Seriously? OMG! WTF?

Madonna was accused of snatching away Malawian baby David Banda from another foreign woman who had been about to adopt him herself. In an extraordinary new twist, the boy’s father Yohane Banda said plans for his 13-month-old son to be adopted were already in motion before the singer intervened. Mr Banda spoke of his regret that Madonna has taken him, when he could have had a much quieter life had he been adopted by the unnamed woman. She has been making donations to the orphanage for six years and regularly lived there for three months at a time. He said: ‘The woman’s brother’s name was also David and she sent him pictures of my son and said he was going to come and collect him. ‘We were waiting for them both to come back to the village, but Madonna took him first. ‘If these people had adopted him, no-one would have ever caused this fuss and I could be living my life as normal.’ The new claim came as the main benefactor to David’s orphanage, a Canadian grandmother who has developed a close bond with him in his first year of life, spoke of her anguish that Madonna had taken ‘one of our babies’. Retired schoolteacher Jane Glaves had been making regular trips to the orphanage since 2000, staying for long periods at a time, living at a house she has built there with many of the children. In 2003, she took a set of male twins and a little girl home from the same orphanage to Canada and become the first and only non-national ever to do so. She was also consulted by officials from Malawi over Madonna’s adoption. She said: ‘David is such a special little boy. I would take them all in if I could, but I just could not put myself through it again.’ Speaking about Madonna’s adoption, the 70-year-old grandmother of five told First magazine: ‘All I knew about her was that she cavorted half naked in a conical bra. I found it difficult to come to terms with the fact she wanted one of our babies.’ Mrs Glaves said she was perplexed when Madonna chose David despite being offered children with no surviving family. Pictured here with a baby who is believed to be David at the orphanage, she said: ‘We put forward the names of children who had nobody, but she chose David knowing he had a living parent.’ She added: ‘Madonna has said she was told David’s family had never been to visit him. But David’s dad used to come to see him regularly.’ Malawian law dictates that foreigners must live in the country for 18 months before they are eligible to adopt a child. And Madonna herself has admitted that her team had to ‘make the laws up as they went along’ to adopt David. When Mrs Glaves was involved in the adoption of three local children to two Canadian families, the process took three years. ‘At first I was angry that Madonna seemed to be able to adopt David so quickly because of the length of time and stress the other two families had to endure,’ she said. ‘In my six years working in Malawi, they are the only orphans I know to have left the country. Madonna obviously had very good lawyers.’

Daily Mail

Everyday it is something new with this adoption, I just wonder if she will be able to keep David?

The father of Madonna’s adopted orphan has dismissed as a lie the singer’s claim on TV that his wife and other children died of AIDS. Yohane Banda, 32, whose wife died aged 25 after giving birth to 13-month-old David, says he will now have to live with the stigma. The African peasant farmer also denied the superstar’s allegation that he had never visited his son at the orphanage, to which he was entrusted at the age of two weeks. Speaking on the Oprah Winfrey Show last week, Madonna, 48, said when she met David at the orphanage in Malawi she was told his mother and three siblings had died of AIDS, while his father’s whereabouts were unknown. But Mr Banda, who lives in the village of Lipunga, close to the border with Zambia, said: "She never went for an HIV test and she died in Zambia at her parents’ house, so how could anyone know if that is what she died of?" The clinic she attended when she became ill during pregnancy had diagnosed anaemia, he added. Later, when she was admitted to hospital in Malawi, he was told she had a physical condition that made childbirth very risky. Mr Banda insisted he had two other children – not three as Madonna was told – one of whom had died of malaria, while the other died suddenly at 18 months from an unknown cause. Neither was HIV positive as far as he knew. Mr Banda said he was worried that if people believed Madonna’s claims, they would stigmatise him. In the TV interview, Madonna said David had been abandoned by his family. "No one from his extended family had visited him since he arrived," she told Oprah. But Mr Banda insisted this was also "a lie", adding: "I visited David many times, too many to count." The baby was also visited by his grandmother, while Mr Banda’s brother, Profera, "saw him almost every day, sometimes twice a day". Despite his anger at the slurs, Mr Banda refused to blame Madonna and instead accused the orphanage of giving her "false information". However, an official at the Home of Hope Orphan Care Centre insisted: "We gave her no such information," and instead pointed the finger at Malawi’s Ministry of Gender and Child Welfare. Meanwhile, although David has been in the UK for less than two weeks, Madonna has introduced him to her Kabbalah faith. The move is likely to upset Mr Banda, who was told his son was going to "a very nice Christian lady". Madonna took the toddler to the Friday night Shabat ceremony at the Central London Kabbalah Centre, and invited other children to "come and play with baby David". The boy even wore the Kabbalah red string bracelet, believed by followers to ward off evil spirits.

Daily Mail 

This guys keeps changing story with every interview, I just don’t know whether or not to believe him anymore.

A Malawian man who gave up his 13-month-old son to be adopted by Madonna said Sunday he had not realized he was signing away custody "for good." Yohane Banda signed adoption papers earlier this month, clearing the way for a Malawian judge to grant the pop singer and her husband a temporary order to take his son David. "Our understanding was that they would educate and take care of our son just as they were doing at the orphanage," the 32-year-old illiterate peasant farmer told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Lipunga, the village where he ekes out a living growing onions and tomatoes. Until now, Banda has said his decision was in the best interests of his motherless son and criticized local charities who have started legal proceedings to challenge the adoption. Banda said his understanding was that "when David grows up he will return back home to his village." He said the director of Child Welfare Services, Penston Kilembe, and the retired pastor who heads the orphanage where David spent most of his life never told him by "adoption" it meant David will cease to be his son. "If we were told that she wants to take the baby as her own we could not have consented, because I see no reason why I should give away my son," he said. Banda’s wife died shortly after childbirth — a relatively frequent occurrence in the impoverished African nation which suffers from high rates of maternal and infant mortality — and he left his son with the orphanage. He lost two children in infancy to malaria. Banda said he was illiterate and so had no idea of the significance of the adoption papers he signed in the High Court in the capital, Lilongwe. "Mr. Kilembe and the pastor explained to me that Madonna would take care of my son; I am just realizing now the meaning of adoption," he said, claiming that he has no copies of documents pertaining to the adoption. "All the documents are with Mr. Kilembe," he said. Kilembe refused to comment on Sunday. Madonna’s Malawian lawyer Alan Chinula also refused to comment, saying his clients have not given him any fresh instructions, but he insisted the singer followed all the procedures to adopt the child. Critics of the adoption disagree. The Human Rights Consultative Committee, which comprises 67 human rights groups, has challenged the adoption, saying laws concerning the residency of the prospective parents were flouted and that it may set a precedent for human trafficking. Banda’s claims were corroborated by his cousin, Wiseman Zimba, and mother, Asineti Mwale. "Our understanding as family is that David is still part and parcel of our clan," Zimba said. "After the good woman nurtures and educates him, he will return back." Mwale said: "I look forward to telling my grandson how destitute he was after losing his mum at the tender age of three weeks, how we surrendered him to the orphanage and how this good woman took him away." However, the family insisted that it did not want David to return to the orphanage. "We are still thankful Madonna has rescued him from poverty and disease; we pray for the good Lord to keep blessing her for her benevolence," Banda said.

AP 

I wonder if she is going to lose David?

NBC will air Madonna: The Confessions Tour – Live From London after all – but without the scene in which Madonna sings "Live to Tell" while suspended from a giant cross, a rep for the network confirms to PEOPLE. The decision was made in collaboration with Madonna, who is an executive producer of the special, the NBC spokesperson said. Last month, the New York Daily News reported that the crucifixion scene, which has sparked outrage among religious leaders in the U.S. and in Europe, might cause NBC to scrap the planned special. "NBC is awaiting delivery of the special," a network rep told the Daily News at the time. "Once we see it in its entirety, we’ll make a final decision." Madonna has defended the crucifixion scene as part of her appeal to audiences to donate to AIDS charities. "I don’t think Jesus would be mad at me and the message I’m trying to send," she told the Daily News in May. The two-hour concert special will air on Nov. 22 at 8 p.m. ET.

People (Thanks Michael)

I saw the concert and seriously there is nothing wrong with what she does on the cross. I am just not feeling the love for NBC today.

THE father of the boy adopted by Madonna in Malawi has said he never meant to give his son up for good when he sent him to an orphanage after the death of his mother. Peasant farmer Yohane Banda, who can barely read or write, admitted he did not fully understand what was happening when he went to court in his best clothes to see for the first and only time the woman who was offering his 13-month-old son, David, a new life. Mr Yohane’s wife, Marita, 28, died a week after David was born. "(Madonna) was smiling a lot. She told me: ‘Your son is very beautiful…I promise to take very good care of him."’ "I looked into her eyes and said: ‘I want you to look after him well as he is the only one I possess. ‘I want you to keep this boy, raise him, educate him – but you have to know he is my son and he is a Malawian."’ The 30-minute court hearing was conducted in English, with Mr Banda using a translator. He said he had been bewildered by the speed at which David had been put up for adoption. "It has all been crazy. Everything has happened so fast. I can’t believe what’s happening." But he added: "In court, I did understand I was agreeing to give the baby up for adoption." Mr Banda said David had lived in the orphanage since his mother died, but it was always intended he would one day return home. "I took him to the orphanage because he was sick and we could not care for him. "My other two sons had passed away from malaria while they were still young, and when David became very sick I didn’t know how to cope. "My in-laws did not want him and my extended family is too poor to take him in." But it appears David was offered for adoption without his father’s knowledge when his picture was sent, along with those of 12 other "suitable" boy babies, to Madonna by email. Mr Banda said the first he knew about the adoption was on September 30, when two officials from Malawi’s Ministry of Gender and Child Welfare came to his village. "They told me a mzungu (white foreigner) had seen David’s picture and liked him very much. They said she wanted to take him to America. "They said she would give him a better life. At first I wasn’t sure. I asked if it meant I would never see him again. "They said I would be sent pictures, and when David was older he would be able to visit the village. "My family and I agreed this was a very good opportunity for David to get an education and grow up healthy." Mr Banda had never heard of Madonna or her raunchy songs. He was told she was "a very nice Christian lady".

The Daily Telegraph 

I love that he was told she is a very nice Christian lady, guess he does not know about her beliefs in Kabballah. It will be interesting to see if Madonna will be able to adopt David because so many groups are protesting the adoption.

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