Madonna's Adoption

First I heard a rant about this on NPR, and now I've read a few articles. The crazy on NPR likened Madonna adopting a child from Africa to 'slavery' - which is beyond-absurd IMO.

Some people have claimed that laws / rules are getting bent for her, and that's not fair. They're probably right, she probably is getting star treatment and being allowed to adopt more quickly -- but is that a bad thing? Yeah - she's line jumping, but is there any way this child would not be better off getting out of the orphanage ASAP?

[DCJenn]

Everything that I've read seems to indicate that it was on the up and up until a rightish wing anti-adoption group got involved and claimed that she broke the rules. There were people who claimed that about Angelina Jolie when she adopted from Africa as well. I think there's a freakyness about white people adopting black kids, period. DC still prefers same race adoptions to the point where there are 100s of kids waiting for 'right colored' adoptive families and 100s of families who are waiting for the 'right colored' kids.

Any kid is better off with a loving family vs. orphanges or parents who can't or won't take care of them.

Trust me, if any of you guys saw the conditions of the orphanages in Russia...and they're even supposedly vastly improved. But yet the anti-foreign adoption bozos are making it more and more tough. Ukraine has stopped their program and Vietnam just reopened after a decade of being closed.

Jenn

rightish wing anti-adoption group got involved

Did not even know that there was such an animal as an "anti-adoption" group. Who could be opposed to giving children homes??

I'm replused by the insinuation that Madonna is snatching this child from his father. His father put him in an orphanage when his mother died. If the child had a loving home to go do, there are 100's of other children that could be adopted. I'm no huge Madonna fan or anything - but I fail to see why people feel the need to vilify her for opening her home to another child.

[DCJenn]

More specifically, they're usually anti-foreign adoption, which by the way, I totally get. BUT, if no one at home is stepping up to the plate, then why allow these kids to languish in an orphanage?

Russia, to their credit, is doing a great job of de-stigmatizing these kids as much as they can, and have made it much easier for Russians to adopt than it had been. Nonetheless, they still have hundred's of thousands of kids who need homes. (It's the old, 'if they've been given up there must me something wrong with them...)

and the AIDS babies in Africa? Just about kills me.

People suck, and people with an agenda that benefits no one suck more.

Jenn

I kind of think that's bunk. He's already been spoken to it on several occasions. His words are probably being twisted - or the questions are being phrased in just such a way.

He may have hoped that his son would return to the village - but if he's giving his son to an orphanage .... that's giving them away. And orphanages are so prevalent (and full of kids) in Africa ... people know how they work.

[DCJenn]

International adoption is so political. It's not Madonna, trust me. They just get to make it into the highlight of the week because it's Madonna. I'm 100% sure her lawyers did everything to the letter of the law.

Handing thousands of dollars to a woman in a bathrobe at 10pm in Moscow pretty much sealed my perspective...

Did I buy my kid? Did his mother really abandon him? Did the social worker really try to find the birth family? I have no idea- all I can do is trust the agency and the people who work for them. and in Russia, it's all about who you know and the relationships they have...

I'm quite sure Malawi is much the same.

Jenn

[rainbabies]

PR is her middle name.

i read on FOXnews that it is all Kabbalah related and Bill Clinton is the biggest name on her "ticket"

ETA:here is what i read.

Can you connect these dots? Madonna-Bill Clinton-Kabbalah-Anthony Pellicano and ... Africa?

Madonna’s disastrous public-relations effort in the small African country of Malawi only gets worse. I can tell you that she has started a new charitable foundation, Raising Malawi, to help orphans in that country, but that the whole thing is a front for the Kabbalah Centre in Hollywood.

To compound matters, Clinton's own foundation is right there on Madge's new Web site as her No. 1 supporter. The Clinton Foundation is the only one of Raising Malawi’s listed partners to have a usable link on the Web site. But the chief individual benefactress is the second wife of a Hollywood billionaire who hired jailed private detective Pellicano to spy on his first wife.

Don’t the people of Malawi have enough trouble?

The charity, Raising Malawi, is designed to spread the word of Philip Berg’s Kabbalah Centre, his own version of Kabbalah beliefs and mysticism, through Malawi’s orphaned children.

Indeed, the Web site for Raising Malawi, the new charity, tells the whole story. The entire organization is run by the Bergs as a kind of missionary program for Africa, with Madonna as the leading proselytizer.

Unlike U2’s Bono, who’s merely trying to send money to Africa by pushing the sales of red phones and T-shirts, Madonna is preaching as she disseminates her funds and largesse.

Madonna is already suffering worldwide criticism this week for taking a child away from its father and “adopting” it against Malawi law. Some say she’s “bought” a 1-year-old boy named David, and Tuesday there was news that she whisked the child out of Malawi under the cloak of secrecy. There is fresh news Wednesday that now Madonna may even want a Malawian girl to add to her collection.

But now it seems that the charity she’s set up in Malawi is just the infamous Kabbalah Centre of Hollywood under a different name. The listed founders of Raising Malawi are Michael and Monica Berg. He is described as the son of Philip Berg, founder of the Kabbalah Centre.

“In addition to physical support,” his bio reads, “Michael is committed to providing psychosocial relief through the Spirituality for Kids curriculum.” The latter organization is essentially Kabbalah for children, a group that Madonna endorses. The proceeds from her children’s books went to that branch of Berg’s organization.

Raising Malawi is run entirely by Spirituality for Kids, or Kabbalah, according to the site. Other leaders including SK’s Director of Development Philippe van den Bossche, SK’s Director of Research and Global Training Dr. Heath Grant,and “philanthropist” Hedi Gores, wife of Beverly Hills “barely a billionaire” leveraged-buyout king Alec Gores, who runs Gores Technology Group.

Hedi, however, is not Gores’ first wife. That would be Lisa Gores, whose name turned up on a list of people federal prosecutors in Los Angeles say were spied on by none other than jailed private-eye Pellicano. Prosecutors says she was spied on during her divorce from Gores.

Gores, according to the New York Times, is said to have hired Pellicano because he wanted to catch Lisa cheating with his brother, Tom, a business competitor (a third brother, Sam, runs the Paradigm Talent Agency in Hollywood and is married to a former soap-opera star). Alec Gores paid Pellicano $50,000, loaned him the same amount (which was not repaid) and treated the private investigator’s family to a Hawaiian vacation in exchange for services rendered.

Gores was represented in his divorce by Pellicano client Dennis Wasser, and is also represented by the Hollywood firm once known as Christensen, Miller, Fink. Lead partner Terry Christensen is the only lawyer under indictment in the Pellicano case so far. Louis "Skip" Miller is leaving the firm that he made famous.

Gores, prosecutors wrote in their Pellicano indictment, wiretapped his soon to be ex, Lisa, right before their divorce proceedings began. "On or about Jan. 8, 2001," the Pellicano indictment alleges, the detective and two co-defendants "intercepted, endeavored to intercept, and procured another person to intercept and endeavor to intercept, wire communications of Lisa Gores."

The connection between the Goreses and Kabbalah: They’re described as “primary donors” on the group’s Web site.

Alec Gores also carries another Hollywood connection. In 2004 Gores commissioned actor Tom Arnold to write and direct a $5-million feature film called "The Kid & I" starring Gores’ 18-year-old son, Eric, whose mother Gores allegedly wiretapped just three years earlier.

Eric Gores, like the character he plays in the movie, suffers from cerebral palsy. He co-starred in the vanity production with Joe Mantegna, Linda Hamilton, Jamie Lee Curtis and Shaquille O'Neal.

“The Kid & I” is notable for being the only film in which Arnold Schwarzenegger has appeared since becoming governor of California. Gores, by coincidence, donated $7,000 to the Republican Party, George W. Bush and failed California U.S. Senate candidate Bill Jones during that period.

The Goreses are not the only famous people supporting Raising Malawi, by the way. The Web site also lists Bryan Spears, brother of Britney; teen pop singer Aaron Carter and Guy Oseary, the head of Madonna’s record company and her business partner.

Oh, and put the kiddie prop back where you found it.

But then she'll get slammed for "giving up too easily" -- "see? she wasn't really looking to adopt a child in the first place." Or, if she gives him back and chooses another child, then they'll say she was "baby shopping". I think any child is better off with the opportunities she can provide than he would be in an orphanage in Africa. And his father isn't even saying he'd like to have David back ... just saying he 'thought' the orphanage was going to do the work of raising him (in a fantastic environment), and then he'd supposedly come home.

Yeah - she's a publicity hound, but she also can't just do something w/o being judged from all angles. They tried to do it quietly - even denied it was in the works several times.

[rainbabies]

Angelina persuaded Madonna to adopt African baby
22/10/06
By Mike Parker

MADONNA pulled out of adopting a US child just three months before whisking one-year-old Malawi boy David Banda out of Africa.

She and husband Guy Ritchie filled out an application at a California agency – and even underwent an evaluation process as adoptive parents.

But they abandoned plans to take a US baby from the Vista del Mar Child And Family Services Clinic after dinner with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.

The Hollywood couple, who adopted African daughter Zahara last year, told Madonna and Ritchie they should instead choose a Third World infant.

According to a source close to Jolie, the actress – who chose Africa again to give birth to her and Pitt’s natural daughter, Shiloh – pressed home the idea in a series of e-mails to Madonna and over dinner.

Last night, as the furore mounted over her “fast track” taking of David and her plans to adopt a little Malawian sister for him, the source revealed: “Both Brad and Angelina sold Madonna and Guy on the idea of creating a global family like theirs by taking kids out of Third World poverty.

“Angelina later said she e-mailed Madonna several times to offer advice and tell her how happy she and Brad are with Zahara and Maddox, the boy she took from Cambodia.”

UN goodwill ambassador Jolie also pointed out how Madonna could use her fame – and money – to raise the global profile of an impoverished nation.

At that point, Madonna, 48, and Ritchie, 38, abandoned plans to adopt from the Vista del Mar centre, which handles children from “ghetto” areas.

Yesterday a source there said: “They were well into the adoption process. They were fingerprinted and went through an interview as part of our evaluation procedures. We were surprised when they lost interest. They seemed incredibly keen.”

The couple had made little secret of plans earlier this year to find a US baby brother or sister for son Rocco, six, and Madonna’s 10-year-old daughter Lourdes, but after dinner with Pitt and Jolie, they decided on the Third World.

US agencies expressed anger at the decision. Merle Hoff-man, of Choices, said: “It’s like going to an animal rescue shelter and picking the cutest.”
Katie Ann McCubbin, from a west coast agency, added: “There are plenty of needy children in America she could have chosen. Her husband is British. Don’t they have babies to adopt there?”

Some 65 human rights groups have accused Madonna of flouting Malawian laws, which insist adoptive parents must stay in the country for 18 months so social workers can monitor them, but a Madonna insider said yesterday: “She swears she followed every procedure. She and Guy are upset this has prompted such an outcry.”

[pstone]

Really, all things about the 'best thing' for this particular child aside, isn't everyone sick of people adopting thrid world babies as a way to feel like they are saving the world?

I mean really, there are so many kids in the USA that need parents, caregivers, etc....I for one am not fooled, impressed, or even mildly interested in their selfish actions.

If these people really gave a crap they should stop getting their 'token, look how great I am toy kids' from exotic locations and just go back to buying prada shoes and leave us all alone.

Blah!

[DCJenn]

There are very good reasons why people choose to adopt from other countries, having been there done that....

1) Our system of foster care is horrible. It's very difficult to adopt from foster care, particularly if the parents are alive. The courts are still geared to think that returning a child to a birth parent is "the best thing for the child" when clearly some people don't deserve to be parents. and most of the time, the kids who are available are either special needs children (and most are severely retarded) or come in family groups.

2) Domestic adoption is very expensive- it's truly a 'sellers market' as crass as that sounds. People are very choosy (rightfully so) and adoptive parents have to sit back and chill while the birth mother smokes, drinks and does whatever she wants. and still often have to pay all of the medical expenses.

3) The trend in this country is for open adoptions with the birth mother or birth parents wanting to stay involved in the life of the child.

So, for us- international was the way to go.

Don't kid yourself that it's soooo easy to adopt here in the states. and don't automatically assume that it's to make themselves feel better or for publicity. Anyone who has ever seen an orphanage in a third world country would want to take them all home. and please, don't even think that donations actually make it to the kids. In Russia, often the orphanage directors sell the donated clothes at markets to make money to pay their staff. There's a huge problem with people funneling cash donations into their own pockets AND the politicians can rah, rah, rah all they want about people adopting in their own country but do nothing to improve the conditions in the orphanages.

It's an extremely complex issue that cannot be broken down to "Madonna did it for the publicity." Come on, is it so hard to imagine that she might actually like being a parent and since she is no longer able to have children of her own, is going the internaional adoption route. Why is this so hard to conceptualize?

Jenn

It's an extremely complex issue that cannot be broken down to "Madonna did it for the publicity." Come on, is it so hard to imagine that she might actually like being a parent and since she is no longer able to have children of her own, is going the internaional adoption route. Why is this so hard to conceptualize?
Jenn

Its not, to me at least. I completely agree.

[pstone]

A. I am sure you would want to take them all home, compassion is a universal trait, for the most part.

B. EVERYTHING Madana has ever done is for publicity, I don't, can't and won't give her the benifit of the doubt.

C. Having an adopted sister who wants nothing more then to find her birth parents, but can't. I think it is selfish to think adoptions should be closed. Sure I think she won't find 'herself' by finding her 'real' parents, but she does, and that makes it right for her.

D. I fully support people adopting children, I am just tired of hearing about mr. and ms. celebery and how it means they so wonderful.

[DCJenn]

Peter-

Re:closed and open adoptions. There's a huge difference between having information and the ability to meet, etc. and having the birth mother at Thanksgiving dinner.

We have several friends who have adopted domestically and all preferred to not have the birth parents involved. One family has agreed to provide pictures and updates through the lawyer. The other adopted from Foster Care and insisted that not only were the mother's rights terminated but so were everyone elses. Trust me, the thought of a parent or family member looming over head and threatening to take your child is the scariest thing I've ever experienced.

We found my husband's birth mother, don't forget- and she's forever grateful that we did. We correspond once a year or so, and we have some pretty important medical information now. Not every birth parent wants to be found though, especially from the older generations.

Jenn

[rainbabies]

two words...baby jessica. that is why, if we adopt, it will most likely be out of the country.