Opinion in Brief

Hollywood and its ilk love to find a cause du jour that its celebrities can throw their wads of cash at for a warm, fuzzy feeling before they blow a couple grand on something trivial and out of style next month. Recently, it seems adopting kids from extremely poor nations is at the top of the list.

For now, Madonna is at the center of attention for her controversial adoption of a Malawian boy. Rather than adopting and completely spoiling a single child with a celebrity upbringing, Madonna and other celebrities would do better to use the millions they’ll probably drop on their latest “accessories” and help open up something a little better than a Kabbalah Center for these kids. A million bucks is pretty cool over here, but for poor African nations, that money could go a very long way for the many people who live on less than a few hundred dollars a year.

Unfortunately, it seems that people who really do have the power to make change do it half-heartedly – maybe this is because they are not as committed to their ideals as they would say. Hollywood loves to say that much of the conflict of the world is due to poverty and inequality in society. Well, are they doing their part? Mostly … no.