LONDON - US pop diva Madonna is under fire in Britain for her plans to adopt an African toddler, with her toughest critics dismissing her as a selfish star who could do much more to ease world poverty. Madonna, 48, who has a family home in London, left Malawi on a private plane on Friday after a judge granted her an 18-month interim order allowing her to take David Banda, the son of an illiterate farmer, out of the country. Mother to 10-year-old Lourdes and Rocco, who is six, Madonna is not the first star to expand her family by adopting children from developing countries.
In fact, US actress Mia Farrow was the first in the 1970s: She is the mother of 14 children, including 10 adopted from overseas, including countries like South Korea, Vietnam, and India. American Meg Ryan adopted a Chinese girl, while the Scottish actor Ewan McGregor, famous for his role in the film "Star Wars," gave his two children However, the adoptive parent who is perhaps best known is Angelina Jolie. In Cambodia, she adopted Maddox, four, and in Ethiopia, she became mother to Zahara, almost two, before giving birth to Shiloh, whose father is actor Brad Pitt.
To adopt 13-month-old David Banda, Madonna benefited from a fast-track adoption regime after spending nine days in Malawi and visited several orphanages, the British media reported. Usually, adoptive parents have to reside in the southeastern African country. Madonna has financed the construction of an orphanage and other projects worth about five million dollars in Malawi, one of the world's poorest countries.
The charity ActionAid here welcomed "initiatives that highlight the problem of over half a million children orphaned by Aids in Malawi. "Yet, whilst Madonna's adoption of baby David Banda may make a difference to one child, ActionAid believes there are better ways to help," the group "The very best way to help children affected by Aids is to keep their parents alive by giving them the anti-retroviral Aids drugs they need," it said. It also proposed sponsoring children.
"Child sponsorship helps not only the child, but the community they live in," it said. The charity Plan UK was also mildly critical. "There are not enough pop stars to adopt Malawi's one million Aids orphans," Plan UK chief executive Marie Staunton said.
"Adoption and orphanages are not the answer to their plight, it is grandmothers with more and more mouths to feed who need our help," she said. Some British members of parliament condemned what they said would confront the child with the shock of moving from poverty to enormous wealth. Madonna, who travelled to Malawi with her movie director husband Guy Ritchie as well as 10 others in her private jet, earned 50 million dollars last year (40 million euros).
Karen Gillon, a member of the autonomous Scottish Parliament and co-convenor of the cross-party group on Malawi, was scornful. "This smacks of celebrity-itis and I think it's more about Madonna's needs than the child's. Family is important in Malawi and I think this child belongs with his relatives," Gillon said.
"Perhaps the money she spends on this child would have been better invested in the whole community. There's something disquieting about walking into an orphanage and being able to pick a child out of the window, as it were." countries.
" A young woman adopted in Eritrea by British parents denounced the "arrogance" of Westerners who think they can offer poor Africans opportunities through adoption and benefit a few "lucky" children. "Only two words come to my mind: 'vanity project,'" said Hannah Pool in an opinion piece in the The Guardian newspaper. "Madge wants a baby, so she goes to Africa and 'saves one.
'" David's father rejoiced at the idea that his son was being adopted by a mega star, telling British media that Madonna, who lives between London and Los Angeles, had promised that However, a social worker who himself was adopted in Hong Kong told the weekly Observer newspaper how difficult it was for children adopted abroad to ever feel at home. "There is the feeling of displacement, the constant challenge to fit in somewhere and it lasts a lifetime," said Chris Atkins, social worker for the adoption support service "After Adoption.
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