First of all, The NY Daily News has a copy of the handwritten note that Madonna sent to the new President of Malawi, Joyce Banda, and it’s hilarious! It’s full of exclamation points, run-on sentences and misspellings. Go over to the NY Daily News to check it out and come back here. That’s a note you send to a friend, not a head of state. Madonna should realize that she needs to send a type-written, proofread, respectful and formal note to a new President.
Madonna was requesting a personal meeting with the new President prior to her weeklong tour of the country. Madonna of course adopted two children, both now 8, from Malawi, skirting longstanding adoption laws to do so. She’s also had several charity projects in Malawi that have been mired in controversy, most notably a $15 million dollar school, plans for which were scrapped in 2011. The NY Times ran a piece a couple of months later detailing the millions of dollars that went missing in that charity, spent on “outlandish expenditures on salaries, cars, office space and a golf course membership, free housing and a car and driver for the school’s director.” And of course Madonna’s cult, Kabbalah, was involved and was going to influence the school’s curriculum. So there’s much more going on here than Madonna offending the President with a dumb, handwritten note. This is Madonna trying to do damage control and tout the charity work that her foundation eventually did in Malawi, by funding some community schools. Still, the note is funny. Here’s more, thanks to Radar:
The Material Girl sent a muddled letter to President Joyce Banda of Malawi last week to coincide with her latest goodwill trip to her country. But the impact of her words was diluted by a multitude of misspellings and led to her being refused a meeting, according to the New York Daily News.
Madonna, 54, addressed President Banda with the informal greeting “Dear Joyce” in the hand-written note, in which she congratulated the most powerful woman in Africa on the “new position” as the nation’s first female leader.
The pop star, who traveled to Malawi to check in on 10 school projects her charity built, proved she was in need of some serious schooling herself as she made a slew of errors in her note, including writing “responsability” instead of “responsibility.”
She even asked for a face-to-face with the president but her rambling and casual tone instead offended the president! The president told the pop star that she was too busy and instead delegated the meeting to officials from the education ministry, according to a report in the Nyasa Times.
And if the scribbled note wasn’t bad enough, the outreach itself may have been enough to upset the President. The President’s sister was previously fired from her role at Madonna’s Raising Malawi charity after accusations surfaced that she stole money.
Madonna is the country’s biggest global philanthropist, but as The Telegraph reported, her Raising Malawi program sparked criticism from the education minister over the schools that are financed by the charity.
Minister Eunice Kazembe denied that Madonna’s charity had built 10 new schools, saying that they had in fact “built 10 classroom blocks.” However, her philanthropy team claims that the schools are built to the national standard and house thousands of kids in classrooms instead of under trees.
“We have called President Banda, we have sent letters to President Banda but we have not heard back,” said Trevor Neilsen.”It’s pretty clear what’s going on here – the president’s sister now works in the education ministry and has an active grudge against Madonna.”
In regard to the allegations that the President’s sister stole from Madonna’s charity – the head of Raising Malawi stole a bunch of money in 2009 (allegedly) before resigning and running off with Madonna’s then-trainer, Tracy Anderson. (Who is a known fraud. Madonna fired Tracy as her trainer, then Tracy and that guy broke up.) So all this business about the President of Malawi’s sister being fired for embezzling money from the charity may be a smokescreen – or she may have been one of many people lining their pockets with money from that charity, from the top-down.
Madonna is shown at the GLAAD Awards with Anderson Cooper on 3-16-13 and performing in November. There’s also a photo of her children, David and Mercy, in Miami in November. Credit: WENN.com
Wow she has old person handwriting.
She refuses to take those damn gloves off, even to write a letter!
I find it strange that the note is handwritten, but the signature is a stamp….WTF
She probably thinks her autograph is worth money, and didn’t want to give it away for free.
“She probably thinks her autograph is worth money, and didn’t want to give it away for free.”
LOL so right!!!!!
It’s not a stamp. The Daily News photo shows two pages of her engraved stationery (the first just above the second). It also appears that there’s additional writing, probably her signature, cut off from the bottom of the photo.
She IS old.
What the hell is up with the ageism? Yeah she is mature (that’s for sure) and what? Due to texting initialisms and acronyms people forget that hand written (no spell check) lends itself to spelling errors. Just saying….I will concede to some degree because she should have had her staff proof for errors and grammar but ego overrides common sense.
eh, there is maybe one misspelled word, but the note still reads like a 7th grader wrote it. I was more shocked at how horrible Madonna’s penmanship is, but are we sure she didn’t make her assistant write that? This woman can’t be bothered and lacks zero integrity.
There is more than one misspelled word. Many celebrities are clueless, classless and uneducated. Shocker.
Formal or informal, you don’t write to a politician, to congratulate for a big career achievement, like that.
She’s not your friend, or your fan.
It is called politeness.
Exactly! I don’t care if she is Madonna (or Beyoncé or even Tina Freaking Turner)…you don’t do that. Unless they’ve been besties since grade-school, Madonna ought to have at the very least addressed her as Madame President.
The only thing I can think of to explain why she would have done it is maybe she thought a handwritten note would be less impersonal?
+1
That note is presumptuous and over-familiar. Of course, so is Madonna!
+50!
It’s also a bit unprofessional.
Nice handwriting. NOT.
that’s the handwriting of an insane person.
& how old ‘is’ that David? he’s like a child in a teen body! 😯
I don’t see anything wrong with the child, nor can he help it if he is tall for his age (?)
Actually the handwriting is a little shaky but compared to the texting generation who never get penmanship lessons at all, it’s servicable. She is just ridiculous however…
I can’t, and won’t, make fun of her penmanship.
I will make fun of her idiocy in sending such a note to someone with whom she’s not close personal friends; sending a note in which she is, quite obviously, trying to make herself seem to very important and having no common sense.
TY! Oh I mean thank you. I mean come on give Mads a smidge of a break. I think MOST of us typing right now (some of us who’ve won penmanship certs as kids hmmm 🙂 would be embarrassed to write cursive or otherwise. Nuff said. Wow all the grammar aside but she should not have addressed the President by her first name. Yikes.
Can’t stand this woman…her sense of self-importance is incredible! Dear Joyce…REALLY! This woman is the PRESIDENT of Malawi. Does Madonna have no idea about protocol and respect?
“Dear Joyce”? Seriously? She really thinks she is on equal footing with heads of state! Madonna you are an ENTERTAINER.
Entertainer, you know..like a trained monkey.
This is why I never donate to celeb’s charities. They have no business starting charites, and there’s only a handful that have done it right. Madonna put in place a lot of losers (including her Kabballah guy) and they used millions on themselves. Madonna put in millions herself and lost it. How stupid. But at least she learned the second time. She partnered with an established on-the-ground group that builds schools there and it was done right.
But Madonna is narcissistic, been living a life of privilege a long time, so has no clue that she’s not special. I will give her credit for having all those ten small schools built in small areas for the children who needed it. It will make a difference. And the schools she is helping to fund elsewhere now. Still, she rubs me the wrong way since she hit her 50s. Oh, well, I will always have Confessions Tour and Re-Invention Tour and early Madonna.
Ugh, she’s so effing gross, annoying & self-serving. She’s become a cringeworthy parody and she needs to stfd.
Madonna is so full of herself that she probably saw nothing wrong with the way this was writtten. Who wouldn’t want to meet with great and powerful Madonna? I really can’t stand her anymore, her ego is ridiculous. Also, it shows a seriousack of education.
I don’t care who you are, when you send correspondence to any head of state, you begin with “Dear President/Prime Minister/etc”.
I seriously doubt she is unaware of the etiquette in this situation. She just thinks she’s so damn important that she can address the president of a nation by her first name.
I’d dare say Madonna thought it would be considered a special treat for a president to be on first-name terms. I’m not even being sarcastic.
That’s exactly what I thought. I also wonder about the amount of respect she has for Malawi as a country if she felt that it was appropriate to address the head of state like this. Would she write a similar letter to President Obama, for instance, or Prime Minister Cameron?
Mortifying, awkward and also earnest–very immature character to it, as if written by an uneducated teenager. Although “Joyce” struck me the wrong way as well, probably felt she was on a first name basis because they had already met on at least one previous occasion.
What a gracious response to a decline to a meeting with Madonna.
‘Yeah, well, we never wanted to see her anyway, her sister’s out to get us.’
Classy bunch, that charity.
I cant say how frustrating it is to hear Madonna peddle this corrupt
sister tale. It would truly shock me and most watchers of that region if Joycf
Ha! This story gets even better.
Malawi revoked her dignitary status so when leaving the country she had to go through public departure procedures just like a normal person! She apparently “couldn’t believe it was happening to her”. Hahahaha!
I remember talking to someone in the Malawi government when she was initially making her education pledges. It was all still very hush hush but they were so incredibly excited. They even bent their adoption laws to suit her.
She has not lived up to what she promised despite using the desperately poor country as a PR prop to showcase her own ‘goodness’. No-one knows where the money raised for ‘Raising Malawi’ went and it seems it was a front for Kabbalah LA center (which reports say is being investigated by the IRS).
Sending a note like that would not get you a meeting with any international leader. Banda is a busy woman. Really, it was very insulting.
Joyce Banda is a highly educated woman passionate about education. Madonna isn’t in her league.
Do you know why she changed her mind over her promise of building that all-girls school? I can’t find anything on the net that explains why. She went back on that promise and instead built 10 classrooms, NOT schools, as her camp is supposedly saying.
I don’t think there was a legitimate reason beyond her staff spending all of the money on luxury cars, etc., and her own arrogant flakiness.
Yes, African nations are not pet projects for people to take on. I feel like there are a lot of these celebs who feel like they are doing certain African countries a service by deigning to champion causes related to that specific country. It’s condescending. There are exceptions, of course. I am a fan of Ben Affleck’s advocacy for the Democratic Republic of Congo.
She used the President of Malawi’s first name to start a letter? What a idiot. Honestly, I’m surprised she can spell…oh wait, she can’t! What a moron.
I agree. To err on the side of formality is never a mistake.
The form of the note surprises me not. Why is the cow wearing a boy scout uniform with the Lagerfeld trampire gloves?
Madonna strikes me as the type who has mirrors everywhere in her home.
One would think she’d realize that she looks like total idiot.
Then again, it’s Madonna. She makes a habit of that lately.
I don’t remember exactly where this pic is from, but she was wearing the uniform to protest the Boy scouts policy of prohibiting GLBT individuals from participating as a member or a pack leader.
ah, thanks for clearing that up. I’m glad it had some relevancy instead of just her penchant for uniforms.
In other news, Mercy is one beautiful little girl. That smile is a killer! 😀
I can’t believe she thought that was acceptable in any way.
What a shame she didn’t follow through on her promises to be philanthropic there. She has had a lot of success and could really have done some great things there.
Stupid people who think they are smart= THE WORST
That’s just so….wierd. Writing a ” hey wassup” note to a president. Smh.
Her handwritings all wonky cause of those silly gloves she insists on wearing.
Everyone makes mistakes, even those who don’t think they make spelling mistakes, do!
What is more offensive is the lack of bother her letter, and in effect, the spelling mistakes imply. Madonna wants us to know how perfect she is- books, movies, music, kaballah, yoga, diet, fitness, yet she can’t construct a simple letter.
I also find the letter quite patronising- where a mere celebrity thinks she is on equal footing to a head of state. At least, (and I say this tentatively) people elect a president. Madonna has inflicted herself on these people!
Ugh, I’m embarrassed for her.
I had the same reaction when I read the note–it’s cringeworthy on so many levels! I teach college English, and this is the kind of immature writing sample that I often see in the beginning of a new semester from my eighteen-year-old students: inappropriate tone, careless mechanical errors, and sloppy format. I guess this explains why she dates twenty-something male models instead of successful, accomplished men her own age…
WTH?
Isn’t she somewhat college educated?
She couldn’t take the time to have someone type it out for her so it would be legible, at least?
Dance and art colleges don’t really teech peepul hew 2 spel.
Haha!! I guess not!
I loathe the woman, but happen to know she was a dance major at University of Michigan (as was I – I even lived in the same dorm room… many years later, of course).
While I agree Madonna is an idiot, the University of Michigan and its Dance program are very well regarded institutions and *most* of us gained a great education!
Excellent points all and to amplify Jayna Newsweek had a long article last year on the Malawi fiasco; This is why you not only don’t contribute to celeb charities but don’t listen to them yak about politics whether they are Bruce Springsteen and Jay Z to Ted Nugent and Toby Keith. They are all surface with little depth or background knowledge as well as lacking the realization that all the issues they yak on have been written about, researched, and studied extensively; These issues didn’t come into existence when some celebutard suddenly discovered their existence.
BTW, what is with that costume in the first pic?
That said, Matt Damon is actually doing wonderful things with his water charity (water.org). The key difference is that it was never a vanity project.
I agree there are exceptions – from what I’ve seen and read, Ed and Sharon Begley practice enviromental consciousness, and don’t just preach it; Alan Alda has partnered with Public Television and Scientific American on science issues – pop stars and young hollywood appear to be the worst, however.
I don’t know how you can make it to your 50s and not know how to spell responsibility.
The only letters in the alphabet she cares to know are “I” and “ME”. Plus full rights to use “!” whenever she commands it. *eye rollz*
Was that a contract to buy more fashion accessories? Can she trade in the old ones?
Now that’s what makes me an angry bitch.
Who does she thinks she is? just beacause she’s a popstar she can call a President for name…
the thing that really bugs me is that she thought that she didn’t have to write properly and formal for the President of Malawi!Like who cares? It’s just a poor country from where she can illegaly adopt babies and pretend to be charitable and generous right? I find her so miserable.
madonna probably thought she was being cool and personal. some pop stars need to realize that making a few hit songs does not make you a god on earth that everyone needs to drop everything and be thankful for their glance.
Sigh. Heard “Crazy for You” the other day. I miss the Madonna days of yesterday, but can do without her present self.
Madge, you shall now be known as Moronna.
I wonder if ppl like Madonna and Angelina Jolie have any idea of what’s going on in their own backyard? Do they have a sniff of what the “War on Drugs” is really about? I cant help but think this building of schools in third world countries and the adoption of children from those countries is more about image control. Do they really give a shit?
Right. Because a) the United States is the only country that matters and b) the father of Angelina’s six children is in NO way heavily involved in US causes.
No the US is not the only country that matters but they are in trouble. And Brad Pitt is heavily involved in US causes? Hardly. Not without benefitting himself first. These ppl are for the most part all about that. If you think otherwise you are naive. I’m not here to argue. Simply giving my two cents. Have a nice day!
I’m sure it’s all about image for Madonna, and she’s blowing that big time, but Angelina Jolie isn’t in the same category. She seems to do a lot of stuff under the radar and seems genuine.
As others above said, and as the Malawi education minister said, celebs who actually want to do some good would work WITH the countries’ governments rather than imposing their values on entire nations.
Okay obviously they had met before so Madge felt like she could use the president’s first name, whatever. Most of you have avoided the real issues, which are her ridiculous gloves, the boy scout uniform, and her ridiculous face. That first picture looks like the nightmare version of a scout leader. I mean, run-screaming nightmare. The gloves hiding her hand veins are just drawing attention to them.
This is where research into foreign cultures would have been a good idea. Malawi isn’t too far from where my parents are from and believe me, it is a very conservative FORMAL culture. You do not use a person’s first name no matter how familiar you are with them. it’s taken very badly. and interpreted as a complete diss. There are words that allow for less formal salutations, but a person’s first name is a complete no no.
Then she compounds mistake by being chummy with the president [again, no]. There is a term for it which loosely translates as ‘familiarity breeds comtempt’ which is what Madonna has done. being too familiar withe the president.
This fiasco demonstrates just how little Madonna knows about Malawi if she can make such a rookie mistake.
Get in line. Madonna manages to offend many and impress few.
Why don’t you all donate to charities and stop picking on every detail with madonna. The presidents sister stole from a charitable organization and now works for the ministry of education in Malawi. If I was madonna I wouldn’t spend another penny down there. They’re ungrateful. You all are ungrateful.
You all need to get outside and get some air.
As Dan Aykroyd used to say on SNL’s Weekend Update a million years ago, “Madge, you ignorant slut….” This woman’s ego is mind blowing. “Dear Joyce,” indeed. These photos are a hoot and a half. And is anybody noticing how she seems to be morphing into Marlene Dietrich, when the old girl was in her 70s? Of couse, MD was supremely talented, while Madge is just embarrassing.
Yes, now that you mention it, she *does* resemble an aging Marlene Dietrich…
She really is stupid, isn’t she?