Madonna’s in the news again
Posted By Sika on May 6, 2009
Madonna’s in the news again. I’m a little leery posting about this, because jeez peez, Madonna is already what 90% of everyone outside of Africa knows about Malawi, but I will boldly venture forth anyway.
If you were privy to my friends’ updates in facebook, you would know that many of them were extremely happy that Madonna was turned down when she came here to adopt Mercy*. For a lot of people, it was just nice to see Malawi abiding by its own, sensible, adoption laws**. It was nice to see Madonna not getting to bypass the laws put in place to protect Malawian children just because she has money and power. On one hand, I agree that Madonna should not be able to adopt Mercy for the following reasons:
1) Madonna said she wanted to raise Mercy to come back to Malawi and be an asset to women there. Look, I realize that she’s trying to say that she’s not stealing Malawi’s children and there probably is no answer she could give that won’t piss people off. But first of all, Mercy would be a western child. No matter how much Madonna tries to maintain Mercy and David’s cultural ties, they will still end up as western children, for the most part. Secondly, and in my mind more importantly, children are not philanthropic projects. If Madonna is to welcome Mercy into her life and home, it should be because Mercy will fit into the family. Not because Mercy can be a charity case or a tool for treating Malawi like a charity case.
2) She’d be breaking Malawian adoption laws, which are there for a reason. And you should not be able to corrupt your way out of them.
3) She isn’t tied enough to Malawi. For crying out loud, her documentary’s title came from a Zulu proverb. The Chewa love proverbs—she couldn’t find one that’s culturally appropriate to Chewa culture? Really? Are all Africans interchangeable?
4) I had others, but I’ve forgotten them.
But then there’s the flip side. It would probably be nice for David if there was another kid in the house who understood intimately his life. Because his life will be different than nearly every other child’s in the world. But also, Madonna could corrupt the adoption laws and very few people batted an eye, when she was married. But now she’s a fallen woman. She’s not properly in her place, and so now suddenly she’s an inappropriate mother. Mercy’s supposed bio dad is all distraught that Mercy might go to live with such a bad influence, even though he’s never even bothered to meet the girl.
I believe that the right decision is probably being made. I also believe that the right decision is probably being made for entirely regressive, sexist, gender biased reasons.
And if the opposite decision is made, if she wins her appeal, it’ll because she had enough money to ignore the law.
So what are we to do with that, then? Probably not blogging about it would be a good start. Oops.
*I still can’t frigging believe that Madonna flew in the day I flew out of Lilongwe and David flew out of Blantyre. And yet we both still missed her! Oh wait, I’m probably glad about that.
**You must have been living in the country; you must live in the country with the child for another (I think) two years. Basically, you can’t just come and take a kid away.
K. It’s baaad for Madonna to go baby shopping there, but you can at least do it right?
Chavez wants you to come home with someone he can babysit. You must remember this when you make your list of return items.
You’d be surprised how few teenagers are allowed to babysit these days. We started babysitting at least around 12-13 yrs old. Now people freak out about it. Silly people, kids are for kids!
Um, I’ll see if there’s any one who’d fit in my luggage.