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My Google alert for news on Malawi has never had so many US and European articles as in the past months. All because of Madonna. Topics such as the last General Elections or bad harvests - which have a much bigger impact - were only covered by the usual outlets (BBC World, CNN). I remember searching Malawi forums for news on the election results.
A friend asked how Malawians see Madonna’s recent adoption of a Malawian baby boy. I haven’t heard much. Cos I’m here in Basel. But here’s a summary of Malawi bloggers that referred to the celebrity news:
- Mike of Hacktivate built the Kumbali Lodge website, where Madonna stayed
- Alex of Lix.cc posted this excellent caricature of NGOs and their reaction (rough translation: the child needs to return, is that understood?). He helped to keep us informed during the last General Elections by setting up a web server at the Polytechnic and posting news and comments at frequent intervals.
- and Soyapi uses the Madonna news item to point to Malawian software that you can also “adopt”.
I guess, there’s more out there. And more to come when Madonna goes back. I hope, she’s not in it for the PR only. In my humble opinion being adopted by a rich celebrity doesn’t really mean you’ll have a better life.
But even for Malawi, you can say that blogging technology has made it simpler to read personal thoughts and reports on news items.
Feel free to leave a comment.
BTW, this blog post was again inspired by fresh air.
This thing has 2 Comments
There are different reactions from Malawians on Madonna’s adoption like how is the baby “an orphan in extreme hardship” when he has a living father and was being given food and shelter at an orphanage?
But the general consensus is that Madonna is doing a good thing and the NGOs fighting against it just want attention to fatten their wallets.
Of course they were also concerns that the biological father was not well informed what the adoption really means.
Others are worried about change of culture, identify and so on, but for most people: survival is put first. How can you enjoy your African roots when you’re likely going to die of malnutrition? Of course in the case of Baby David, he was relatively well cared for at the orphanage.
Some political leaders are calling on local Malawians to emulate the example and adopt a child as well.
Here are other bloggers that have blogged about Madonna:
http://ndagha.blogspot.com/2006/10/madonna-baby-adoption-issue-for.html
http://mlauzi.blogspot.com/2006/10/from-material-girl-to-spiritual-mum.html
http://malawimellens.blogspot.com/2006/10/madonna-and-child.html
http://schachweb.com/?p=37
and watch: http://technorati.com/search/madonna?faves=malawi
thanks for following up
Much appreciated!