What Madonna Wants, Madonna Gets…And She Wants Mercy
No, not that kind of mercy…a little girl by the name of Mercy James, from the country of Malawi:
The youngster was taken to a luxury lodge outside Lilongwe earlier this week, in preparation for being united with the singer, according to sources.
Madonna is expected to stay in the south-east African country for a week before flying out with Mercy - bar any last-minute hitches. [...]
Mercy is being cared for by a nanny at Kumbali Lodge - where Madonna has stayed on her previous visits to the country. She had been living at an orphanage near Blantyre, in the south of Malawi.
Madonna had hoped to keep the fact that the child is already at the lodge a secret until leaving the country.
‘Mercy has been handed over to Madonna’s people, who are already at the lodge, and is being cared for by a nanny,’ says the source.
‘They are waiting for Madonna to arrive so mother and daughter can be united and then Madonna is expected to take Mercy with her when she leaves.’ [...]
On Monday, the singer is expected to attend a court hearing in Lilongwe to formalise the adoption after having reportedly filed adoption papers.
If the judge refuses to rubber stamp the adoption, however, it will be a severe embarrassment to Madonna, now that Mercy is in the care of her staff.
It is being said that even though the little girl is already being cared for by Madonna’s ‘people’, not everybody is as thrilled about the adoption as Madonna is:
From the start, Mercy’s surviving family have been bitterly opposed to the idea of the little girl being taken by Madonna.
Her uncle, John Ngalande, reportedly said in August last year: ‘We won’t surrender her. They told us how another Malawi kid has had his life transformed by her. I don’t want that attention. We want an ordinary life.’
Mercy was placed in an orphanage after her 18-year-old mother died five days after her birth. It was reported that her father was a schoolboy and it is not clear whether he is alive.
Madonna’s determination to adopt Mercy was said to be a major cause of conflict between her and Ritchie, who was opposed to the idea.
Last year he was said to have relented but soon afterwards the couple separated.
Which brings up another sticky point…Malawi isn’t too keen on adopting out babies to divorced people; their rationalization is that the person adopting might have been the person who caused the divorce. I’d say in this case they seem to be pretty spot on with that one.
Despite just firing David’s nanny, Madonna is so serious about grabbing this baby that she dumped her most recent boy toy Jesus Luz because the officials in Malawi questioned the appropriateness of the 50-year-old dating a man half her age. Hey, I question the appropriateness of Madonna every day, but that doesn’t stop her from doing stupid things that end up on this blog. Where can I sign up for some clout?
Seriously, though, it seems that she didn’t learn anything from the adoption of little David. And whatever happened to that whole “you have to live in the country for eighteen months before you can adopt one of our children” rule? Well, once again, what Madonna wants Madonna gets. After all, she’s got enough money to bend and/or outright break the rules…isn’t that what money is for, anyway?
There’s no doubt that the orphans in Malawi are suffering. I just wonder if being plucked from there by Madonna isn’t opening them up to a different, but still real and painful, kind of suffering.
Source: k
