Mercy and Madonna

Did Madonna buy Baby Mercy from Malawi? Many people are asking this question. The thinking is that Madonna "donated" so much money to Malawian orphans - £12 million in fact - that she might as well have gotten her baby girl cash on delivery. Check: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/madonna/5522159/Madonna-donated-12-million-to-Malawi.html

How cynical is that? I for one am happy that a child born in poverty will now have a fabulous life. Does Madonna adopt adults in SW2? If she does, I am certainly available.

Mercy's lucky pick aside, there are enduring problems for orphans in Malawi. Madonna's £12 million will go a limited way to address the plight of these children (Jacques Peretti has chronicled these events in a documentary entitled "Madonna and Child" and writes in the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/12/madonna-mercy-malawi).

I am reading Zambian economist Dambisa Mayo's "Dead Aid," after seeing the writer so often on TV. The central argument of Ms Mayo's book is that the practice of giving aid to countries in Africa does more long-term harm than good. Instead, this former Goldman Sachs employee (via Harvard, Oxford and the World Bank) believes that African governments should be incentivised to take care of their own people, rather than depend on foreign states and celebrities for aid.

I quite agree with Mayo. The Material Girl won’t save Africa or its orphans. Mercy's adoption is a story of Madonna's growing family and the singer's showbiz-styled investment in charity. The spectre of poverty and orphans on the continent fundamentally remains to be addressed. In a sane world, this state of affairs would put African leaders at the forefront of an important debate on this. But instead – and as with everything else involving Madonna - she alone manages to take centre stage.