broke the news of the adoption to the press, despite previous statements to the contrary by Madonna's spokesperson Liz Rosenberg.
"I am the father of David, who has been adopted," Yohame Banda, 32, told AP yesterday. "I am very very happy because as you can see there is poverty in this village and I know he will be very well looked after in America." Or actually, England, where Madonna, 48, now primarily lives with her husband, movie director Guy Ritchie, and their two children, Lourdes, 9, and Rocco, 5.
America and England look like identically impossible, fat, happy sugarplum fairy marshmallow worlds from the pit of starving, dusty, diseased Malawi.
Banda said his son, the chosen one, left the orphanage on Monday and was taken to the capital, Lilongwe, where Madonna and co. were staying at a luxury ranch after touring various orphanages in the southeastern Africa nation since October 4.
The man also said that he had been assured his son would return regularly to Malawi. "He will know his roots," said his father. And, he will know the guilt of knowing from whence he was randomly snatched.
"Why me?" he will ask, over and over.
In an open letter to Madonna published yesterday, Malawian child rights group Eye of the Child urged her to not adopt a child but to "support extended family systems, offer education and financial support for secondary school going orphans, improve community participation and other community-based approaches to care for orphans. We believe that this type of efforts do not create and develop a dependency syndrome."
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Matthew T. Sussman
Kabbalah Malawi. You just go right on ahead and try to say that.
2 - Eric Olsen
not a Mormon in sight
3 - Dawn
She and the rest of these "noblesse oblige" bitches really give real moms a bad name. What a publicity whore.
4 - Eric Olsen
she has never shied away from the limelight! I hope and assume this is something more than just another publicity grab, but it still creeps me out to a certain extent. I fear the child will end up feeling more like a symbol than a person
5 - Mistress La Spliffe
"She and the rest of these "noblesse oblige" bitches really give real moms a bad name. What a publicity whore."
Oh ouch. Sure she's a publicity whore, who, into the bargain, can't sing or act. I'll even lay a gentlemen's bet she just did it because Angelina Jolie did. And yeah, Eye of the Child's open letter made an undeniable point about helping community development being more generally helpful than playing magical tooth fairy to one unbelievably lucky kid.
But there's really no need for that 'noblesse oblige bitch' shit - honestly - it just makes you look like you have a guilt complex about not knowing Malawi even existed a week ago.
Surely we can hate the woman without hating on what she's doing to Malawi - I'm willing for her to have a few more months grasping at fame if a few more North Americans start understanding that the humanitarian crisis in Africa is something worth paying political attention to.
6 - Eric Olsen
Hi MLS, oh, I don't hate her and I agree it's net good if people are "enlightened." I surely knew dick about Malawi before doing this article, but it's making it be about HER by adopting a child that rubs me the wrong way.
7 - Dawn
My point exactly, can't she do it silently and without the pomp and circumstance. And yes, I knew that country names Malawi existed and I have zero guilt because I don't collect children like their are figurines and let nannies raise them. Just donate the money, support the cause and shut the hell up Madge.
8 - Eric Olsen
right on, woman
9 - thatajen
it's such a good thing that madonna help and adopt a child, whatever bad things some people say about madonna's adopting a child it's notimportant, as long as she will just continue to do her humanitarian cause... i knew she was enlightened
10 - relaton
It amazes me that 23 years after her start, there is still so much bitterness and envy over her success. Having recently seen her in concert here in Chicago ( I won tickets - I would never pay $350 a ticket), she is BY FAR the most talented performer I've ever seen. The energy she gives off is amazing and her so-called evil "Cross Stunt" actually dealt with the situation in Malawi. Good for her for actually doing something positive and god bless the jealous, low-lives who probably have never accomplished anything in their lives so they have to be jealous of others.
11 - putin
Not a big Madonna fan, but it's funny when people accuse her of being a "publicity whore" when I think all celebrities are. She's just better at it and it STILL works. It's just such a shame that people could look down on something so great that she did. I'm willing to become a fan now, just give me some good music or something.
12 - Roger Friedman
Eric:
Why give Madonna the attention? Don't you realize how desperate she is. Her "Confessions on a Dance Floor" tour was a total flop - she played to empty seats everywhere (unlike Mariah Carey, who actually filled up venues). Madonna is nothing but a talentless Kaballah freak who will do anything, even adopt a child, for publicity. She's completely over with and doesn't even know it.
Roger Friedman
Fox News
13 - Eric Olsen
Hi Roger, thanks for stopping by! I wouldn't agree that Madonna is talentless, even if it's only a talent for publicity (chuckle). I think she has often had a pretty great ear as well, and has surrounded herself with a lot of very fine talent. So those are talents also, I think.
She may very well be desperate for attention at this point, and I agree the adoption doesn't quite smell right. And she may well be "over" but she also appears to have the tenacity of a Cher, so I wouldn't assume she will stay "over."
14 - Mistress La Spliffe
Well, Eric - and Dawn - I DO hate Madonna. She's a pompous bitch whose music makes me physically ill.
But I think all this vitriol when the woman hasn't confirmed the adoption yet (let alone "collect children like their are figurines and let nannies raise them") or even spoken to the media about her trip to Malawi smacks of a moral inferiority complex.
I mean, all most people do is "shut the hell up" without "donating the money" and "supporting the cause" - but, you know, so far Madonna has actually done all three. And in any case, however this little circus finishes, she'll have done two.
How many have you done?
15 - sandra
I see Eric has responded to his Fox News God Roger Friedman. Eric: do a google search about Madonna's Confessions Tour: it was the most successful tour ever by a female artist with PERFECT attendance. Her album was number one in 41 countries and even in the US where it isn't getting airplay, it's headed towards double platinum.
16 - Eric Olsen
I guess I'm really confused: I'm not sure how much more positive I could have been about her activities regarding Malawi OTHER than the adoption.
Oh, and I contribute to various causes by writing about them. I am not in a position to do much else for the time being.
17 - Mistress La Spliffe
Sorry. That was a royal "you". Not in reference your article so much as Dawn's comments.
The thing is, it seems like while there's so much focus on how awful she is for (alledgedly) plucking a single child out of the gaping maw of extreme poverty and dumping it into the lap of austere luxury, putting the focus there is very conscious and almost sour-grapey choice from commentators who could be focussing on her more general and better documented efforts in Malawi.
18 - sandra
Eric, you did a great job. Your crime is actually believing and commenting on that Fox News Vegetable, Roger Friedman, who has been paid by Mariah's pr people to hype up Mariah (look at his comments about Mariah's tour selling well despite the fact that it was a flop).
19 - doesn't matter
ok ppl plz look at the story before you start making remarks about her being a media whore or what ever it may be...because she is a celeb what ever she does even if she takes a sh*t just like u n i if the media can catch it on tape they will make a stink out of it..so adopting a child they will make a stink out of it 2...because she is a celeb she is not obligated to SAVE the world because she has the money, its her choice 2 do what ever she wish with the money she works hard 2 get...like most of us here have a jobs we can all donate 1 penny a day sponsor a child but do we do that nope not at all..so for her to adopt a child its a big deal she has 2 adopt the whole community for it to look as if she is trying to help the situation..no matter what u do in life there is always some1 that is not satisfy and still wants you 2 do more...let her adopt the damn child doesn't matter if she takes on the whole community like wonder woman..she really doesn't have 2 do a damn thing but she chose 2 and she should get props for that atleast instead of us telling her what she should have done n what she must do 2 assist the situation..i think she has done her part...if we all were celebrities we all wouldn't be helping a whole community of poor people that we don't even kno or even adopting one for that matter we would be so consumed in our daily bullshit 2 even care..let her do what she is doing n just be glad with it who knows maybe one day that child will be wealthy enough 2 help out that whole community
20 - Two Lips
Mistress:'
Kudos to you. I have actually changed my tune on Madonna because of this. I hope it's all a publicity stunt cause it's a damn good one.
21 - me
Aren't there kids in her own country waiting to be adopted?
22 - Mattias
What's the difference between this adoption and "normal" ones...besides the fact that she's a star...none.
23 - Dawn
Ms. La Spliffle,
We donate in our own back yard and I give blood every chance I get, plus giving through our church, but don't mind us not bragging about it because we don't have millions and live in the lap of luxury.
Honestly, you couldn't be more off the mark on this one. This story isn't about Eric or myself, it's about Madonna so why did you drag our names into it?
When someone writes a post about our philanthropic endeavors, feel free to come over and flame to your hearts content - until then, why not keep it on topic.
24 - Eric Olsen
I am willing to reserve judgment and hope for the best for the boy - and what's different from a "normal" adoption? Pretty much everything, isn't it? It's Madonna, the boy has living family including his father, the boy couldn't be going to a much more "alien" and distant environment, it's Madonna, etc
25 - Mistress La Spliffe
Well - Dawn, I'm not trying to flame. But I am saying your vitriol towards Madonna seems out of context and inappropriate when she hasn't been bragging about what she's doing, not yet. Just doing it.
If I seem to be dragging your name into it, it's because I don't understand where the vitriol is coming from. Maybe it's too personal to be properly expressed on a forum like this. But calling her a bitch in relation to what she's doing in Malawi is really out of line. Especially when there are so many other ways to call her a bitch.