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MERCY MERCY Me: Madge's Newly Adopted Daughter


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Madonna donated £12 million to Malawi

June 13th, 2009

Madonna donated £12 million to help children in the poverty-stricken African state of Malawi before being granted permission to adopt a second child from the country, it has been reported.

The country’s Supreme Court of Appeal overturned a previous ruling that stopped the pop star from taking four-year-old Mercy James to the United States.

The 50-year-old singer said she was ecstatic with the news and added: “My family and I look forward to sharing our lives with her.”

Madonna learned of the development in a 3am phone call from her lawyer in Malawi.

Alan Chinula rang her in New York after the supreme court overturned the previous ruling.

Speaking from outside the court, Mr Chinula, said: “I was just through to New York and it is the early hours but Madonna has been awake waiting for news. She was ecstatic.

“I’m now waiting for instructions to start preparing for Mercy’s travel arrangements.”

The Daily Mirror reported on Saturday that the singer has donated £12 million to fund six orphanages in Malawi as well as paying for shoes, clothes, books and mosquito nets for impoverished children in the country.

Madonna has already adopted her three-year-old son named David Banda from Malawi.

Malawi’s Chief Justice Lovemore Munlo ruled that Mercy, whose Malawian name is Chifundo, will receive a better life with the star than remaining in the impoverished state.

Mercy’s uncle Peter Baneti said the family welcomed the ruling and added: “We hope Mercy will be joining Madonna soon.”

The judge said: “Madonna has been judge to be a compassionate, intelligent and articulate person. Her adoption of Mercy James is not a selfish act.”

Madonna’s previous attempt to adopt Mercy failed when a judge in a lower court said the singer did not satisfy rules that required the star to live in Malawi for 18-months before she could be allowed to adopt the youngster.

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“Today is your new birthday, my darling daughter, as it is the day you came to me. It is a new beginning for us all. The world is ours to change together now. I promise I will love, protect and guide you with my every breath. I can’t wait to welcome you to your new home, my beautiful child. You are part of us now — of me, Lola, Rocco and David. You are so loved.” :inlove:

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Guest Danny86

Guy Oseary's Twitter:

I want to thank the many of you that sent your congrats and positive wishes to Madonna... We appreciate all your support..

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FROM DAILY HATE

Madonna's million dollar baby: Singer wins court appeal to adopt Mercy after donating £12m to Malawi

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 12:40 PM on 13th June 2009

Comments (0) Add to My Stories So in the end she got her way, as she always does.

But it seems the adoption of Malawian orphan Mercy James did not come cheap.

Madonna is reported to have donated £12million to the African state to fund orphan aid projects.

Heading for America: Madonna holds Mercy, who will now live in New York

One international welfare agency worker told the Daily Mirror: 'It smacks of bribery. How can they refuse her requests when she gives Malawi so much?'

The money has been spent to fund six orphanages as well as paying for shoes, clothes, books and mosquito nets.

It has taken nearly three years, but yesterday Madonna was finally free to take Mercy for a new life in America.

The supreme court in Blantyre overturned a previous ruling that had rejected the singer's petition to adopt the four-year-old girl.

'I am ecstatic,' Madonna said on hearing the news at her home in New York. 'My family and I look forward to sharing our lives with her.'

She expressed thanks to the supreme court's three judges, headed by Chief Justice Lovemore Munlo.

Earlier he had told the packed courthouse: 'Madonna has shown that she is bold and compassionate enough to come forward to adopt Chifundo Mercy James.'

He said there were two options for Mercy: 'To stay at the orphanage without the love of family and live with the possibility of destitution, or be with Madonna where she is assured of love. Every child has the right to love and be loved.'

He said Madonna was 'an intelligent, articulate and outgoing individual of strong character. She is also a determined, independent and hardworking person of compassion from a God-fearing family.

'Since the early age of six when her mother died, she took on the maternal role to her younger siblings, assuming responsibility of house cleaning, cooking and babysitting.'

Malawi's high court had turned down the singer's application in April because she was not resident in Malawi.

But Mr Munlo said this was a 'narrow interpretation based on old laws', adding: 'The matter of residence should be determined at the time of application of the adoption. In this case, Madonna was in Malawi not by chance but by design. She specifically came here for the purpose of this application for adoption.

'And on that day she had already adopted another infant known as David Banda from Malawi. She has plans to travel to Malawi frequently with her adopted children in order to instill in them a cultural pride and knowledge of their country of origin.'

Other son: Madonna adopted David Banda after her first visit to Malawi two years ago

He added that Madonna would easily be able to care for the youngster, concluding that the singer - who is worth some £250million - was 'financially stable'.

Despite Madonna's avowed love for the child, she was unable to make it to Malawi for the hearing and was represented by her lawyer, Alan Chinula.

After the hearing, he said he would arrange for a passport for Mercy, which could take several days, and was awaiting word from Madonna on travel plans for the little girl.

She will join three-year-old David Banda, who Madonna adopted two years ago, at their main home in New York.

Like David, Mercy will exchange the orphanage for opulence. It has been reported that Madonna has just splashed out £25million on a Georgian-style townhouse in the Upper East Side. The 26-room property is said to have 13 bedrooms and 14 bathrooms. Instead of being raised in the Christian faith practised by her Malawian family, Mercy will be instructed in Kabbalah, the mystical faith followed by Madonna.

While she was delighted with yesterday's news, it will not have been welcomed by Mercy's grandmother, Lucy Chekechiwa, who has been unwavering in her resistance to the adoption.

Madonna came across Mercy at an orphanage during her first visit to Malawi in 2006 with her then husband, Guy Ritchie.

She decided Mercy was 'the one', but her grandmother refused to let her go.

So the singer instead returned home with David Banda, whom it proved easier to extricate from his father Yohane.

Lucy's daughter, Mwandida, was Mercy's mother. She became pregnant aged 14 - the father was an older student at their school - and died from complications of childbirth days after Mercy was born.

Mercy's father, James Kambewa, claims he was told that Mercy too had died and only learned the truth after being tracked down by journalists in April. He now says he wants his daughter back.

In an emotional appeal, he told the Mail: 'She is my daughter, she is my blood, she needs parental love.

'She is not an orphan. She lost one parent, yes, but I am still alive and so she is not an orphan. Madonna has millions of dollars but that doesn't make her a good mum. Parental love is more than money.'

Vowing to fight to get his daughter back, he said: 'I will win somehow.'

Last night, adoption charities reacted angrily to the news of the adoption ruling, saying international laws had been breached.

EveryChild, the international children's charity, said it was 'extremely concerned' that the Malawian courts ruled in favour of Madonna.

A spokesman said: 'Malawi has still not ratified the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption which raises grave concerns about the adoption process and appeal.'

Anna Feuchtwang, chief executive of EveryChild, said: 'The court's decision to allow Madonna to adopt Mercy is disappointing and worrying on a number of levels.

'High-profile adoptions such as this send out the wrong message. It is a shame that so much emphasis has been placed on a celebrity, rather than the real issue of the work being done in Malawi to support vulnerable families to stay together.'

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http://www.theage.com.au/world/madonna-giv...6r8.html?page=1

Madonna gives and takes on a mission to MalawiJacques Peretti

June 14, 2009 Page 1 of 2 Single page view

Madonna and children Lourdes, son Rocco and adopted Malawian son David. Photo: AP

OUTSIDE the dusty court in Blantyre, southern Malawi, there is a piece of paper pinned to the noticeboard with a list of the day's cases. This is Malawi's highest court and on the list is a dispute over a boundary fence, the theft of a moped and, in Court 2, an appeal to adopt a girl named Chifundo "Mercy" James, 4, by an unnamed 50-year-old single mother from New York.

Across Malawi, Madonna is described as "the rich white woman". Her name, unknown before this case, has been passed by word of mouth from village to village and mutated into "Ma Donor": the Giver.

I am in Malawi to make a TV documentary about the real story behind Madonna's plans to adopt a second child from Malawi. I arrive in May and within a kilometre of the airport see coffins being made on the side of the road. This is Malawi's only growth industry.

There are up to a million AIDS orphans in this tiny country. Life expectancy is 40; half the population is under 14. In the first village I visit, the chief tells me a child dies every three days. They bury them in a big pit.

Is it any surprise people tell me it is God's will Madonna chose Malawi, one of the poorest countries on earth, to save from poverty? It is not Mercy she is adopting, they say, it is the whole of Malawi.

Blantyre owes its name to the small Scottish town that the 19th-century missionary David Livingstone came from and in this predominantly Christian country Madonna is nothing short of a holy figure.

Mercy is their conduit to salvation. When I use Madonna's name out loud in one village, I am told to hush. Using Madonna's name in vain could frighten her (and her cash) away forever. Given all that, how could anyone in the West disagree with what Madonna's doing?

The fact is we do. Madonna is portrayed as a baby-grabbing gorgon, lambasted by everyone from Saturday Night Live to Graham Norton. I never bought this Madonna-bashing.

I thought the issue was simple: she adopts orphan, child better off, end of story. But is this really the deal with Mercy, the little girl she fought to adopt despite the controversy over her adoption of another Malawian child, David?

Well, first, Mercy is not an orphan without a family, just as David was not an orphan. Mercy has a family and they live in a village called Zaone where I meet Lucy Chekechiwa, Mercy's grandmother.

Lucy brought Mercy into this world. Days later, Mercy's mother, Mwandida Maunde, Lucy's daughter, died from complications after the birth. The villagers believed it was proof of what they already knew: Mwandida was cursed. She had been bewitched, falling pregnant with Mercy when just 14.

Mwandida, the villagers tell me, had met an 18-year-old student, James Kambewa. Mwandida's friends warned her it would end terribly, but she ignored them. She was in love. And so, of course, it ended with Mwandida dying in childbirth.

The baby was called Mercy, as if asking forgiveness from God for the shame Mercy's mother had brought on the village.

Lucy and the villagers ask me if I have spoken to Mercy's father, Kambewa, who disappeared after Mwandida's death, and was told that Mercy had died, too.

Later in my trip, I meet Kambewa, living in a shanty town. He tells me he opposes Madonna's adoption. "She is my daughter, my blood," he says. Why did he disappear? "I was frightened. I was just 18 and my family disowned me." So why has he appeared now? "The newspapers found me … I thought Mercy was dead. Mwandida was my only love. I have not been with a woman since Mwandida." So does he have a chance of keeping Mercy in the country? Madonna is very powerful. "I will win somehow." Continued…

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What I do not understand is that if everyone loves Mercy so much, how did Mercy ever come to be up for adoption by Madonna?

In Lilongwe, the capital, I meet Mabvuto Banda, a Reuters journalist who has been following Madonna's Malawian journey since 2006.

Banda says that in order to understand the adoption, you need to understand what an orphan in Malawi is. "When children like Mercy are left in orphanages by families, it is often because the families simply can't cope for a period of time. The understanding of the families is that they will take the kids back into the family, usually after six years." So it all depends on what you mean by orphan?

There are plenty of HIV babies left by the side of the road who go into orphanages, Banda says. These are pure orphans. Babies who have no traceable family. But Mercy was not one of these kids. Madonna has gone for a child with legal complications.

So how did this all start? Spool backwards three years, Banda tells me, and Guy Ritchie, Madonna's husband, is on a tight schedule videoing the most doe-eyed children he can find in seven orphanages across Malawi. The tape is being made for his wife, Madonna, who has decided she wants to adopt from Africa. From the video, she chooses one. It's a girl, Mercy. Then Madonna flies to Malawi on a "humanitarian mission". According to Banda, she has already chosen a child from Ritchie's line-up and is here to collect.

Banda is scathing. "It's like slavery — 'I like this one, no, maybe this one'," he says. "But the fact is, they all need a home." Seventeen days later, a child leaves on a private jet bound for Madonna's home in London. But there is a twist. It is not Mercy on board; it is a boy called David.

So what happened? The story locally is that Lucy, the grandmother, refused to let Mercy be adopted by Madonna. And for three years — from that day in 2006 until about four weeks ago — Lucy remained implacable.

So what about David, the boy who did leave on the private jet? Like Mercy, he had a family, too. But unlike Mercy's grandmother, David's father, Yohane, agreed to a fast adoption, believing — according to Banda — that the arrangement was temporary; that it was the same as leaving him in an orphanage.

Yohane has now gone on record saying he regrets the adoption because he did not know what he was getting into. Madonna was interviewed on the BBC at the time and said she was never told David had a father. I am inclined to believe her. In the end the adoption was allowed to happen.

Meanwhile, Madonna never gave up on adopting Mercy — not least because no one tells Madonna she cannot have what she wants.

So, after years of being told that adoption was the right thing for Mercy, Lucy caved in.

Once the Mercy adoption was back on the cards, Esme Chombo, a provincial judge, ruled that the adoption was unlawful because Madonna was not a resident of Malawi. Chombo was scornful of Western attitudes towards Malawian poverty, talking in her summing up about "the so-called poor children of Malawi" and even quoting G. K. Chesterton in defence of the existing law, protecting these children from trafficking: "Don't take a fence down until you know why it was put up in the first place."

But the case then went to Malawi's highest court on Friday, and Chombo was overturned.

There is a juggernaut at work here, it seems, and that is Madonna. I still cannot decide if this juggernaut is a good or a bad thing or where it is really heading. One thing is for sure, the woman is putting a lot of money into the country.

And there are battle lines already drawn between the urban and the rural populations over Madonna and her plans. Mercy's uncle, Peter, who signed the papers on the Mercy adoption, tells me the townspeople who are against Madonna are not going to benefit from her investment, so they can afford to criticise it.

They treat villagers as stupid, and he makes a gesture grinding his thumb in the dirt. "This is where they want us to stay," he says.

David Livingstone came to this country with a Bible in his hand; Madonna comes wearing Kabbalah wristbands. What is for sure is that colonialism is not a thing of the past.

In Malawi, it's just begining again and it's just got a whole lot more showbiz.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8098719.stm

Malawi welcomes Madonna adoption

By Raphael Tenthani, in Blantyre

Madonna previously adopted Malawian boy David Banda

The decision to grant pop star Madonna the right to adopt a second Malawian child has been warmly received by many in the southern African state.

The singer's victory at Malawi's Supreme Court of Appeal led the news on local radio stations and prompted a positive response on phone-in shows.

But James Kambewa, who is claiming paternity of the four-year-old girl, remains opposed to the adoption.

"I won't give up the fight," he said, adding that the court disregarded him.

"I wrote to the court challenging the adoption because I am ready and willing to take care of my child," said Mr Kambewa.

"How can they continue referring to her as an orphan when I told them I am there for her?"

Madonna's charity Raising Malawi helps to look after orphans in the country

However, Mr Kambewa was a lone voice of opposition, with most Malawians welcoming the court's decision to allow Madonna to adopt Chifundo "Mercy" James.

"She is taking Mercy out of a life of destitution; she could have lived in the orphanage until she was old enough to start prostitution," said Michael Jonas, a curio seller in Blantyre, Malawi's second-largest city.

"I am happy for her and the world should ignore the so-called father. We have lots of fathers but very few parents."

"I am happy for Mercy," said Martha Banda, a university student in Blantyre.

"Those who are against the adoption are just plain selfish. How can one say she is better off in an orphanage?"

Anxious wait

Chifundo's uncle, Peter Baneti, said her family were "very happy".

"We, as a family, have been anxiously awaiting this ruling. We are very happy for Chifundo," he said.

He added that Mr Kembewa could "jump into Lake Malawi" for all he cared.

"We don't know this James boy. He was not there when my sister was pregnant; he didn't attend her funeral. How can he just come out to claim the baby? Does he want to steal my niece?"

Mercy's teenage mother died of child-birth complications a few days after giving birth.

Mr Kambewa admitted he had denied responsibility for his girlfriend's pregnancy. He met the 14-year-old Mwandida Mwaunde in secondary school, but deserted her when she fell pregnant in 2006.

"I was young then, but now I am old and responsible," he said.

Madonna's lawyer on adoption verdict

Yet even those in Malawi initially opposed to the adoption appear to have had a change of heart.

"We are happy today's ruling has clarified issues of inter-country adoptions," said Maxwell Matewere, Executive director of Eye of the Child - a child rights organisation which previously expressed reservations about the adoption

Frank Phiri, a resident in Bvumbwe - where the Mercy orphanage is situated - said Malawi has millions of orphans and one orphan less must be viewed as good news.

"I wish other rich people would come here to adopt orphans like Madonna has done," he said.

"Governments should encourage people to adopt children because living in an orphanage is tough."

'Extremely grateful'

According to the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare Development, there are close to 2 million orphans in Malawi, a quarter of whom have lost their parents as a direct result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Madonna, one of the most successful stars in pop history, first met Mercy in October 2006 at Kondanani Children's Village, just outside Blantyre, the same year she began the process of adopting David Banda.

Immediately after the ruling on Friday, Madonna's Malawian lawyer called up the singer in New York.

"My client was ecstatic; although it was still early in the States she was up to wait for the ruling," he said.

The singer herself responded: "I am extremely grateful for the Supreme Court's ruling on my application to adopt Mercy James."

"I am ecstatic... My family and I look forward to sharing our lives with her," Madonna said in a statement.

The pop star also has two biological children - Lourdes, 12, and Rocco, aged eight.

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Guest Little Red
right.. as if one cannot pay off ONE judge of a little town but CAN pay off everyone of the supreme court. makes sense.

it does make sense if you consider their different interests.

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it does make sense if you consider their different interests.

sweetie this is the HIGHEST COURT of malawi. the highest of the country. three top judges.

think positive and dont always see the worst in people.

adoption is the best choice and best interest for mercy. the three judges know that, and therefore allowed the adoption.

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Madonna is my new mum, New York here I come...

Daily Mail

This is little Mercy James, pictured in Malawi last week on the day the country's Appeal Court agreed that she can join Madonna and her family for a new life in New York.

The four-year-old girl, whose future has been hotly debated by children's rights campaigners worldwide, has been leading a secret existence for the past two months while Malawi's top judges weighed up arguments for and against her adoption.

Tomorrow, according to Madonna's lawyer, the singer or one of her close aides will arrive to collect the girl. But Mercy will have less than three weeks with her new mother before she departs for a seven-week European tour, beginning on July 4.

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Hidden away: Mercy has been living a life of luxury in preparation for her possible life with Madonna

During the long wait for the court's decision it appears Madonna left nothing to chance. Mercy has been hidden away, ready to pack instantly if the adoption went Madonna's way.

The girl, who used to live in an orphanage, was taken to a luxury bungalow on the day in April when Madonna left the country in tears after her first attempt at adoption failed.

The house, belonging to Lois Silo, programme co-ordinator of Madonna's charity Raising Malawi, is behind blue gates in a discreet suburb of the capital Lilongwe, called Area 47.

According to local sources, Mrs Silo and her husband have been caring for Mercy, helping her to speak English and teaching her Western manners.

Each morning she has been driven to the nearby Cherub nursery, a privately run fee-paying school. There she plays with other Malawian children who knew nothing of her special status until they heard on Friday that she was leaving the country.

Her teacher Bridget Kawiya said yesterday: 'The staff and teachers are amazed. We had no idea this was the girl who Madonna wanted. She was registered under a different name and we knew her as Chifundo Moyo.'

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Mercy's school teacher was Bridget Kawiya (in the black top)

Chifundo means Mercy in Malawi's national language Chichewa, and she is used to being called by that name.

Mrs Kawiya said she was cheerful and intelligent, loved her schoolwork and got on well with her classmates.

Recalling Mercy's first day, Mrs Kawiya said: 'Many children are tearful and want to go home. But she blended straight in, playing with the others as if she had known them all her life. She's such a sweet little girl, always happy, never crying.

'Chifundo joined in all the games and we liked her very much in the brief two months she spent with us. She always arrived nicely dressed, happy to be with her pals.'

Mercy went to school most days with her hair in bunches, decorated with colourful ribbons. Her favourite school-bag was bright pink with a Barbie motif. Classes ended before noon and she would be taken home again where a nanny or cook made lunch for her before an afternoon nap, some children's TV, then playtime, supper and an early night.

Mercy, a natural chatterbox, would run into school in the mornings to talk to her friends in Chichewa until corrected by teachers who encourage all the children to speak in English.

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Long way away: Mercy with her uncles and her grandmother Lucy

'That is important,' said Mrs Kawiya. 'English is the official language and you need it to make a good career.

'We had no idea that Mercy would need it more than the others if she is going to live in New York.

'At our end-of-term ceremony in July we had planned that Mercy, who is so clever, would introduce herself and others from her group in French. Of course, now that isn't going to happen. We are sorry to lose her.'

On Friday night a driver picked up Mercy from the Silos' household and took her to Kumbali Lodge, the guesthouse where Madonna stays when in Malawi. There a Raising Malawi team from America was waiting.

Already familiar with life at the Lodge - she spent three weeks there during the first court hearing in April - Mercy tucked into supper and sought out the staff's children who had become her friends on a previous visit.

She is expected to be flown by private jet to Johannesburg, then to New York to join Madonna's daughter Lourdes, 12, son Rocco, eight, and David Banda, three, the Malawian orphan adopted two years ago.

Mercy's mother Mwandida was 14 when she became pregnant by an older pupil at her school. She died days after giving birth. That left Mercy's only relatives as her grandmother Lucy and two uncles, Peter and John. Her father James had

disappeared but claims he had been told that Mercy was also dead.

A publicity shot of Madonna with a sleeping Mercy

In spite of Mercy's apparent happiness, charities fear she could face problems adapting to her new life.

Maxwell Matewere, of Malawi's Eye of the Child group, said: 'It's hard to say how much damage may have been done to a girl who's been moved from pillar to post because of one woman's determination to have her.

'Her first days were with her schoolgirl mother who then died, and she spent three years in an orphanage.

For the past two months she has been living like no other Malawian child, surrounded by toys and a bewildering array of luxury. We are pleased if she finds happiness in her new life, but we cannot approve of the stress she has already suffered.'

Others have accused Madonna of virtually bribing Malawi's lawmakers and child protection officers into giving her what she wants by donating a reported £1.5million to the country through Raising Malawi.

But her lawyer Allan Chinula said: 'It is a total fabrication to say that Madonna poured money into Malawi for the purposes of being able to adopt a child.'

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All these "international welfare workers" and people from "Eye on the Child" should finally shut the f*ck up when it comes to THIS adoption. Bringing terms as "slavery", "bribery" and "child trafficking" into THIS case is already annoying people. Their behaviour is pissing people off and in the end this is going to hurt their work in this country because donors will start to wonder what their true intentions really are. And it deserves them right. I really hope that one day there´ll be some kind of showdown and Madonna will challenge them in a serious discussion. And these awful people from the Daily Hate. I bet they´ll be pissing their pants of fear to be confronted for their allegations.

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Malawi father drops fight to stop Madonna adoption

By Eldson Chagara

June 14, 2009

BLANTYRE (Reuters) - The father of a Malawian girl being adopted by Madonna says he has dropped his fight to get the child back and has urged the U.S. pop star to take good care of her.

Malawi's Supreme Court on Friday approved Madonna's application to adopt a second child from the country, overturning a lower court ruling.

James Kambewa, the father of 4-year-old Mercy James, originally said he opposed the adoption.

However, he told Reuters on Saturday he had decided not to fight the case, asking only that Mercy be brought up knowing he was her biological father.

"Let the child go ... My only plea to Madonna is that she should seriously look after the child," he said in an interview.

"I am asking Madonna to make sure that, while the child is growing, she must be informed of me as her biological father ... she really must know that while she is far away the father is still alive."

A Malawian court ruled in April that Madonna could not adopt Mercy because she was not a resident of the southern African country.

The Supreme Court overturned that decision, saying the child, who has been living in an orphanage, would have a better life with the singer. She never lived with Kambewa.

"When the child was born I was never told," he said.

Rights groups have accused the government of giving Madonna special treatment by skirting laws preventing non-residents from adopting children.

The government came under fire in 2006 after Madonna, who has supported orphans in the country through her Raising Malawi charity, adopted 13-month-old David Banda.

Officials at the charity said Mercy was expected to be flown out of Malawi this week.

(Additional reporting by Mabvuto Banda; Editing by Andrew Dobbie)

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It's funny how Angelina gets praised for adopting and Madonna not.

I can't understand how the media can turn ugly when it comes to adopting? Giving a child a better life and chances for a good life? What's wrong with that?

Anyways, congrats to Madonna.

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Guest joliepast
It's funny how Angelina gets praised for adopting and Madonna not.

I can't understand how the media can turn ugly when it comes to adopting? Giving a child a better life and chances for a good life? What's wrong with that?

Anyways, congrats to Madonna.

if she had adopted from Ethiopia no one would care but due to it not being known it is all controversial, well i think it great she adopted from Malawi anywhere where there is orphan needs help! she was brave enough to go to a place where there are millions of kids that need help, KUDOS!

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Guest joliepast

NEW PIX OF MERCY

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/artic...fe-Madonna.html

Mercy James spends last days with playmates before she's whisked away from Malawi for new life with Madonna

Mercy James is spending her final days in Malawi playing with friends, completely unaware her life is about to change beyond all recognition.

The four-year-old has been photographed enjoying the company of her nursery school class mates with a huge smile on her face as her new life with Madonna draws near.

The singer has been speaking to her new daughter every night as she prepares to move to New York.

Sources close to the singer say she has been calling Mercy James at the safe house where she has been staying in Lilongwe, Malawi.

'Mercy can only understand and answer basic issues like "greetings" and "what have you eaten?" but Madonna insists on speaking to her daily,' said a source.

'On Sunday night she told her: "Mommy is waiting for you across the seas. Your big sister, Lola, has decorated a room for you. You will like it".'

She was given permission to adopt the child, even though her father said he wants her back.

Malawi's Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling in April which said Madonna could not adopt Mercy James because she was not a resident of the southern African country.

Mercy James

Rights groups have accused the government of giving Madonna special treatment and said the case would encourage foreign celebrities to think they can adopt Malawian children at will.

Mercy's father said Madonna,who is dating 22-year-old Brazillian model Jesus Luz, should not be allowed to adopt Mercy.

Mercy James

'Mommy is waiting': Madonna is said to be phoning Mercy each day

'No one wants to listen to me, I have protested this all along... I want my child back but I don't know what to do now,' James Kambewa said.

'Madonna cannot take her away."

There is little he can do now - the Supreme Court ruling cannot be challenged.

Kambewa said he quit his job as a security guard to fight the adoption and is being supported by his aunt.

According to tradition in southern Malawi, where Kambewa lives, a grandmother has more say in a child's future than the father.

When Mercy's mother died Kambewa was powerless to stop his daughter being sent to an orphanage when she was 3 days old.

An AIDS epidemic in Malawi has orphaned more than one million children and Madonna has set up a children's charity.

Chief Justice Lovemore Munlo said the singer had shown an interest in helping Malawi orphans and that Mercy would have a better life with her. He said a lower court had erred in turning down the adoption request.

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http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/06/16/...-34_468x659.jpg

Edited by joliepast
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NEW PIX OF MERCY

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/artic...fe-Madonna.html

When Mercy's mother died Kambewa was powerless to stop his daughter being sent to an orphanage when she was 3 days old.

Yeah right. The guy wasn´t even there because he left the girl once he got her pregnant and only appeared to the scene when news broke that Madonna had the intention to adopt Mercy. He didn´t know he had a daughter, he didn´t know the mother died. Give me a beak. This irresponsible a**hole really has no say when it comes to "his" daughter and certainly not evaluating Madonnas skills as a mother as he did. The Daily Mail is so full of sh*t.

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Guest chatty kathy

Madonna to show no Mercy

June 16, 2009

MADONNA will begin her world tour just three weeks after her newly adopted child arrives in New York.

The pop singer, who will send assistants to pick up four-year-old Mercy James from Malawi, performs her first Sticky and Sweet tour show in London on July 4.

The 50-year-old performer will spend seven weeks in Europe.

She recently ditched plans to take the show to Australia.

Madonna is expected to leave the newest addition to her family with staff in New York, although her publicist would not confirm the singer's intentions yesterday.

Malawi's Supreme Court last week granted Madonna full custody of the child despite outcry over the rights of foreigners to adopt children from the country.

Mercy James' father James Kambewa later said he had dumped plans to fight the adoption.

He said he would no longer challenge the court decision, wished his daughter well and hoped she would not forget him.

"My only plea to Madonna is that she should seriously look after the child," he said.

"I am asking Madonna to make sure that, while the child is growing, she must be informed of me as her biological father . . . she really must know that while she is far away the father is still alive."

A Malawian court ruled in April that Madonna could not adopt Mercy because she was not a resident of the southern African country.

The Supreme Court overturned that decision, saying the child, who has been living in an orphanage, would have a better life with the singer.

Madonna's lawyer, Alan Chinula, said the singer was not going to collect the child, who is expected to leave for New York, via Johannesburg, today.

She will join three-year-old David Banda, whom Madonna adopted two years ago, along with her biological children Lourdes and Rocco.

Source: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...5012974,00.html

Everyone has their own twists to these stories.

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News is just in that the tour crew is now ready to leave the US and head to the UK where the Sticky & Sweet Tour starts in just two weeks.

The Madonna dancers will leave tomorrow - behold, she's coming soon.

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Doubt Madonna would just leave Mercy in NY until the tour ends

i'm sure she will have Mercy travel to London with her and for some but not all stops of the tour so they can spend quality time getting to know each other.

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