Meanwhile, Madonna will resume her global tour, chanting: I will not be ignored, I will not be ignored, I will not be ignored. She’s back in the world media. And her Malawi mission of Mercy will be finalized by the time you read this.
[Global: Commentary]
There is something not right about Madonna, the 50-year-old pop singer, trying to snatch another African baby from the southern African nation of Malawi.
The last time she ventured to there was to go on a shopping expedition for her first African child, David Bunda, now three, who was adopted last year over some protests by his father and family. So the Material Mom returns again to cherry-pick another dark-skinned toy, a little African girl – Mercy.
Since the adoption of David, Madonna has divorced her second husband, filmmaker Guy Ritchie, while pursuing a highly publicized affair with the scandalized steroid-using Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez, busting up his marriage with his wife and two young girls.
Between stops on her tepid “Sticky and Sweet” tour, the headline-seeking cougar has been linked to Jesus Luz, her 22-year-old Brazilian boy toy, after jettisoning the gloriously self-centered A-Rod. She likes them fresh and exotic.
What’s the deal with Madonna? What’s the fuss all about? Madonna’s latest album, Hard Candy, tanked, selling fewer than 600,000 copies in the U.S. And that figure was one million fewer copies than her last album. It’s all about money. It’s about ambition.
You see, Madonna is a big corporation. Madonna is big business. Madonna does nothing unless it is in her own interests. Madonna knows that there is no such thing as bad publicity.
Madonna has to compete with Britney, Mariah, Rihanna, Mary J., and the highly versatile Beyonce. Madonna knows she is losing the battle of time and her former staunch fans are looking past her in her manic midlife crisis to younger, more trendy female entertainers.
A good publicity triumph like the troubled adoption of a four-your girl from Malawi, Mercy James, who still has a loving grandmother and a father very much alive, can do wonders for a fading singer.
The little girl’s mother died after she was born. Madonna will not be deterred. Her focus is global. Her need for affection and adulation is enormous and limitless. Both Mercy and David are the victims of this international kidnapping scheme. The Material Mom’s Malawi adventure has deep ramifications for all of the flesh profiteers who seek to exploit the continent of its main resource – its children, its future. Africa has an estimated 43 million orphaned children due to AIDS.
Under the adoption laws of Malawi, no single or divorced parents can be eligible to take a child. Also, there is an 18 to 24 month assessment period before the adoption can be finalized. Madonna donated millions of dollars to the Malawi government and assorted child projects in the poor nation so they could ignore the adoption laws banning foreigners. Nobody, including the locals or the world at large, respects the singer for doing this underhanded deal.
Most importantly, Africa doesn’t like this sham. It’s just another thing that fuels the anti-American sentiment that is heard in many quarters. More than a few African publications and officials have noted that these rich, white celebrities are buying these small, innocent Black children at bargain rates. Many of these orphans still have families or relatives. Several representatives say the children should not be taken abroad but rather cared for in their own communities, adding that it is vital to support the communities so that they can provide the necessities of the orphans. Help them help themselves. Many Africans worry that the orphans will be lost in the cultural blender of the larger societies and never return to their homeland to fulfill their potential or promise.
Also, the Material Mom has quite a few blemishes on her moral record, but she has wealth on her side. “Madonna has the status to use her profile to manipulate, to fast-track the process,” said Undule Mwakusungala, chairman of the Human Rights Consultative Commission.
Even Simon Chisaie, Malawi’s child welfare chief, had second thoughts on this matter. “We don’t only look at the material issues, but also the moral standing of prospective adoptive parents, because we don’t want our children’s morals to be corrupted.”
Lucy Chekechiwa, the 61-year-old grandmother of Mercy, remembers what happened to David Bunda and his father. “Why doesn’t this singer pick other children?” she recently told the London’s The Sun. “It is stealing, I want to go to court. I won’t let her go.”
To be sure, Mercy and Lucy don’t have a chance. Money talks. On Madonna’s current African safari, she brought little David back to his father, who once told Oprah that the peasant farmer was “a simple man.” David’s father, Yohane said he spent three hours with his boy but the he didn’t know who he was. That’s what happens when you’re a child taken away from your homeland and separated from your native land, language, traditions and culture.
Meanwhile, Madonna will resume her global tour, chanting: I will not be ignored, I will not be ignored, I will not be ignored. She’s back in the world media. And her Malawi mission of Mercy will be finalized by the time you read this.
