Madonna, discussing the media storm, also made an excellent point regarding the insane amount of resources drained on the scrutiny of the adoption. Speculating on why this huge waste wasn’t put toward a more worthwhile cause, she noted, “With all the chaos, pain and suffering in the world, the fact that my adoption of a child… who was living in an orphanage, was the number one story for a week in the world ... to me, that says more about our inability to focus on the real problems, and our desire to have distractions and to be consumed with people’s personal lives and gossip.”

Furthermore, her Vogueness believes that racism has played a role in her castigation, saying “it’s still considered taboo” to adopt a child of different colour. In 2005 the US adopted 7,906 orphans from China, whereas just 440 were adopted from Ethiopia. (There were more orphans in Ethiopia than in all of the other nations across Africa). Skin colour may be an important factor for many people, but not her, as she earnestly asserts: “I don’t live in a white world… I live in the world… and my children are exposed to all cultures and all races and many belief systems.”

Madonna is a humanitarian. Her career is replete with philanthropy, and she has continually used her fame, that proverbial double-edged sword, as an instrument to better society as a whole. She believes, “If you want to affect change in the world you do have to have a platform to stand on, and in order to have a platform to stand on, you have to keep doing your job.” Is it not a good thing to give so much of one’s self, resources and fortune to so many worthwhile causes?

Later this month, NBC will air a censored version of Madge’s controversial performance of ‘Live to Tell.’ During the song, a thorn-crowned Madonna performs in front of yet another cross (remember the ‘Like a Prayer’ scandal in 1989?) while numbers roll from 1 to 12 000 000, signifying the number of African AIDS orphans.