Rakoto's rants: the malagasy dwarf hippo.

Voltaire: "I do not agree with what you have to say...

2008-07-17T10:56:00.006-04:00

... but I'll defend to the death your right to say it"

(as seen on campus during Obama's visit)

I am shaking my head, speechless and having a hard time living up to Voltaire's words. I am glad that the Obama detractors can voice their frustrations at will, but I sure won't defend to the death any of this nonsense.

I am inclined to believe that anyone who can trigger such ludicrous reactions from their detractors is probably doing something right.
Fighting the politics of fear is always tricky, some like to (The New Yorker) use sarcasm, others try to engage in constructive conversation.
Since Sarcasm has never been forte, I thought I'd join this kind of initiative instead:
Lova Hussein Rakotomalala it is.

Liveblogging Obama @ Purdue on cybersecurity and other issues

2008-07-16T12:15:00.010-04:00

Note: a bit of magic was needed to get into this "invite only" conference but bloggers have come along way and are now admitted in media room.
B. Obama just finished to set up the agenda for the day and introduce the panelists:

[live footage of conference here]

Sam Nun

Graham Anderson (Harvard)

Evan Bayh (Senator)

Terry O'Toole ( Microbiologist)

(Gerald Gregori, researcher from Marseille and member of "France for Obama", Jerrard Tompkins , Dilliard U. senior, and Katrina rebuilding effort activist).

More photos here.

Embarassing moment with Benny Lava on campus.

2008-07-11T14:54:00.005-04:00

It's friday and it's time to share a fun story.

There are documented evidences out there that the GV summit in Budapest was certainly a productive one but there was also time for less serious activities.
At the end of the internal portion of the conference, thanks to the fabulous Neha, the phrase "pet the dog and screw the light bubble at the same time" is forever associated with the following video around the world:

(actual footage of the GV version of this choreography is an urban myth, I think :)).

Yesterday, I was sitting in my usual Hookah place on campus and wanted a break from catching up with work. I put on my earphones and played the "Benni Lava" video.
As the singer came in with his ubercool shades, I started to smile, pumped up the volume and bobbed my head to the music.

After a while, I sensed in my peripheral vision some movement and people smiling. I thought nothing of it and kept my focus on the video when I felt someone poking gently on my shoulder.

I looked up and saw that the waitress was trying to get my attention. She told me in a very calm voice: "Although most people here seem to enjoy your music and dancing, we would appreciate if you would actually plug in your earphones so that it won't disturb the rest of the costumers".

My head dropped in embarrassment amidst laughter and smiles. I pondered staying there for a while but finally decided to pack my things, waived sheepishly at the other customers and fled the scene of "Benni Lava" shame.

I now have to find a new place to hang out.

Of GV Analogies, Media Attention and Missed Opportunity

2008-07-07T15:02:00.004-04:00

( image credit : britannica)
A few memorable analogies were made during the summit and I just thought of one that I failed to present during the summit, so I will give it to you here.
David made the following parallel to explain his vision of GVO,[ I am paraphrasing because I cannot remember the exact words]:

“ When picture Global Voices, I think of Sami Ben Gharbia [ director of GV advocacy] as the man with the superman cape, who demands that the bouncers at the global party allow all party goers to attend without any discrimination whatsoever. “Why won’t you allow bloggers to express themselves and party?” he asks. So If Sami is the bouncer buster, I am the party obsessed guy who wants to invite as many people as possible to the party, especially those who have not attend any parties yet. No elitism allowed.”

Portnoy had a follow up to that analogy where he said:” well, I guess that makes me the wacko who wants to have 15 other parties at the same time. “ It was a pretty cool response to a brilliant analogy.
David illustrated what he meant with this video of the outreach project that is now translated in 17 languages.

I would like to follow-up on the analogy theme and what I wish I had said at the summit. My presentation was centered around the lack of coverage in national and international media with respect to the Cyclone Ivan disaster and why media attention and caring matters.
As Joi Ito put it, GVO is about "fixing what I call the "caring problem"" in the mainstream media. I tried to explain the best I could the concept of the “Ninja Gap” and why there are 10 times more articles about Japan than Nigeria in the Media. For a good explanation, read Ethan Zuckerman or David Weinberger ‘s write up on the subject.
A telling map, constructed by L’observsatoire des medias, shows that the world according to the medias is a very distorted place.

( credit to l'observatoire des medias)

I used these findings to explain why cyclone Ivan was only a blip on the media map when Kosovo declared independence on the day Ivan made landfall.
The tireless effort of Malagasy bloggers allowed for awareness to not vanish into the night but it was definitely a struggle.
Why does that matter you ask ?
Here comes my analogy and you have to forgive me because it’s a biologist analogy. This is what I do after all let’s call it “the old guy media” analogy:
If you think of the world as an old person, you can picture him/her as this body with lots of aches and pain signals coming from everywhere. He is trying to process all the information and react appropriately. However, he/she is, like everyone, mostly aware of what is closer to his senses, his eyes, his nose etc. (in this analogy, those regions would be the western world). For you to worry about your toes or calves, they need to be in some serious distress (war, famine etc. ). It’s human nature, unless you just bought some fancy new shoes ( Manolo Blahniks maybe ? ) and the perception is that the shoes look good therefore the toes are ok ( Disney movie of some kind, urgh).
Now let’ say you fall one day and cut your big toe (cyclone Ivan) but at the same time, you sprain your wrist (Kosovo), you take care of the wrist but the toe does not heal properly because the cut is deep. Ideally, the toe is strong and recovers without assistance. Unfortunately, it’s not so it starts sending signal to the body that hey, it could use a band aid and some Benadryl.
This is when it is crucial that the signal sent is of good quality: the body has to be aware of the damage, why and where he should apply antiseptic cream. If the signal is just an itch, the body will ignore it and worry about the pimple on its nose (Paris Hilton) or more reasonably, the lingering exhausting back pain (food crisis).

To me, GVO is one of those cool CAT SCAN machines that allow you to have a deep assessment of every parts of your body without intermediate interpretations. What you see is what you get. You scan the mid-section if you want to or your Achilles’ heels. Rising Voices is the yoga technique that helps you sense all the part of your bodies that you were not even aware of before, GV Advocacy is the fancy endoscope that let you see through all the inert mass that is sometimes in the way and GV-lingua are all the textbooks that help you form an opinion on your health status once you are done gathering all the data.

I just wished I could have told the audience at the summit to be aware of all the signals that the body sends. Media attention is not just about vain narcissism, it’s just not that easy to walk with a painful toe.

Happy Birthday Randiana: Island of love and Voices wihtout Votes

2008-07-06T11:00:00.009-04:00

Today is my sister's birthday, Randiana aka ketablaogy. She is to be given credits for the most read posts on this blog. We got to celebrate shortly my last night in Paris when she flew in from Tunis. I was hoping to spend more time with her but work got in the way :).
Anyway, in memory of her time in Sao Paulo, here is a video of a song called "Madagascar Olodum"

( Thanks to Paula and Daniel who kindly provided a preview of the song in Budapest)
Her "Madagascar for Obama" plea was also posted on Voices without Votes by Jillian York.
So join me in wishing her a wonderful birthday wherever she might be now.

meeting bloggers offline: a budapest recap and more

2008-07-04T03:42:00.008-04:00

Yep, I am officially a very lucky blogger-stalker. You will have to forgive me, fellow bloggers if I keep asking you to meet with me because so far, I have yet to meet one of you whom I did not thoroughly enjoy the company.
After, my "first-time meetings" with bloggers in Montreal, New York, Paris, Lyon and Miami (By the way, happy birthday Nkamany !) in the past 2 years, the latest episodes at the DC airport, Budapest and Paris (ep. 2) were all I hoped to be and more.

I am fully expecting to have a meeting that will turn out to be awkward but until then, I am keeping my fingers crossed.
(exposition on Africa in Paris)

The first time I met sipakv (aka Mialy) was at the boarding gates of the flight to Budapest. For various reasons (foko, GVO..) we have been communicating a lot for the peast 2.5 years online but never really met. We ended up spending the 7 hours flight revisiting our past conversations online in real life this time and I did not realize how much we miss out in a discussion until I saw that we were laughing, frowning and surprised at the same times in the conversation.

What can I say about Budapest that has not already been said ?
I will try to make it short but Jillian asked in an email for a list of everyone's personal blogs and I could not agree more. Budapest was a sneak peek into all those people's windows and now you just want to know much more.

If you ever meet a GVO blogger, don't forget to ask them about a quick workshop on the "Beni lava" bollywood dance, getting collectively thrown out of a hotel for being too rambunctious and listening to a rendition of the beatles "when I am 64" or "Nkosisikileli Africa" by folks from Trinitad and Tobago, the Commonwealth of Massachussets, Venezuela and China.

(photo by oso)

The lessons learned form the summit were too many to list. However, the common thread throughout the sessions were that social progress can be achieved by documenting the reality of social injustice and the positive actions of communities in less-exposed regions.

GVO's strength is also its pitfall: it is a melting-pot of numerous people from all corners of the worlds who all have a rightful say on the directions of the project. Unbelievably, the core team was able to pull it off masterfully, using techniques that I hope to learn from (specifically using the outsider point of view to report a region's concerns).

The blogger stalking activities were not over yet.
I had dinner with friends from high school (not seen since 1995) and it sounds cliche but that dinner felt I reconnected at a period of my life when things were just simpler and happier.

Finally, I had a true first-time with a blogger I hold in high-esteem, Vola, my cousin to the nth degree :). She has an out of-this-world wit coupled with a grounded character. I basically wish I could blog like her but I was happy enough with meeting her, her sister Miora and her friend Lydie.
We went to see a performance of " Couscous aux lardons", a play about the challenges of an interracial couple's life. Good times all around and I hope Lydie does not think I am serial killer anymore. Bloggers don't kill, they troll instead :).
We are all wishing you the best in Birmingham, Vola.

A final thought if you felt nauseated reading this "happy sunshine" take on the world of bloggers.
I had trolls before and got into a blog feud once or twice. I am not so naive to suggest that a blogger cannot ever be an obnoxious or mean. I am just saying that if someone's writings appealed you enough to want to meet him/her, then, by all means, do so. It would be too bad to miss out on all the fun.

GV summit 2008 was an absolute bast

2008-07-01T05:20:00.005-04:00

In a most ironic turn of event, I found myself not using the internet much while at a meeting of bloggers and quite frankly, it was just fine by me.
In brief, I learned an awful lot of new procedures, shattered a few of my prejudiced views, met incredibly knowledgeable yet very low-key people. This does not tell you much, obviously and I apologize for that but I suspect I will need a few days to digest the last few days.

Steve Sharra from Malawi probably said how I feel about all of this the best: " You sometimes find yourself a bit pessimistic about the fate of the world, yet, an event like this summit makes you believe that maybe, just maybe, we have a chance to be efficient about increasing our understanding of the world and each other".
For that, I would like to thank the co-founders of Global Voices Online for their vision. We should not take for granted the fact that other people are going out of their ways to open opportunities for less familiar regions to be heard.
Organizing the summit was also a masterpiece of some kind. From getting people from literally all over the place here, to allowing everyone a chance to speak out their concerns and hopes...hat tip to the team for allowing me to meet Amine, Catalina, Nicholas, Collins, Portnoy, Yazan, Claire, Rebecca and many many more....

I really cannot render a proper picture of the atmosphere here so let me just show a few picture and tell you that I am now a member of the Danish-PuertoRican Association ( as you should as well):

GV summit photos:

( GVOers by Peterzin)

Global Voices Summit 08 ( en francais)

2008-06-27T03:51:00.008-04:00

La conference de Global Voices Online vient de commencer.
La salle est pleine et Sami Ben Gharbia montre une video de la corruption de la police au Maroc et la torture en Egypte.
Pour visionner la conference en direct, c'est par ici:
http://summit08.globalvoicesonline.org/stream/

et le live blog est ici:

http://summit08.globalvoicesonline.org/category/updates/

Il y a aussi un live chat sur IRC:

http://www.mibbit.com/

"Connect to IRC: Freenode.net" et canal: "#globalvoices".

Je vais essayer de resumer ici les presentations mais tout va tres vite alors...

Liberte d'expression:
Ory Okolloh parle des violences au Kenya pendant et apres les elections.
Elle explique que beaucoup de Kenyans estimait pendant la crise que pouvoir acheter des minutes pour son cellulaire pour appeller sa famille et illustrer les violences etait plus important que recevoir des dons.
http://mamamikes.com
http://ushuahidi.org

Anti-censorship, contre la censure

FACT-Freedom Against Censorship in Thailand
MENA-: Moyen-Orient et Afrique du Nord

Differents Niveaux de Censure:
Pour avoir une license pour un cybercafe a Omar, le cybercafe doit avoir une architecture bien precise ( floor plans provided :) )

Censure en Chine:

John Kennedy montre tous les liens des blogs chinois qui ont reussi a eviter la censure et ceux qui sont maintenant en prison (ex: Ju Hia).

Lors du tremblement de terre, plusieurs blogueurs etaient frustres par la Croix-Rouge en Chine, Zhai Minglei, par exemple, a decide de prendre les choses en main et a coopere avec Jet Li pour faire une collecte de fonds et creer une association.

Rezwan sur le media citoyen Bangladesh.

Taseem Khalil: Journaliste emprisonne pour avoir publie sut son blog un article que son journal avait refuse.
La plupart du temps, les medias traditionels pratiquent l'auto-censure par peur d'une sanction economique venant du gouvernement ( Quid des journalistes a Madagascar ?)

Andrew Heavens sur l'Ethiopie

Ethiopian Blogosphere was an incredible place until... (ooops, passe a l'anglais, marche arriere):
SMS bloque en 2005 ( le debut de la fin). Les elections de 2005: 1er jour: Emeutes a Addis. > Blogs en feu > puis plus rien..le vide total....blogspot banne.
Juillet 2006, Ralentissement considerable des blogs....> Mepris complet par le gouvernement Ethiopien ne repondant meme pas au accusation de censure.
Le parrain des blogs en Ethiopie est triste que les blogueurs ehtiopiens aient abondonnes aussi vite leur devoir civique.

Voici la session geek: dans 5 min, je vais etre largue ou plutot 30 sec.

Protecting free speech and privacy:
TOR

Roger, createur de TOR: (torproject.org) "Je me bats pas contre la Chine, je me bats contre les multinationales americaines."

Isaac Mao: Digital Nomads

C'est difficile pour un blogger de changer d'attitude dans un pays different. En Chine, je sais que je ne dois pas essayer d'acceder certains blogs.
Mais meme une fois a l'exterieur, j'ai toujours peur de le faire.
Les 3 murs qui bloquent la liberte d'expression:
free speech, free thinking, free software.

Donner la parole à ceux qu’on n’entend pas: EthanZ on Rising Voices and Chris on the lingua project

2008-06-20T10:08:00.008-04:00

"We were seeing people who were privileged in their own communities, so we asked, could participatory media works with a very different audience ? / Nous avons observé que les participants (au média citoyen) étaient le plus souvent des privilégiés dans leurs communautés, nous avons alors posé la question: Le media citoyen peut-il fonctionner en faisant participer des communautés differentes ?"

Ethan Zuckerman explique le projet Global/Rising Voices.

Voir les élèves de Majunga, Tana et Toamasina être présentés ainsi au MIT, c’est bête, mais ça me fait tout chose.

Dans le même registre, Chris Salzberg explique le projet Global Voices dans un article publiée dans une revue sur la traduction.
Il souligne l’importance de la traduction du projet dans les langues vernaculaires et mentionne aussi Global Voices amin’ny teny Malagasy:

“The Malagasy team, in particular, is strongly motivated by preservation of language, the majority of blogs in Madagascar being written in French despite the fact that the country is majority Malagasy-speaking.”

Chris ne pouvait pas savoir que la même semaine se déroulera le cyberfety: “ aza ampijaliana ny tenin tsika”, pour la défense de la langue malgache sur le net.
Merci mille fois à Ethan Z, David et Chris pour non seulement donner la parole à ceux qu’on n’entend pas souvent mais aussi pour les mettre ainsi sur le devant de la scène.

Listening Beyond Borders

2008-06-16T09:51:00.009-04:00

( from anthology of Music around the world)

As some of you may know, I am very fortunate to be a part of the Global Voices Summit in Budapest (for the "when the world listens" and Web 2.0 Goes Worldwide sessions).
It will be an opportunity to shine a bright light on the tremendous effort by citizen media participants in developing countries in time of need.
We will revisit some sad events (post-elections violence in Kenya, Cyclone Ivan and other issues), the importance of citizen media in that context and how to reach out to the rest of the world.
The last part is intriguing to me because we often outer phrases such as "Global Village", "think globally" or "The World is Flat" etc. but it is still a formidable challenge to faithfully render the hardships faced by many folks in times of crises and make the rest of the world relate to them, or better yet, internalize the injustice.

Many have discussed the concepts of Xenophilia and explained why some cultures may have more of an appeal (or "sticky factor" as M. Gladwell calls it ) than others.
I am way too new to all of this to bring valuable contribution to the table. However, as I was doing a bit of research for my slides for the session, I stumble upon this: the trend on when and how many people are searching for "Madagascar" on Google search engine:

Looking at the graphs, you will notice that there is an increase for a "Madagascar" search worldwide in mid-February right around the cyclone Ivan landfall.
A Google search is an assertive action that indicates a desire to know more than the sound bite heard on tv. This is strong evidence to me that solidarity across borders is not just a word.
The search for "Kerala" ( my roommate's home state) and "Madagascar" are almost equivalent worldwide (with Kerala slightly on top most of the time) except for February during the cyclone. As explained by Hash in his post on "pothole theory...", it is expected that we, as human beings, care more about events that are related and/or closer to us. I tend to agree that most of us are more or less guilty as charged.

Yet, looking at the Google trend search from Colombia, I see people who wanted to understand what happened and who kept looking for more even after the cyclone was gone. The trends seem to be similar for the US and Canada. The trends are a bit different (a brief, sharp increase) for the UK and France because they are more familiar with Madagascar (Large Malagasy diaspora or former visitors ) for historical reasons and they specifically searched for information pertaining to the cyclone.

The Bottom line is, more people actively looked for more information about Madagascar during the cyclone and that is a good thing, as corny as that may sound.

I understand that Google trends alone are not going to be enough data to draw any meaningful conclusions and I also apologize for the heavily "Madagascar-centered" tone of this post. More tools and more countries need to be assessed before drawing any conclusions.

However, the point I am trying to make (from my untrained point of view) is that we may think that most people are desensitized by information overload (or indifferent to far remote regions) but we may begin to see a change here:
compassion that is not geographically or culturally dependent. And if I were to push the envelope, we may see that what may have started as an interest for a region out of compassion may very well continue as an interest for that region out of pure fondness.

On father's day: Tim Russert and Big Russ

2008-06-15T18:11:00.000-04:00

In Memory of Tim Russert,
and Happy father's day to all the fathers out there.

Bienvenu à Madagascar Mr. Mégret, vous allez apprécier le "cross-breeding" local

2008-06-09T13:55:00.006-04:00

Bruno Mégret s'installerait à Madagascar (via Madagascan et Gozy):

"...Bruno Mégret a également prévu de quitter la France : il va déménager et démarrer une nouvelle carrière à Madagascar, loin de la politique. Une filiale de Bouygues a prévu de le recruter pour le marché local. Il aurait expliqué à huis clos aux cadres de son mouvement (le MNR), en mai dernier, qu’en raison d’un ennui quasi chronique dans son travail de fonctionnaire et ingénieur des ponts et chaussées au traitement de quelque 6 000 euros mensuels, il avait décidé d’opter pour le privé qui lui aurait proposé un salaire de 12 000 euros et des missions beaucoup plus attractives."

Histoire d'apprécier l'ironie de la situation, rappelons nous de ceci:

"According to Bruno Mégret: cosmopolitanism is " the desire to get rid of differences and indentities and to glorify mixing, cross-breeding, the metling pot and cultural and ethnic deracination...this increasingly vigourous cosmopolitanism is trying to deprive our fellow citizens of their ethnic and cultural differences "

( as quoted in the "populist challenge")

Allez , on invite aussi Le Pen , Berlusconi et David Duke à Nosy-be pour une nouba d'enfer.

Madagascar, where welcoming ethno-separatists happens. I could not be prouder.

Seriously, W.T.F. ?

Yes She Can and Boy She Did.

2008-06-07T13:26:00.003-04:00

"Every moment wasted looking back keeps us from moving forward. Life is too short, time is too precious and the stakes are too high to dwell on what might have been.
We must make sure that women and men alike understand the struggles of their grandmothers and mothers and that women enjoy equal opportunities, equal pay and equal respect.
Let us resolve and work toward achieving some very simple propositions: there are no acceptable limits and there are no acceptable prejudices in the 21st century in our country.”

Boston Three party: Go C's !

2008-06-05T19:43:00.001-04:00

This is our time.

2008-06-03T22:35:00.002-04:00

"But what you don't deserve is another election that's governed by fear, and innuendo, and division. What you won't hear from this campaign or this party is the kind of politics that uses religion as a wedge, and patriotism as a bludgeon - that sees our opponents not as competitors to challenge, but enemies to demonize. Because we may call ourselves Democrats and Republicans, but we are Americans first."

Put a little science in your life, yes you can.

2008-06-03T10:48:00.007-04:00

Brian Green in the NYT:

"Science is the greatest of all adventure stories, one that’s been unfolding for thousands of years as we have sought to understand ourselves and our surroundings. Science needs to be taught to the young and communicated to the mature in a manner that captures this drama. We must embark on a cultural shift that places science in its rightful place alongside music, art and literature as an indispensable part of what makes life worth living.
It’s the birthright of every child, it’s a necessity for every adult, to look out on the world, as the soldier in Iraq did, and see that the wonder of the cosmos transcends everything that divides us."

And dare I say.... " Si se puede !"

Come on, I am sure you see it too, yes you can.

All jokes aside, the appeal of this wonderful article written by Dr Greene (the most sent article in NYT today ) on the need for more science in our education is the same appeal that draws people from all corners of the world to B. Obama.

When it comes to research, the need to solve the technicalities to obtain meaningful data sometimes makes us lose perspective on the beauty of the research process itself: solving the unknown.

Similarly, the main difference in this election is that winning the election at all costs is not an option for Obama. He will thrive because instead of nitpicking why he may be a better candidate than McCain or Clinton, he is reaching out to everyone's expertise (including former adversaries) to formulate the best possible policies.

He will thrive because he understands that the elections are not about spinning and hidden agendas; they are, in the words of Green, about being "able to think through and grasp explanations not because they are declared dogma but rather because they reveal patterns confirmed by experiment and observation."

On the eve of the end of the primary elections, I am anxious to hear his next speech and hopefully reach out to Clinton' supporters who might have grown to dislike him to this point.

In somewhat-related news, there is a Malagasy journalist on the campaign trail in Montana with the Clintons. And our president is mingling with the good folks of Kentucky (photo).

(Ok, that had nothing to do with this post but I just wanted to share the slightly odd pieces of info. Love the timber shirt, president ! )

(via Madagascar news)

ls ont dit / what they really meant: (2nd take)

2008-05-25T16:40:00.006-04:00

2nd installment of "what people really meant":
====
HRC, May 23rd, 08.

"My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it,"

What Hillary meant:

"Look, I am a savvy, tough politician but I am also tired as heck. That was an inadvertent slip of the only way left I could win the nomination. Of course, I did not wish for such a thing to happen to Sen. Obama. See, they way I see it, the small margin b/w him and me is the only thing standing in the way of me ruling from the oval office. No way McCain can beat me, after 8 years of calamitous Bush regime ? No F..way. I worked so hard for all this ! So, I am all in, legacy and democratic party be damned."
====
George W. Bush, May 12, 2008.

"I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office."

What he meant: Oh sorry, that's exactly what he meant.
======
Liz Trotta, May 23 2008:

"and now we have what some are reading—as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama , umm, ah… Obama, well both if we could…haha…"

What she meant:...Oh sorry, that's exactly what she meant.
========
Nicolas Sarkozy, April 30 2008:

"Vous avez une main d'œuvre qui ne demande qu'à être formée, nous avons beaucoup d'intelligence et beaucoup de formation"

Ce qu'il voulait dire: " Ben oui, la main d'oeuvre Tunisienne est excellente... C'est un peu condescendant et nostalgique de la colonisation, vous dites ? Mais non, enfin! La preuve: j'ai Rachida et Rama au gouvernement.... "

Rising Voices Projects: highlights and locations

2008-05-22T15:10:00.000-04:00

Highlights from the incredibly real snapshots of everyday lives from all over the world through the Rising Voices projects:

======
"Reality at the University / Realidades en la Universidad" by Catalina Restrepo from the Hiperbarrio project in Colombia.

"It was close to 11:20 when several explosions were heard. The class continued and the teacher insisted that we should concentrate.
From one moment to the next, the explosions were closer together and people were leaving their class rooms looking for safer places, since the building where I am usually found is one of the most affected when events of this magnitude take place suddenly. [..]
We hadn’t been sitting even five minutes, when we saw up close some hooded and masked men and we even thought that they might be coming towards us. They moved on and some meters beyond they exploded something that made a very big noise."

=======
The Life post-elections in Kenya by Dennis Kimambo from Repacted, Nakuru, Kenya.

"The political crisis might be over in terms of the fighting but if the issues that caused are not addressed it might go back to that situation and even be far more worse than it was. Because communities have armed themselves and are ready for anything. Nakuru is safe and things are slowly getting back to normal but more than 12000 displaced families are within the town area, which has become a security threat to the residents."

========
El Alto, by Monica Ticona of Voces Bolivianas

This community sits on the border with the Republic of Peru between the markers 23 and 28. The climate is frigid and the residents raise cattle. There are vast pamapas, but with very little vegetation. The people work from sunrise until sunset. For the residents fo the community there are no Sundays or holidays.

=====

"A life with Dowry Problem" by Golam Sujon in Bangladesh with a View, Nari Jibon.

"After being pregnant, Manik started to behave with me very rough. We heard that Manik would go abroad but he did not tell me or us anything. One day he was not returning from his workplace. Later we heard that he left Bangladesh and went Saudi Arab. He did not communicate with me or us. My parents communicated with Manik’s family and started to solve the problem. After a long discussion Manik parents agreed to take her as their son’s wife instead of 70,000 taka as dowry. My father paid 40000 taka and in the time I gave birth to a female child and I became sick. My father had to spend about 25000 taka due to my sickness but none of my law’s family member came to see me or my daughter."

=====
"XO-laptop and Internet issues" by blogging since infancy, Uruguay.

"We can not upload images to make slideshows.
It takes a long time to load images.
We are not able to see the videos on the Internet
We lose the desire to work
I see warnings online that say “these seem to take longer than usual,” which doesn’t allow us to work continuously.
We are losing a lot of time in class because of the delay."

=========
"Projects from Iran" by shaghayegh azimi, from Iran inside out.

"One is a snapshot of the underground heavy metal scene in Iran and the other is a personal reflection on the looming idea of a US-Iran war. While we are really excited to show these videos, we believe that the real merit of these stories lies in the eye of the beholder and how the audience reacts to these films"

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"Lesson from prison"by Byron Mesquita of Prison Diaries.

"Prison teaches me wickedness, bitterness, madness, badness, sadness, selfishness, idleness, laziness, craziness and all kinds of ness that placed me in a mess. Prison teaches me that it has no fundamental foundation to lay progress on."

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Bow Bazaar by Neighbourhood Diaries, Kolkata.
"Bow Bazaar is an old, bustling neighbourhood in Central Calcutta stretching along Bipin Behari Street to Mahatma Gandhi Road, between the city’s old college district and primary train station, Sealdah. This locality is bustling with a market of jewelers, carpenters, and musical instrument craftsmen, and is also made of crooked alleys and lanes"

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Malnutrition by Think Build Change Salone, Sierra Leone

"Kadie Kandeh a 28year old student studying Nutrition (who was a year older than our 27 year cut off) talked about her experience giving nutrition advice in her community and in conversation with her we discussed the possibility of creating a nutrition guide for families using cheap local ingredients. She explained that with cases of malnutrition, many times mothers were as much victims as their children because of certain beliefs that the husband should get the best parts of the meal."

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"Human Rights Campaign in Ifanadiana" by Karenichia, FBC, Madagascar.

As its name indicates, Rodorodo or Walk for Development means a walk about 40 km in the villages around the region and make some information/sensitization session mainly on the theme of Human Rights given the fact that this year we celebrate the 60th anniversary of its declaration.

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View Larger Map

A Call for Solidarity from Diana of the Foko Blog Club

2008-05-22T10:52:00.005-04:00

[This is a cross-post from the original article here.
A brief background on Diana: Diana is a high-school student in Mahajanga. You can learn more about her on her weblog. Original post starts here:]

Many of you already read about the sad story of the one year-old baby Kamba Antefindrazana born with a congenital malformation. It was Diana Chamia who first wrote about the family's plight when she started blogging at FOKO_Mahajanga and wrote: “Help me Help them”. She promised the mother to do whatever she can to find a solution for the baby. Since then, many of her friends relayed her tremendous initiative and discussed ways to support her efforts. All the actions undertaken that are related to this story have been summarized here at Malagasy Miray.

Today we can start our global call for solidarity after the first surgeon in Mahajanga accepted to take care of the family and is planning to move them to Antananarivo for a better diagnostic evaluation. This trip needs your financial support and the committe is aiming to raise 500$ for the first fundraising effort. There will also be medical costs and daily expenses for the family since Kamba has a healthy twin sister and another big sister that her mother Goergine has to take care of.
We will update you regularly as the project proceeds and we will share all the available informations we receive.Diana and Mahajanga young students will put to good use their training as citizen journalists.
FOKO Madagascar will be in charge of the online fundraising and will direct your donations to Jean and Bako RAZAFINDAMBO who already very generously contributed with their time and assets . We can’t thank you enough for your help and support to this family and baby Kamba. Everyone involved has already spent countless time and energy on networking and brainstorming and for that, we want to thank them. If you happen to be in Madagascar and available to help out, please contact us .

From Diana Chamia, Kamba’s family and the committee

Toi le frère que je n'ai jamais eu (Bigard et Goldman)

2008-05-18T18:36:00.005-04:00

(Original lyrics: Maxime Le Forestier)

Toi le frère que je n'ai jamais eu
Sais-tu si tu avais vécu
Ce que nous aurions fait ensemble
Un an après moi, tu serais né
Alors on n'se s'rait plus quittés
Comme des amis qui se ressemblent
On aurait appris l'argot par cœur
J'aurais été ton professeur
A mon école buissonnière
Sur qu'un jour on se serait battu
Pour peu qu'alors on ait connu
Ensemble la même première

Mais tu n'es pas la
A qui la faute
Pas à mon père
Pas à ma mère
Tu aurais pu chanter cela

Toi le frère que je n'ai jamais eu
Si tu savais ce que j'ai bu
De mes chagrins en solitaire
Si tu m'avais pas fait faux bond
Tu aurais fini mes chansons
Je t'aurais appris à en faire
Si la vie s'était comportée mieux
Elle aurait divisé en deux
Les paires de gants, les paires de claques
Elle aurait surement partagé
Les mots d'amour et les pavés
Les filles et les coups de matraque

Toi le frère que je n'aurais jamais
Je suis moins seul de t'avoir fait
Pour un instant, pour une fille
Je t'ai dérangé, tu me pardonnes
Ici quand tout vous abandonne
On se fabrique une famille

Mapping Madagascar news by cities.

2008-05-13T17:42:00.011-04:00

Here is a simple question: Which cities mention Madagascar-related news ?
It is worth asking because at this stage, Madagascar is not really driving engine search crazy except when animated movies are about to come out (no comment).
The bigger question is who would be interested to know more about Madagascar and news from what regions (countries, cities) would generate the most interest from Malagasy people ?
The reasons for this question are 2 fold:

1) a question asked by l'observatoire des medias and Ethan Zuckerman: "It would be interesting to study the interest clusters for each nation" I understand that Ethan pose the question of the interest from medias from a specific nation towards the rest of the world.
2) From my narrow-minded perspective, I then asked which medias are talking about Madagascar and I also try to have an idea of what Malagasy media are talking about (beside Madagascar).
Even by narrowing the fields in such manner (a nation relatively absent from news and it's medias very focused on internal news), I realized that I would not be able to come up with a comprehensive enough map if I extended the map to a larger chuck of time. So I restricted my search to mid-April and May only on google news, topix.com and a few others French and Malagasy MSM and came up with the map below:

View Larger Map

The data presented is too shallow to be significant but the fun part is that I added a description for each placemark that links to the URL that mentions Madagascar.

You will be surprised to see why Minneapolis, Abilene or Zurich are talking about Madagascar.
My hope is to eventually add the data from the articles translated by the Malagasy Global Voices Lingua project and compare the regions mentioned to those addressed by Malagasy news media.

On the map, you will see that red placemarks are in theory news from Malagasy MSM about other cities ( it's very incomplete at this point) and in blue, outside media talking about Madagascar ( more complete). Again this is only from articles published within the past 2 months and with an avoidable bias towards Anglophone medias.
If you are a map geek and have a more efficient way to go about this, please don't hesitate to take over.

Malagasy Slaves in South-Africa Influenced the Local Culture.

2008-05-06T11:23:00.012-04:00

Here is an interesting post from Patric Tariq Mellet @" Slavery and Creolisation, Heritage in Cape" on the impact of former slaves from Madagascar on the cultural diversity in Cape.
The purpose of Mellet's blog is to: "inquire about slavery and about [his] own connection to slaves in the Cape[ ...] So many within [the] colored community are searching for answers about their past. I hope that the stories on this weblog will assist."

Mellet describes himself as a man of mixed heritage:

"A mix of indigenous people, slaves of Indian and Madagascan origin, French, Dutch, Irish and English are all part of my make-up."

( photo via about page @ Slavery & Creolisation)

Here are a few excerpts, one is of special interest to me after the post on kabary and hip-hop.

(I apologize for not contributing to the post more than just highlighting passages from the article but I am a bit on the run lately.)

"Very few South Africans have tried to understand what the background of the Malagasy slaves was, or the influences that they brought to South Africa, even although slaves from Madagascar totaling up to a quarter of all slaves, were a much larger single immigrant group than Hugenots."

"Today Madagascar remains bound with the African mainland as an important role-player in the Southern African Development Community and the African Union."

"Bitter rivalries emerged, leading to many wars. The towns became centres of trade where cattle and slaves, taken in war, were exchanged with European merchants for guns and other manufactured goods."

"Vaky soava is a rhythmic style of singing accompanied only by hand clapping. The gourd-like jejolava, the drum and the multi-stringed valiha are the instruments contributed from African culture."

"Kabary’s roots are in early political assemblies, in which each speaker spoke in turn. It evolved and was eventually popularised and extended to the general public as a form of entertainment. Kabary is an integral part of hira gasy, popular spectacles that include music, dancing and story telling, that would be held regularly. Cape music and story-telling culture is obviously highly influenced by our partially Malagasy roots."

"For those presently having debates on how we handle the finding of remains and markers of our slave ancestors, the debate has unfortunately been stuck on a irreverent museology approach versus a western Christian overlay on traditional African custom which argues that the only sacred approach is to bury and cover up from the human gaze. The latter unfortunately perpetuates obliteration from human memory and does more to bolster traditionalist power forces than celebrate the lives of our ancestors. The traditions in our Malagasy roots perhaps offers us a way forward for how we remember our ancestors."

Thank you Patric for explaining the common bond between our two communities and I wish you the best on your journey to self-discovery.

Video of the day: Springsteen singing in the streets of Copenhagen = citizen media

2008-05-02T13:55:00.012-04:00

(via ChrilleB83)
I am not sure how many big time artists could pull this off nowadays. My take is, it had to be the right town (Copenhagen), the right time (middle of the afternoon) and the right artist. Fact is, Springsteen is uber-cool (I don't really care how cliche that sentence sounds).

I have a stubborn headache today so forgive me if the following parallel is a bit raw and not totally thought-through:

I would pose that the debate between mainstream media (MSM) and the blogosphere is akin to comparing Springsteen performance in a recording studio versus a street performance:

1) They are complement to each other, not antagonistic.

2) They both serve the same purpose (communication for MSM/blogs; entertainment for the performances.)

3) Journalism is a demanding profession that requires years of training and work. No one can pretend to become one overnight. Similarly, the production of a studio song takes time and hard work. No one is disputing nor should dispute the need for both products.

4) One is polished and reviewed by many before it's made available to the public. The other comes to life almost instantaneously, with variations in quality but is able to draw a definite appeal because of its "realness" and direct, close interaction with its audience.

5) The generational divide is clear. Youth in general would favor "realness" and approachability versus the finely tuned version.

6) Just as a street performance of a song can sometimes have more soul or more added value than a recorded one, a blog entry can sometimes bring more flavor than a journal article that is canvassed by rules. This is evidently not often the case but the value of direct raw information cannot be denied.

7) If the street version is mediocre, the resulting negative feedback is immediate. The general public will judge whether the performance is news-worthy or not.

As for me, I just wanted to sing along "the River" with the Boss.
It's Friday for crying out loud ! TGIF to all.

PS: I just realized I posted something about this before. My memory is failing me faster than Igor Karlovic's first serve.

Of kabary and hip-hop: coming full circle.

2008-04-28T14:47:00.014-04:00

Picture this:
your two favorite MC's battling one-on-one in front of a captive audience, each one representing his "people". They are going back and forth, exchanging killer rhymes, clever one-liners and obscure references, with the laughter and the cheers of their supporters in the background.

By now, you are probably picturing some scenes from the "8 mile" movie (or the very odd Jodie Foster 's version of Eminem's "loose yourself" at U Penn's commencement.)

( photo via EW)

Now instead of a club, picture an engagement party. Instead of a mixing table, picture flower arrangements and cocktail bowls. Instead of two young rappers in FUBU clothing, two middle-aged speakers wearing formal suits and declining poems of yore.

A Kabary in the Malagasy culture is just that: an oratory art/battle in the most unsual setting. Something in between a Frank Sinatra roast and a Jay-Z/Nas battle, if you will. It's certainly not as aggressive but done right, it can be just as entertaining.
Done poorly, a kabary is the most boring hour you could ever spent.

So what is a Kabary ? Here is a definition:

"Kabary--pronounced Kabar--refers to Malagasy oratory plied by the mpikabary--the orator--during any social or family gathering such as political assembly, wedding, famadihana, burial, funeral, or condolence. Kabary involves using word play and Malagasy proverbs-"

In the setting of a Malagasy engagement party, each orator represents either one of the families. The choice of the orator should not be taken lightly because your family "street cred" ;) may depend on it. Should your orator be badly outperformed by the other family, words in the city would be that your family was too cheap to afford a decent orator and that you are indeed lucky to have hitched your sheep to the other family's fortune ( I am exaggerating here but you get the idea).

You don't want to bore the audience with a lifeless out-of-touch orator but you don't want to go to war with a young speaker either because he may be tricked by a more experienced "mpikabary" or he might use cultural reference that your uncles and aunts can't possibly understand.

In my younger days, I use to think that a Kabary was a inevitable nuisance and 1h1/2 of absolute boredom. Why couldn't we just let cousin X tie the knot with his bride and move on to the eating and dancing part ? Do we really need to hear those two old chaps exchanging wits and pleasantries about the pitfalls of matrimony?
Now I long for the time when our "designated hitter/orator" waxed poetry on the uncanny parallel between love lost and the Cameroon-England quarterfinal match at the 1990 World Cup.

(photo via Tatamo)

The importance of Kabary in the Malagasy culture cannot be overstated. We are, and will always be a society based on our oral culture. Consider that we have 18 tribes in Madagascar and yet all of them without exception have a tradition of Kabary.
To further illustrates the importance of Kabary, the tranofalala website lists a series of idioms related to kabary. Here are a few of them:

- Kabary anelekelan-trano: resolving a disagreement among a community between themselves instead of taking the case to court.
- Kabary tsy efan-kalahady: disagreement that cannot be settled by making simple apology, instead it needs the intervention of the elders or even the court.
- Kabarim-behivavy: a confusing debate during which all participants speak at the same time and raise their voices.
- Kabary tsara pasoka: a captivating kabary.
- Kabary am-panambadiana: call and response talk in a wedding ceremony between the bride's orator and the one of the groom. The groom or the bride might be represented by one or several orators depending on the family's custom.
- Zanak'omby tsy ampianarin-domano, zanak'andriana tsy ampianarin-kabary: used to say that you have special skills without having to learn them.

(Examples of Kabary can be found here, or here.)

The irony is that Malagasy youngsters are quite drawn to hip-hop culture but are not as inclined to revisit the elders' kabary. Our fondness for hip-hop comes from following American or French rappers. We are more likely to chant 50 cent's " In da club" in night-clubs than decline a kabary at a ceremonial.

It's a pity because this could be a case of old school becoming new school all over again. In both cases, one has to captivate and relate to your audience and at the same time, respond to the verbal gauntlet thrown by the opposite orator. It's usually quite tame but it's nevertheless a challenge.

One new young Malagasy blogger, Lomelle, is also a poetry slam artist. I wonder if she relates more to Lupe Fiasco or Dox or if she just naturally embraces both influences.

I, for one, am more likely to produce a Kabarin'adala (a blether) or a Kabarin-tsahona (nonsense) so I will let others be in charge of the "olan'teny"at the next family reunion.
No one needs to hear a Kabary with the words " Check out the hook will my DJ revolves it" in it.

Back to ideas and less pettiness: Obama's advisers on Energy & Enviroment @ Purdue tonight

2008-04-23T14:11:00.015-04:00

Cameron Davis and Jack Darin ( his blog), Obama's advisers on energy and environment will be fielding questions at Purdue tonight. With gas price bound to reach $4/gallon in Indiana soon, I think I can guess what will be the center of attention. Obama's track record on environment is pretty good with legislations passed on renewable fuels and a bipartisan plan on fuel economy standards (CAFE) in the works.

Since Cameron Davis served with the United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi, Kenya, I am hoping to hear a global perspective on climate change as well during the talk.

It would be a nice touch since Nelson Mandela's grandson is also in town and that Purdue has one of the highest rate of foreign graduate students.

Here are the highlights ( from my POV) of Obama's plan for Energy and Environment policies:

- Confront Deforestation and Promote Carbon Sequestration.
- Clean Technologies Deployment Venture Capital Fund.
- Invest in a Digital Smart Grid.
- Re-Engage with the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

For the details on how he plans to achieve these goals, click here.

More than anything, I would just be relieved to hear a conversation on policies and ideas again and less nonsense about bitterness or so-called elitism.

Finally, a few quotes I enjoyed about elitism recently:

Bill Maher in Salon.com: "When the anti-elite crowd demonizes the elite, what they're actually doing is embracing incompetence."

Jon Stewart: "If you don't think you're better than us then what the f**k are you doing? Not only do I want an elite President, I want someone embarrassingly superior to me. Somebody who speaks 16 languages and sleeps two hours a night, hanging upside-down in a chamber they designed."

Indeed, Jon, WTF.