Friday, October 13, 2006
Material Girl May Not Get EVERYTHING She Wants!
.....
Madonna adoption bid challenged
[This seems to be why "her people" have neither denied or refuted claims that she is trying to adopt a child]
A Malawian child rights group has said it wants to stop Madonna adopting a child from the African country.
The organisation, Eye of the Child, said it would seek a court injunction if the government did not halt its interim order approving the adoption.
"It's not like selling property," the group said in a statement.
Madonna is thought to have flown out of Malawi on Friday without the child, having filed adoption papers to adopt the one-year-old, called David Banda.
Passport wait
Eye of the Child said it was "about safeguarding the future of a human being who, because of age, cannot express an opinion".
Another Malawian human rights group, the Civil Liberties Committee, said it would back the Eye of the Child in its bid to stop the interim adoption approval.
Madonna and husband Guy Ritchie left Malawi without the child, a senior immigration officer told the Reuters news agency.
Madonna
Madonna recently finished her world Confessions tour
"The baby hasn't gone yet because immigration is still trying to process his passport," he said.
Malawian officials said they expected David to spend time with Madonna while waiting for final adoption approval - a process which could take up to two years.
Embassy officials will monitor how the child gets on, and a decision will be made based on their findings, according to a senior government official.
The child had been cared for at the Home of Hope Orphan Care Centre in a village close to the border with Zambia, after his mother died a month after his birth from related complications.
Concerns
The boy's father, Yohame Banda, has agreed to the adoption.
And the chief of Lipunga, the village where the child was born, said he also approved.
"If we didn't send David away to the orphanage we would have buried him," he said.
But the boy's uncle, Pofera Banda, said he wanted to know how the family would benefit if the adoption went through.
"We have seen other parents at the mission who have had their children adopted still living in their poverty.
"They have not seen their children - all they see is pictures sent to them. We don't want that to happen to this family," he said.
Madonna said she had travelled to the region with her husband, film-maker Guy Ritchie, to help fight poverty and the problem of HIV and Aids.
She has pledged to donate about $3m (£1.6m) to help 900,000 orphans in Malawi.
The 48-year-old already has two children, five-year-old son Rocco and nine-year-old daughter Lourdes.
-----------------
In addition to the concerns of her husband, Guy Ritche, reports that she was planning to adopt a Malawian child have prompted criticism from some quarters.
Eye of the Child, a private Malawian child advocacy group, issued an open letter to Madonna on Tuesday questioning whether foreign adoptions were in the best interests of children.
Maxwell Matewere, executive director of the group, told Reuters on Wednesday that the group was concerned that Malawi law, which prevents adoptions by foreigners, was being broken in Madonna's case.
"We are a little bit worried that our laws are being violated with this adoption," Matewere said. "I don't think violating the law is in the best interests of the child."
Government officials have said that they would consider giving Madonna a waiver or exemption allowing her to adopt a child.
----------------
TORONTO (CP) - The unkind have suggested celebrities like Madonna are now adopting African children to serve as a kind of living, breathing fashion accessory.
Canadian adoption experts also weighed in Thursday, describing the latest high-profile adoption by a superstar as a double-edged sword - it heightens awareness about the millions of Third World orphans, but also suggests preferential treatment for the wealthy and raises concerns about the emotional well-being of the children whose lives change dramatically once they move into the posh estates of their famous new families.
"Imagine yourself and how comfortable you'd be being permanently removed to another country and leaving everything behind: the sights, the smells, the sounds, the language, the food, everyone you know," Roberta Galbraith, executive director of the adoption agency Canadian Advocates for the Adoption of Children, or CAFAC, said Thursday from Minnedosa, Man.
"It's already disruptive enough to transition a child without all the hype, and my concern is these kids don't necessarily get to live a life that is normal."
The headline-grabbing news that Madonna has adopted a motherless year-old boy from Malawi is titillating not just to celebrity-watchers - people on adoption message boards are also talking about the Material Girl's newest acquisition.
"Some adult adopted children are joking: 'Why couldn't I have been adopted by Madonna?"' said Leceta Chisholm Guibault, a board member of the Adoption Council of Canada and the mother of two adopted children.
"Others are saying she got preferential treatment because of who she is. In my own opinion, I wonder if I'd have been approved to adopt a child if I'd published a sexually explicit book 10 years ago and said some of the outrageous things she's had to say over the years. I'm pretty sure that would have disqualified me. It just goes to show you the power that can come with being a celebrity."
JoAnne Conlin, an adoption licensee in Ottawa, said she has no fears that international adoptions by people like Angelina Jolie and Madonna will cause a run on Africa by would-be parents, simply because it's too expensive - it can cost as much as $50,000 to travel overseas and adopt a child, compared to about $12,000 to arrange a private adoption in Canada.
"This is largely something only the wealthy can afford to do," Conlin said. "Maybe it's a trendy thing for the rich and famous, but I hope not. Being a lifelong parent to a child of a different race is not easy, and hopefully they're getting lots of education and information on what's ahead for them. It's a lifelong journey, not a fashion trend."
Conlin points out another troubling fact: many people longing to be parents decide against adopting, for free, a ward of the Children's Aid Society once they learn of the child's background.
"So they choose to go the international route and they get absolutely no background, and in many cases it can be a much worse than the type of background you'd get here," she points out.
Chisholm Guibault wonders why Madonna didn't choose to put her immense wealth into providing for the family of the boy she's adopted, suggesting staying with his father and other family members in improved circumstances might have been better for him than removing him permanently from Malawi.
"Why not help the father support and raise his child and pour some money into improving the situation in Malawi - what a great gift that would have been," Chisholm Guibault said. "And then she could have adopted a true orphan, some child with absolutely no one and no prospects for a better life."
Madonna adoption bid challenged
[This seems to be why "her people" have neither denied or refuted claims that she is trying to adopt a child]
A Malawian child rights group has said it wants to stop Madonna adopting a child from the African country.
The organisation, Eye of the Child, said it would seek a court injunction if the government did not halt its interim order approving the adoption.
"It's not like selling property," the group said in a statement.
Madonna is thought to have flown out of Malawi on Friday without the child, having filed adoption papers to adopt the one-year-old, called David Banda.
Passport wait
Eye of the Child said it was "about safeguarding the future of a human being who, because of age, cannot express an opinion".
Another Malawian human rights group, the Civil Liberties Committee, said it would back the Eye of the Child in its bid to stop the interim adoption approval.
Madonna and husband Guy Ritchie left Malawi without the child, a senior immigration officer told the Reuters news agency.
Madonna
Madonna recently finished her world Confessions tour
"The baby hasn't gone yet because immigration is still trying to process his passport," he said.
Malawian officials said they expected David to spend time with Madonna while waiting for final adoption approval - a process which could take up to two years.
Embassy officials will monitor how the child gets on, and a decision will be made based on their findings, according to a senior government official.
The child had been cared for at the Home of Hope Orphan Care Centre in a village close to the border with Zambia, after his mother died a month after his birth from related complications.
Concerns
The boy's father, Yohame Banda, has agreed to the adoption.
And the chief of Lipunga, the village where the child was born, said he also approved.
"If we didn't send David away to the orphanage we would have buried him," he said.
But the boy's uncle, Pofera Banda, said he wanted to know how the family would benefit if the adoption went through.
"We have seen other parents at the mission who have had their children adopted still living in their poverty.
"They have not seen their children - all they see is pictures sent to them. We don't want that to happen to this family," he said.
Madonna said she had travelled to the region with her husband, film-maker Guy Ritchie, to help fight poverty and the problem of HIV and Aids.
She has pledged to donate about $3m (£1.6m) to help 900,000 orphans in Malawi.
The 48-year-old already has two children, five-year-old son Rocco and nine-year-old daughter Lourdes.
-----------------
In addition to the concerns of her husband, Guy Ritche, reports that she was planning to adopt a Malawian child have prompted criticism from some quarters.
Eye of the Child, a private Malawian child advocacy group, issued an open letter to Madonna on Tuesday questioning whether foreign adoptions were in the best interests of children.
Maxwell Matewere, executive director of the group, told Reuters on Wednesday that the group was concerned that Malawi law, which prevents adoptions by foreigners, was being broken in Madonna's case.
"We are a little bit worried that our laws are being violated with this adoption," Matewere said. "I don't think violating the law is in the best interests of the child."
Government officials have said that they would consider giving Madonna a waiver or exemption allowing her to adopt a child.
----------------
TORONTO (CP) - The unkind have suggested celebrities like Madonna are now adopting African children to serve as a kind of living, breathing fashion accessory.
Canadian adoption experts also weighed in Thursday, describing the latest high-profile adoption by a superstar as a double-edged sword - it heightens awareness about the millions of Third World orphans, but also suggests preferential treatment for the wealthy and raises concerns about the emotional well-being of the children whose lives change dramatically once they move into the posh estates of their famous new families.
"Imagine yourself and how comfortable you'd be being permanently removed to another country and leaving everything behind: the sights, the smells, the sounds, the language, the food, everyone you know," Roberta Galbraith, executive director of the adoption agency Canadian Advocates for the Adoption of Children, or CAFAC, said Thursday from Minnedosa, Man.
"It's already disruptive enough to transition a child without all the hype, and my concern is these kids don't necessarily get to live a life that is normal."
The headline-grabbing news that Madonna has adopted a motherless year-old boy from Malawi is titillating not just to celebrity-watchers - people on adoption message boards are also talking about the Material Girl's newest acquisition.
"Some adult adopted children are joking: 'Why couldn't I have been adopted by Madonna?"' said Leceta Chisholm Guibault, a board member of the Adoption Council of Canada and the mother of two adopted children.
"Others are saying she got preferential treatment because of who she is. In my own opinion, I wonder if I'd have been approved to adopt a child if I'd published a sexually explicit book 10 years ago and said some of the outrageous things she's had to say over the years. I'm pretty sure that would have disqualified me. It just goes to show you the power that can come with being a celebrity."
JoAnne Conlin, an adoption licensee in Ottawa, said she has no fears that international adoptions by people like Angelina Jolie and Madonna will cause a run on Africa by would-be parents, simply because it's too expensive - it can cost as much as $50,000 to travel overseas and adopt a child, compared to about $12,000 to arrange a private adoption in Canada.
"This is largely something only the wealthy can afford to do," Conlin said. "Maybe it's a trendy thing for the rich and famous, but I hope not. Being a lifelong parent to a child of a different race is not easy, and hopefully they're getting lots of education and information on what's ahead for them. It's a lifelong journey, not a fashion trend."
Conlin points out another troubling fact: many people longing to be parents decide against adopting, for free, a ward of the Children's Aid Society once they learn of the child's background.
"So they choose to go the international route and they get absolutely no background, and in many cases it can be a much worse than the type of background you'd get here," she points out.
Chisholm Guibault wonders why Madonna didn't choose to put her immense wealth into providing for the family of the boy she's adopted, suggesting staying with his father and other family members in improved circumstances might have been better for him than removing him permanently from Malawi.
"Why not help the father support and raise his child and pour some money into improving the situation in Malawi - what a great gift that would have been," Chisholm Guibault said. "And then she could have adopted a true orphan, some child with absolutely no one and no prospects for a better life."
# posted by Senior Mom @ 1:25 PM 
