Baby David happy at Casa Madonna

[buttmunch]

In fairness to the Vadge, whom I still think is a selfish cow, here is a sympathic (sort of) story about her growing brood.

Madonna's newly semi-adopted son is happily settled at home.

I’m told that on Sunday night, Madonna and Guy Ritchie introduced 13-month-old David to friends at their London estate. Today, Madonna will give a satellite interview for an episode of "Oprah” and receive what will no doubt be absolution from the talk-show star.

But what of little David’s life at Casa Madonna? According to my sources, David has already fit right in with Lourdes (Lola) and Rocco, Madonna’s children respectively with Carlos Leon and Ritchie.

Click Here for the Madonna Celebrity Center

“They adore him,” says an observer, who also says that Ritchie — usually the absent man in these stories — is very happy to have David in the fold. No doubt Madonna will stress all this when she goes on "Oprah."

Oprah is unlikely to press Madonna on Kabbalah and the foundation Madonna is fronting in Malawi for the organization Spirituality for Kids.

That's too bad, because Oprah's Angel Network and her new participation in Bono’s One Campaign are legitimately trying to get money and resources to Africa without attaching any strings. That is, red strings.

Meanwhile, back in London, the Ritchies are said to be trying to make their new family work. Despite Madonna’s PR crisis and the fact that the entire adoption business has been turned into a joke, my sources say that the pop star is a great mother.

“Lola and Rocco have impeccable manners. They aren’t spoiled,” the sources said.

And then there’s the actual adoption business. Even though David’s biological father, Yohane Banda , turned up and insisted he didn’t know what was going on when he signed the papers, there is another side to this story.

“He just turned up at the last minute,” says a source. “And for the right money, he was happy to tell the papers anything.”

Expect a lot of saber rattling in this case, but in the end it seems that Madonna and Guy will keep David and perhaps even adopt another child from the same orphanage.

Madonna’s friends say she really did give $3 million to the place, which is, after all, an orphanage. It’s expected that children who are placed there will be adopted. It’s not a dormitory or a way station. Little David’s father knew that from the start, Madonna will argue, and only changed his mind when he saw green.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,224365,00.html

[sluce]

This may get very messy!

[lalala]

I've read that she said on Oprah she was happy David didn't have aids because his mother and sibblings died from it ...meaning the father has it as well?

[LynnieD]

There was a picture on another site of Guy holding baby David--and the baby is smiling from ear to ear. As cute as could be. I'm sure he is happy, I mean, he has FOOD.

[pacific breeze]

Yes, I mean I don't get all these people who are convinced that the child is somehow worse off with Madonna than he would be in an orphanage in a Third World country riddled with disease and poverty.

Let's get real.

[lalala]

He must have been fed at the orphanage as well - but they don't get the constant attention babies need

[bite me spidey]

As long as the kid's happy -- thats all I care about.

[pacific breeze]

Originally Posted by lalala

He must have been fed at the orphanage as well - but they don't get the constant attention babies need

I'm sure he was fed a subsistence diet with not enough protein or nutrition, hardly adequate for a growing child. He's poor in Africa for God's sakes!

I just don't think most people grasp how precarious life is there for most people, but especially the vulnerable.

[lalala]

I'm not an expert but if orphenages didn't receive the means to feed the kids properly I believe fund raising campaigns would have raised the issue

...and Madonna would have found a great PR angle as well

[pacific breeze]

Well, your naivete is shocking, but I guess you are young and that explains it. Rule #1: There's NEVER ENOUGH MONEY to do everything the way it should be done. Rule #2: Fund raising campaigns struggle long and hard to obtain even the basics. Rule #3: There are always more and more orphans and hungry mouths to feed and sick kids to care for because of natural and man-made disasters such as war, corruption and a host of other things. Rule #4: There's such a thing as compassion fatigue, which means that it is harder and harder to get people to give anything, much less what is required to meet even basic needs.

Just because a child is in an orphanage does NOT mean its basic needs are being met.

There's lots of information out there on the subject should you care to Google it.

[Somerset]

Looks like the Madonna camp is in damage control overdrive, calling in all the favors they're owed.

[Tater Tot]

If this baby can have a better life, then that's all that matters, IMO. I think too many people are focusing on the fact that this is Madonna, and are basing their opinions of the whole thing on their opinion of her. I think Madge and Guy are capable of good parenting. And i think this picture is adorable.

[LynnieD]

^^Thats the picture Tater Tot!! Thanks!! Too cute!!!

[lalala]

Originally Posted by pacific breeze

Well, your naivete is shocking, but I guess you are young and that explains it. Rule #1: There's NEVER ENOUGH MONEY to do everything the way it should be done. Rule #2: Fund raising campaigns struggle long and hard to obtain even the basics. Rule #3: There are always more and more orphans and hungry mouths to feed and sick kids to care for because of natural and man-made disasters such as war, corruption and a host of other things. Rule #4: There's such a thing as compassion fatigue, which means that it is harder and harder to get people to give anything, much less what is required to meet even basic needs.

Just because a child is in an orphanage does NOT mean its basic needs are being met.

There's lots of information out there on the subject should you care to Google it.

I've worked for two years as a lobbyist for a pool of major NGOs on agricultural issues so I'm certainly more informed of the food distribution issues than you are - Knowing how professional those NGOs marketing techniques and fund raising campaigns are I'm also certainly less naïve than you are - An issue as moving and easy to explain as food shortages in orphenages in peaceful countries (shortages in war zones being a totally different question) would be immediately exploited to the till (remember the Roumanian orphenages campaign?)

And judging by the kid's pic, he was certainly not underfed

[pacific breeze]

Well, as as you might also know then, the BBC recently did a series (as in a few weeks ago, it was aired on CBC-TV here in Canada) exposing the conditions inside Romania's orphanages and institutions for disabled children, and child adoption practices that may cost Romania its bid for the EU.

Two men posed as adoptive parents with secret cameras and let's just say that all is not quite as hunky dory even in a non-war zone as you might like us to think. I'm a seasoned journalist of more than 20 years and I don't cry easily, but I cried while watching that and for a while afterward.

I won't bore you with the details; again, you can look it up.

I guess having some food in your belly isn't the only requisite for "success" in these situations, at least in my opinion. And as I'm sure you know, Malawi has gone through a terrible crop/climate crisis in recent years http://www.unicef.org.uk/emergency/e...=23&nodeid=e23 and is the throes of an AIDS' epidemic, making it one of the poorest countries in the world, war zone or not.

As for NGOs, I've known and dealt with many of them. For someone who is as knowledgable as you to have the opinions you do shocks me even more than if you were young and naive. Let's face it, for all we know, this child may have been receiving funds from Madonna for a while, hence his "healthy" appearance.