Human Rights Organizations Cry, Madonna Adopting Babies from Non Material World
October 19th, 2006
Written By: Adam Sussman
It seems lately the “in” thing for famous people is the adoption of babies from underdeveloped nations. Although I can get quite cynical when I see the likes of Brad, Angelina and Madonna surrounding themselves by dozens of malnourished children on television whose parents make less in year then it costs us to buy a movie theater ticket. I still say good for them that they actually adopt these children.
Madonna has made the news this past week for wanting to adopt a child from Malawi. What has made news and is mind boggling is that a human rights organization has objected to this adoption and has brought legal action against the Malawi government for their decision to grant Madonna the right to adopt the orphan!
The government of Malawi has a rule which stipulates that in order to adopt a baby you must spend 18 months in the country to be evaluated. The Human Rights Consultative Committee is protesting Madonna’s adoption under the basis she received special treatment and did not have to fulfill the 18 months.
A representative of the coalition was quoted as saying “If Madonna really wants the child, she has to apply for a residency permit in Malawi,”
When I first heard the news the other day, I thought the Human Rights Consultative Committee was acting on behalf of the family but this is not the case.
The father of the child delivered the boy to an orphanage home after the child’s mother died and he was in full support of Madonna adopting the child. In addition to this according to Fox News, the couple had two other children who died of malaria in infancy.
The father was quoted as saying
“I was alone with a baby; I had no money, I couldn’t buy him milk, that’s why I surrendered him to the orphanage,” Banda told a reporter. “Orphanage life is no good. We leave kids there because we can’t look after them properly ourselves. Now my son has been taken by a kindhearted woman, these people [the Coalition] want to bring him back to the orphanage.”
My reason for taking time to write this post is I am bewildered over the actions of a group that calls themselves the Human Rights Consultative Committee.
Are these folks thinking rationally? It’s bad enough the Malawi government has a policy for parents who seek to adopt children requiring them to setup residency for 18 months, the Human Rights Consultative Committee wants to enforce this law even after it was rightfully exempted for Madonna.
Perhaps I am still jaded over the fact people were seriously concerned with the student who had sex with his teacher, Debra Lefave but here is a tip to any group that represents themselves as a Human Rights Group:
If a rich person visits a poor country where the children are dieing of Malaria, the orphanages are over populated with no electricity or running water and that person has been granted permission by the local town to adopt, you applaud the person and the town for thinking about the future welfare of the child.
That’s my idea of Human Rights!
October 22nd, 2006 03:02
I agree in part but I think the bit that worries people is that having lots of money somehow exempts you from any checks or balances in adopting a child. Madonna managed to get this cleared in 1-2 weeks.
We should be wary of getting to a point where rich people can pick up children as easily as duty free. I don’t see how Madonna could have taken the time to clear any other tests so we seem to be approving adoption solely on the basis of wealth not suitability?
October 25th, 2006 21:20
I have to disagree with you on this one, as you can’t really buy Human Rights. I grew up in a small town and my parents and I lived in a house with no running water, but there is no way I would have wanted to not live there with my own family (plus no one wanted to buy me, lol)
My wife and I adopted 3 children who were actually my wife’s nieces and nephew. They were in the California social system, and we live in TX.
It took almost a year before both states bureaucratic paperwork approved us and allowed us to have them, and that is with my wife and I both having steady jobs and no issues that would keep us from adopting.
Then once we had the kids we still had to undergo checks routinely from both California and Texas social care to make sure we were doing right by the kids.
Then the adoption itself was a year and a half after we had the children living with us due to delays on both states part and total lack of communication between the states. I was more educated in adoption law and social care than the people we dealt with by the time we had it all done.
I realize there are kids with problems in Africa, but how about all the British or American kids Madonna could have adopted and brought out of abusive foster homes and state run care where the left hand never seems to know what the right hand is doing?
My take on it is that she basically bought an African baby as a status symbol, which is totally ridiculous.
And who adopts a kid and then sends them out of the country without you, rich or no? That is just nuts, I feel so bad for that poor boy. Not to mention she left her own kids behind with ‘caretakers’. That just screams out mommy material to me.
Once my wife and I are more stable financially (she is in school to be a nurse right now), then we will adopt more kids, as we know that we can provide a difference for some of them.
April 15th, 2007 06:39
The thing most people seem to be missing is that international adoption is more like curing the symptoms than the disease.
From the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child.
“[…] inter-country adoption may be considered as an alternative means of child’s care, if the child cannot be placed in a foster or an adoptive family or cannot in any suitable manner be cared for in the child’s country of origin”
I think it is heartbreaking that we (as the Western world) first rob and exploit these countries and then, when these countries produce thousands of children that they can’t provided for, we choose to adopt them and in the worst case essentially rob them from their parents.
As Madonna has proven, it’s perfectly possible to help the people of Malawi also without adopting.
From the point of view of the child, the change is probably for the good, but adopting children is not a working solution for the long-term. You should vote for better presidents and congressmen who care and understand. And so should be people of Malawi.
August 25th, 2008 07:12
Human rights is the best cause to protect