why doesn’t anyone care about madagascar?
Bill Easterly tweeted today (twice, actually):
Self-exam: even in our tiny corner of the discussion, why did @aidwatch fail to make anyone care about Madagascar? http://bit.ly/cuW9k0
It directs you to his recent post about Madagascar, Chronicle of a death foretold. I read the article he refers to, that no one seems to be noticing, on IRIN News: MADAGASCAR: Textile industry unravels.
Bill asks a valid question. Even though I haven’t been blogging lately, it doesn’t mean that I haven’t been thinking about Madagascar – because I’m finishing up my travel guide and writing my capstone, it seems like overkill to keep harping on everywhere. But maybe more of us should be harping.
Malagasy people are about to face huge problems, and the world knows nothing about it. This won’t be the beginning of their problems either – the country has been going down the tubes since Rajoelina did his overhaul, and it’s not as if the place was doing too well before that. Do we not care because the US doesn’t really import much from Madagascar besides coffee and vanilla? Is it that graduate students, biologists, and lemur-lovers are the only people who are invested in the people, the ecosystems, the complexity of Malagasy history and traditions? Maybe.
Although Madagascar is not really a headliner country, I think that there is indeed a critical mass of people who ‘care’ about its future. My question is what these caring people are meant to be doing about it?
I think that the issue is not that people don’t care, but that people may not agree that the regularization of Madagascar’s trade status and suspension of AGOA wasn’t intended to improve the lives of Malagasy in the long-, hopefully the middle-, term.
In the short-term, we do have a role to play. For example, by putting pressure on companies, governments, and consumers in our own countries not to buy hardwoods. Voicing our support for humanitarian aid, maybe through donations or writing to our countries’ development agencies. Any other ideas?
Hi there,
I know, I was thinking the same thing. I obviously care about Madagascar and I know a lot of others that do, but I’m at a loss. I’ve been trying to figure out what to do about it for the past 5 years. The problem is, it’s not really part of US foreign policy to even think about Madagascar. Development agencies aren’t necessarily helping either; some NGOs are doing wonderful work, some aren’t, but the fact is that they’re splintered, competing for money, and aren’t sharing information about project outcomes or impact assessment – worst of all, a lot of them are beholden to donors who have NO idea what Madagascar is. It’s a bigger issue than people realize. I appreciate your comment – I hope we can come up with some answers rather than more questions!
You’ve raised some good issues about how development is done, unfortunately not just in Mada. But although it’s pretty far down on most foreign policy agendas, I don’t think the application of foreign policy there is completely unconsidered, but just a bit confused. I
t seems like the international community has been uncoordinated and perhaps even taken aback in response to the coup. The American Ambassador has been the most direct and critical, but it doesn’t seem like the HAT is convinced.
At least there is still humanitarian aid for health and food security. But all the gains won over the last decade in education and resource management seem likely to be lost.
It’s a frustrating challenge.