Monday, October 23, 2006
Madonna's African Jaunt
An Australian blogger says I can be 'fairly pompous'. I console myself with the thought that Australians can detect pomposity in a waffle iron. And, in fact, it is fear of sounding pompous that has so far stopped me from posting on the subject of Madonna and her adopted baby David Banda. (My possibly pompous views, incidentally, on Madonna the artist can be found here. ) Predictably, the adoption process has begun to turn tricky with David's father saying he didn't realise his child had gone for good. The pompous thing to say - and everybody has said it - is there is something grotesque about the likes of Madonna and Angelina Jolie grabbing cute African babies as if they were shopping for accessories at Prada. But, of course, this baby will not suffer poverty, disease and, almost certainly, an early death. David will enjoy all the fruits the first world can offer. If the individual life is of absolute value, then what Madonna has done is absolutely good. Yet Africa is diminished. The casual, impulsive embrace of the star makes it look as though nothing can be done for the continent apart from the selective removal of its inhabitants. Furthermore, both Madonna and the posturing Bono are shamed by the systematic intelligence, hard work and massive personal funds being put into Africa by Bill Gates. The truth is, I suspect, that Madonna in middle age is bored and she has discovered the idea of doing good as a distraction. Doing good is cool, but working as hard as Gates at doing good is not. Grabbing babies is simply a satisfactory compromise for the ageing star.
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
Why doesn't Madonna adopt a child from her own country or Britain? I would like to ask her that question. A child from Malawi may have less but in my experience children don't understand the concept of relative poverty. A suffering child is a suffering child. It is not pompous to point this out. It is not taking the high moral ground to question the motives of pop stars. They are not renowned for their subtlety of thought or by being motivated by anything other than self-promotion. In fact, most pop stars are like children themselves. Their ego-centrism is blinding.
ReplyDeleteLike children themselves - very true, Neil.
ReplyDeleteThe difference of adopting a child in England and one from Africa is the dangers the African child will almost certainly face. In theory the systems set up in England protect a child (albeit the system doesn't always work). In Africa AIDS is a harsh reality which "relative poverty" will bring - tell me a child which won't notice that?
ReplyDeleteI have no problem with stars adopting children from Africa or anywhere, without doubt they will be well looked after and loved. But i do agree, plucking a few lucky ones out is never a good alternative to funding the fantastic and worthwhile charities that save thousands on very little money available.
Tim, I think you will agree that the child being abused and neglected in England (and there are many who the social services never get to and once they do don't always look after very well) will certainly not be counting his lucky stars that he is not living in abject poverty in Africa. Often, what is relative to adults is absolute to children. Ask a child who has been taken into care in England does he feel lucky. Adoption of children from the Third World by Westerners is an exercise in vanity. Where poverty is so endemic, one child is but a drop in the ocean. It is not the way to help.
ReplyDeleteAs a recent case here in Phila. showed, it is not easy in some cities for white people to adopt a black child. Adoption authorities feel this isn't in the black child's best interest and will cause him/her problems down the road when real racism raises its head outside the family.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think the above is a load of crap -- anyone willing to take and raise a child, save them from the awful foster system we have (at least hereabouts), deserves praise and support. Esp., in the case of the African American kid, if there are no suitable black parents coming forward to adopt.
Surely you have this same paradox operating in Britain? Or maybe not. America's focus has been the color line for 250 years; perhaps Britain's is the religion line: Catholic/Protestant; Muslim/Christian.
As for Madonna: It probably bugged her that Brangelina got all that attention; she wanted some too.
There's also the issues of the very quick cutting thru of red-tape in the treatment of a star's adoption process and the toruous procedures ordinary people have to go thru. I would imagine this is more than grating for ordinary folk. My parents adopted a child with spina bifida from Kazakhstan( such disabilities very common there as a result of heinous nuclear testin in the area by the Soviet Union) and the authorites here in Ireland were generally at best, extraordinarily unhelpful and thoughtlesss in their attitudes. I know they find the idea of a star whisking a child away virtually at will to be a bit much when contrasted with their own experience. But I'm sure it's all for the best in this best of all possible worlds.
ReplyDeleteTo be candid, Andrew, I think your optimism is misplaced. Many Enlightenment thinkers thought they could see the human race advancing along the path of truth, virtue and happiness (although Voltaire wasn't one). I believe the past two centuries have shown us that progress is not what it used to be and that left to our own devices we may end up back in the Stone Age, or worse. You may be asking yourself now: what's this guy on about? Well, perhaps the fact that we are debating the behaviour of Madonna and world leaders are meeting the likes of Bono has something to do with it. It makes me nervous.
ReplyDeleteI think your apprehensions are more than justified, Neil. I've started wondering what the hell did I do to deserve ending up on this planetary lunatic asylum.
ReplyDeleteI dunno, Neil and Andrew. What's new here is that Madonna & Bono are trying to do *good*. As far as orphans go, was it not Jean-Jacques Rousseau who dumped his own kids at the foundling hospital? I can probably come up with another twenty examples of famous folk who were egregious parents, esp. before the invention of childhood in the 19th century. Praise be to Madonna, Angelina Jolie, and every celeb willing to take care of a kid not her own.
ReplyDelete(English lit. specialists -- am I remembering correctly that William Wordsworth had a little basement room at Dove Cottage where he kept the infant Wordsworths locked up when he was trying to write? And was it Byron who took his daughter from doting mom Clare Clairmont and stuck her in a boarding school where she died? Only Percy Bysshe seems to have really loved his kids among that batch of Romantics, and his own father was rotten to him....)
I seem to remember Shelley being pretty appalling to one or two close to him, not his kids though. The celebrity doing good thing is fine ,Susuan. It's the insane dual existence of commoner and celebrity to whom two completely diffferent set of rules apply. Perhaps Michael Jackson ought to be allowed to adopt a few unfortunates. He is very famous after all.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't really matter whether or not Rousseau was a good father. And perhaps it doesn't really matter whether Madonna is doing a noble thing or not. However, it does matter that pop stars preoccupy us so much when there are far more important things to be thinking about. Moreover, Bono may be a thoroughly decent guy with good motives. But again, in this age of increasing chaos and political instability (not to mention ecological crisis) is it not a little disconcerting that pop stars are to the forefront in influencing our moral thinking? I would be a lot happier if Enlightenment philosophers and others (even those who were appalling fathers) were the ones stimulating debate and informing political decision-making.
ReplyDeleteAging has no e.
ReplyDeleteI'm so amused each time I see what is the next thing that Madonna did which strikes the tabloids headlines!!! However, she remains a greeeaaaat artist, and I really love all she did, and all she's still doing... Just keep on this way Madonna! Love what you do! http://www.deezer.com/en/madonna.html
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of something. lol. kazakhstan adoptions
ReplyDelete