Madoona, I love you, but get your ass out of the photo op and onto the field. Grab a hammer and start building.
Having worked in fundraising for wonderful charities, it is with a heavy heart to learn about the horrendous scam circling Madonna‘s now ill-conceived school for girls in Malawi. I say ill-conceived because if this project was properly structured, with vigorous oversight, then 3.8 million dollars would not have vanished. Who is to blame? Surely the Executive Director, Philippe van den Bossche, who became involved with Madonna’s trainer, Tracy Anderson, in the middle of the project. Now it makes sense why Madonna fired her “celebrity trainer ass“. Now, someone tell me how a 15 million dollar project allows for a 3.8 million dollar loss…with nothing to show for it? Were all the egos involved so large that no one could see the forest from the trees? And wait, much of that 3.8 million went to architects and designers according to Page Six. Excuse me, we’re talking Malawi here not the Miami Design District. Does Malawi need some pretentious design vomit or a clean, safe building to teach the girls in? Sounds like gross, egregious highway robbery to me. Shame on everyone involved. This van den Bossche schmuck, like many bankers and Wall Street scam artists need to be slapped-their-ass into jail, where their asses will be slapped for years to come.
As for Madonna? She needs to shut her trap for a while and dig in and make sure that what has been wronged gets righted somehow. Scrap the project? I don’t think so. That is unacceptable. We don’t need to see her dancing around with twinkies for a few months until something constructive happens in Malawi. This is like that Oprah scandal in Africa where the girl school she built was riddled with sexual predators. How about celebrities just giving money and side stepping the in-your-face PR opportunities associated with them. Clearly celebrity status is valuable for raising money, but how about stopping there? Surely the egos of Madonna and Oprah would not let them? Oprah had to drag her sorry ass over to Africa after that debacle. Now Madonna better get her perfectly sculpted ass on a plane and spend some time donning a construction hat working directly with the contractors on a nice rectangular building with working bathrooms. Or else, girl.
Don't count Madonna out. She's arguably the most famous woman in the world with a thriving career and more money than God, so I have to believe that her philanthropic work is the real deal. There are any number of other ways to gain publicity, of which she is not in need of.
Yes, this is a big setback, but her heart is in the right place and she is a very intelligent woman who will see this through, even if it has to be in another direction. I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt in this instance.
I'll save my hate for someone who actually deserves it like say Whitney Houston, a crack whore who does nothing for others or Lindsay Lohan, a drunken thief. At least Madonna is TRYING to make a difference.
I love Madonna, don't get me wrong. I am furious as to how unnecessary this situation is. I feel like the buck has to stop with her. She made this her big mission. So she trusted a douche bag with the job. Mistake one. This much time and money goes by. Mistake 2. In the places I used to work with, there were boards who scrutinized every nickel and there were committees for all spending. This van der Douche, midway moved to NYC to be near Tracy Anderson, according to the report. And Madonna got angry. Angry? Fire his ass. I don't know, it sounds like a series of bad decisions and now bad vibes. She has to be the one on the white horse and riding back into Malawi. Period.
News flash: drunken thief La Lohan was recruited into the Kabbalah Cult by the "Material Girl." They like going on crime sprees for fun.
Madonna uses charity the same as she uses religion, artists works, gay people and producers. Obviously her marketing team has convinced you for decades otherwise. Last time I checked the poor got poorer and Madonna get richer.
Have seen images of serial killers that were able to cover up their actions from family and friends? They pose for pictures, have children around them, etc. In fact child molesters are your school teachers and camp counselors. Madonnas happy forget about everything music makes her fans clueless or more so than they were before.
WTF! Another excuse to have a go at Madonna!!!
Previous Raising Malawi projects have been fine. This has happened because obviously Philippe Van Der Botsch was incapable of the management of such large sums of money. Don't blame Madonna! They appoint someone with credentials to do a job. If he performs badly then you fire him. In this case there also appears to have been some kind of fraud. Before you shout "How could Madonna not know?". The Girls' School project is about 2 yrs old. How long did it take the government of this country to realise the misappropriation of funds in the MPs expenses scandal!
As always Madonna will grow from this experience but one thing she will not do is abandon her efforts to raise the education of children (in particular girls) in Malawi.
Madonna is one of the most determined women on this planet. Everything happens for a reason and she will seek the positives from this. The outcome will be a better version.
Hi. I am a major Madonna fan. Have been since day 1. This is a situation that seems really unfortunate, yet, perhaps avoidable. Have you ever worked in the not-for-profit arena? I have. And have seen absolute accountability. Excuse me, you hand over 11 million dollars? Where were her "partners" from the Kabbalah Center? Where was anyone with a sense of moral dignity and responsibility? Yes, van der Douche should go to jail. But Madonna and Michael Berg had the most to gain or lose. And sadly in that case, lost. At the charities I worked with, committees oversaw every detail of spending and reports went to the Angels of the charity. Yes, Madonna will learn from this. Sadly, the hard way. A way that should NEVER have happened. And the Kabbalah people should also be quite ashamed that they did not keep their eye on the ball…which was the prize. But then again, I wonder if Kabbalah is a .org (not for profit) to know how that goes. If not, then surely that is riveting to know.
I'm sorry but as someone who knows Mr van den Bossche, I can tell you that he is one of the most caring, intelligent and practical people around. You should reserve yr judgments until you have all of the facts. The only people to blame for all of this are Madonna and the Kabbalah Center, who are simply throwing Philippe under the bus because it is the easiest thing to do.
Hi Marie Dee, If you read my other comments and what I responded you would see that I too have put the blame square on the Kabbalah Center and Madonna, for different reasons. But the E.D. MUST take the blame here too. I am sure he is a lovely gentleman. However, something got the better of him to cloud his judgment. And for that, shame on him for squandering precious resources. WHOEVER wrote checks totalling millions of dollars and no ground broken, is as horrendous as the status of the Twin Towers debacle. The bucks has to stop somewhere, and frankly, with all three.
I agree with you. They're definitely setting him up to take the fall. My intentions are plain and simple: I want the same thing as you. We should definitely talk.
pelham 123 c (at) yah oo (dot) com
The Madonna business model is built on stealing and copying others designs and works in order to make money, why wouldn't she rip off a charity?
What's amazing is the majority of supporters don't see her charity actions as a way to build consumer affection, bottom line is she makes money off people's support, no doubt the carelessness of those she selects to do business with aggravates her. She is a shallow self consumed narcissist that claims to not care about people think, so why then does she appear in public to be judged or flaunt her style more oft than not styled by a hired professional. The fraud cannot cook, one must look at her level of mothering as somewhat non existent.