Before Madonna formally adopted her daughter Mercy from Malawi, Madonna spread around a significant amount of cash in-country, and made one huge promise: to build a $15 million school that would be a state-of-art facility… for girls. No boys. That was back in 2009, and shortly after that promise was made, Marcy got to come home with Madonna after months of international controversy. For a while, it looked like Madonna was going to keep her pledge to build the school – plans were drawn up, press releases were issued, photo ops were done. Now it looks like the initial plans have been scrapped. No $15 million school. In her defense, Madonna now wants to build and support “a series of secondary schools” in-country.
MADONNA is in hot water with the Malawian government after she scrapped plans to build a special school there. The Ray Of Light singer, 52, promised to fund an academy for underprivileged girls during a visit in 2009.
The facility was regarded as a gesture of goodwill after she adopted two orphans, DAVID BANDA and MERCY JAMES, from the poverty stricken African nation.
But plans to construct the £9million facility have suddenly been scrapped, and instead she intends to build a series of secondary schools across the country.
Speaking on her charity Raising Malawi’s website she said: “I want to reach thousands, not hundreds of girls.”
The Malawian education minister Peter Mutharika said of the decision: “We’d like to know why she has changed.”
The move has also upset residents who gave up ancestral land so plans could go ahead.
I never had her down as a brickie anyway…
[From The Sun]
Well… even though I think there are likely personal financial reasons why Madonna didn’t go ahead with the school – the woman is reportedly really, really cheap – I think Madge actually was trying to avoid any additional controversy. The whole $15 million school seemed like a whim anyway, a typical Madonna-copycat of Oprah’s South African girls’ school. One of the biggest critics of Madge’s school was Save the Children, who often pointed out that many schools could be built and maintained for thousands of kids, boys and girls, for the cost of one of Madge’s special school.
But still, it’s kind of funny to think of Madonna pulling out of the project because she’s totally over this “whim” of hers. Did I say “funny”? I meant really sad. “Charity is SO hard,” said Madonna, as she gets her gristle fanned by her latest lithe young boy-toy. “Why can’t I just announce things? Why do people expect me to follow through?!”
Photos courtesy of WENN & Fame.
Eww gristle
Well times are hard Madonna doesn’t have extra money to donate to Malawi. we are in a reccession.
“The move has also upset residents who gave up ancestral land so plans could go ahead.”
Sounds like she tricked them to get their land. When will we (black ppl) learn anything.
I’m sorry , those shoes are just distracting .
I agree many small projects, schools etc are better then one exclusive school. Look what a nightmare Oprah’s school turned out to be. BUT she shouldn’t have made promises and taken tribal land without first researching and planning out what she wanted to do.
Oh Madonna, why couldn’t you grow old gracefully? Her face scares me. But, her misguided attempts at youth scare me more.
I love Madonna as a performer. But, yeah, she’s never struck me as the greatest human being. She probably got tired of being called an Oprah copycat and is now just covering up the fact that she has no plan. Poorly played Madge, poorly played…
On a couple of positive notes though, I hope she does eventually follow through with some sort of school project. I think funding a bunch of functional schools actually is a better idea than funding one really exceptional school by itself. Also, her little boy is very cute.
Yet she had enough money to open an exclusive high-end gym in Mexico City ……..
Well times are hard Madonna doesn’t have extra money to donate to Malawi. we are in a reccession.
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Are you kidding? There is no recession for the filthy rich.
Liana I was joking. BTW I didn’t know about gym in Mexico City. Obviously an income generating gym is needed more than school. Joking again
the cost of the watch she’s wearing in the last photo could probably support a small third-world country for the better part of a year. that madonna, what a sensitive, aware gal.
These sorts of projects are not the sort of thing one can dabble in or announce because of the inspiration of the moment.
By the way Kaiser, the Saturday threads are a nice diversion from my mundane routine; unless of course you’re Wy-fiing from an exotic place like Burma, where this is just another Tuesday thread. I think it would be cool to live across one of the international date lines.
Well she tried for the good publicity from the kids but it didn’t work. I guess she thinks young latino men make her “hotter” in the news. She is beyond tacky.
Rita – I usually do some Sunday posts, but I’m going to be out most of the day tomorrow, so I just decided to do a few posts today. Enjoy!
@kaiser
Enjoy Burma!
This story is NOT true.
Continue your good work Madonna, love u
It sounds like she is still going ahead with building schools, just not one big fancy one.
She’s ugly inside and out.
If she really does intend on going ahead with the second plan, thus helping thousands more children, kudos. If this too dwindles out, she is the person I have always kind of presumed she was. Selfish.
what an utterly misleading accusation. instead of spending what is a shitload of money on one school in malawi; she’s instead obviously reconsidered how establishing middle schools across the country could provide opportunity for significantly more children.
unicef has a program in malawi where a donation of $48 will provide a desk seating 2 children — so they don’t have to sit on the classroom floor. imagine what those millions can do…
Selfish bitch ain’t called material girl for nothing.
Liana I was joking. BTW I didn’t know about gym in Mexico City. Obviously an income generating gym is needed more than school. Joking again
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Phew. You never know around here sometimes if people are being facetious or not.
Wasn’t she famously quoted as saying she basically took what she wanted from people and then moved on; that this was her basic MO? So no surprises here then.
I think it’s fairly obvious that this was intended as a not so subtle bribe/photo op that has already paid off (fashionable child grab) and thus run its course in M’s flinty eyes. Just flinging money in your wake as you quit the country with it’s children should shut them up, right? Fuck being personally invested, it puckers implants.
Eat the rich. How long do they get to keep doing this stuff?
Well, after all that publicity, dispute over the land, and getting the adoption to go through, she’d better do SOMETHING.
Oprah’s school was a nice idea, but after all the crap that occured after it was opened…is it really necessary to waste money on some glam school. The secondary schools for many is a much better idea. There may be other things tied to this. The reason there are countries in Africa so impoverished is cause of the gov. You can give money for charity, but you’ve gotta make sure it’s going to the people & not the gov. Charity is hard!!! How to spend your money…who to trust with it….and tons of other issues go into it. If you haven’t studied the issues that block charity or provide a real result ..you are clueless. Oprahs whole school got tainted with that child molestation going on there. Shouldve been more focused on making sure people were right for the school instead of feeding her I’m a giver ego.
She shouldve kept it private. Some things talk about…others…shut up about it. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone paid that child molester woman to mess with those girls to tarnish ‘Oprah’s school’.
I know Angelina supports and has schools in Kenya and Afghanistan. I am sure there are other celebs that are helping as well.
I think that it is possible to aid children in their education without making the school this grande place. The education is what is important not the building. Perhaps she is going to do something different. I think the Oprah school was a beautiful concept, but with the money that was spent she could have opened 100s of school all over Africa.
But I applaud Madonna for trying to help. I wonder if her starting the clothing line with Lola and opening the gyms may have took a lot more of her finances then she thought. I just hope she does a school period. Again it does not have to be a palace.
I think her adviser has a lot to do with this. I think he may have suggested to her to not go the Oprah route and that way she could actually assist a lot more children.
Vadge is getting the face she deserves.
And PS: those shoes may be “distracting” but at least they are distracting us from looking at her crotch, which is a good thing IMO.
What’s the problem? She gave it more thought and came up with a better plan. And it’s a good one. I don’t think she’s someone to go back on her word.
she officially skipped out of the payment plan for her kids then?!
I would love to hear Angie rip her hypocrisy apart, which I’m sure she’ll be doing in private when she hears about this. If I remember correctly, she had something to say about the legally questionable adoption process as well.
I HOPE that Madonna realized that building many schools as opposed to one is the reason she yanked the funding. Please let that be the reason because if it’s not then I will have lost all respect for her. I’m sorry but you don’t make a 15 million dollar promise and take people’s ANCESTRAL land only to go back on a whim and change your mind.Especially not when she has been financing her new film/vanity project for millions of dollars.
Like I said I hope she does something with the land and money….and didn’t simply just cut and run
What a boring and heartless woman.
I lost repect for her when she asked the public to donate to her planned shrine to herself. $15 million is chump change to her and she should honor her promise, especialy after all the controversy she caused over taking kids who had parent or famiies who wanted them.
I’ll never forget when MJ was being interviewed about his short relationship with Madonna and he referred to her as being “the least beautiful woman, inside and out.” Saying she was incredibly unsexy and self centered.
I always thought it was interesting that when MJ passed, Madonna gave a speech/ monologue about Jackson’s life and stardom at his service, especially since it seemed MJ didn’t think much of her.
Anyways, I find Madonna to be insanely two faced and overrated in looks/ talent/ political and charitable efficacy. This woman has gotten too much credit for not really accomplishing anything, but “pushing the envelope” with her sexuality.
This is a crock out of the Sun. She’s expanding her charity. She never said there would be no school in Malawi now, home of her children. I guarantee there will be a statement setting this gossip rag story straight.
Hotpockets, most of her music is not pushing the envelope sexually. Nonfans of Madonna grab on to her most famous songs doing that and leave out a huge catalogue of music that covers heartbreak, loss of a mother, spirituality, fame being empty ultimately, love, love of your child, and some damn great dance music. Her concerts are amazing that cover all types of music: dance, electronica, folk/acoustic guitar, ballads. You don’t have to like Madonna, but to dismiss her body of music I don’t get. I have a soft R&B album by her which is stunning.
I hope this story is incorrect, I really do. Whether she builds one school or twenty, it doesn’t matter to me. If she made an agreement to build this school when she adopted Mercy, then she should build the damned school, full stop. A deal is a deal.
I’m not talking about her music being sexual, but her music videos, her book “SEX” and all the provocative ads and shoots she has done since rising to stardom.
I love all of her music videos save one that crossed the line. I guess your line to cross is shorter than mine. LOL Express Yourself, Cherish, Papa Don’t Preach, True Blue, Bad Girl, Secret, Hung Up, Vogue, Like a Prayer, Oh Father, Take a Bow, Rain, Substitute for Love, Frozen, The Power of Goodbye, You’ll See. Love her videos.
And the Sex Book was bad, cheesy. I think she regrets it.
Madonna was provocative in pushing the envelope and that’s part of why I love her as an artist.
Madonna sucks. That is all.
I remember when she tried to ask people for money to support her school because she wasn’t going to be the one financially supporting the project.
Maybe people all looked at her and thought “you earned $120 for your last concert alone”. So there was never any funding. She could dig that change up from her couch cushions if she really wanted to. Maybe go do two or three private concerts for the billionaires… I guess a school in Africa doesn’t benefit her too much.
$15 million for a school in a third world country? Sounds to me like she realized that $14.8 million of that was about to be funneled into corrupt hands and she called a stop to it.
Ancestral lands… probably more like (and this is speaking from experience) lands that government officials expropriated or bought from the original clueless illiterate owners for nothing because they didn’t know that Madonna was planning on buying it and now they are hopping mad that they aren’t going to be able to sell that plot for 20 times the price, not to mention valuing a mango tree at $5000.
I can’t imagine how the kids must feel– nothing worse than empty promises.
celebrities should learn to not make such grandiose statements because 9 times out of 10 you can’t keep them! ugh
Fly by night flibbertygibbet. Fairweather friend. Soulless freak. She needs a karma smackdown.
“a karma smackdown”
I love that and I think her current face is all the karma smackdown one needs to witness. The old bitch is lookin’ like an old bitch these days.
I stumbled over this “…after she adopted two orphans…”
Um, as I recall, the fact that neither of them were actually orphans was part of the reason she had to spread all that money around (Well, that and those pesky laws).
Madonna has a heart of stone. Her lack of sincerity and manipulative nature (of the government and people of a developing country, no less), is vile. She got what she wanted, the child, and left. I’ve heard she a good mum, but that’s hard to believe.
What is the government of Malawi doing to help their own citizens?
For those saying she will still do some schools, time will tell. My advice is not to hold your breath, though.
Maybe she read Three Cups of Tea and realized Greg Mortensen had the right idea.
she could sell off her belongings and build 10 schools.
well you know Madge has a lot of boy-toys to support and the list keeps getting bigger and bigger. she cant be bothered by supporting a school.
Ugh, I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt.
If this article is true, then she made a mistake and is correcting it. Building a school for girls is all very nice, and it looks pretty good on paper, but maybe it is better that she spread the money around. I can’t stand her, but I commend her for using her money for good (that actually hurt to type – I really can’t stand her).
That being said, I hope the media hounds her for this. I hope they hold her accountable for every penny she promised Malawi. I hope they don’t rest until there is solid proof she donated everything she promised.
“my precious…..”
@17. Thanks Kat, simply well said… I couldn’t have said it any bettre with twice the words!
If anyone read the press release, Madonna isn’t abadoning Malawi. But she is parterning with a bigger chartiy organization to provide more schools across the country and will still work with those on the ground in Malawi that she has worked with. And Madonna, through her organization, has done quite a bit for Malawi already.
Neilson also noted the many achievements of Raising Malawi including the construction of a model orphan care center in partnership with Malawi’s largest community-based organization as well as assistance to thousands of HIV+ children and caregivers through life saving medical treatments and daily nutritious meals and nutrition supplements. Additional programming has also provided thousands of children and caregivers in the south of the country with access to clean water through the implementation of piped safe water and the construction of new boreholes.
She now has her fashion accessory, so there’s no need to throw money down the third world rathole. She learned her lesson from the Oprah incident.
It is not Madonna’s responsibility to build schools for this country.
I’m afraid many of these African countries have simply come to depend on aid from western countries and wealthy celebrities. They need to learn to be more self-sufficient!
It is not Madonna’s responsibility to build schools for this country
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It is if she said she would. It’s called personal accountability.
Her charity is now under the management of Trevor Neilson and his organization, and they advised her to take a different approach. She’s actually reportedly going to build 30 community based schools to help out thousands of children instead of just one exclusive mega school to help “only” 500. Why is that heartless, cruel, or awful? She’s doing MORE. She’s given millions and helped out hundreds of thousands of people in Malawi. How is that selfish? There wasn’t anything that confirmed she was abandoning the original site. Construction has been halted in the area while the new plans for the smaller schools are realized.
I hate how people automatically jump to conclusions and crucify her when she’s already done so much in Malawi. As for the “ancestral lands”-they were barren lands owned by the government. Madonna paid the government for them as she was requested to do, the villagers were offended they didn’t get a piece of that pie and demanded they get compensation or they would block the school from being built. Madonna then paid them for something the government said they never owned in the first place.
Looks like Madge is making some crazy decision lately. First this and then she makes Kelly Osborne the face of her fashion line? Bizarre, yet understandable. ONTDers are kind of on the fence about Osborne’s new role.
http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/55432898.html
Madonna should keep her promise, period.
Again, proof’s in the pudding. I’ll believe it when the schools are actually up and running.
@Bobster, she adopted two children, one which would have died without her because he had pneumonia and she got him the medical care he needed. Fashion accessories? Right. You rarely see her children photographed. When will people like you who criticize her for adopting children in need start adopting children yourselves that need a home? Never. You’re too busy dissing the celebrities who have opened their homes and hearts.
This really makes it look like the officials sold those children to her and then she didn’t pay the bill. She can plan worldwide tours and business ventures, but can’t get straight what kind of educational ventures she wants to donate? Sounds like good old fashioned bait and switch to me. I’ll bet she never donates anything. What a model for your children. Oh, and notice how she is now trying to collect from others for her projects.
Another “Mommie Dearest”? She loves them when they are babies, but when they get older she loses interest. She seems to spend more time with Lourdes than with any of the other children.
i highly recommend “Three Cups of Tea”
and although i do not like her self centered being madonna is better with building more schools than just one…
@ TXCinderella, I guess you’re in her home every day and night to know how much time she spends with her children. LOL
Jayna, there are thousands of American kids up for adoption. The ho went to Africa to purchase one so she could be “trendy”.
ugh, it is absoluetly ridiculous to say
“..there are thousands of American kids up for adoption. The ho went to Africa to purchase one so she could be “trendy”.
Some people see themselves as part of the whole world and do not define themselves by the place where they were born. I guess some people are brought up to ‘take care of their own and screw the rest..’
Whoa! What a selfish B-TCH move!
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