Madonna & Child

There are thousands of children in care in the UK awaiting adoption/fostering. There are even more in the USA. Yet Madonna flies all the way to Malawi to adopt a child.

Madonna and her supporters argue that she will give the child a life he would never receive in Malawi. She could give a British or American child this life but she doesn’t. Why?

Firstly, the latest celebrity craze is adopt a child from the developing world. This is as obscene as people from Essex wearing a “Fight Poverty” wristband. The suffering of billions of people has become a fashion statement. Secondly, in Malawi she can use her money to pick and choose the child, something she probably couldn’t do in the UK or USA.

The child in question may have lost his mother but he still has his father and many relatives, all of whom would make a better parent than an American pop star who could never have a full understanding of Malawian culture. The child will grow in a foreign culture, literally, constantly in the media’s gaze.

Madonna has bought-off the Malawian courts. Will she do the same to the British authorities?

Several of London’s finest were used to escort the child from Heathrow to Madonna’s plush home. On 21 January Peter Woodhams was stabbed near some shops in Canning Town, east London. Despite several telephone calls the police didn’t lift a finger. On 21 August he was shot dead outside the same shops. Clearly the level of public service you receive in Britain depends on your bank balance. It is merely a matter of formality before the British authorities rubber stamp this adoption.