Just like little Davie Banda, whose father was too poor to keep him but is still very much alive, Madonna has set her sites on a little Malawian girl who still has living family. Madonna has denied that a second adoption is in the works, but she said the same thing just before adopting David and her husband recently admitted it was a “possibility” that they would adopt again. This news was out two weeks ago, but photo agency Fame just published more family photos and news of Mercy, who is around two, today. Mercy stays at an orphanage and Madonna met her during a visit to Malawi last year, but she has a living grandmother and uncle who do not want her to leave the country. Here’s the back story:
However, the girl’s gran Lucy Chekechiwa, 60, said she has been asked repeatedly by officials if Mercy could be adopted by an “unidentified foreign family” — but was firmly against it.
Speaking from her village in Zomba District, Lucy said: “We know that it is Mercy who Madonna really wants. We heard it is because my granddaughter is such a beautiful, happy child.
“Twice I have told the adoption people that I do not want Mercy to go outside the country.
“But they keep on at us. Now they say that Mercy will be leaving us, but can return at age 18. Yet I might not be alive then.”
However, the girl’s gran Lucy Chekechiwa, 60, said she has been asked repeatedly by officials if Mercy could be adopted by an “unidentified foreign family” — but was firmly against it.
Speaking from her village in Zomba District, Lucy said: “We know that it is Mercy who Madonna really wants. We heard it is because my granddaughter is such a beautiful, happy child.
“Twice I have told the adoption people that I do not want Mercy to go outside the country.
“But they keep on at us. Now they say that Mercy will be leaving us, but can return at age 18. Yet I might not be alive then.”
The Sun revealed how Madge, who also has daughter Lourdes, 11, and son Rocco, eight, was given permission to adopt Mercy last August — but had to stop when the girl’s uncle John Nglanade, 36, blocked the application.
[From The Sun]
Now Mercy’s grandmother says the officials have stepped up the pressure to let her granddaughter be adopted. Malawian law dictates that prospective parents stay in the country for a year before adopting, but that didn’t stop Madonna the last time.
The grandmother of the three-year-old girl pop diva Madonna wants to adopt has complained that Malawian adoption officials are pestering her to allow the singer to adopt the girl. Lucy Chekechiwa claims she was visited by three officials from the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare just days after newspaper reports suggested the material girl had stepped up her efforts to give a home to her orphaned granddaughter Mercy James. Now after confirming that ‘a rich female singer’ wants to adopt Mercy, whose mother died during child birth, the 60-year-old claims she was even shown pictures of David Banda in a bid to show her the type of life Mercy could expect. “Three people from the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare were here on Wednesday trying to convince us of the benefits of giving up Mercy for adoption,” said 60-year-old Lucy Chekechiwa sitting in front of her mud-brick-thatch hut in Zomba, east of the commercial capital, Blantyre. “They told me a certain rich female singer from America.”
[From Fame Pictures photo description]
Just like with Davie, Madonna has set her sites on an adorable infant who could live with their family again and live pretty well if only Madonna would deem to have some livestock sent over. I know this is vastly simplifying the situation, but it’s basically true. She’s building orphanages over there, she could improve entire villages just as easily with the resources she has. Instead she wants to take children home with her and away from their families.
Meanwhile Madonna is on tour, and just performed in Nice, France last night. Her pre-stage preparations included a massage, facial, and warm up exercises with free weights.
Photos of Mercy’s family credit: BARM/Fame Pictures. Madonna is shown performing in Nice on 8/26/08.
I’m sorry but I don’t think you can demonize Madonna because she wants to give a full-time home & future to a child who has ‘family’ but still is in an orphange. Yes, she can just give money to the country but that won’t necessarily help this little girl. If the gran is so concerned about this kid, then why doesn’t she take care of her? I smell an anti-Madonna PR machine at work here.
The image of Madonna sitting on her throne speaks volumes. Clever CB. 8)
The fact is, many people in 3rd world countries have to put their children in orphanages temporarily so the children can get food and shelter. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want their kids. This child has a family that wants to see her on a regular basis, even if she is in an orphanage.
Madonna is stealing children from poor people. This is why a small but growing number of people are opposed to adoption. It exploits those who are impoverished.
I loved Madonna growing up, still like her music. As for her personally, I am sick of her.
Lola, I think the point behind the idea of her opening her own orphanages is she could make the conditions so much better for many more children, instead of one child being adopted and a family even more torn apart.
I am a bit torn. In Africa, family means a lot. This grandmother may seem unrealistic and foolish for denying this girl a future wealth and luxury but to her, she lost a daughter and fears losing a grand-daughter as well. She may not be able to feed her but it doesn’t mean she loves her less. Madonna should may be send money to the grand mother to feed and clothe her. There are plenty of other children in the orphanages she can adopt surely.
Another issue not pointed out, Madonna is 50! By the time this child is an adult she will be pushing 70 yrs old. There is a reason many countries do not allow adoptions when one or more of the parents is over 40. More and more people are pushing off parenthood until their forties, because science (and adoption) is helping them, yet they are ignoring the best interests of child.
Those pictures of Madonna make me feel a bit sick :-/ I agree with article, she can’t just take other people’s children away.
I think 50 should be the age limit for most adoptions, unless you are adopting an older child, say a 10 year old for example. Madonna wants to adopt toddlers/babies. She seems to want to think of herself as young. Maybe she still looks young, but she’s not. Of course, if she takes good care of her health, she could easily live to be in her 90s.
Oh, don’t get me started on this again. It makes me furious every time I read about it, how this rich scuzzbag can go into a country where it is notoriously difficult if not impossible for a foreigner to adopt, grease a few palms with money, and steal children from their family.
If she really wanted to help, she’d give Mercy’s family money to survive and to have Mercy at home with them. Or build more orphanages. Or maybe schools for the poor villages. She doesn’t need, at her age, to be taking on another child. Unfair to the child. Not that she would ever do any of the actual work of raising it.
With so many children all over Africa completely orphaned and homeless, why is Madonna so determined to have child who has a family?
My husband was on a peacekeeping mission in Sudan for six months about 2 years ago, in a small villiage called Wow (yeah, I know, intersting name), but he told me about the conditions of these poor children–hundreds of them who wandered the streets, eating garbage, no home, dying from disease, suffering from River blindness (which is a bacterial disease that there IS medication to prevent, but somehow never becomes available to these kids).
There are SO MANY kids who would be desperate for a home. I don’t disagree with Madonna adopting a child–I don’t care how old she is, she could make a magnificent difference in the life of a child, but why does she insist on focusing on children who have families who want them? (as opposed to, as Lola mentioned, helping the family be together?) Why not find a child (and it couldn’t be very hard) who is totally alone and needs a family?
Exactly, czarina.
It’s striking that there is insistence on this one child — presumably there are many others with no known family.
It seems that it’s because she is a “such a beautiful, happy child.” I guess Madonna wants a photogenic pre-happy child, rather than one who really needs her help and to be parented.
Disgusting. Pathetic. Children are not livestock to be picked out like animals. In regular adoptions, the local authorities match a child to a set of parents, and you can take it or leave it. It isn’t catalog shopping.
Madonna and the Malawi government should be ashamed of themselves.
OH MY GOD, Madonna! LOOK AT YOUR ARMS! You’ve become nothing more than a sinewy anatomical form from a science textbook. REALLY, wtf.
ok, I do certainly agree that choosing a child who has some relatives is not the best/most selfless thing–and I do think there is more than a kernel of truth in the fact that M is going for a photogenic child, I have to say this whole thing about her being too old is ageist and ridiculous! How dare you say a person is too old? How many kids are dumped/abandoned by younger parents. Age does not guarantee anything! Teenagers have dumped newborns in dumpsters. If there is no age too young to have a kid (and there SHOULD be but there is not) Older people are better prepared mentally and financially to have & support children. That’s just a fact.
And sorry to carp on the age issue BUT: Brad Pitt is 44 and still adopting. How come there is no mention anywhere ever of him being too old? Because he’s male? or because he’s not Madonna?
Well, obviously 44 is young than 50.
Why don’t you think of some 50+ year old male celebrities who are adopting. That would be better for a comparison.
I do think Madonna is collecting children now, like they are pets or something. It is sickening to see this go on. Maybe she wants to show the world what a humanitarian, selfless person she is. It is wrong to adopt a child for those reasons – to pump up your self image and make yourself look good in the public’s eyes.
And like other people have pointed out, Madonna seems determined to take children who already have families who want them. WHY???? Is it her raging ego? She is a real piece of work.
God, this is sickening. If this is true and she goes through with the adoption (despite the family’s pleas), it will only prove that she’s even more callous and empty than she seems now. Which is quite a feat.
And put the guitar down you fool, nobody believes you’re a real musician.
Syko
Oh, don’t get me started on this again. It makes me furious every time I read about it, how this rich scuzzbag can go into a country where it is notoriously difficult if not impossible for a foreigner to adopt, grease a few palms with money, and steal children from their family.
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Syko, I am shocked that you are very harsh on Madonna. You love Angelina and defend her here every day. In your eyes she can do no wrong. Do you know how she adopted Maddox? Do you know that both BBT and her father were strongly against it because of her mental state at the time and publicly spoke against it? That BBT did not want anything to do with her sordid adoption? Do you know that Maddox has living relatives too? a mother. That the agency she used was closed down because if child trafficking. That she used this agency because no orphanage in their right senses foreign or domestic would give her a child given her lifestyle and mental state at the time. That the head of that agency is in jail for child trafficking. In short, Maddox was trafficked like many children are from abroad. This is the reason adoptions by foreigners were suspended in Cambodia which jeopardised many parents who were in the process of adopting at the time.
Why else do you think Angelina requested the UN to become a goodwill ambassador? To help in her quest to adopt a foreign child.
I will not judge your harsh rhetoric against Madonna because it is entirely possible that you did not know about your hero Angelina and her less than holy deeds.
If you knew, then I can only say it is very hypocritical of you because Madonna has not even done half the harm that Angelina did.
I have always been an advocate for distance adoptions. Re-unite the child with their existing family members and send them money every month to help them, buy them clothes and pay their fees. That way, you help more children, they retain their culture and identity and they escape the horrible future that awaits them as celebrity children.
Obviously, that is in my own little perfect world. These kids are used as props/Brochures. That is why Madonna is insisting on a particular child. Who is pretty and can be dolled up for the press for PR.
This makes me so mad. For a girl who I thought grew up in Detroit with plenty of examples of what lengths people go to when they are living in poverty, she must have been walking around with her head up her ass!
She’s acting like there is only one well tempered cute child left in Malawi and she MUST HAVE THIS ONE.
Speaking of Malawi babies…has anyone seen or heard anything about David? I feel like he just disappeared. I’m a little worried for him now.
Horrible thought: What if she’s stealing his youth????
Lola,exactly how would Angelina and Brad get in this thread?
You are freaking obsessed.
I don’t adore A and B, and have said so many times. I could care less about them. I’ve said that many times too.
What I object to, and speak up against, is the rabid hatred you and your alter egos demonstrate and your sketchy “facts”.
Just pretend you don’t see me, okay?
I am really sickened by this and I am worried that people do not see why this is a dangerous premise. ANYONE who is rich should have the right to take a wanted child simply on finances? That is a scary scary statement. And I agree with the article here CB… she absolutely could change this childs life by providing livestock to the family if she was truly of “good” nature.
She makes me ill. When Oprah goes, she does not break up families. Not to say she is perfect or a saint either but she is HELPING the communities.
Madonna is using it as her personal orchard of adorable kids to take home and dress in designer outfits.
When will she start yelling NO MORE WIRE HANGERS?
Ugh. Self-important sack of shit, this one.
hello; LOL!!! Actually, I saw a picture recently of one of them out with David. He looked very cute.
As for Madonna, the only one stealing her youth is her plastic surgeon…and I have no doubt that guy is putting all his children through Ivy league universities on her money!!
If you go on the internet it is easy to get some statistics on how many AMERICAN children go to bed hungry every night in the land of plenty. Madonna should think about helping her own instead of owning her own children. She is very clever. She has made a career out of a small little electronically enhanced voice and turning herself into superslut. She should leave this African woman and her family alone. When a person says no they mean it. This is sick.
Wouldn’t it be nice if Madonna and other celebs would fund projects like a River Blindness Project instead of buying up kids as if they were the latest must-have fashion accessory?
They could do smallish projects that would truly make a difference in other peoples’ lives.
I think folks have made some excellent points about foreign adoptions and treating children like livestock.
What bothers me is that Madonna promised David’s father that he would be able to see him regularly. However, on her last trip to Malawi she canceled that visit. For someone as rich as she is, she has it within her means to make sure that they see each other regularly, but she doesn’t.
Why should another family let her take a child with no chance of seeing her again. Mercy’s grandmother is only 10 years older than Madonna; how would she feel if someone took Rocco from her?
I agree that the greater good would be served by her helping the local sustainable economies and families and not selecting new children like new pets or properties. Her first trip to “pick” David sounded to me like when I go out to find a new cat or fish. I believe she actually had boys lined up to pick from. Sounds like something from her 80’s Sex book period…
Honestly. Would you want YOUR kid adopted by Madonna? What the heck would a “typical” day be like? Can’t even begin to imagine it. Kind of a wake up call that the grandma thinks this is a bad idea, despite the Material Girl advantages. Hee hee.
The thing is, there are so many kids who literally will die in the streets with no help (who don’t even have the luxury of an orphanage). I almost don’t care about Madonna’s motives and lifestyle (assuming it is not abusive to the children), if she would just save even one of these poor children from a miserable life and early death.
Yes, orphanages would be wonderful, but it is not as easy as just handing over money. There is lots of governmental red tape, a lot of mistrust from the people who live in countries torn by civil war, it has to be staffed, the children fed forever; it’s not a one-time thing.
It would require a charitible foundation of some kind to set up, I would think.
Madonna could help individual families, but even she does not have the resources by herself to change things on a massive scale.
That’s why even one child at a time is worth something. But it’s frustrating that she wants a healthy, happy, pretty child…instead of one who is sick or desperate…who might not live without her help.
What family? They dumped her in an orphanage and probably don’t even bother visiting her. They seem like they want something out of the deal. Why doesn’t Madonna try to get a kid from a more receptive country? Maybe India or Ethiopia. There are other babies.
I’d venture to suggest that this kid, even living in abject poverty in Africa, would have a better future than the one she would have if she became Madonnas daughter.
You can’t tell me you can take a 2-year-old away from his or her family and not break that kid’s heart. It’s very wrong to tear a child from home at that age. This child is too old to understand what’s going on. It’s not fair that rich powerful people can just force things like this on others just because they want to.
That’s you, Madonna and Guy Ritchie. Not very spiritual of you.
Madonna wants a child who has family so she has someone to hand the child back to if he or she doesn’t live up to her Royal F’ing Highnessess expectations. I agree with Syko, she’s a scuzzbag…a self-centered, egotistical bitch. As so many have said help the child’s FAMILY raise her in her own country with her own people.
First and foremost, this child would be fulfilling some need in Madonna. She is NOT thinking about the child and the fact that she would be ripped from her culture and her grandmother. It’s like Madonna saw a new pair of shoes she wanted, “Oh, pretty, Madonna wants.” Add the fact that indeed, David’s father does not have frequent access to him as promised. This is another end run game by Madonna’s minions. It’s such an elitist and devious thing to do and mean spirited, to say the least, but then again, that’s Madonna. And can I just say that publicists are paid to be evil tricksters? Yes, I can.
Children who have loving families who want them…are not up for sale–whoops–I mean adoption.
There are MILLIONS of children in Africa with literally no one left alive who shares DNA with them. AIDS, poverty, and violence (depending on which part of the continent you visit) have devastated the futures of so many children.
Yet Madonna picks one with an uncle and grandmother who remember her parents and want to be with her as she grows up.
This woman is just beyond redemption or explanation.
And 50 is NOT a better age to be mentally prepared for young kids. Are you really serious? 50 is when you begin to wind down and re-center on yourself…toddlers don’t have “you” in their vocabulary.
Babies are best served by parents a couple decades younger. Sorry. That’s not age-ist. It’s reality.
When a friend of mine was a child, his father died suddenly. His mother found herself with 3 children she couldn’t support and family was either unable or unwilling to help. The only option she felt she had at the time was to put the kids in an orphanage for a period of time. She visited them frequently and never gave up her parental rights.
After some time, she was able to get a decent job and provide a home for her kids. She retrieved them from the orphanage and finish raising them on her own. She never once considered giving them up permanently. She loved them, and was forced by circumstances to do what she did at the time.
I guess the woman was fortunate that no celebrities decided they wanted any of her kids. This sounds like a similar situation; Madonna is trying to kidnap this child from her family, who have made it abundantly clear that they DO NOT want this adoption to happen. That should be the end of it.
Madonna is a horrible example of a human being and I hope very strongly that she is stopped from perpetrating this kidnapping.
Cindy Kennedy: If Madonna adopts a 6 year old its the same thing. M’s hubby is about 10 years younger than her, isn’t he? So why is her age even an issue–except that everyone is all up in arms that she’s 50 and still out there at all. And yes, a 50+ MALE adopting would be a better comparison. Are there ANY?!? It’s not about ‘best interests of the child’ anymore. It’s all about public perception. And that doesn’t help ANY kids, ANY where.
WTF is up with Madonna’s arms? She’s starting to look like the “transparent man” we used to use in life drawing to study anatomy! Her muscles are so well defined and her skin SOOOO thin, it’s downright CREEPY to look at. Sit still and eat a sandwich, honey. 😯
why is madonna so obsessed with buying african children away from their families? why not adopt a child who actually has no living family?
The internet surely is the end of civilization when every Dick, Tom and Harry can vent on issues that they know absolutely nothing about and vent and make demands of people they do not even know.
How come most of you are not up in arms about domestic adoptions where both parents are alive and yet a child is given up for adoption because the mother did not want the child.
I am from Africa and I can tell you that once you lose your parents, there is always a living relative who will take you in, but you are treated like a second class citizen and most parents give up their children to be maids for more well to do families, most times the child does not get education because she is the poor cousin.
For a family to put a child in an orphanage when there is already a scarcity for openings is very rare.
Madonna has to be controversial in every thing that she does, she could have gone to countries that have established adoption laws, but she has to ruin it for thousands of people who have been adopting.
As a mother, it breaks my hear to see adoption referred to as “collection.” I respect any body who will open up their homes and their hearts to a child who is in an orphanage. Raising children is not a walk in the park, it is not like buying something then changing your mind after a few months or a year, it is at least an 18 years commitment, to see it reduced to something to ridicule those who have made those choices by people who might not be parents and as such understand how difficult parenting is.
It is sad that this is what the world has come to. I still applaud any body who is willing to take on this task, and by the way adoption is not popular in most African countries because they say they want a child that is their blood, so how can you hate on those who see a child in need and is willing to love the child even if they are not blood. *shakes head in sadness* 🙁
Madonna should not be adopting a child with living relatives who want to keep her in their lives. This is so selfish. Its all about what Madonna wants. Not what anyone else wants.
The reality is, if a child has family that wants to keep her, the child is not available for adoption, period. Madonna needs to let go.
Yes, Lola, Madonna’s husband is a few years younger than her. But its well known that their marriage is on the rocks. They won’t last – celebrity marriages never do. That is a fact, not a judgment. So soon, Madonna will be raising that child by herself. Again – this is a fact, not a judgment.
Just because madonna has money doesn’t make her a good role model. These kids she seeks have morals, unlike her and I would NEVER let any of my kids around her. I’m only 30, but I know trash when I see it. She is stealing kids from the poor…and if she’s such a good samaritan then she should offer to help or bring the family too. Our rich people need to get out of these 3rd world countries for adoption and start supporting them instead…like Angelina Jolie. Whens the last time Madonna went on humanitarian aid trips and paid for the whole thing with her own money. She thinks this world is only a $$ sign away…they should kick her out when they see her coming and quit harrassing the family!
Tina– not up in arms about those domestic adoptions because the family has *agreed* to allow the child to be adopted. it appears here that this child’s family has not agreed to let her be adopted, so that should be the end of the story.
i absolutely love lola! she took the words right outta my mouth, i wanted to say the exact same thing but i resisted cause i didnt want to make this an angelina “i spread my legs for all my costars” jolie post. but thank God for lola! we need more people like her!
i was especially appauled with this sentence: If she really wanted to help, she’d give Mercy’s family money to survive and to have Mercy at home with them. Or build more orphanages. Or maybe schools for the poor villages. She doesn’t need, at her age, to be taking on another child. Unfair to the child. Not that she would ever do any of the actual work of raising it.
now now skyo, think before you type. your talking about your precious angie now!
Thanks Dumdee 😉
dumbdee;you always make the thread about AJ, why would this be any different? 🙄
…Christ on a cracker…
*shakes head in sadness and disbelief*
I’m ITCHING to point out spelling & grammar mistakes!!!!
Surely there are exceptions to the rule here?!!
I cannot stand her. She is the worst kind of hypocrite. She was a negative influnece to youth during the 80’s & early 90’s. I am sure there were plenty of parents that deemed her Sex book as pornographic trash and did not want their children viewing its contents. Yet, as a parent she won’t allow her kids to watch television because it is full of crap and harmful to them. After hearing an interview with her brother (yes, I think he is scummy for airing their dirty laundry)about how controlling she is with her children, I was left feeling that she is a crappy parent. Just because this overrated cow has tons of money, does not guarantee that she is a better or more nurturing parent over someone who is poor but has more common sense or love to give the child.
why not adopt an american born, you know why she can’t? she’s too old. besides you can’t buy children in the usa. she wants to be like brad and angie but she don’t know how.
Someone mentioned that Mercy’s family “threw her in an orphanage” while others offer that her family may have “placed” her there temporarily. Unlikely and irrelevant. As a child without living parents, Mercy qualifies for shelter in the orphanage, and her living relatives simply cannot afford to take her in. But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have her in their lives. The photos of the family together are evidence that Mercy’s grandmother and uncle do spend time with her. What is really at issue here is whether living extended family, non-custodial relatives should have a say in the adoption decision. And in a country like Malawi, poor and without well-established adoption laws, it seems that the “officials” are most interested in helping Madge get her way. Anyone smell a bribe?