Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Strange Bedfellows

Judge Esme Chombo of the Lilongwe High Court rejected Madge’s bid to get her hands on four-year-old Mercy James, who lives in the same orphanage from which Madonna helped herself to David Banda in 2006. The judge smacked Madonna’s hands like a errant child, saying you can’t just jet in here and take off with a child like so many trinkets. Malawi has a law that adoptive parents must live in the country 18 months to two years, and the judge was not going to look the other way.

"The issue of residence, I find, is the key upon which the question of adoption rests, and it is the very bedrock of protection that our children need; it must, therefore, not be tampered with. As wisely put by G. K. Chesterton: 'Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up.'"


What deep joy to hear a judge quote Gilbert Keith Chesterton in relation to Madonna's adoption quest.

One small point, I had always thought it was Robert Frost who made the wise observation in question.

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