Malawi Adoption Officials Still Making Madonna's Life Hilariously Difficult
The incredible odyssey of little David Banda—the adorable Malawian demi-orphan plucked from a sea of thousands of less-cute African children by late-to-the-game global humanitarian Madonna—has hit a significant snag. From the Reuters report:
One of Malawi's leading weekly newspapers reported on Sunday that Minister of Women and Child Development Kate Kainja had barred Penstone Kilembe from making his planned trip to assess the suitability of Madonna and her husband, film director Guy Ritchie, as the boy's adoptive parents.
The Malawi News newspaper reported that the minister accused Kilembe of obtaining an air ticket and money from Madonna without government approval.
This isn't the first resistance met by Madonna in her efforts to absorb David into her clan, as Malawian officials have from the very beginning proven reluctant to revise their stringent existing policies on the sale and shipment of domestic orphans to increasingly irrelevant pop icons. If the Malawi News' report is accurate, however, and Madonna had been bankrolling visits to observe the dumpling-cheeked tyke in his new environment, then their concern is not unjustified—especially after Kilembe was overheard bragging to fellow social workers how he'd be "kicking it with Justin...Timberlake...Maybe you've heard of him," before cabbage-patching backwards out of the room while humming the synth-hook to "Sexy Back."
