Once again, Madonna is making headlines for her eccentric behavior. First it was her “Like a Virgin” album that shocked the nation with its strong sexual theme. Then she pushed the envelope acting as a pregnant teenager and having sex with a black Jesus in two different music videos. “Justify My Love” was banned from MTV for images of homosexuality and S&M. In Puerto Rico she caused uproar by rubbing the country’s flag between her legs. She locked lips with Britney and Christina on stage and hung herself on a cross wearing a crown of thorns to perform”Live to Tell.”
Now Madonna’s gone and adopted a child from a third world country a la Angelina Jolie. The horror!
The pop-icon flew to the African nation Malawi in October where she is building an orphan care center with her foundation, Raising Malawi. Soon after her trip she announced that she and husband, Guy Ritchie, were adopting a 13-month-old boy named David Banda.
Now she is fighting critics from almost every continent. Malawi human rights groups are challenging their government’s decision to allow Madonna to adopt David. They claim that she used her wealth and celebrity to speed up the adoption process. British tabloids accused her of stealing the baby.
Even if her money did help bring David home faster, Madonna is still saving a life. That is what we need to focus on. If this were any normal U.S. citizen adopting an African baby, there would be almost no pandemonium. But the “Angelina-effect” and our obsession with celebrity gossip have distorted the real truth to the story.
Nobody cares when celebs spend billions on private jets, tropical islands and extravagant summer homes. It doesn’t matter to us if they waste away their fortunes on ridiculous and useless items or services. But since the media make us believe that babies are the hot A-list accessory right now, chaos breaks out when one of them adopts. Madonna is saving a life, not buying a Chihuahua to carry in a Louis Vuitton dog bag. Her personal life is none of our business, and we have no right or valid basis to scorn her adoption.
David’s father, Yohane Banda, is the only person who deserves to publicly voice his opinion about the adoption. He told BBC News that he initially thought Madonna would just “educate and take care of him.” However the BBC reports that Banda later to Time magazine he did not want to challenge the adoption.
“I don’t want my child, who is already gone, to come back,” Banda said. “I will be killing his future.”
Madonna did not just go and pick out a cute kid; she found a boy who needed help. David has survived malaria and tuberculosis, and when Madonna arrived he was extremely ill with pneumonia. David’s father could not even afford to feed him. His future only held more disease and devastation. Madonna is giving this boy a chance for a great life filled with education, health and happiness. Isn’t that what any parent would want for their child?
Yet once again the press is spinning a different story to make us believe that Madonna is some baby-snatching, attention-craving diva.
“The media is doing a great disservice to all the orphans of Africa by turning it into such a negative thing,” she told Oprah Winfrey. “It discourages other people from doing the same thing.”
Before the adoption, many Americans had never heard of Malawi. But Madonna has not only put the nation on the map, but she sets a greater example of human kind. Her international controversy reminds us to look outside our own country and save children suffering from poverty, malnutrition and disease.
She may be living in a material world, but with this gift of life Madonna proves that she is no longer just a “material girl.”
Annalise Ghiz is a senior journalism major. She can be reached at [email protected].
