MADONNA'S NEW PURCHASE

The singer and her husband Guy Ritchie have been granted custody of an infant boy from Malawi.

The media is swarming in now. Mondays papers will all focus on how Madonna got her new boy "David" so fast.

It was as if she “was coming from God”, one of the village elders told one newspaper. Just over a week ago came a welcome distraction. A convoy of three white Nissan 4x4s swept through the gate with an entourage of 11 security guards, publicists and even a camera crew. From the caravan emerged Madonna, wearing a tight black T-shirt with jeans, and her husband Guy Ritchie, clad in white shirt and tan trousers. Everyone knew who she was. They dance to Material Girl even in this poor town where the kids play on dirt because all the grass died years ago. They were there to help to fund a new 4 million orphanage as part of Madonna’s Raising Malawi charity program. But they had another reason not known to us. Adopting an African baby of their own. David’s mother had died days after giving birth to him without a nurse or medical attention. His father Yohame Banda, 32, could not feed his son, so he walked 38 miles to the orphanage. Last week he gave him up for adoption in the hope that his baby would have a better life than his own. He never knew he would meet Madonna, but he did. She told him ‘Your son is very beautiful and he makes me very happy. I promise to take very good care of him.’

Malawi has strict laws on foreigners adopting children which normally require that prospective parents foster “in-country” for 18 months before moving abroad. Citing the couple’s “special circumstances”, however, Madonna filed papers with the high court in Lilongwe on Wednesday and within a day was granted an interim adoption, allowing the 18-month trial period to be completed in Britain. “Madonna and her husband have been granted custody,” said a spokesman for the singer yesterday. “Final legal arrangements are being made to bring him back home.”

The speed on how Madonna found and secured David has sparked some strong reactions. “Madonna spent only a little more time choosing David than she would a handbag,” one local was quoted as saying, while others suggested that an “African child would be good for the Madonna brand”.

I say, " Let Madonna be, she has brought attention to the poor in this world. She has started a charity for an ophanage. She has shown the world something which we have seen many times before, but ignore. People are starving, adults, kids. They are starving to death."

When's the last time any of us made such a great purchase!