Inter country adoption

Madonna's new child?

What do we think about this, I would be keen to know.

Perhaps you might consider firstly whether is it right that she use her money to take a child thousands of miles away from his father and family? Is there not a child in this country that needs her help?

What about the media scrum at Heathrow? The little child wrapped in a blanket? Is this the way we are now? That we have to poke our noses into every bit of celebrity business even when there is a 13mth old child involved?

I am happy to declare my interest at the outset, I was adopted as a baby but that was in the 60s when adoption was at its peak.

 

Maddona is adopting this child and giving it a better chance in life than most other children in this part of Africa. From listening to interviews the father put him into an orphanage because he could not support him and none of his family would help. Suddenly once news is announced that a rich lady is adopting him family members come out of the woodwork demanding their right to support this child wherever he lives. Once again all looking for free handouts.
This type of adoption has been going on for years. I worked in Jianxia in China. Turns out the place was a centre for the adoption of unwanted girl babies. Hotel full of couples straight & gay adopting these babies, without this adoption these girl babies would have been either abandoned or killed.
I consider these babies to be extremely fortunate.
As for Maddona.Why can't the media let her get on with her life
Final note on Africa. The whole country is a disaster zone, once prosperous countries, Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa are now deeply in debt and many people starving. This will continue until tribalism in government is wiped out. I am stopping my donations to any charity which sends money to these corrupt governments

 

I think that if the journo's had totally ignored it any attempt at adoption would have gone away.

Am I the only one that doesn't see this publicity stunt as being headline news, pushing important stuff away from the front page of the newspapers or lead story on the TV

IMHO its time that these so called celebs were relegated to the sort of magazines that the star struck idiots buy. I suspect that the vast majority of people couldn't care less about their contrived lives. The problem is that Celebs, Politicians and Journo's live off of each other, hence the high reporting of crap and poor interviewing of Pollies, how many times do you see a Journo asking the hard questions??

 

Personally I agree with everything that has been said so far about this. This particular adoption has become a three-ring circus only because Madonna is involved. Slim makes this point particularly well.

The sad reality is that there are hundreds of thousands of children throughout the world who have no parents for one reason or another. These “Forgotten Generations†are possibly one of the greatest tragedies of our time. Whilst I agree that as a civilised society we have some obligation to help our neighbours, we ought to look a little closer to home more often than we do. Like Slim I made the decision a few years back to support charities who do work in the UK rather than those working overseas. Harsh? Perhaps, but then I’d rather we tried to deal a little better with some of our own problems first.

My childhood followed a similar path to Rosie’s. I went through the whole social services and adoption experience in the late 60's. It’s not an easy thing for a child to experience and whilst the outcome in the longer term for me was positive, it is not always the case for so many others who are often forgotten by a society fixated on problems in Africa, the Middle East, South America, etc whilst not seeing those that are on their own doorstep.

SF

 

Am I being cynical in my supposition as to how the media knew that the child was being imported on that particular flight?

Also it was interesting to note the 4 police officers escorting the child. Not the usual armed officers seen at the airport, so were they drafted in from the law abiding, crime free area of Slough?????

 

All of the above, very valid points. However consider now if you will the Children Act of 1989 which requires whenever the court makes a decision about a child it should 'be in the best interests of the child'.

It is in the best interests of the child to grow up in luxury or in poverty? With a mother and father and 2 siblings or no family? To be educated and no doubt know all about his background or to have no opportunities ever to be say a doctor or a great peacekeeper? To be constantly exposed to the media spotlight or to live his life in the obscurity of an African orphanage?

I actually don't know the answers to those questions and look forward to more imput. Although I understand that this topic is not nearly as exciting as say slagging off other religions or bleating about how the country has gone to the gods because of mass immigration.

 

I have no problems with the adoption, its the resulting free publicity and the motive behind it that annoys me

Lunchtime ITN 7 minutes on this story, surely there are more important and more interesting things to report. Don't we have troops fighting in at least a couple of places?

 

Its disgusting.All these so called celebs adopting "foreign" babies,all its it has become is a Fashion Statement!Hasnt Angelina Jolie got a,to coin the words of Waynetta Slob,"A Brahn Baby",theres another so called star with one as well.Why couldnt she have adopted a British Kid??????

 

I like the way in that North Korea is preparing a second nuclear test, but the adoption of an African baby by Madonna takes higher precedence... where is the logic?

 

There is no logic mate , the worlds go'ing fxxxxxxxxxg mad , although the bairn will be better off & will get a much better education , not say'ing I agree with it , but if I was that bairn I know where I would like to be , :? :?

 

What about when he grow sup and there is a celeb party, Oh Hi, I am Madonna, here is my Husband Guy and that's my kid Umbobo who has grown up to be a cross between george of the jungle and snoop doggy dog.
What kind of fcuked up identity will a bush baby have being thrown into a civilised western household, let alone the never never land life of Madonna?
Reeks of a cluster fcuk to me, of course it is a fashion statement. I see poor kids and street urchins in Cambodia all the time and I give them change, that makes the difference to them going hungry but you have to draw the line, give them too much and it just messes them up. Yeah some of them are cute and they tug on the pump strings sometimes but you don't take them home for fcuks sake.

 

Unless your name is Paul Gadd.......

OK I apologise in advance for that one.

 

I don't have a problem with anyone wanting to adopt a child, especially one from such an obviously deprived & distressing background. What I question in my old cynical way is the manner in which this "transaction" was carried out.
Why when she had selected the child wasn't the collection of him/her carried out in secrecy without any publicity or furore? After all she has money oozing out of her , why couldn't one of her flunkeys have picked the child up without the press knowing.
I smell publicity stunt!!
Watch out for the Christmas Album with an African theme.

 

Guy Ritchie has said "that's the last time I give Madonna my credit card and tell her to go out and treat herself to a little black number".

 

tis all wrong to me, you adopt a baby from the same back ground as yourself, same country etc or not at all

 

Hear hear, common sense and all that. With the unfortunate children in these god-forsaken places the problems are there and should be dealt with there ie help establish sources of food and water even industry. With the kids yes there are countless children in need in UK , I'm sure, as there are here in Oz. Crazy mixed up world and the Madonna act does not help,

 

The problem with this suggestion is these days there are very few babies and young children available for adoption in this country. There should be no problems with the colour of the person adopted so long as the child is loved and well cared for. In the late 1980s I worked in Barrow in Furness and stayed in digs. The owners granddaughter attended a private school in the Lake District and occasionally used to stay with Grannie at weekends sometimes bringing a friend. One time the friend was the adopted daughter of David Bellamy (a celebrity of that time) The girl aged about 15 was black and seemed to me to be extremely happy with her situation and very well adjusted. No reason at all why inter-racial adoption should not work even when celebs are involved

 

Having contributed financially to oxfam for the last 21 years to supply drinking water to villages I am about to stop my contributions. Anyone who has been to Africa will have seen that most of the aid is creamed off by corrupt officials and very little actually gets to the people who need it. Until tribalism is eradicated Africa and its people will suffer. Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe we all extremely rich countries until they achieved Independence. At least Madonna is helping one child.
As for poor children here, with our welfare state there should't be poor children. What we have is irrisponsible parents spending that portion of the social security payment meant for their children on other things.

 

I suppose I was considering the depth of feeling these people have for their place of origin when they are older. It seems there is alway an invisible connection with perhaps a sense of loss for the place of birth and people of your own flesh and blood. Difficult to put into words but very powerful emotional feelings.I believe there is sometimes resentment too regardless of any benefits of the adoption

 

I don't really see it that way, if we are decent human beings then cultural or racial differences should not matter. It is easy toi criticise, and be cynical about this but as several have been saying at least this child has a decent chance of a good life.

I would really have been happier though if this had been after supporting this orphanage for a number of years rather than after a relatively short time.

Peter