SO MADONNA has adopted a one-year-old boy from Malawi. Or has she? There have been denials from her people but it’s not so unbelievable, is it? After all, she wouldn’t be the first. She has been thinking about it for months, apparently, and in July, her father-in-law let slip that Madonna and her husband, Guy Ritchie, had started the process. The pop star is in the southern African country this week visiting orphanages.
By now, developing countries must be used to celebrities swooping in to choose children like pick-n-mix sweets. It’s the “rainbow” (her word) approach to families that the actress Angelina Jolie advocates. “There’s something about travelling somewhere and finding your family,” she has said.
She adopted her son, Maddox, four, from Cambodia and her daughter, Zahara, 18 months, from Ethiopia . Jolie has talked about adopting again, from another country.
Celebrities adopting children is nothing new. Joan Crawford raised four adopted children and Mia Farrow started adopting children from developing countries in the 1970s. Of her 14 children, 10 were adopted.
Other celebrities have also adopted from abroad. Meg Ryan adopted her daughter Daisy from China and Ewan McGregor and his wife Eve, who have two children of their own, have adopted a four-year-old Mongolian girl.
While adopting from abroad can be commendable, you can’t help feeling that picking up a malnourished but photogenic child is sometimes more about a celebrity’s image (not to mention that they need not suffer stretchmarks or caesarean scars).
Should this attitude be a cause for unease? Of course, there are children in developing countries who need help but wouldn’t it be better if celebrities gave most of their vast fortunes away to help orphans and refugee children in their country of origin, rather than “rescuing” a child and transporting it to Beverly Hills? There are also many children in America and in the UK who are waiting to be adopted. Some celebrities have chosen domestic adoptions (Calista Flockhart, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, Sharon Stone and Michelle Pfeiffer have all adopted children in America) so what would stop Madonna, who is based mainly in the UK, choosing to adopt a British child?
“The attention given to celebrities adopting from abroad distorts the fact that intercountry adoption is quite rare,” says David Holmes, chief executive of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering. “Thousands of children across the UK are adopted from our care system every year. Yet we hear more about the 300 children adopted from other countries.” So why adopt from abroad? “People have different reasons,” says a spokesperson for Oasis, a support group run by families who have adopted from abroad. “The most obvious reason is that children who are waiting to be adopted in this country will be older (the average age is four), and will have been through different circumstances and may have emotional or behavioural difficulties, which could be difficult for a first-time parent to take on.
“It is sometimes considered best for the child to retain contact with their birth parents and some people might not want the influence of another adult in their family. That might sound awful but that’s the bottom line. Other people have connections with that part of the world. It is a different way of creating a family that is just as valid.” If it looks easy for celebrities to adopt from abroad, it is — because most of them adopt through the US. In the UK, prospective parents have to have a home study (in-depth interviews about literally every aspect of your life) by a social worker, which can take up to nine months. Then you have to wait months before you are approved, then the paperwork is sent to the country you wish to adopt from. The whole process usually takes a minimum of two years, often longer, and can cost up to £15,000. In the US, home studies take around two weeks. However, there are fears that illegal overseas adoptions are fuelling a baby-trafficking trade in the poorest countries.
Of course it is understandable that anyone who visits a country where poverty is rife would want to take a child out of that, but people sometimes underestimate the trauma some children can suffer if they are taken out of their country.
Chris Atkins, a social worker for the adoption support service After Adoption, was adopted from Hong Kong in the 1960s by a white couple. “I have worked with adult transnational adoptees who have suffered breakdowns, have problems with relationships and have huge issues with their identity,” she says. “There is the feeling of displacement, the constant challenge to fit in somewhere and it lasts a lifetime. I grew up with a fear of rejection and I still don’t feel entirely comfortable in British society but nor do I feel comfortable in Chinese society.” So what will the effect on all these celebrity adopted children be? Joan Crawford adopted her four children, ostensibly for the good publicity, but her relationship with them was so bad she disinherited two and the remaining two only got tiny slices of her fortune.
Maybe the biggest problem these kids will face isn’t the fact of their adoption — it is being the children of celebrity parents. If Madonna does bring a baby boy back from Malawi with her, one thing is sure: it will be in a blaze of publicity. The child had better get used to it. Adoptive parents ANGELINA JOLIE adopted Maddox from Cambodia and Zahara from Ethiopia MEG RYAN adopted Daisy from China EWAN McGREGOR AND WIFE EVE adopted a 4-yearold Mongolian girl MIA FARROW adopted 10 kids including from Korea.
URL- http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/artMailDisp.aspx?article=07_10_2006_018_012&typ=0&pub=264
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