People News
Madonna: Toys R Me
Oct 20, 2006, 10:51 GMT
10/17/2006 - Madonna - Madonna in London the Day her New Child David Banda is Arriving From Malawi - London, England - London, England © Photorazzi
Madonna has splashed out £15,000 on toys for her adopted son.
The 'Hung Up' singer treated 13-month-old David Banda to a child-sized electric car, a £5,000 rocking horse, giant cuddly toys and designer clothes.
She has also decorated his nursery with giant murals of tigers and lions and installed a surround-sound system.
A source told Britain's Daily Mail newspaper: "Madonna had great fun choosing baby David's toys and accessories, getting him all the latest, coolest gear. As well as a designer wardrobe, Madonna and Guy have laid his bed with cotton and cashmere sheets and a music system will pipe out classical music.
"Madonna's only stipulation was that there was no television in his room. As with her other two children, she doesn't want David growing up watching mundane rubbish."
News of Madonna's shopping spree shocked residents in the Malawian village where David was born. That amount of money could have paid for 10,000 chickens and 500 goats, or 10 mud huts.
David's father Yohane, who sent his son to an orphanage after his wife died, is hoping Madonna will rescue him from poverty.
Yohane, who earns 55p a day working on his onion crop, said: "In our Malawian culture, if you are wealthy and your relatives are poor, you assist in any way you can. I am not asking Madonna for anything, but when he is brought here and sees our poverty, he will certainly ask his mum to help."
The larger question is, why didn't the help go directly to the families including Yohane so they didn't have to give away their precious children to foreign strangers? Why do they have to wait for the baby David to grow up and "come back" to see the Malawian hardships-at the end of his natural fathers life?
Tickets to Madonna's recent 'Confessions' world tour cost up to £160 - the average Malawi villager earns £107 annually. Just think what the money fom just the toys could have brought via modernization and medical supplies to the village.
(C) BANG Media International
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Older Talkback
page: 1
What if the child was white would this be a big issue.
doesn't she 'splash' out on helping Baby David stay with his natural father-the baby is not an AIDs orphan-just an unlucky poor boy who hit the westerner celebrity child adoption lottery!
I'm a big believer in adoption. Nonetheless, there is a 'pet child' flavor here...
Um, she did donate $3M to help yes? Did anyone posting donate a dollar today? Put off a cup of coffee maybe?
Second, so many children up for adoption having living biological parents. Parents who chose to give them up so they have a chance at a better life. Of course it's sad for the bio parents, but do we charge that those adoptions are immoral? People are gagging that Madonna adopted a child from a parent unable to care for him, dear god if they knew how many other people do this, they'd be sick to their stomachs.
They are gagging at the idea that financial burden, hardship and the lack of an at home parent to supervise, has forced a parent to give up a child. But not a whisper was heard when the same burdens forced the same parent to put that same child into an orphanage. Quiet! If you listen carefully, you might be able to hear that same thing happening again right this moment to another child. And another child. Feel free to comment and share your outrage on that. Better yet, do something to help.
For the parents who would have adopted little girls from China, where the choice is made because of a financial burden. Do we demand that instead of adopting the little girl, they sponsor the parents of the child left at an orphange so that parents or her community can afford to raise her? Of course not!
To those principled objectors who claim that the precedent set is unseemly, I must ask what of the principle of 'first do no harm.' What life are you asking to condemn David to? What right do you have to superceed the will of his biological father? What makes you know more than he?
They claim that a double standard was applied to Madonna to fast track this adoption or worse to bend the law for her. Besides the fact that they have NOT proved this allegation. They seem very comfortable applying their own double standards to Madonna, David and Yohanne. This father is not smart or educated enough to know the meaning of adoption, unlike the thousands of parents who have made the same choice for their children. This adoptive parent should not adopt the child but instead sponsor the family and the community. This child is not as worthy to be adopted because he has a living parent. Forget that we ask none of this in any other adoption.
How could a white woman care for a black baby? What about the child's culture? Did we ask this question when people were adopting Romanian babies. Did we ask where would this child learn about being of Romanian heritage? No, because new mother and new child looked enough alike. This is not the first interracial adoption and not the first black-white adoption. Many families have coped and done very well. There is much help available to aid the adjustment. In the global village that David will grow up in, where he is only a plan ride away from his homeland, information like everything else will be abundant for him.
I think if she had adopted a white baby from a white father with the same basic reasons, no one would have cared. But latent racism and fears of colonialism from both the British with their history and the AID Agencies with their past ugly foibles and current paternalistic ideas are playing a role here. This is not the colonial days of forced adoptions. By every opportunity it appears this child will be encouraged to know his heritage.
The most comical argument against this adoption has got to be that Madonna has shown how much she cares for David already, by not being the one to fly him home. Devotion is not shown by the hurdles you go through, the time it takes, or the burdens you accept for the rest of your life. It's not shown by the risk you take with those two children you already love by welcoming a child with an unknown history into their lives. Nope that's not the true test. Ah, the standard of true mother's love is the plane ride. Forget that she tried to do so earlier. Forget that it was her daughter's birthday, and it's hardly the way to start a sibling relationship by skipping out on one child's birthday to ensure you are on the plane. There is only one child old enough to have hurt feelings from that.
This is the worst form of madness.
Apparently, you don't have to be a celebrity to be a hypocrite. But if you're not a celebrity, we'll just say you're being cynical.
WOW sp4,..'the pet flavor of the month' is exactly the kind of comment that would never have been elicited if this was a white baby, no matter what the cirumstances of his biological parents.
When the plight of Romanian children in orphanges got such a response from adoptive parents, were they proclaimed to be the new flavor or the new accessory? No, what the world said was that people who wanted to adopt a child were moved by the desperation of those children. So the Romanian orphanges are closed and people are seeing up close the desperation of children of a different race. And that is where we get the comments like 'pet' and 'flavor'. sp4, I agree with you somewhat. I don't think it's ADOPTION that you have a problem with.
Kudos to Madonna for rescuing one UNDERprivileged boy! Whatever her motives are she's taken on a life-long responsibility. She donated millions $$ to the Orphanage in Malawai! That said, I dunno know if Madonna WOULD have cared to help Africa if other White famous celebrities such as Bono, Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt hadn't made it a world famous cause! Again that said, Rich Black people around the world particularly in America(where over 80% of wealthy Blacks live) should step up more often!!! Other than the tireless efforts of Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover & Alicia Keys MORE AFRICAN AMERICANS NEED TO HELP OUT. What's very sad is we put down people like Angelina & Madonna who run to help our Black children BUT we do little to help! Wealthy Black's need to stop spending so much money on Bling Bling Bling & donate donate donate MORE. Are you listening P. Diddy & Jay-Z? Oprah,Bono Alicia & Angelina keep UP THE GOOD WORK!
YES helping less fortunate Blacks in America is a priority. But even though the system is failing our kids WE STILL ARE DAMN LUCKY TO HAVE A SOCIAL SYSTEM IN PLACE IN OUR COUNTRY. Africa doesn't have NOTHING NOTHING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! IT'S A TOTAL MESS & GETTING WORSE! BELIEVE WHAT ANGELINA, BONO & OPRAH ARE TELLING US.
OPRAH HAS STARTED A COUPLE OF SCHOOLS TO EDUCATE & EMPOWER PEOPLE OVER THERE.
Angelina said she had always wanted to adopt an African child right after she got Maddox, and YES this was even before her & BRAD hooked up! Her heart has always been in the right place.
I am sorry to say but would it be such a big deal if you or I the ordinary folks adopted a child from a third world country? I think not it would not be splashed all over the news. Further more for all the time money and energy announcing their good deed the money could have saved many more little lives.
page: 1
didierOct 20th, 2006 - 11:49:16
Madonna is a wonderful woman. What she is doing in Malawi is the evidence that she has a big big heart.
The rest is vacuity and jealousy and thus irrelevant.
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