LleeLlee said:

I don't get that ..... .....Sorry.....

myownprivateinsanity said:

Lest we cause a parisquake.

LleeLlee said:

at least she is putting her money where here mouth is.

donating 3million to building orphanages and taking of Malawi. Supporting Raising Malawi.org and the Clintonfoundation.org on her tour.

and she's getting people to talk about the issues underlying why a parent would give up their child to be raised outside of Africa.

ehuffnsd said:

Certainly a lot of people will benefit from this, but does that make it okay? Is that the price of a child, 3 million? Two for 5 million? Buy two, get third for free?

Considering Madonna's wealth, this is the equivalent outlay you or I would make buying a car.

fathermcmeekle said:

I guess this is one of those "damned if you do,damned if you don't" situations.She could donate her entire fortune to the poor people in Africa and folks would still be bitching about it,calling it a publicity stunt

"Certainly a lot of people will benefit from this,but does that make it okay?"


Uh...yes!

fathermcmeekle said:

As opposed to the "normal upbringing" the child would have had if Madonna hadn't adopted him? He would have been stuck in an orphanage most of his life,living in extreme poverty.I don't think it's a stretch to say that Madonna and Guy could give him a better life.

SoulAlive said:

So if you do enough good with one hand you can do as you please with the other?

SoulAlive said:

I think you need to re-read my post as a whole rather than the portions you've quoted me on above.

I'm saying the child's gone from one extreme situation into another.

The only thing I have a problem with is that this child has a family that loves him but cannot support him. They didn't just dump him in care without ever seeing him again. If Madonna connected with this child instantly it's besides the point. He shouldn't have been introduced to them in the first place seeing as they're going to take him out of the country. Why not take a real orphan?
[Edited 10/17/06 3:45am]

fathermcmeekle said:

true,but I think the child will be just fine.Based on what we know,Madonna is a very good,dedicated parent.She has actually mellowed out in recent years.

fathermcmeekle said:

Let's just be happy for this child and hope for the best,okay?

purplerein said:

The kid's father is in favor of Madonna adopting his son.

"the whole thing harkens back to slavery"


Yeah,Madonna and Guy are slavemasters,preparing to take their "slave" back to the plantation

SoulAlive said:

Maybe the rich and famous could buy up all the babies in Malawi and then there'd be no problem!

:fingerscrossed:

I have given this some thought and had a change of opinion from my original post.


There are millions of children worldwide who live in Poverty, Wartorn countries and slavery. The horrible and sad truth is Charities can not save them all and unless every person of every nation stood together to stop this, then it will probably never stop.

If Madonna takes this one child out of that negative environment and keeps them in a good loving environment and in turn the Child grows up with priviledges that they would not have had.Then that really is a good thing.

It isn't a resolution to the problem, but it is one less child suffering / struggling and hopefully the other factors she is bringing in will help too.

When Bob Geldof did the original Live Aid, someone said to me, if he was that bothered why doesn't he dip his hand in his own fortune and do something with his own money, well thats what Madonna has done and she is getting slated for it.....

As long as the Child is given a good life and not kept as a "Token" then I guess it is a good thing, even at least for that one child.

One last point - If someone down your street won 10 million on the Lottery and then did the same thing, how would we react?
[Edited 10/17/06 4:03am]

fathermcmeekle said:

That actually would be great that's certainly alot more effective than releasing a "We Are The World"-type single and thinking it's gonna make a difference.

SoulAlive said:

I think if Prince had sung on that track the world would be a differrent place today.

Such a complicated issue - it has me agreeing with one side of the argument, then the other.


I think, in some ways, David is right: Madonna is damned if she does, and damned if she doesn't. Whatever she does, it's always labelled a publicity stunt. And only the other day, there was a picture of Madge in Africa in the newspaper with the caption 'New single coming out??', which she, er, has. *I* don't think she's doing it for that reason but she's in the public eye and I guess you have to expect comments like that. There'll always be someone who questions your motives, unfortunately.


As for whether it should have happened or not - until I'm in the position of helping ONE person that way, I'm not going to judge. Is it better to leave the boy in his own country with his father and family nearby, but probably stuck in an orphanage? Or put him in the care of an extremely wealthy woman who can give him the sort of life most of us will never know, let alone imagine? My only concern is that might cause an even greater divide between what he has grown up in and what he will leave behind. A gulf between what he will come to know and the family he leaves behind. How do you bridge that gap? I'm sure Madonna would have considered these issues, you'd be silly not to.


Ultimately, if Madonna hadn't chosen this child, it probably would have been another one. I'm not saying that that's right but that's the reality. Or if she hadn't done it, someone else might have - and someone considerably less famous. Which would have attracted far less publicity and have far less people discussing the issue.

Personally, I think it's better to help at least one child than none at all. PLUS, she's putting money into the area which is what should be happening in the first place, really. If this only encourages more people to look at the issue and make donations - thereby helping more children and fighting poverty - then it's worth it for that alone, IMO.

But I can see why people are so strongly for or against it. I don't think it's as clear-cut as people would like it to be.

LleeLlee said:

No, as with everything in life, I would assume her motivations for doing this are mixed.