Come On Then Angelina, Let's See You Really Try to 'Make a Difference'

Angelina Jolie has made no secret of her desire for more kids.  She has talked of her ideal "rainbow family" of adopted children from poverty-stricken hell-holes around the globe.  Cambodia, Ethiopia, Vietnam: each nation has vomited up a perfectly photogenic little scrap of impoverished humanity, into the loving, and hugely wealthy, arms of Angelina.  Don't they look lovely?  Traipsing through another airport; the angelic, blonde half-Brads and the adorable ethnics: like a Benneton ad made flesh.  Madonna too has taken to scooping herself a couple of African poppets.  In her case the somewhat inconvenient objections of the kids' still-living relatives have been over-ridden by the incontrovertible fact that the children, under Madge's expensive care, will lead safer, healthier lives filled with opportunities way beyond the imagining of their former peers.  For, whatever one might think about the ethics of wealthy celebrities adopting dirt-poor kids from developing nations, no-one can be in any doubt about the benefits to the individual children involved.

Angelina has talked about this "saving" of kids who would otherwise have pretty bleak futures, and about wanting to "make a difference" but, I have to wonder, why no-one ever considers adopting a kid with a disability?  I mean, if you really want to 'save' a child who was otherwise destined for a life of untold suffering and loneliness, well there are plenty of abandoned disabled kids to choose from.  And their life chances can pretty much redefine 'limited', without copious outside help.  The sort of expensive help that is, sadly, pretty low down the list of priorities for any government, let alone one that is already struggling to feed its own people.  But for an American A-lister, with all their wealth and staff, meeting the unique needs of a kid with CP or Downe's Syndrome should be pretty simple.  

And then there's the powerful message that would be sent out if someone like Angelina Jolie brought a kid with an obvious disability into her high-profile, multi-faceted brood.  The message that these kids are beautiful too; that disability is not something that everyone rejects; that families of children with disabilities don't hide away in mute suffering, they engage with life like everyone else.  They could tell the whole world that disability is nothing to be afraid of.  Or does the rainbow family not have a place for someone who is really disadvantaged?