Misspellings And Broken Promises: Madonna At The Center Of A War Of Words With The President Of Malawi
April 8 2013, Published 2:55 p.m. ET
Madonna was recently crowned the best selling woman rock artist of all time, but as it turns out her billions haven't taught her how to spell.
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.
"I have always admired your strength and courage and have very good memories of when we met and spoke and we interviewed you for documentary as you know I am in Malawi for the week," wrote Madonna.
"If you have any time in your busy schedule to meet that would be great if not you know I am here to be of service and continue to do what I can to support the children of Malawi!"
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.
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"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.
"It sends a very bad signal to the (UK) Department for International Development and the US government and other donors," he added.
The Like A Virgin singer has adopted two Malawian children over the past seven years - David Banda, in 2006, and Mercy James, in 2009 – both of whom are currently 8 years old.
