Happenings in Madagascar

She gets it!

2010-11-25T14:35:00.000-08:00

I copied and pasted this article from Susan Zakin on The Huffington Post since I couldn't find the link how ot share it through blogging. It's her analysis of the recent situation. Things are not going to the right direction for sure.

Why Madagascar Matters. posted: November 24, 2010 12:51 PM

"Sorry, Suzanne, but I can't drive you to the airport. I would be too afraid to drive back alone at night," my friend Marie-Chantal said.

I looked at her, doing a quick calculation in my head before realizing Marie-Chantal* wasn't making an excuse; she was truly scared. I had lived in Madagascar for three months in 2001, and, like many writers and artists before me, I left convinced that Madagascar was as close as one could come to Paradise. This was not only because the island's landscape was phenomenally beautiful, filled with unique plants and animals that made the world's fourth-largest island a biologist's fantasy land. It was Madagascar's culture that floored me.

Describing the Malagasy concept of fihavanana as similar to the Golden Rule doesn't do it justice. Wikipedia's definition isn't bad: "Fihavanana is a Malagasy word encompassing the Malagay concept of kinship, friendship, goodwill between beings, both physical and spiritual. The literal translation is difficult to capture, as the Malagasy culture applies the concept in unique ways. Its origin is havana, meaning kin." But what makes Malagasy culture truly unique in the world is perhaps best described by the proverb "Ny Fihavanana no talohan'ny vola" which, loosely translated, means "the relationship is more important than the money."
It's that sentiment, even rarer in the 21st century than endangered lemurs, that may be lost forever if Madagascar's current political turmoil proceeds unchecked. The island nation's not-so-slow dissolve began in March 2009, when the mayor of the capital city, a 34-year-old nightclub disc jockey and aristocrat named Andry Rajoelina, seized power in a coup after weeks of demonstrations that many observers believe were at least partially staged by factions within the country's military. Over the following year and a half, attempts to forge a power-sharing agreement between Rajoelina and the country's elected president, Marc Ravalomanana, repeatedly failed after Rajoelina reneged. As the stalemate continued, foreign aid, which accounts for 70 percent of Madagascar's budget, has withered, and economic growth begun during Ravalomanana's presidency has stalled. On Nov. 17, international news services reported that the Malagasy military, which had supported Rajoelina, was attempting a coup against him. A standoff between rival military factions lasted for nearly a week. Yesterday, the faction of the military that supports Rajoelina announced victory, ensuring that Rajoelina's dictatorship will continue, at least until the next coup.

Before you shake your head, thinking that this is yet another story of African instability -- all those acronyms, weird names, and a confusing plethora of dates -- let's get to the real story. That story is familiar, too, if you've seen Syriana or read a Frederick Forsyth novel, but it is more closely tied to the U.S., because it involves a chess game between the French and the Americans, who have been vying for influence in Madagascar for the past decade. The real losers, per usual, are the people in Madagascar, who have been plunged from their already painful poverty into suffering that is, for many of us, unimaginable.

Only a few years ago, things were quite different. The 34-year-old Rajoelina's immediate predecessor, a self-made millionaire named Marc Ravalomanana, barreled into the presidency in 2002 as a reform candidate who looked to America rather than France as a model for Madagascar's future. With the help of two African-American campaign managers, Ravalomanana waged a dynamic campaign against the country's aging "president for life" Didier Ratsiraka. Ratsiraka, a canny septuagenarian, had started his political life as a radical, anti-French, anti-colonialist Marxist in the 1950s. But with the fall of the Berlin Wall, aid from the Communist world dried up and Ratsiraka increasingly turned to France for support.
The results of the 2001 presidential contest between Ratsiraka and Marc Ravalomanana dragged on for months, resulting in thousands of deaths from starvation when road blockades halted the transport of food. Finally, the U.S. put pressure on the country's leadership, and Ratsiraka bowed out.

At the time, it seemed necessary, or perhaps easier, to cast aside Ratsiraka's calls for a runoff election, despite uncertainty about the integrity of the voting process. After decades of deepening poverty and escalating corruption, Marc Ravalomanana seemed to represent the country's best chance to save itself. Young and handsome, a dynamic businessman who was also a Christian, Ravalomanana, like many in his generation, viewed America as a desirable alternative to France. The Malagasy people tend to view America as a more egalitarian country, without France's entrenched racism, which is especially demeaning when directed at its former colonial subjects. On the advice of his American campaign managers, Ravalomanana encouraged his political supporters to call him "Marc" -- a decision that alone was enough to signify that Ravalomanana was an agent of change.

For several years, Ravalomanana seemed to be delivering. Signs appeared that Madagascar, one of the poorest countries in the world, and one of the most culturally isolated, was, for good or ill, joining the global economy. An enormous titanium mine run by RTZ, the world's largest mining conglomerate, opened in the southeastern part of the country, transforming the sleepy colonial city of Fort Dauphin. A Canadian mining company got approval for a $3.8 billion nickel and cobalt mine in the northeast. Brand-new Toyota sedans and SUVs began to appear on the streets of the capital city of Antananarivo.

Despite the damage to the environment caused by these two mining projects, Ravalomanana was popular among conservation organizations. In 2003, at a World Parks Congress in Durban held by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, South Africa, Ravalomanana wowed the crowd by promising to more than triple the amount of protected land in Madagascar, from three percent to ten percent of the country's land. In 2005, he began to make good on his pledge, adding more than 24,000 square acres to the national park system.
But people inside the country told a different story. Ravalomanana was becoming increasingly autocratic. Freedom of the press, never a hallmark of life in Madagascar, actually declined under Ravalomanana. In a minor but revealing move he insisted that the capital's taxis, mainly 1960s-era Peugeots that had been painted in cheerful colors of scarlet, candy pink, turquoise and green, be repainted a uniform beige. He ordered 100 houses torn down because they were too ugly. It was as if Doug Tompkins, the notorious control freak who built the Esprit clothing empire with his wife Susie, had suddenly taken over a country.

There were more serious manifestations of Ravalomanana's l'etat c'est moi stance. He refused to put his finances in a blind trust, and bought a $12 million Boeing 737 with public funds to be used as the presidential plane. In December 2008, Western donors cut back aid to the country, citing Ravalomanana's refusal to disclose financial information.

Ravalomanana's support within Madagascar eroded further when he agreed to lease nearly half the country's arable land to the South Korean company Daewoo to grow corn and palm oil. The 99-year contract was estimated to create 45,000 jobs. But in a country that has long been listed among the world's poorest, the idea that small farmers would lose the ability to produce their own crops was terrifying. Ravalomanana, like many African leaders faced with overwhelming poverty that threatens their popularity, seemed to be embracing an outmoded, neo-colonial approach of development at any price. When Ravalomanana threatened to cut funding for the military, another crucial constituency turned against him.

But according to a British journalist I spoke with in Antananarivo in January, as well as many other veteran observers of politics in the region, the real instigator of the coup was the French oil company Total. Total has a 60 percent share in Madagascar's oilfields, which could yield, by conservative estimates, more than 6 billion barrels of recoverable reserves over the next 30 years, in addition to natural gas. The other 40 percent is controlled by Madagascar Oil, a Houston-based company started in 2004 by a Canadian named Sam Malin who has invested in energy development, including coal, throughout the Indian Ocean region.

Malin, a high-roller with a 13th-century castle in Scotland who is married to a former Bond girl, describes himself as a geophysicist although he does not hold a graduate degree. Avana, another of his companies, also holds licenses for coal development in the Seychelles and uranium and natural gas fields in Madagascar. Malin seems to be an equal opportunity entrepreneur: Avana is planting jatropha to be used as biofuel and snapping up ecotourism properties in Madagascar, and a photo on his website shows him cradling a lemur. He appears oddly unfazed by the country's recent travails: on Nov. 8, Madagascar Oil, which has been reportedly been valued at $1 billion, announced its intention to field an initial public offering of its stock.

Another French company suspected of encouraging the coup is Areva, which promotes itself as a supplier of clean energy in the U.S. but is under fire from French human rights organizations for activities at its uranium mines in Niger. The company recently signed a deal to mine for uranium in the Congo, after its CEO accompanied French President Nicolas Sarkozy on a state visit to the DRC in 2009.

No smoking gun has been found linking Total or any other company to the military coup, but in the month that I spent both in the capital and in the provinces, Total's involvement in the coup was talked about as if it were common knowledge. After a brief hiatus of American influence, the country once again seemed to be falling under French rule -- colonialism in all but name, according to a Malagasy newspaper that reported the national airlines Boeing jets were going to be replaced by French-made Airbus jets.

Certainly France has been notoriously unwilling to let go of its former colonies, as a matter of both economics and amour propre. At times, French neo-colonialism has shaded into the absurd. Case in point: the French mercenary soldier Bob Denard's repeated invasion of the Comoros Islands, where as de facto ruler in the 1970s, he converted to Islam, married half a dozen nubile Comorans, and spent his days on the beach at the main island's luxury hotel. The Comoros are not far from Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, which the French have long regarded as their personal playground, the antidote to their rigid, stratified society. Gauguin aspired to travel to Madagascar, but settled for Tahiti, and Baudelaire's poem "A Former Life," which includes the well-known line, "luxe, calme et volupté," -- not to mention the poet's image of being tended by a "naked, perfumed slave" -- is based on his gap year travels around the region. French men show little compunction about taking advantage of the exchange rate, as it were, in a country where the sexual tourism industry dates back centuries. The capital also boasts excellent restaurants. When I visited in January, Marie-Chantal and I took an American couple we had met to one of the capital's best. It was called, wittily, Kudeta -- pronounced exactly the way you imagine.

While Madagascar's recent unrest may have been encouraged by the 21st century version of French imperialism, the anarchy took on a life of its own as military officers began reaping the rewards of despotism. Since the coup, impoverished villagers have been paid $2.50 a day to illegally cut tropical hardwoods worth $4,000 to $5,000 a ton in Masoala and Marojejy national parks, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the Mananara Biosphere Reserve. Profits from the illegal logging, estimated at $100 million, were reportedly being funneled to the country's military leaders.

On March 16, the World Wildlife Fund called for a boycott of rosewood from Madagascar. "We have the potential for losing hundreds if not thousands of species. There are still new species being discovered: plants, birds, chameleons, lemurs, tortoises that we might not yet know about, that could be on the brink of extinction," said Niall O'Connor of the World Wildlife Fund.

O'Connor warned that Madagascar could become the next Haiti: a country mired in a downward spiral produced by the synergistic effects of dire poverty and environmental collapse. Clearly, this is not solely the fault of outside forces. In the hopeful days of 2002, Marc Ravalomanana's presidency seemed to promise a bright future for a country that, despite its poverty, prided itself on its unique culture. But Ravalomanana not only overreached; he was never in the club. If one digs below Madagascar's more recent colonial past, one is reminded that for centuries Madagascar was a kingdom with a powerful aristocracy.

It is no coincidence that Marc Ravalamonana was attracted to the American sphere of influence. He was an American-style success, a poor boy educated by Protestant missionaries who started a commercial empire by selling homemade yogurt off the back of his bicycle with the help of his wife. Even my friend Marie-Chantal, no fan of the current regime, complained that Marc spoke poor French and had crude manners.

But Marie-Chantal is equally unimpressed with Andry Rajoelina. She feels that his aristocratic background has given him a sense of entitlement far out of proportion to his abilities. Although grudgingly impressed with the canniness of veteran Didier Ratsiraka, now living quite well in France on the personal fortune he accumulated while president, Marie-Chantal has little respect for Madagascar's political class in general, and despairs that the country's educational system has not inculcated an understanding of democracy.

Yet Rajoelina's coup, the first in Madagascar's history, was immediately followed by counter-demonstrations attended by people who objected not so much to Rajoelina himself but to the method by which he took power. Despite this demonstration of commitment to the electoral process, Madagascar seems headed towards a free fall that will end either in anarchy or totalitarianism.

The worst-case scenario for Madagascar is that the military, which now seems to have turned on Andry Rajoelina, will run the country. In her most recent email, Marie-Chantal wrote that the military now seem to have allegiance to no one but themselves. "These guys are all billionnaires (sic) now with all the money they got from rosewood traffic," she wrote. "But you know, appetite comes with eating. Enough is never enough when you know that there are still a lot to be had and that your former friends continue to eat without you."

The night I left Madagascar, I had a conversation with Marie-Chantal that made me realize how much will be lost if Madagascar continues on its present course. It was around ten o'clock, and we had been watching a movie in her den, killing time before I had to leave for the airport. She was telling me about the children whose school fees she is paying. Suddenly we were talking politics again, speculating about the country's future. Marie-Chantal looked at me in the way that someone does when they need you to pay attention. Her gaze was focused, almost severe, yet her eyes seemed unutterably sad. She reminded me about fihavanana, treating others as you wish to be treated, as a whole human being.

"That is what I think we are losing, Suzanne," she told me. "That will never come back."
I left her house for the airport shortly before midnight. I had never been afraid in Madagascar before. But I called her on my cell phone for reassurance as I endured a tooth-gritting journey with two men, one a taxi driver known to Marie-Chantal and her staff, the other a "guard," whose diminutive stature and wooden nightstick failed to reassure as the rattletrap Peugeot taxi plied the deserted streets of the capital in the dark.

* To ensure Marie-Chantal's security, I am not using her real name.

one year anniversary

2010-03-16T08:33:00.000-07:00

On March 17, it will be a year since the coup d'etat in Madagascar that has left the country crippled socialy and economically. Although several attempts of reconciliation between parties took place, the current "government" refuses to cooperate. There is a continuting of ignoring the resolutions of Maputo. In fact, Madagascar has no legal government that is recognized by the world.
There has been a discussion that individual sanctions will take place if Rajoelina and his party would not negociate which is more reasonable than sanctioning the entire country that would affect the lives of millions of innocent people. Since the coup of Marc 17 last year, many illegal practises have taken place in Madagascar. These include violation of human rights, trafficking of the precious rosewood, robbing of national parks, and most recently the grabbing of crude sand oil resources by TOTAL in the country.

Madagascar has also been a victim of the tropical storm Hubert that has killed 36 people and left several thousands homeless last week. With an unstable government with no budget, victims of natural disaster will likely receive very limited support.

Photo credit: globalvoicesonline.com

What will happen after the individual sanction if it will actually be placed? any hope for the red island?

Illegal Logging of Rosewood

2009-11-03T22:03:00.000-08:00

This is an interesting newspaper and public announcement regarding the illegal logging of rosewood in Madagascar. It is one of the many negative impacts of the political crisis that started in January 2009.
Rosewood Logging car 2009

Tana 911

2009-09-13T12:57:00.000-07:00

Maputo talk failed with no agreement as Rajoelina went ahead and re-formed the gorvernment on his own. Of course this didn't take any consideration of what was discussed in Maputo as well as the power sharing with the other oppositions. Here is the reaction from the opposition parties.

Also, several hundred people demonstrated on the streets on Friday (9/11) and Saturday to oppose the new administration and they were dispersed by the police by tear gas. More protets are expected this coming week.

You can view more pictures here from Avy lavitra. on Flickr.

Q&A power sharing in Madagascar?

2009-08-28T22:03:00.000-07:00

The second part of the Maputo summit didn't go as well it was expected. With 3 days of discussion, the leaders are not willing to negotiate and share the power to lead the country.
Reuters list the Q&A to analyze the consequences of this. Click here to view the analysis.

by Richard Lough.

MAPUTO -- a little hope

2009-08-07T23:05:00.000-07:00

Maputo, Aug 5 - 8, 2009, a promising negociation is in process to resolve the crisis in Madagascar. Ravalomanana, the ousted President, Andry Rajoelina, the self appointed President, Zafy Albert and Ratsiraka, 2 of the previous presidents are present.

I am a little bugged about these pictures though. All parties look so comfortable around each other although they were about to arrest and kill each other during the crisis. Why needed outside forces to push them to come to this negotiation? They could all thought about this a longtime ago before causing all the troubles that nearly killed the soul of the Malagasy people and destroyed the economy. In my opinion, the interests of the people have always been neglected.

I hope this will end all the problems and something good will come out of it.

What is like to be evacuated ... by a peace corps volunteer :-(

2009-08-03T21:30:00.001-07:00

Read this moving story. It reminds me of back in 2002 when LDS missionaries were suddenly evacuated from Madagascar.

Evacuated DanielleInMadagascar's Xanga Site - Weblog

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Life is back to normal but things aren't fixed

2009-07-24T08:30:00.000-07:00

From communicating with my family and other friends who were or are still in Madagascar since the crisis. They all said that life is back to normal but things aren't fixed. It seems like the Madagascar crisis has disappeared from the front pages of national journal, but that doesn't mean everything is resolved. Something I learned throughout the years (maybe because it's in my blood) that we are resilient people. We know how to endure hard life and somehow, it keeps us safe that way.
From my source, people don't speak out anymore because they fear to be arrested. So why bother, "izay mangina volamena" like the saying of our wise ancestors. It means keeping quiet is what makes you gold. Journalists who are the voice of the people have been victims of this. They have to be quiet or they will loose their career and their families will be affected.
I read on Golbal Voices Online an article revealing an interview of a few journalists. They speak about their challenges and their battle. I wonder when we will master the meaning of freedom of speech. It's ironic that one of the main reasons why the previous administration was banned is because they were accused of being non-democratic. Now, the current administration is not letting people to voice out their opininions. Déja-vu! it's the story repeating over and over.

A shell - shocked youth of Madagascar

2009-06-29T06:33:00.001-07:00

Youth in Madagascar's capital, Antananarivo, were asked to draw the recent political violence. Photo by UNICEF.

IRIN Africa Southern Africa Madagascar MADAGASCAR: A shell-shocked youth Children Economy Education Governance Human Rights Conflict Urban Risk News Item

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The U.S. stand on the Madagascar issues

2009-06-17T22:07:00.000-07:00

Madagascar's Political Crisis
Ian Kelly
Department Spokesman, Office of the Spokesman
Bureau of Public Affairs
Washington, DC
June 17, 2009

The United States regrets the suspension of the African Union- and United Nations-led mediation process in Madagascar. We applaud the tireless efforts of the mediation team to move this process forward, and continue to urge all parties to rapidly return to the negotiating table and come to agreement on the elements of a consensual transition government.
We continue to believe that the only way to resolve this crisis is through a consensual political process leading to elections at the earliest possible date. We condemn the unconstitutional actions that led to the current situation, and categorically reject the use of force as a means to resolve this crisis. We remain impartial and will not support unilateral solutions by particular political factions, as such moves would not produce a lasting solution based on credible, unbiased elections.
# # #
PRN: 2009/609

copied from http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2009/06a/125043.htm

No EXIT!

2009-06-16T07:21:00.000-07:00

The Ultimate French Blocus on Madagascar
by Rakoto Albert

The Madagascar coup government is continuing to underestimate the diplomacy issue of the actual crisis in Madagascar. Many international partners heave terminated their partnership with Madagascar and this is causing a very hard impact on everyday life for the poorest population of the Island.
Several weeks has been spent to find solutions by the International Contact Group at the Carlton hotel with the head of the four major party leaders but nothing tangible came of this negotiation.
Due to the important role played by France in initiating this coup action, the French Ambassador Jean Marc Chataîgner was the only diplomat invited by the ICG at Carlton to advise his viewpoints on the issues. France has become a party to the negotiation which is very strange for an independent country like Madagascar.
Madagascar was a French colony from 1896 to 1960 and French interests remain very important in Madagascar. To illustrate this, 4 banks of the 7 existing in Madagascar are French. While considering that Madagascar is classified as very poor country, these banks make several millions of Euro in profits every year.
As the Malagasy economy is collapsing, and while thousands of people are jobless because of the closure of companies, and while other thousands of people are starving, due to the drought in the South of the country, the fifth party in the negotiations is blocking the return of the democratically elected President of Madagascar into his own country. They are taking their time playing on the destiny of this Independent country in the Indian Ocean with its 18 million people.
As Marc Ravalomanana was about to change the century-old French domination in the country, by turning to the CommonWealth countries, France is now playing its last card by lobbying its partners to prevent the legal president from coming home. In March 2008, English became the third official language of the country and this change is not accepted by the Francophonie community.
The Malagasy people are said to be the poorest in the region but they are sitting on a very valuable land. Madagascar Oil has announced that 15 billion barrels of oil are to be exploited in Madagascar, not to mention the Ilmenites, nickel and saphires that the country contains.
In addition to the failing economy, Malagasy political leaders, in concert with the French government, have created another crisis. The Malagasy poor have daily income less than eighty cents per day. Now, after the break of the MCC/MCA cooperation, the AGOA agreement might be suspended. Many thousands of people will soon be jobless.
This situation makes as much sense as the Malagasy Ambassador to France interfering in a negotiation between the UMP and the Socialist Party at the Elysée?
Time is against the Malagasy people as a food shortage is coming, inflation is climbing day by day, hospitals are short of medicines, the government employees' salary will be cut next month... but military wages are being raised before independence day on 26th June.

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BBC country profile on Mada!

2009-06-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

There is no development to the political situation in Madagascar. The 2 parties are still tense with each other. People's everyday life seems to be back to its normal; however, things still remain in the dark.

I found this country profile of Madagascar on BBC.

Finally Razily is free!

2009-05-18T15:18:00.000-07:00

Remember this man on this YouTube video:

He is finally issued freedom. Click here if you can read French. I am grateful that they released him. I think it was all the hard work of many twitters and bloggers all around the world.
Thank you for your courage Razily!

Did you mean democratic not democrats?

2009-05-10T23:59:00.000-07:00

I receive an email from google alerts on the Madagascar situation everyday and I came across this one today.
http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2009-05-11-voa1.cfm

It's an interview by VOA with Mr. Monja Roindefo, the appointed praiminister of the so-called current government of Madagascar. If you listen to the interview, you can tell the confusion around his point of view. While confounded about the recent attack they do on the demonstrators and journalists, he denies all of them completely. He also keeps mentioning that they don't want to negotiate with one single person such as Marc Ravalomanana or the U.S. Embassador of Madagascar, but with the Malagasy people. Hello???? if that's the case, why don't they listen to the voice of the people who are actually demonstrating on the streets instead of shooting at them or arresting them and making them disappear. They represent some portion of the Malagasy people too.

I don't think they understand the concept of democracy at all. It was just all a power grab and self interests.

Wikipedia says it all!

2009-05-04T21:53:00.000-07:00

This is a good article to learn of the details of the turmoil in Madagascar. Read here for your review.

Please free RAZILY!

2009-05-02T21:08:00.000-07:00

Here is a blog with a video of what happened to Razily.

If you are moved by the story, please go here and sign the petition by adding your comment at the end of the article.

Thank you!

Roots of the Turmoil with Stephen Ellis

2009-05-01T23:41:00.000-07:00

This situation has really hit home so my posts will be more on this. If Madagascar history (social, economic, political, and even physiological) interests you, watch the above video. It is a discussion of what may have started all the current crisis. I found it here.

Sending a message to the Presidents of the U.S., France, and the U.N.

2009-04-30T21:01:00.000-07:00

After living in the United States for some years now, I have to say that this is a place full of goodness. Many people have worked really hard to bring this country to where it is today. Some of the very important things that I envy from living in the United States is the rule of law and the respect of human rights.
Perhaps each country or region has their version of law and of what so called human rights, but I think it all goes back to our nature as human beings. We all should have the right to live a better life and become what we want to be.
Due to the current crisis in Madagascar, I feel a great urge to get my voice out there. It seems like nobody knows or cares about what's happening over there. A friend of mine sent me three links on how to get my voice out there. So I sent a message to the White House, to Nicolas Sarkozy (the French President), and the United Nations.

If you read this post please go to those link above and help the Malagasy people to live in peace once again. They deserve some attention.

what happened to the refuge for the lemurs?

2009-02-07T23:09:00.000-08:00

I can't help but posting this here. It's so saaaaad!
Not too long ago, I was telling someone that I come from a paradise place, where the lemurs are found; where the most beautiful and tiniest cameleon on earth exist; where the baobab trees grow. Now what?

This is not the Madagascar I knew. I am heart broken! This is an incident that happened on Feb 07, 09.

Cry my beloved country!

2009-01-29T20:45:00.000-08:00

This week's incident will be added to the political history of Madagascar. A supposed to be a peaceful demonstration turned to be out of control and a deadly one. To read the full story, click here.

I heard things are settling down and the opposition parties are willing to negociate. I pray and hope that the Malagasy people will be wise and will do the right thing.
Sign of peace!!!!!