Madonna again
Oct 16, 2006 Blogging
She swears she’s not adopting anybody. May that it be true because this post is just one of many that expresses my feelings about this.
Yesterday I got about 600 words on an essay that might go nowhere and set up my new site — installed the blogging software (spent hours finding a template that worked and ended up with an out-of-the-box version with nary a change), the survey software (imported a more general version of the blog survey I had here), and the shopping cart, (which still needs a lot of mods).
To do this week on this project:
- Blogger FAQ (partially written, needs to be uploaded)
- PR FAQ (partially written, needs to be uploaded)
- Finish shopping cart mods (could be awhile)
- Input the 80+ bloggers I have so far
- Figure out newsletter software (yikes)
- Set up program management database (so other people besides me can manage this thing)
- Rought draft of press release
I think that’s it. Non-project stuff — I need to do two interviews and at least one book review. I also need to grocery shop, which ought to be fun because my toe is hurting again. (I think I pushed it too much last week and I’ve been paying for it for three days now.)
October 16th, 2006 at 2:37 pm
It seems to me it *has* been confirmed that Madonna’s adopted a one-year-old boy, David. That was the news story on Friday afternoon, at least. She and Guy Ritchie left Malawi after preliminary approval was made — left “handlers” or some such behind to care for the boy until final legal arrangements made, etc.
October 16th, 2006 at 2:46 pm
I heard her give a speech that was broadcast on NPR (in her weird English accent) where she said she wasn’t doing an adoption and was there shooting a documentary and being a UN ambassador.
I’m wondering how it shakes out.
October 17th, 2006 at 3:55 pm
It shakes out that she was lying.
If she hadn’t chosen to adopt from a country otherwise closed to foreign adoption, she wouldn’t have provoked this media circus. So any claims on her part that the media has unfairly invaded her privacy during a sensitive time are going to be met by a loud snort in my household.
I’ve heard media reports that the father might be confused about the nature of the adoption, not realizing its permanence (in terms of removing Madonna’s obligations to return the boy to Malawi to him someday). I’ve also heard a report that the father is angry at any objections to the adoption, asking why human-rights groups should protest something he approves. On the one hand, I’m worried about any implication that a man with limited education in a developing country is de facto incapable of making an adoption plan for his child. On the other hand, there’s ample evidence from Korean history to suggest that plenty of parents in non-Western countries DO have different definitions for the concept of adoption.
Also: why do stories that INCLUDE quotations from the boy’s father refer to the child as an orphan? Is there some definition of the term that I’m missing? Because regardless of dictionary definitions, I’ve always understood the term to mean “without parents.”
ARGH!