A human rights group named the Human Rights Consultative Committee is mounting a legal challenge to pop star Madonna's bid to adopt a baby boy from Malawi. The 14-month old baby boy, David, is now living with Madonna and her husband at their home in London. The Human Rights group is purportedly looking after the child's best interests.
Are they kidding me? The child's best interest? This little boy right now is probably the most fortunate individual in his dirt poor nation. He is going to be brought up in a lifestyle that would be the envy of millions of Americans. The best schools; the best education; all the toys he could wish for. And these do-gooders are concerned about him? Give me a break.
The majority of Americans simply have no concept of the level of poverty that exists in the sub-Sahara African countries. In America, a family of four earning less than two thousand dollars a month would be considered hard up. Well, in Malawi, most families subsist on around twenty dollars a month. The fortunate ones get one square meal a day – most, not even that. They live in appalling squalor. Many boys don't survive into their twenties. Many girls are sold into the flesh trade at fourteen or even younger. This would probably be David's lot if he remained in Malawi. Now he has a one in a million opportunity to escape all that: and they are concerned about his human rights?
I think some of these "altruistic" organizations get so caught up in their own hype, that they sometimes lose touch with reality. David is going to do just fine – in fact, he will do spectacularly well for himself. These "committees" should stop trying to hog the limelight and go fight for folk who really need their help.
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Comments: 21
I feel conflicted about this too. Is it better to be "poor little rich boy, poor little poor boy, poor little boy with other riches......? I also feel for his father; he must have some hellish mixed feelings--or maybe not?
was this child abducted from his family?
Did Madonna hold a gun to their heads and said, give me your child , here's some money..
sure you can talk about the value of family but what about people that can not afford to raise children , that are too ignorant to use birth control and can not feed all the babies they have got?
what is wrong with someone who wants to help this family feed the rest of their children?
you are prefectly right in arguing that people use their middle class values to judge a situation of dire poverty..there are thousands of African children dying every dayof poverty and disease and we in the western world what are we busy with? just look at the magazines headlines: movie stars, diets, looking slim..
i remember this woman in our baby group a decade ago trying to convince people not to vaccinate their babies against polio! what an absurd idea! despite the small risk this is an exemple of western cultural people ignorant of a reality where babies die of diseases such as polio because there are no vaccinations!!
we are far too spoiled and waste our time on nonsense such as movie stars.
i think madonna wanted to do a good deed but the media is making money out of this silly legal battle. too bad. good article !
Sadly once we express our thoughts it then becomes part of the political agenda, then we ourselves pass judgement.
The first lesson is Listening, the Second Understanding... ?.
She has also utterly failed in doing what she reportedly wanted to do - which was to shed light on the plight of children in Malawi. Now all anyone cares about is the legal struggle over "David."
By the way, she does help with money over there.
Of course the boy will want for nothing material, will be healthier and live an easier life with Madonna, and he will probably be very loved, too. AND he will very likely have some abandonment issues...