Read the interview with Erik Patel on Mongabay, focused on the crisis and degradation of the environment in Madagascar, as well as the destruction of the natural habitat of the silky sifaka. People aren’t the only victims of this political predicament. I’ll be visiting Erik in a few short months!
Angels of the Forest: Silky Sifaka Lemurs of Madagascar from Sharon Pieczenik on Vimeo.
Most popular stories on facebook, echoed by my google alerts:
Madagascar’s transitional leader, Andry Rajoelina, is seeking higher royalties from foreign companies.
Also, from Mongabay.com, Madagascar issues fines for timber stolen from national parks during political crisis…
IRIN has an in-depth article today about a recent report released by UNICEF about how the youth are being affected by the political crisis in Madagascar – particularly in Antananarivo. As you can imagine, this ongoing battle between multiple ideologies, values, the concepts of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, has changed the way kids think about their lives and their futures. It has been extremely detrimental, and will continue to be so until things are resolved.
The youth’s perceptions of the crisis pointed to a weakening of the law enforcement and justice structure, opening the door to even greater dangers: easily available drugs, trafficking of children, prostitution, child abuse and the creation of criminal youth gangs, are all finding fertile ground in this volatile situation, the report noted.
from IRIN
You can read the comprehensive report, compiled by UNICEF, here: Pandora’s Box: Youth at a Crossroads
Here’s an excerpt from the intro, followed by a poem written by one of the young people interviewed:
If only one concept has to be remembered after having read this report, it is that the youth in Madagascar are at an important crossroad. Choices taken in these months of transition will substantially impact not just their present and future life, but also that of the country. The
crisis has opened Pandora’s Box: youth have witnessed, or have been involved in, violence; traditional and moral values previously regulating social interactions have been eroded; sentiments of division and anger have been instilled in the younger generation; close allies have been turned against one another. The ideology of national unity has been challenged and this is felt as a serious concern for future youth development. Ignoring these signals would be to turn a blind eye to lessons learned from tragic episodes of African history, where civil conflict could have been prevented.
…
CRISIS
Political crisis! Political crisis!
Our programme is not yet complete, so the fight must
go on.
Our professors are arguing while our programme goes
nowhere.
Everything is subject to change and this is depressing.
Here we are.
We represent those who want to get out of this
struggle, which is going where?
Nowhere.
There is no love.
Life is nothing but darkness.
Amanda Taub of Wronging Rights has some difficult questions, and here they are (I love this blog……):
1. Is it ever appropriate for foreign citizens, governments, or international institutions to intervene in crises overseas?
2. If the answer to #1 is “yes,” then when is it appropriate?
3. Do we know to do it? That is, do we understand the technological means that will allow us to accomplish our stated goals?
4. If so, are those means available to us?
5. If they are, are we willing to expend the resources necessary to use those means?
Think about it. How would you answer these questions?
Ravalomanana is vowing that he will return home, to Madagascar. Maybe we’ll get there around the same time. What if we sit next to each other on the plane? That would make an interesting story. Here it is, from Al Jazeera English:
Madagascar leader ‘will go home’
In other news, Andry Rajoelina announced 2 days ago that he wouldn’t run in the coming elections, providing that the other former heads of state stood down as well. AFP reports,
“I am not thirsty for power, I do not want to cling to power. I just want to bring democracy to Madagascar,” Rajoelina said Wednesday.
I said I was finished writing for today. I am, in fact, supposed to be diligently creating an interactive presentation for a class on Social Change. This seems more important. I’ll list some of the news that’s coming in now.
Today is and probably will be known forever as Samedi Rouge, or Red Saturday. That’s because the police opened fire on a demonstration outside the Presidential Palace and killed a bunch of people. Some reports say 23, some say 25, some are up to 100. Who knows what’s true and what’s not. It’s tough reading this morning. There are over 40 Alerts in my inbox, but I can’t bring myself to read all of them right now.
I started this post on Sunday. I am now at home in Brattleboro and it’s Monday morning. From where I was in New York, I couldn’t access the YouTube video entitled Samedi Rouge. I am not going to embed it here, so follow the link if you want to watch it, but I’m warning you, it is not for the faint of heart. There is actual shooting and actual killing and actual dead people. Some of which I swore, through the pixellated film quality, that I knew. This will not be surprising for those who know me, but I wept for Madagascar this morning. YouTube Video: Samedi Rouge.
I’m finished for today.
AFP Analysts were hard at work yesterday, trying to figure out what the root causes of the crisis in Madagascar might be. Citing poverty, shrinking freedoms, the prospect of the Daewoo land deal going through, and the loss of democracy, they take it back to 1972. Doesn’t it go farther back? Perhaps these coups have all continued to take place, not because they are ‘institutionalized’, as one analyst notes, but because they are ingrained and encouraged by the colonial, and then neocolonial power (yes, I’m asserting that France still has a considerable amount of sway in the government–and lately the United States and others as well) and the greed of the fortunate few who continue to rise, widening the gap between the rich and the poor. It is also the huge influx of aid organizations, and the loans of the World Bank and IMF and EU (think about where the money for public works is going–schools and roads or interest payments?).
If you read many of the articles below, you’ll see a trend. Madagascar’s credit rating is going down. Multinational corporations are reconsidering the climate, they may be thinking that the country is unsafe for their “investments”. Again, we see the country reduced to natural resources and commodities; the monetary value of these things is inherently nil. Until the superpowers decide they need them.
Here are some updates for this morning:
Country credit rating down on Bloomberg
The president, speaking shortly after the mayor’s rally Saturday, said: “I remain the president of this country.
“We managed the crisis in Madagascar.”
A note on that last one. There were political rallies in the capital, as well as Tamatave and Ft. Dauphin today. My best friend, who lives in Ambatofinandrahana, has sent me text messages about how frightened she is, how people are hoarding food and oil and prices are shooting up. It doesn’t seem like the crisis has been averted, and now the African Union is threatening to put down the opposition because it’s unconstitutional? I’m not saying I’m rooting for either side, but can’t we look at the things that have been done to the people of Madagascar over the past 2 administrations and find a heck of a lot that’s unconstitutional? That being said, I don’t think anyone sees a solution yet.
BARRY BEARAK has written a very thoughtful piece on the Madagascar crisis for the New York Times:
Playing to the poor — something that both the president and the mayor excel at — usually goes over well in a country where most people get by on less than $1 a day. But the Malagasy have now lived under colonialism, socialism and democracy, with the masses remaining destitute.
“Politicians always use the poor people to get into power, and then they forget us,” said a woman who called in to Radio Mada, a station broadcasting from the capital. “I don’t believe them any more.”
The International Herald Tribune features a Malagasy columnist, Alain Iloniaina, this afternoon:
“We are here to request a return to democracy and better human rights,” said Tila Ralvaralarivo, waving a small orange flag, the colour that has come to symbolise the opposition movement.
22 Photos
I was also sent links to these sites, in French:
And the IRIN website has been good about updating.
