Madonna mad at Malawi (or vice versa).

What a great cat-fight!

 

Madonna, that great benefactress of the African poor, has got into a ballistic battle of words with  the indomitable President Joyce Banda of Malawi. It seems that the great lady (Madonna, that is) and her large entourage were made to queue with the hoi polloi and general riff-raff when leaving Lilongwe Airport, instead of going through the VIP lounge.

 

Ms Banda accused Madonna of bigging-up her schools-building charity, saying that she had not actually built any, but had only carried out some improvements and extensions and that generally she was an arrogant pain in the arse.

 

Madonna’s riposte was to call the President a liar and virtually accused her sister of fiddling the books when she was in charge of Madonna’s schools charity.

 

The inevitable outcome might be that Madonna’s status is changed from VIP to PI (prohibited immigrant).

 

We will probably never hear the truth above the din, but I have a sneaking sympathy for Banda’s resentment of celeb do-gooders using charitable missions to whip-up self-serving publicity. As she pointed out, there had been many visits by such as David Beckham who sought neither publicity nor special treatment, although it must be admitted that Madonna got both, even if not in quite the way she intended.

 

I have to admit to feeling somewhat queasy about celebs adopting trophy-children. Madonna has two Malawians. The rules were waived for her; in Malawi foreign adoptions are not allowed until the adopter has 18 months residence, to prevent people-trafficking. The father of one said that he thought that Madonna was going to be only the child’s carer, not adoptive mother. Human rights people got involved and there was big controversy.

 

As to her charity, it looks as if there is a bit of pot and kettle here. She raised $3.8 million. So far, only $850,000 has arrived in Malawi. And $3 million is back in LA, allegedly  unaccounted for in 2011.

 

The Malawi Government gave her a large swathe of land to build her project. Nothing has happened except the eviction of the peasant farmers.

 

‘The road to hell is paved……..’