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Goody-goody gum drops! Madonna just might have Mercy!

Submitted by Kerry on Sun, 2008-09-07 16:20.

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Excuse my dripping sarcasm as I proudly post a piece relating to the Great Madam of African Adoptions.

Mother-Madonna, with all her money, seems to have gained favor within the adoption-circle once again.

The grandfather of Mercy James, the three-year-old Malawian girl who Madonna reportedly wants to adopt, has promised to turn things in favour of the singer.

Earlier this year, the 50-year-old singer had sent her aides to Malawi to meet James’ grandmother Lucy Chekechiwa.

However, the 64-year-old granny refused to sign the tot over to the pop star.

And other members of the family were also angry with the proposal.

Now, James’ grandfather Saxon Maunde, who is no longer married to Lucy, is angry that he wasn’t consulted over the proposed >adoption.

He has issued a plea to the singer, promising to negotiate the adoption himself.

“I really wish she could come back with that proposal,” the Daily Star quoted Maunde, as saying.

“If she can come back through me, there will be no problem because I will be able to explain to the family the benefits of adoption to the >child.

“Once they understand what adoption means, the child can be adopted without a problem,” he added.

Maunde said that he could get all parties to quickly agree to the adoption.

He claims it was rejected because the family did not understand what was being offered and may have felt they did not have enough time to talk it over.

“I wish they had involved me as the grandfather of the child for advice,” he said.

“They approached me about sending the child to the orphanage but on the adoption issue they did not,” they added.

 [From:  "New hope for Madonna in adoption bid}, Sept 7, 2008, timesofindia.indiatimes.com]

"Private negotiations" with the singer.  <hmmmm>.  Anyone care to tell me how this illustrates "the benefits of adoption"?  Since I am no longer a child, and my dripping sarcasm has now gone completely dry, I see/read  this type of situation/proposal as being far more dark, twisted, and shady than any formal adoption SHOULD be.

What was this family being offered, and what makes this family think The Great Madonna won't go elsewhere to invest her interests?

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Madonna's menopausal mania

Submitted by Niels on Sun, 2008-09-07 16:33.

So let me try to understand this: Mercy James has family.  There is more money spent on the news gathering around this purchase adoption than her entire upbringing would cost. Madonna has to negotiate the deal to get the girl. I understand why Madonna has chosen Malawi again, the country has no regulations whatsoever to protect their children from aging celebrities who need to rejuvinate themselves with ever more children. I think the story of Madonna and her human posessions has already been written by fellow expat Josephine Baker.

Sex, adoption, and the single-mom

Submitted by Kerry on Wed, 2009-03-25 15:45.

Well, it seems those in Malawi just might have some issues with Madonna's lifestyle choices now that she's a "free-woman".

This week's cringemaker concerns Madonna's attempts to absorb a second Malawian child, Mercy, into her family - but seems to have been sparked by weaselly inquiries by the New York Daily News.

First up, a senior official from Malawi's ministry of women and child welfare development turns their thoughts - or has their thoughts turned to - the recent severance of the Ciccone-Ritchies.

"Our official policy is that we do not encourage our children to be sent into broken homes", they tell the paper. But it is madam's relationships with roidrageous baseball star Alex Rodriguez and Brazilian supermodel/messiah hybrid Jesus Luz that appears to have drawn most disapproval.

"[Madonna's] relationships may negatively affect the adoption of Mercy", the official goes on obligingly. "The news she is linked to another woman's husband and a young man less than half her age makes us question her morals."  [From:  "Madonna's sex life may hinder Malawi adoption plans", Marina Hyde, March 24, 2009, http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz/2009/mar/24/madonna-sex-life-malawi-adoption]

Oddly enough, her religious beliefs (she was Catholic, but years ago converted to Kaballah... much like she was a resident in America, but became a full-time UK-er once she got married) does not bother the Christian nation decision-makers nearly as much as her sexcapades upset those considering/ruling permanant child-placement.

I'm thinking her money and celebrity will make it possible for her to get what she wants, regardless of criticism.  After all, what would the government do if they don't have Madonna Raising Malawi?

Yet another adoption update

Submitted by Kerry on Fri, 2009-03-27 22:39.

I don't know how reliable the source is, but according to latest reports, it seems Madonna, and her money, will be getting get Mercy, (in spite of so-called "life-style concerns").

Madonna's lawyer has confirmed the singer will file adoption papers in a Malawi court next week amid reports the toddler she tried to adopt last year has been moved from an orphanage to await collection by the star.

The singer will arrive in the African nation on Saturday to begin her quest to bring a second Malawian child into her family. She finalized the adoption of her son David Banda last year, after two years of legal wrangling.

She will then file official documents to begin the adoption process in a courthouse in the capital city of Lilongwe on Monday, according to her attorney Alan Chinula.

Chinula says, "We are expected to be in court on Monday to file papers for a possible adoption."

Meanwhile, 4-year-old Mercy James was reportedly removed from her orphanage near Blantyre, Malawi, earlier this week and subsequently placed under a nanny's care at Kumbali Lodge, outside Lilongwe, where the singer has stayed on previous visits.

A source tells Britain's Daily Mail, "Mercy has been handed over to Madonna's people, who are already at the lodge, and is being cared for by a nanny.  [From:  "Madonna's Attorney Confirms Malawi Adoption Trip", March 27, 2009, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/dailydish/detail?blogid=7&entry_id=37626]

Not surprising, is it?

Celebrities, Actions and Consequences

Submitted by Kerry on Sat, 2009-03-28 12:44.

While today's BBC article, Madonna urged to rethink adoption, begins with pleas made by Save the Children charity:

Save the Children spokesman Dominic Nutt told the BBC's Newshour programme: "For the most part so-called orphans in poor countries tend to have family still available to them, if not actually a parent still living.

"It is vital, we say, that children should not be taken abroad to be looked after but should be cared for in their own environment by their own community, ideally by their own family, particularly their extended family."

He said even if an orphaned child had no extended family, it was "much easier and better" to continue looking after them in their own country.

"The thing to do is to support the community, to support local agencies and charities who can look after the child so that the child is at least cared for in their community," he said.

The article ends with a brief story as to WHY Madonna wants to brings another sibling into David's life, and why this second adoption is so important to the pop-star.  More and more, Madonna is proving just how little she cares about adoption fall-out and how disturbing the politics behind international adoption really are:

Writing in response to e-mailed questions from Nation readers last week, Madonna said: "Many people - especially our Malawian friends - say that David should have a Malawian brother or sister.

"It's something I have been considering."

In 2006, critics accused the Malawian government of sidestepping laws banning foreign adoptions in order to allow the celebrity to take David home with her.

After the adoption was legalised, Madonna said the difficulties had arisen because "this adoption essentially was the beginning of the creation of adoption laws in Malawi".

She hoped it would make it easier for others to adopt from the country and explained: "I am the template or the role model, so to speak, for future adoptions."

If Madonna truly cared about the well-being of David and Mercy, she would have donated enough money to their villages so neither would have to be taken away and become part of an international media circus.  And she would have visited them frequently, proving she has not and will not forgot them or their country.  Instead, she's getting what she always wants (and gets) -- MORE publicity for herself and the controversy she likes to create.

Since Malawi claims each adoption  is based on "merit", after Mercy, then what?  What happens to the laws of adoption in Malawi?  Will it mean "anything is possible", IF you have the cash and/or celebrity?  Is this the message celebrities want to send when it relates to "a child's best interest"?  (Or do celebrities, like mother-Madonna, not care about their actions and their subsequent natural consequences?)

Perhaps Madonna (and "her people") should do some reading before her next visit to Malawi -- I suggest each in her adoption-posse read articles like, "No winners in Samoa adoption scandal" or "International Adoption The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; A South Pasific Perspective", especially where it states:

"Foreign adoption is not the solution [to poverty] but a tiny, insignificant band-aid on a huge, gaping wound, and an enormous amount of denial… International adoption has gone from the rescue of war orphans to the legal, and in many case illegal, trafficking of children. We are seeing the exploitation of poor women in undeveloped countries as they are encouraged to give up their children to fill the increasing needs of infertile couples in developed countries - which in turn fills the pockets of those who facilitate these arrangements."

Since the year 2000 United States based adoption agencies have been in existence in Samoa. The main adoption agencies are Focus on Children and Journey of the Heart. These organisations claim to be non profit and humanitarian organisations. Concerns, however, have been raised as to whether the sending of Samoan children for adoption mainly to the United States has become in fact a profitable business with allegations that these agencies collect large sums in fees from the American parents wanting to adopt children. And indeed, if there sole purpose were charitable one would have to question why they were not instead assisting these children to remain within their natural family unit.  [From:  http://poundpuplegacy.org/node/29775 ]

 

 

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