I have been an avid fan of Michael Moore since seeing his very first film, Roger and Me (1989).
I LOVED Fahrenheit 911 and SICKO!!
I have raved and recommended his films to everyone I know and so admired his ability to see the truth and tell it like it is.
And, yet even this icon of the exposé and giving us a window into the corruption of government at the expense of the everyman...even he has been snowed.
Moore said he was "outraged" by the criticism Madonna received for her efforts to adopt David. Some children's rights groups said it would be better to provide more resources so children could remain in their native countries. Others accused her of using her celebrity status to circumvent Malawian adoption laws, which she denied.
"As one who has seen what the yellow press can and does do, all of that was just one more reminder to me of just how dishonest so much of the media is in this country," Moore said.
Moore has missed the boat on this one entirely. He is on the wrong side and is ignoring the facts.
All of this while Madonna has been publicly speaking comparing the "pain" she suffered being criticized to labor pains of natural childbirth! “I sort of went through my own kind of birthing pains with dealing with the press on my front doorstep accusing me of kidnapping or whatever you want to call it," she said. A total slap in the fact to her wannabe son David's mother who died in childbirth (or shortly after) from the woman too busy to attend and adoption finalization hearing...and not able to bring David to visit his father when she did return to Malawi.
Madonna told a news conference last week at the Cannes film festival that there were no adoption laws in Malawi, and that she was the "template or role model, so to speak, for future adoptions." She has also told reporters she was "happy to be the guinea pig", and expressed hope that her full adoption of David, will make it easier for other people to adopt children in Malawi.
Unfortunately her comments were not appreciated in Malawi:
May 26, 2008 BLANTYRE, Malawi: Malawi's state-sponsored rights group hit out yesterday at recent comments by US pop singer Madonna, saying she was "putting it crudely" when she said the country had no adoption laws.
"If we had no laws, how come she was asked to apply to the court to adopt a child? She used the same laws she is criticising to adopt David," said Dorothy Nyasulu, chairwoman of the state-sponsored Malawi Human Rights Commission.
Additionally, while Moore and Madonna applaud her “rescue” of a child who was not an orphan, but has a father…researchers from the University of Liverpool see her as far less than impressed with her actions, claiming that the publicity she garnered has increased the number of third world women dumping their babies in orphanages hoping for them to be adopted by wealthy celebrities.
Every adoption by a Westerner puts those in less affluent countries at a disadvantage to adopt their own children because they cannot compete monetarily. Professor Kevin Browne, child psychologist and author of the Liverpool study states: “Some argue that international adoption is a solution to a large number of children in institutional care but we have found the opposite is true.” They report that children are better off in foster care systems in their native countries and that this increased publicity is encouraging parents, even ones who might be able to keep their own children, to give them up in the hope of a “Western” future.
The influx of foreign applications to adopt Chinese children is, for instance, making it more difficult for Chinese couples who want to adopt within China. Foreign families usually spend five to 10 times more on adoptions than Chinese families.
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