An interesting article....

This article from The Guardian is worth reading:

Madagascar's capital is like a glimpse of medieval London, with a layer of grime
In parts of a city that is a wild architectural hybrid, it would not be surprising to see Falstaff emptying a bucket out of a window

From the sky I could see man's harvest of destruction. Flying into Madagascar, I looked down on vast tracts of naked planet that were once thick with trees. Nine-tenths of the original forest cover on this island, one of the world's most precious Edens, has been lost to human rapaciousness.

My bus bumped along the road from a modest airport towards the capital, Antananarivo, which means "city of the thousand", supposedly because a thousand warriors once protected it. We wound through streets that long ago became inadequate for the teeming traffic that ebbs and flows, on wheels and feet, through a narrow corridor of shopfronts and market stalls – everyone has something to sell.

We crawled behind motorcyclists and minibuses, pedestrians balancing giant bags or cardboard boxes on their heads, and ancient taxis whose drivers are known to carry petrol inside plastic water bottles and to glide downhill with the engine off to save every drop. We were on a hillside and occasionally we could look down into the basin and see farmers wading through lush paddy fields.

On the horizon loomed a gigantic and unattractive hotel. It was built by the Chinese, we were told, to be ready for an African Union summit, but when Madagascar experienced a bloody coup earlier this year, the summit was cancelled and the hotel became a monstrous white elephant.
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Madagascar falls 40 places in freedom of press ranking

Madagascar falls from 94th to 134th place on Reporters Without Borders’ ranking of freedom of press and medias in 2009. It is tempting to blame this development on the coup d’etat, and the Rajoelina’s regime, but the truth is more nuanced. In fact, for more than half of the period Marc Ravalomanana was still in power.

Arriving in Madagascar, I was in fact a bit surprised by the media situation. In Toliara we had two TV-channels. One was the national TV-channel TVM, where the news basically were dedicated to whatever the president was doing or saying that day. The other channel, MBS, was owned by the president himself…

When the political crisis escalated, the news on both channels was totally useless, since they didn’t report on anything that was happening. (Our only source of information was Radio France International (RFI), when it wasn’t on strike). Then both channels were attacked and looted, so Toliara remained without TV for about 2 months. Now, we are back watching the national TV (the only channel here), and it is actually slightly better than under Ravalomanana. We’re not seeing only the president, but also what the government is doing, sometimes it is even possible to understand that there is an opposition.

Judging from the TV the members of government are very nice and popular, as they are always being welcomed by nice people smiling and waving. These people are of course rewarded with nice gifts on behalf of the regime, always thoroughly made account for by the reporters.

When it comes to newspapers, there are some choices, and they provide less partisan information than the TV. The problem is that they all come from Tana which means that at the earliest they are available in Toliara the afternoon one day after they came out. That’s in the fourth city of Madagascar, with flight connection with the capital on a daily bases. Access to newspapers on the countryside is utopia.

This is without mentioning the problem of actual access, since very few people can afford to have a TV, to buy newspapers or to access the internet. The lack of access to information is an evident problem that we experience every day with our students. It feels very awkward to be asked for information on current affairs by the Malagasy, while we would like to understand more with their help.

But maybe there is hope. Yesterday the minister of communication went out on TV and declared that after many years under the rule of Ratsiraka and Ravalomanana people are finally free to express their opinion in Madagascar. However, she said, there are certain rules to follow…

As a lawyer, I would like to remind her that she also has certain rules to follow when it comes to making rules.





All photos by Lucien David

Green party

Madagascar gets a green party: Hasin’i Madagasikara (website). According to an article on Courrier International, the party has the goal of promoting sustainable development in the country. The leader of the new party interviewed by the newspaper highlights the importance of making land legally accessible for the Malagasy, and the central role of water that should not be privatized (Madagascar seems to have ceded the use of a river in the south east to the Saudi Arabia). An action that, to my point of view, clashes totally with the claims the HAT had against the leasing of land to Daewoo Corporation (Financial Times).

Anyway, if you’re interested in reading the full article (in French) click here: INTERVIEW • "Madagascar ne doit pas vendre son eau douce"

Academic week

Toliara is slowly going back to the warm summer and we start to feel it. We had a weekend with almost no running water in the house (just in the night), and with numerous power cuts. However, we work on our researches (time has come to produce some text) and we teach English. So, lately our days are quite calm.

Birger had a different lecture the other day, as it wasn’t for our students at the University English Teaching Centre, but for law students following English classes. Solo, a colleague at the Centre, gave Birger the challenge of lecturing about the European Union to students with variable levels both in English and in law. Anyway, he did well and the students seemed to enjoy the challenge and the topic. They asked a lot of questions, from why Turkey is not in the EU to what’s the name of the Norwegian king (!?!?!) and how do you say hello and good bye in Norwegian. I guess it ended up being a quite exotic law/English lecture.
After giving “our” students a challenging lecture on “academic writing”, we attended a very interesting seminar on “Republic and Democracy” at the University (on a Saturday afternoon). The event was organised by an association of Phd students, where one of our students William is a member. The topic was particularly interesting given the political events of the last months, in the country. Three professors briefly exposed some concepts concerning the topic of the seminar, and then an interesting debate took place. Questions and reflections went back and forth in the crowded room. Most of the reflections involved the Constitution, the challenge of building up a functioning democracy in a country with many illiterate voters, as well as the problem of corruption. The dean of the university did a brilliant job moderating the debate.


But the day had still a lot to give, after the debate we were invited to a reception that turned into a small party with the professors and the Phd students. Tongues loosened with the help of Malagasy rum and the never absent THB (Three Horses Beer). It is impressive to see how, despite the poor facilities that this city offers, people with strong desire get informed about what happens all over the world. From the Italian and Russian mafia, to the role of the former Belgian Prime Minister, to the feeling of belonging in Madagascar, we talked about several things in French, English and Malagasy… always in the Malagasy way: a sip of rum for the ancestors first, and a speech to wrap it up!

Guinea: Army spreads terror and violence in Conakry

“No to Dadis!” Under this slogan around 50.000 Guineans responded to the call for a pacific demonstration in Conakry on Monday 28 September. From different areas of the city and from the outskirts, people gathered in the Stade 28 Septembre -. named after the day of independence from France in 1958 - ignoring the interdiction of the military junta leading the country.
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