Over the last few decades, the rate of US international adoption of children from developing countries has consistently risen. Because of society’s intense scrutiny of the famous, the details of any celebrity adoption are widely publicized. The media has recently dubbed the existence of celebrity inter-country adoptions as a mere trend, even though such adoptions have been happening for years.

What is done (and thus seen in the public eye) by a few celebrities in this realm is merely a mirroring of what has been occurring for decades. Several Americans are involved in trans-continental, transcultural adoption, and a few celebrities unsurprisingly fall into that category.

During a short and very sour CBC Newsworld interview with Suhana Marchand, the forgettable Michael Blugerman invidiously quipped, “[David Banda] will have a charmed life, but how does that help the other children?” Well, I fail to see what, if anything at all, the separate, individual life of David Banda has to do with any other children, anywhere.

Madonna and her Raising Malawi Foundation have drawn enormous attention to the plight of Africa’s AIDS orphans and the option of inter-country as a possible balm. Basically, the critics of this particular adoption would rather watch one more child suffer than allow Madonna to continue to do her work. They are content to let archaic and convoluted stipulations hamper the adoption process.

Were the international adoptions of other celebrities given this much condemnation and scrutinized this closely by the press?

The world is especially hard on the Material Girl. It is way past the start of a new millennium. Interim orders are granted every day! They are inherent in all normal processes.

In light of what is happening in nations across the continent of Africa, the particular issue of an interim order being granted to Madonna in this case should be seen as even more normal!