The furore surrounding the Madonna adoption saga shows no sign of dying down. The Malawian child's father Yohane Banda told Reuters television this weekend he had understood the popstar would only raise his child on his behalf, rather than adopt him. This fuelled another round of comment in the world's press.

"Madonna says that when he is old enough she plans to introduce her adopted son...David Banda to Malawian culture. All she has to do is cut off the electricity and water and empty the freezer and she will be halfway there to the true Malawian experience," quips British journalist and author Tony Parsons in the Mirror newspaper. Parsons thinks David is better off out of Malawi, where children spend hours collecting clean water rather than studying in school. Britain's Guardian traces the story of "the most famous baby in the world", from his birth and his mother's death six days later to his arrival in Britain. The article sheds light on some of the lesser-known details of his case.

It recounts the dilemma faced by David's father, who still had to pay off the dowry to his deceased wife's family while working full-time on his farm and looking after a newborn baby. In these circumstances, placing the baby in care may have seemed like the best thing to do.

After consulting his mother and the village chief, Yohane decided to send David to an orphanage, cycling twice a week on a borrowed bike to visit his son - a 50-mile (31km) round trip.

As the article points out, the decision to place your own child in an orphanage may seem "callous" in the West, but in Malawi, it's quite the opposite: a selfless act, aimed at giving the child access to opportunities.

"On a continent where treatable diseases each year claim the lives of four million children under the age of five, 250,000 mothers die from childbirth, and 40 million children can't afford to attend school, raising all your children under one roof is more than many families can manage," agrees Michela Wrong, a Kenya-based British journalist, writing in the weekly New Statesman magazine.

Wrong points out that Africans don't love their children any less than their Western counterparts, but for some, letting their extended family or even friends raise their child is the best way of boosting their chances.

Ellen Vanstone, writing in Canada's Toronto Star, also defends Madonna's move and concludes that "[t]he celebrities parade their private lives and we react mindlessly and viscerally with a thumbs up or a thumbs down perhaps to feel superior for a moment to someone vastly more powerful or privileged than us, or at least to divert ourselves from our own mundane lives."

No laws have been broken and there's no proof Madonna bribed any officials in Malawi in order to speed up the adoption process, adds Vanstone. And as for claiming that the charity Madonna has donated to is a front for spreading Kabbalah, prosyletising has been the purpose of Christian missionaries for the last 500 years, she argues. D. Parvaz, a reporter for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, points out that Madonna's critics have forgotten someone really important amid all the noise: David.

Yet her actions have at least shone the spotlight on Africa's vulnerable children, argues Britains' Observer newspaper. Love or loathe Madonna, it concludes that her decision to adopt has sparked a lively international debate about the future of these children. The paper quotes Rob Jamieson, editor of Malawi's Chronicle newspaper: "Madonna has focused international attention on our problem...I don't know why she picked Malawi, but thank God she did."

Australia's The Age also believes Madonna has done Malawi a favour, becoming an "aid worker's dream by highlighting Malawi's needs".

Michael Wines, writing from Johannesburg for the New York Times , argues there are also financial benefits: "Africans are the cause celebre of celebrities these days, and the spectacle they create, comically riveted by their own righteousness, can seem almost a caricature of Hollywood shallowness. But Malawians are laughing en route to the bank."

To read the previous world media digest on Madonna's adoption move, click here.