Forget Malawi - What About Us?

It seems like everywhere I turn these days, there's a story in the news about celebrities doing things. All too frequently we see the worst of them, such as Mel Gibson's alcohol fueled, anti-Semetic rantings at the police. But there are always stories about kindness and generosity to balance them out. But while these acts show a great deal of love, are they being misdirected?

Let's take a look for a moment at Madonna and Angelina Jolie. Both are very rich. Both have made the news recently for adopting children. And both of them...are adopting children from outside of the United States, where both of them were born and one of them still lives. My question is...why?

With Madonna, I can see a line of reasoning. She's fairly well expatriated herself from the land of her birth, down to adopting an English accent. But I'm still forced to wonder, why is she spending so much time looking after the children of Africa and not the children of her home?

It could be argued that both the United States and the United Kingdom offer superior opportunities to the children born within them. And I agree with that. But does that make the unfortunate ones any less needful? No. Instead, they get to watch as other children get the benefits of generosity.

There's an old saying that charity begins at home. Can the mass adoption of (admittedly) very needy children in impoverished countries really be justified when we still have children (and adults) in need in our own back yard? Madonna is stressing for more celebrities to adopt Malawian orphans. What about the British orphans? The American orphans? Aren't they just as deserving? And by helping to support our home countries, can't we, in turn, free up more resources to help the impoverished ones to improve their standard of living?

Madonna and Angelina Jolie are, without a doubt, being very generous in how they give of themselves. I have a great deal of respect for both of them for opening their homes and their hearts for the children that they adopt. But I fear that they are simply treating a symptom versus working to fix the underlying condition.