The Malagasy dwarf Hippo

Mbola mahatory...

2012-03-10T17:26:00.000-05:00

raha ho avy ralala ny taona hodiako aho ambanin'ny tany tsindrian-drangolahy ka ho vato no solo kidoro hatoriako de izao no mba zavatra ataovinao ahy voleo voninkazo eo an-dohan'ny fasako fotsy sy mavo ary manga sy mena ka avelao haniry eo mandra-pifohako mba hanofisako lay fanekena ny fotsy ho marik'ilay fahadiovana misy aminao tsy mba azo lotoina soratra velona tsy azo vonoina toy ny horom-bato izay nifanaovana ny endrin'ny mavo no fofony manitra dia fivavahana ataoko any an-danitra mba hitsinjovany anao tsy ho irery ombany raha sendra tsy misy mpijery ny manga ho marikik'ilay fihafihana niaraha-niaritra zava-mangidy dia lay andro namoizana ilay fifaliana niaraha-niharitra zava-tsy fidy ny mena ho taratrin'ny afo tsy maty mirehitra lava ao anatin'ny foko io lay fitia,fitia tena anaty fitia voa-kase sy voatomboka loko ny fasako ataovy ao andrefan-tanana ataovy mikasika ny ilan-kamory soraty eo ny tenin'ny fanantenana "tsy maty aho akory fa mbola matory" ny moron'ny rano voleo volotara ka jerijereo fa aza avela ho maina tarafo eo aho fa ho tsinjonao tsara tsy miala eo aho raha tsy efa maraina na dia maty aza anie zany tenako be sy miraraka an-tany ny ra ao am-poko ny fitiavako anao tampetraka anie tsy mba ho faty tsy mba ho lo

Citizen Cyclone Giovanna Watch in Madagascar

2012-02-14T04:40:00.001-05:00

Cyclone Giovanna is wrecking havoc in Madagascar.

Hoping everyone is OK back home. If you have information to share, connect here:

At the end of the day...

2011-04-13T11:05:00.000-04:00

Apparently, my last write-up here goes back to the end of the year 2010.

For those like me who can't count, that's a long time ago.

Lots have happended since then, both at a global and personal level: revolutions, social crisis, massacres, tsunamis and nuclear disasters. It almost seems like I am making this up.

I would have loved to have the time to digest all of this and write some semblance of reflections but I was caught in a personal spinning wheel myself, with a sequence of life changing events that left me feeling like I just spent the last couple of months in a washing machine.

So here I am, having spent 2 out of the last 6 months in 3 different continents, 9 towns, 5 missions, with 4 different PCs and 3 mobile phones, having the urge to just write; write about something that is not news-related, not newsworthy anyway.

I was never too away from the work at hand, as those who collaborate or know what I do are well-aware of.

There was just too much "stuff" going on to populate this space as well.

So here I am, late at night in Mohammadia, a city I did not know existed 3 weeks ago; with an itch to write, to pause and bare it all on the keyboard, like I used to do.

I come back here knowing that the very few readers probably gave up on me posting something worthwhile a long time ago. There are 120-something spams in the comment section, probably 119 more than the numbers of readers the past week.

Talk about not understanding the meaning of a blog: no updates in 6 months, spams all over the place, geez.... and you call yourself digital-savvy ? ( I don't but my parents do)

It's better this way because I will be talking nonsense hereafter about the meaning of a blog, of online reps and the meaning of, yes, life on the world wide web.

I figured this blog was dead and that I should announced its T.O.D officially, just as a few others of my favorite reads have done recently (freedarko.com etc.).

But I thought better of it. What is it with our obsession with defining a begining, a tipping point and an end to everything ?

If the latest international events have taught us anything, it is that even in those history-defining moments all across the African continent, change is a process, a cycle and it takes time.

A revolution makes two steps forward only to move one step backward a moment later.

Japan is hit with a series of unfathomable disasters but people there seem to understand that they cannot let the moment overwhelm them. There is no sense in wondering whether there was the life before the earth quake and the one after the earth quake. There's life, period.

In Africa, despots come and go, eventually. Their removal is sometimes helped (or not) by voices expressing their discontent in the streets or online. These moments, debates and reactions are highlighted in the 24 hours new cycle, sensationalized by information channels that will chew them out quickly and spit it out as soon as the other piece of info comes in. The fact that we turn our attention elsewhere is fine. But by not paying attention to what happens afterwards, we undemine the effort that is being put forth to build something over the long run.

The build up of a democratic system is taking place and facing big hurdles in Tunisia and elsewhere. But we won't pay attention to it anymore because so many lives are lost to war in Libya, Côte d'Ivoire and many other places. And then, there will always be a new presidential election somewhere soon that will drift our attention elsewhere.

The lasting and simplistic perception of events in Côte d'Ivoire will be of death and hatred. But the fragile effort to reach out to all Ivoirians by some citizens should not be drown out or neglected by out global, compulsive attention deficit disorder.

We outsiders want so badly to define a beginning, a turning point and an end to every crises we observe.

But there is no such thing as a beginning and an end for the people living the crises, there is only a process.

As international observers, we at least ought to ackowledge that from time to time.

The Year 2010 In Review: the francophone citizen media edition

2010-12-26T06:15:00.001-05:00

It appears that tragedy will bookend yet another year rich in remarkable events in the world of francophone citizen media.

The month of January set the tone for the rest of the year with the traumatic fallout from the earthquake in Haiti, the attacks against the Togolese football team at the African Cup of nations in Cabinda and the firing of tear gas against protesters in Madagascar. The end of the year did not provide much respite from violence as the ongoing political crisis in Côte d'Ivoire has already claimed close to 173 lives and social tension sparks riots in Tunisia.

The year 2010 was also marked by the 50th anniversary of the independence of many African countries, highlighted by a controversial military parade at the Champs-Elysees in Paris and the hosting of Young African Leaders Symposium by US president Obama. Throughout the year, citizen media in Francophone countries was once more at the forefront of information dissemination and often found itself under duress for exercising their right to free speech.

An Ominous Start

The earthquake took everyone by surprise but despite the frequent interruptions of phone services and generally poor access to internet, Haitian citizen media responded to the challenges and provided frequent updates and a much needed on the ground perspectives regarding the recovery effort.

In the midst of the tragedy, a francophone "show of solidarity" was discussed at length when Senegal's president Wade offered free land to Haitians earthquake survivors. The offer was met with a mix of skepticism and support by Senegalese, Haitian and citizen media worldwide.

On February 18th, a coup took place in Niger in which President Mamadou Tandja was captured after a gun battle in the capital, Niamey, led by led by Col. Abdoulaye Adamou Harouna. The general sentiment of the Nigerien citizen media seemed to go from "blasé" to "good riddance".

The financial crisis also affected the African continent; African bloggers reacted to the apparent differential treatment from the IMF when it comes to helping countries like Greece compared to some African nations.

From financial to natural crises, The northern and western African regions were plagued by prolonged period of rains and severe floods. Morocco, Mauritania, Benin, Nigeria and Togo were amongst the most affected by floods with initial reports often provided by citizen media.

The security and stability of the west African region was also on the mind of bloggers when AQIM made headlines repeatedly by taking hostages in Mali and killing Michel Germaneau in July and again capturing several employees of AREVA hostages in Niger later that year.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="AQIM Area via Orthuberra on Wikimedia - Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0"][/caption]

Celebrating Independence in Francophone Africa

Despite the weary start, the year 2010 was also supposed to be a celebration of 50 years of independence and a critical election year for many African nations. Yet given the delayed human development progress, questionable governance and mismanagement of natural resources, many African bloggers wonder whether there is really a cause for celebration in Africa so far.

Yet the celebrations went on, sometimes quite lavishly as seen in Brazzaville, Congo.

None of these celebrations caused quite the stir that the military parade of African soldiers on Bastille Day at the invitation of French president Sarkozy provoked. With the growing exposure of the corrupt nature of "La Françafrique", refering to the relationship between some African leaders and French lobbying groups, many observers pointed out that the presence of African armies at the Champ-Elysees was condescending and awkward at best, not unlike Sarkozy's Dakar speech. [Another speech by the French president in Grenoble this summer about delinquents of foreign origins and the forced expulsions of Roma people also provoked intense reactions in the francophone blogosphere.]

A different approach was taken by the US administration in marking the multiple independence anniversaries in Africa. In early august 2010, US President Obama held a three-days symposium for Young African Leaders to exchange ideas on how to foster development, human rights and democracy. The emphasis on the youth of Africa was in clear contrast with the presence of the old guards of African leaders showcased on Bastille Day.

Hoping for Transparency

Year 2010 was also supposed to be the year when some African nations would make important strides towards free and transparent elections.

That hope quickly faded away.

The electoral process in Burundi, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Madagascar and Rwanda were all at some point subject to major question marks, marred with missed deadlines, suspicions of massive fraud and acts of violence.

Yet one has the feeling that citizens in those countries are eager to move forward and prove that mediocre leadership cannot hold countries back forever. The rise of a burgeoning civil society and local citizen media provide hope that progress are being made, often in spite of proper governance.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="512" caption="Théophile Kouamouo and Saint-Clavier Oula"][/caption]

The impact of online citizen media has become evident enough that authoritarian African governments have taken major steps towards increasing censorship of digital media. Ivorian bloggers and journalists were arrested in July for publishing documents on corruption in cocoa and coffee trade. Since the Ivorian political crisis broke out in December, many bloggers and twitter users have withdrawn from their online activities and are no longer posting updates on the situation because of personal threats.

In Madagascar, a slew of journalists and political opponents were arrested for alleged threats against national security and voicing their dissents online. Steps towards more control of online content in Madagascar are also being taken, highlighted by a proposal that all Malagasy digital content are to be be managed by a single private provider (fr).

It is yet to be seen whether this year's lessons from some African nations' electoral hardships will be learned by their neighbors. Senegal and Cameroon among others will face important electoral deadlines in 2011. Cameroonian bloggers do not appear overly optimistic about the upcoming elections. As for Senegal, local citizen media has already been quite vocal about perceived nepotism and corruption inside the current administration.

It would be a refreshing sight in 2011 if the streak of dubious electoral results and post-electoral violence were to be halted for a change. African leaders owe that much to their resilient population.

[Cross-posted on Global Voices Online]

Foolish Flower (Vonikazo adaladala)

2010-12-07T12:27:00.000-05:00

Caught in the middle of a tornado of cable gate, unsavory parallel between post-election drama in Cote d'Ivoire, Haiti and Madagascar, it seemed that now is just right time for a bit of ...poetry.
The following is a translation of a Malagasy poem from Rado aka Georges Andriamanantena who passed away in 2008 and was recently joined up there by an other legend of Malagasy literature, Elie Rajoanarison.

So here is my poor attempt at translating a masterpiece that was also sung beautifully by the duo of Aina Quash and Eric Manana. It is dedicated to all the foolish but hopeful ones back home, who keep hoping , keep trying, keep believing that one day, we will get it right. And they might just be right.

Foolish Flower,

Oh mindless flower

Trying to grow on your own

On a dried-up ground

All around you have come and gone

All have gone to sleep

Yet here you are, blooming away

There is also this crazy heart

that does not know how to let go

When all signs have gone silent

It keeps on hoping, believing

It cannot help reminiscing

about that long lost love

that still lives in our hearts.

and keeps us awake and alive

Explaining the Context of Political Detentions in Madagascar

2010-11-30T02:14:00.003-05:00

*This interview of a close relative to the Ranjeva family is to complete the Global Voices article on the political arrests in Madagascar.

In the aftermath of the failed coup attempt in Madagascar on November 17th, the main political opponent of the current regime and former judge of the International Court of Justice Raymond Ranjeva, and his daughter, Riana Ranjeva, are being accused by the Malagasy police for allegedly plotting with the army mutiners.

Madagascar has been marred in a two-year long political crisis that has jeopardized its economy and showed a worrying trend of comtempts for human rights and freedom of speech. Ten journalists of Radio Fahazavana were held in jail from may to september 2010 and dozen of political opponents are still held in the penitentiary of Tsiafahy without trials.

The context of the arrests of Raymond Ranjeva and his daughter are still unclear. The official charges held against the former ICJ Judge are that he is a "threat to national security" . As to his daughter, she is accused of having contempted the police officers that raided her home.

Raymond Ranjeva on the political crisis in Madagascar

A close relative to Raymond Ranjeva has accepted to shed some light on the situation and explain the implications of the recent wave of political arrests for Madagascar' s democracy. A petition has also been circulating to denounce the arrests:

GV: Could you tell us the circumstances of the arrest of Judge Ranjeva and his daughter?

Answer: Just after the end of the so-called mutiny that took place in an army base located 15 kms from Antananarivo, we heard some rumors that the regime has the intention to accuse Judge Ranjeva of being the political leader of this action. We did not take these rumors very seriously. Then, on Sunday, November 21, the police raided Judge Ranjeva's home, where his daughter also resides. Armed police officers searched the residence for evidence of the alleged plot against the transitional government. They found copies of a document written by Judge Ranjeva that delineates a proposal for an exit to the political stalemate in Madagascar. The document is a called "Vonjy Aina" (mg) and it has been made publicly available online for months. The day after, Monday 22, the daughter of Judge Ranjeva and her husband were summoned by the police officers. They were examined during 3 hours. Then, the husband was released, his spouse remained in custody. When he heard that each and everyone of the questions related to "Vonjy Aina", Judge Ranjeva willingly came to the police station. He said to the investigators that he was ready to answer to their questions and to deny the accusation brought against him. He was told that as the business-day was finishing, there was not enough time left for his examination. He was summoned for the day after, but, meanwhile, his daughter was held in custody. Ms. Ranjeva spent the night in the police station. On Tuesday 23, first hour, Judge Ranjeva came again to the police station. He was examined for 12 hours and, during that time, his daughter was held elsewhere in the police station and he was not informed either she would be released or not. Eventually, the father and his daughter left the police station. Three days later, on Friday 26, Judge Ranjeva and his daughter appeared before the prosecutor. There, Ms. Ranjeva was formally accused of having insulted the police officers that raided her home, on Sunday 21. Her trial is to take place on Tuesday, November 30. She was put into provisional detention, waiting for her trial. As for Judge Ranjeva, he is accused of being the leader of the mutiners. No date has been set, but, unlike his daughter, he remains free waiting for his trial.

GV: If we were to understand the process of the arrest correctly, is it accurate to say that Riana Ranjeva-Ratsisalovanina was arrested because she had copies of this document at home ? Is there anything in the document that could be interpreted as "a threat to national security" and was there evidence of an intent to distribute "Vonjy aina"?

A.: Initially, Ms. Ranjeva was summoned and held in custody from Monday 22 morning till Tuesday 23 evening because copies of "Vonjy Aina" were found in her house. During her examination, Ms. Ranjeva was only asked questions directly related to "Vonjy Aina". It was only on Friday 26 evening that, astonishingly, Ms. Ranjeva was formally charged of having allegedly insulted the police officers during the house search that happened on Sunday 21. Firstly, given that the father and the daughter live in the same house, it's not exactly a surprise to find copies of the document there. Secondly, if one reads the document, it is a reflection on the current state of the affairs in Madagascar and the solution Judge Ranjeva proposes. Nowhere in the document would one find that a military intervention was suggested. Judge Ranjeva has never opined that the army gets involved in the matter of the government. As to the arrest of his daughter, let me say this again, everyone can download a copy of "Vonjy Aina" online for free. It is difficult to understand why owning a print copy of this document would constitute a " threat to national security".

GV: Was Riana Ranjeva-Ratsisalovanina mistreated at all when she was held at the police station ?

A: I was told that she was treated correctly and her basic needs were met while she was at the police station.

GV: As far as you know, when will the trials take place for the father and his daughter and will they be released till then?

I was told that Ms Ranjeva's trial should start on November, 30th. She will remain in detention until then. As for Judge Ranjeva, the date of his trial has not yet been set. For the time being, he is free.

GV: It must be a trying time for the family?

A: Indeed, it is certainly stressful but, more disturbingly, in Malagasy political history, it is the very first time that a family member of a political opponent is being specifically targeted in order to silence him. These recent events go beyond the scope of personal view and feelings. We have reached a point in Madagascar where the democratic debate is repressed, where people are denied the expression of dissent opinion towards the current government with arbitrary arrests. These practices are indicative that Madagascar is heading to the wrong direction, to an era of authoritarian ruling where people are bullied into submission and silence. It is very worrisome; our country is rapidly slipping towards dictatorship.

UPDATE:

A message in French from the interviewee:

Cet après-midi, le tribunal de première instance d’Antananarivo a reconnu Mme Riana Ranjeva coupable d’outrage à agents publics (article 224 du Code pénal). Elle a été condamnée à 1 mois d’emprisonnement avec sursis. Elle est donc libre ! C’est l’essentiel.

Les propos que des militaires lourdement armés ont trouvé offensants étaient : « Mialà teo ianareo fa izaho tsy mila miaramila mitazona basy ety amin’ny vavahadiko, izaho ihany koa tsy mila miresaka amin’ny olona manao fanamiana. » (Trad. : Éloignez-vous de là car je ne veux pas de militaires qui brandissent leurs armes devant mon portail et je ne veux pas parler à des gens en uniforme.) Cette citation est sortie du procès-verbal d’enquête préliminaire dressé par les enquêteurs le 26 novembre 2010, cinq jours après les faits, qui s’étaient déroulés le dimanche 21 novembre 2010, quand les militaires étaient venus pour perquisitionner, en menaçant de leurs armes, les habitants de la maison.

Ce sont les agents publics offensés qui sont les auteurs de ce procès-verbal.

Les mêmes offensés avaient, juste après la perquisition, dressé un premier procès-verbal. Dans celui-ci, daté du dimanche 21 novembre 2010 au soir, ils ne pipaient mot d’un tel incident. Ils auraient donc mis cinq jours pour comprendre qu’ils étaient insultés quand elle leur disait, en utilisant les mots ci-dessus, qu’elle ne voulait pas, devant son portail, des militaires qui brandissaient des armes.

Found in Translation: My Way, If You Go Away and Ray.

2010-10-10T13:22:00.004-04:00

They say "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery".

In the world of music, some classics are sometimes just too big to be confined to one language. My friend Ayeesha linked to an interview with professor Muhammad Umar Memon who states:

“Translation for me stems from two different but interrelated impulses: a good text matures for the reader with every reading, reveals itself gradually—call it literary striptease. I can delve into it only through extended togetherness. Translation makes it possible to tease out all I can through this prolonged intimacy. The other insatiable impulse is to uncover my own potential.”

Musicians all over the world would tell you, one of the hardest thing is probably to sing a cover from an original artist and try to put your take on it that will both honor the work of the creator and provided added value for your audience. Now add to that the difficulty of fitting the melody with the intricansies of a totally different languages. It's not easy and it's so much more than just imitation. After all, one can argue that all inventions/ideas are derivative. (For instance, the Creative Commons project states its goal as follows: "dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright.")
The following are a few popular songs, interpreted in different languages:

The classic Jacques Brel "Ne me quitte pas":

written and sung in Malagasy by Eric Manana "Aza ilaozanao":

And in English by Cindy Lauper "If you go away"

Being one of the world cup songs surely helps in getting a song translated. Here is the Ubiquitous "Waving the Flag" by K'naan, translated, sung and produced in no less than 20 languages (including Haitian Creole, it seems):

It also appears that K'naan is somehow presnet in all the translated versions of his songs which is quite a feat in itself. Here is the French version: "Chanter dans les stades" and one of my favorite, the Mongolian version.

Sometimes artists are just trying to surf on the wave of popularity of a trend in other countries. The French boys band and aptly named "Poetic Lovers" imitated quite a few things from US 90's RnB sensation BoysIIMen: the clothing, the lyrics, the dude with the deep voice...

Frenchmen now snicker at the mention of this short-lived pop sensation but the band was quite successful back then. Still, the one song they decided to translate was one of Lionel Richie's hits: "Say you say me"(French take here). It feels like they tried hard to translate a BoyszIIMen hit but could not do it, which tells you one thing, not every songs can be translated.

English is obviously the one language that seems to centralize all the spin off translation of songs. What would be extremely interesting would be to track whether countries with no previous cultural ties start to bypass the usual language channels and built upon creations that are far removed from each other culturally. One such example is the story of Niwa, the Japanese bass player who moved to Brazzaville, Congo and learn lingala to get closer to congolese musicians Bisso na Bisso.

Finally, no such list would be complete without mentioning the 60's where a flurry of songs were translated back and forth between English and French, the most famous controversy being over the proper accreditation of the French Song "Comme d'Habitude" as the original take on Sinatra's "My Way". Here is an exquisite take of Ray Charles "What'd I say?" by French rocker Dick Rivers and his band Les Chats Sauvages:"Est-ce-que tu le sais?"

Développement international et le déficit “d’attention”

2010-09-28T12:05:00.001-04:00

Le Sommet des Nations Unies sur les Objectifs du millénaire pour le développement vient de prendre fin avec son lot de discussions passionnées, critiques, slogans, promesses et circonspections.

Le débat sur la manière la plus efficace de réduire le niveau de pauvreté endémique à certaines régions et la protection des populations les plus vulnérables continue et le sera pour longtemps car il n’existe pas de solution miracle. Ce débat se centre sur l’utilité de l’aide internationale. Les septiques quant à la capacité de l’aide à sortir les PVD de la pauvreté se basent sur 50 ans d’aide aux pays d’Afrique sub-saharienne pour des résultats médiocres et l’enrichissement visible de dirigeants peu scrupuleux au détriment de la population générale. Ils ajoutent que l’aide est souvent conditionnée à des commandes préférentielles pour ne pas parler des intérêts géopolitiques qui déterminent le plus souvent qui reçoit l’aide et comment.

Mais peut-on conclure pour autant que l’aide au développement est un échec et que l’on ferait mieux d’annuler ceci pour se concentrer sur la promotion de la collaboration entre secteur privé et secteur public ? et promouvoir la croissance économique par l’entreprenariat comme fer de lance du développement (ainsi que le président Obama l’a clairement déclaré dans son discours sur le sujet la semaine passée) ?

Il m’est difficile de croire que la croissance économique par le secteur privé est la panacée aux soucis des populations les plus vulnérables. L’aide n’a certes pas sorti les pays comme Madagascar de la pauvreté chronique mais rien ne dit que la situation ne serait pas pire sans cette aide. L’aide au développement a beaucoup de problème à régler mais je pense que faire fi de tout le travail entrepris par les professionnels du développement sous prétexte que nos pays pataugent encore dans le semoule depuis des annees est trop simpliste. Par exemple, je ne vois vraiment pas comment un secteur privé plus dynamique arrivera à solutionner l’état navrant des hôpitaux à Madagascar et une couverture sociale quasi-inexistante (les témoignages de malgaches qu’on refuse de traiter car ils ne peuvent payer les couts des soins abondent par centaines) ou réduire le nombre d’enfants qui trainent dans les rues des grandes villes du Sud.

Mon autre souci en voyant le débat continuer ad vitam eternam entre gens du développement pour optimiser l’aide, c’est que l’on repousse et ostracise les personnes amateurs qui voudraient juste apporter leurs pierres à l’édifice de la solidarité « inter-humaines » qui si on y regarde de plus près, s’effiloche à vue d’œil.

Le discours sécuritaire en France et l’expulsion des Roms en a offusquaient plusieurs mais si cette mesure a été prise, c’est que des analystes politiques ont jugés qu’une frange importante de la population en serait favorable. Aux États-Unis, la dérive islamophobe a eu comme conséquence une mobilisation très faible pour venir en aide aux victimes des inondations au Pakistan.

Mais de manière moins directe mais tout aussi indicative, la proportion de personnes qui lisent les nouvelles internationales diminue de manière préoccupante aux 4 coins du monde. On pensait que l’explosion des outils médiatiques rapprocheraient les populations mais bien au contraire, on peut maintenant sélectionner facilement les nouvelles qui nous intéressent et si on le désire, se passer totalement de ce qui peut bien se passer au delà de notre communauté immédiate. Les excuses sont toutes faites : train de vie trop contraignant, problèmes personnels à régler, le quotidien qui nous rattrape… et pourtant, on y passe du temps sur les médias numériques mais on regarde les matchs de foot live, la dernière vidéo virale sur YouTube ou les photos des amis sur Facebook (pour info, je viens de décrire mon menu de consommation numérique). Cette « atomisation » des médias n’est pas sans conséquence et pourrait s’avérer couteuse si ce n’est déjà le cas pour les victimes en Haïti et au Pakistan.

Les problèmes de "désolidarisation" ne se résument pas aux pays occidentaux, on l’observe dans les manifestations xénophobes en RSA, dans les discours politique ethnocentriques dans de multiples pays (dont Madagascar) dans notre capacité à regarder ailleurs quand un enfant en haillons fait la quête dans le parking car après tout, « on ne peut pas donner à tout le monde n’est-ce-pas ? » (encore une fois, expérience vécue).

Vous trouverez sur le web une communauté dynamique et vibrante, (principalement anglophone) d’acteurs du développement qui échangent idées, expériences et critiques sur l’humanitaire et le développement en général.
Voici quelques articles à lire absolument ( ne pas hésiter à utiliser « google translate » si il le faut) sur comment faire face à la mendicité, les erreurs que l’on répète périodiquement en matière d’aide internationale, ce qu’Obama a vu juste en matière de développement, le problème de la l’utilisation de la pauvreté et de la misère pour lever des fonds ou encore «poverty porn», le rôle essentiel des femmes, le respect dû aux personnes vulnérables et les problèmes de l’implication des multinationales ou des célébrités dans le développement.

Les points développés dans ces blogs sont importants à saisir et bien argumentés. Mais si je suis le noobie de base qui tombe par hasard sur ces blogs parce que je veux aider, je peux soit me dire : « le développement c’est complexe et ma foi intéressant » mais je peux aussi me dire: « pourquoi me fatiguer à me préoccuper de tout cela quand on voit la myriade de soucis à avoir avant qu’une bonne action soit réalisable ».
Je pense que le monde du développement est entrain de perdre la bataille du marché de l’attention. Pourquoi le citoyen se soucierait-il de la complexité d’acheminer l’aide à Kandahar quand il peut regarder son épisode favori de Friends quand il veut sur son ordi ? Peut-être que c’est mieux que les gens qui ont une attache minime ne s’engagent pas dans des situations qui leur sont peu familières. Mais va-t-on vraiment dire que l’on fait fi du potentiel de contribution de ces personnes qui faute de meilleures idées vont peut-être s’acheter une deuxième rolex ? Ou pire encore, se passer des compétences d’un ingénieur en hydraulique car il n’a pas le temps d’absorber les tenants et aboutissants de l’aide en Ethiopie ? Ce surplus cognitif dont Clay Shirky parle longuement doit etre considéré plus attentivement par le monde du développement.
Car la raison pour laquelle on s’est investi dans le domaine du développement est que la cause des plus vulnérables nous passionne et il devrait faire partie de notre répertoire que de partager cette passion sans verser dans le misérabilisme ou le « poverty porn ». Certes comme le titre de ce site formidable l’indique : « Les bonnes intentions ne suffisent souvent pas ».
Mais ne faisons pas l’erreur en identifiant les dérives de l’aide au développement de tarnir la passion de ceux qui voudraient se lancer dans le domaine. Avec l’expérience vient souvent le cynisme, on le conçoit parfaitement car l’enfer est pavé de bonnes intentions.
Mais si le développement était vraiment une utopie d’une futilité impénétrable, on aurait déjà tous du partir planter des choux depuis belle lurette comme Zadigue.

Faisons l'effort non seulement d’éduquer sur la manière de rendre l'aide au développement plus efficace mais aussi d'encourager les gens a s’intéresser au développement. C'est peut-être parfois frustrant mais c'est aussi souvent passionnant.

Pour finir, j’aimerai signaler quelques articles qui illustre parfaitement sans faire d’excès de misérabilisme pourquoi la bataille du développement doit essayer d’unifier tous ses acteurs à continuer à pousser et non se distraire en divisions internes sur des débats plus ou moins idéologiques.

Sur les médias et la famine au Niger (Johanne Veilleux) :

Ce qui me préoccupe surtout, c’est qu’entre New York et Maradounfa, au Niger, nous sommes trop souvent le chaînon manquant, sensibilisés que nous sommes seulement un soir de temps en temps, quand les images véhiculées par les journaux deviennent insupportables. Ce qui me préoccupe surtout, c’est qu’au travers tous ces « oublis », Baratou est tombée dans un gros trou noir, avec 60 000 autres enfants nigériens.

à Madagascar :
sur les enfants (Madame Chocolat):

On me dit de ne pas donner de mauvaises habitudes, de ne pas cautionner la mendicité et puis j'entends doucement cette femme qui me dit "laisse le porter" avec des yeux plein d'amour et je vois le petit train d'enfants derrière elle qui chemine à bon pas entre les étals des marchants. Chacun avec un petit sac de légumes ou de fruits. Alors je dis oui à la petite ombre et je lui confie mes courses. L'enfant me suit, aussi petit que ma fille, certainement plus vieux, le visage gris, impassible de tant de souffrance. Je pense aux miens, aux visages roses, aux mains lisses et aux pieds crèmés. Je le regarde et lui demande si ça va, puis ma question me retombe dans la tête comme un coup de massue. Il à les pieds croutés, les orteils en sang. Il m'accompagne jusqu'à la voiture et je lui donne un petit billet qu'il froisse dans son poing. Une autre femme me conseille d'avoir toujours dans la boite à gants des petits paquets de biscuits individuel à distribuer et à ouvrir devant l'enfant. Pour qu'il ne puisse pas aller revendre le biscuit. Ces deux femmes sont nées ici et m'apportent beaucoup en peu de mots face aux discours blasés plein de méfiance et de jugements que j'entends depuis 1 mois. Vivre avec les petites ombres et ne pas en devenir une.

Et inégalité (besorongala) :

Every day when I go to my workplace, I must take two consecutive buses. On my way, I see some situations that make me think on the difficulties of our daily life. In fact, in the morning when I leave my apartment, I see people who are living in a hovel(trano hazo, trano baoritra), while in front there is a family located in a beautiful villa with lots of cars. On the bus, I see through the glass people who ride on beautiful cars (Hummer, Mercedes, BMW, four by four), while others walk on foot. Arriving in town, I see around me people wearing beautiful clothes and beautiful shoes(Nike, addidas) while others do not. At lunch time I see people eating in good restaurants while others do not even eat. Finally, on the weekend, when I go to the market, I see people spending a lot of money buying clothes, jewelry, while others do not even have Ariary 200 to buy bread.

Shit happens (R1lita):

The saying “You look for today what you’ll eat today” started to had a full sense to me. I was living it. I went to a uncle of mine to borrow some money and promised him I’d give it back as soon as possible. And I really wanted to keep my words but two months after my wife was robbed in a bus with a-month salary in her bag. I was hopeless, the little that I thought would help us was taken away from us.

Few days after, I made up my mind to start a little movie projection in my yard, so I could have people pay to watch movies. I went to the Fokontany to know what are the administrative papers I need to do to be able to set up this business. As of today, I’m still doing this business. Even though, we’ve been obliged to tighten our belts more than before, I find myself luckier than some of my workmates. I had to find other ways to get money because of Christmas and what it means to my kids (especially). No matter what is happening, I think they deserve to celebrate it as any other kids.

Crowd sourcing the list of the 15 most influential African singers/song writers of all time // Les 15 chanteurs/compositeurs africains les plus influents de tous les temps

2010-09-12T22:47:00.003-04:00

If you are currently in the US, you might have come across the VH1 show the 100 greatest artists of all time.
It’s a pretty mediocre list, in my opinion (No offense to Timberlake but he has no business being ahead of Otis Redding or REM). It is also mediocre because it has no artists from continents outside of Europe or North America.
It is symptomatic of the limited exposure that great artists from lesser known places are going trough.
There is a list from 2006 on the Independent of the 50 greatest African artists, emcopassing all type of arts chosen by a selected panel that also left a lot to be desired as far as representation of the whole continent (this might be a byproduct of deep cultural and lingual boundaries between regions).
Making a list for such a large, heterogonous continent is bound to be flawed. But the purpose here is to celebrate and discover artists that do not get to receive the exposure that their western counterparts receive.
Of course, there are shows such as the Eurovision or the VMAs where artists across continent compete to be recognized at the top of the list.

So a few friends on twitter thought that we could try to “crowdsource” a reasonable list of the 15 most influential african artists of all time. The purpose is to recognize the work and impact of great artists from the continent but also discover some that may have been under the radar.
Here is the methodology for crowdsourcing the list:
1) In the comment section, submit a ranking of your top 7 african singers/ song writers. #1 gets 7 points, #2 gets 6 points etc.
2) Criteria to be considered when justifying the selection: national impact, creativity, transregional appeal, timelessness. Providing link to songs highly recommended.
3) One country can only appear once in the selection.
4) The ranking would be dependent on #number of points received. When there is a draw, the artists whose country has received the most points get through.
5) Ranking criteria can be modified for two weeks after 1st submission.
For instance, my list:

1) Cesaria Evoria: Cape Verde
2) Vusi Mahlasela: South-Africa
3) Angelique Kidjo: Bénin
4) Khaled: Algérie
5) Labi Siffre: Nigeria
6) Youssou N’Dour: Sénégal
7) Mahaleo: Madagascar

As you can tell from my list, I am no expert in African music but those artists have shaped my understanding of African music and to some extend African social conscience.

UPDATE: With the nominations that were submitted so far, we have 31 artists ranked from first to last here:
Fela Kuti and Manu Dibango are top 2.
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlN54olNeR0zdHRPZkNmWnpqSzA1Tk1YcGd4WUhrMUE&hl=en
=======================================
(Français)

La liste des 100 plus grand artistes de tout le temps de VH1 est assez médiocre. De plus, la liste est essentiellement composée d’artistes venant d’amérique du Nord ou d’Europe.
Avec des amis sur twitter, on s’était dit qu’il serait sans doute intéressant
Le but de faire une telle liste serait donc de célébrer les grand artistes du continent africain mais aussi de découvrir des artistes qui gagneraient être plus connus.
Voici la méthodologie pour créer cette liste :
1) Soumettre une liste de 5 artistes en les classant du plus important au moins important
2) Les critères à considérer : impact national, créativité, charisme transrégional et imtemporalité
3) Un seul pays par liste
4) Le nombre total de points décidera du classement final
5) Les critères pour le classement peuvent être modifiés 2 semaines après la 1ére soumission.

Redefining the Development Goals in Madagascar

2010-09-11T16:14:00.001-04:00

Image via WikipediaMalagasy people like to imagine what could have been when they compare the fate of their nation with the fate of their neighbor Mauritius. There was even the hope of somehow catching the right wave and rising like the "Asian Tigers" of a few decades ago. (Taiwan had a lot of geographical and biological similarities with Madagascar but it light-years away in terms of development)
Let's be clear, it's all a pipe dream now. Catching up with Mauritius, that ship has sailed, long gone like the Sarimanok, the first sail from Malaysia to land on the coast of Madagascar.
The issue at hand here is that there is a fair amount of self-loathing going on everytime Malagasy people reflect on the development of their country. It is not uncommon to hear from Malagasy: " We cannot do anything right, our leaders have failed us over and over".
Especially in this time of political crisis and uncertainty, trust is a scarce commodity amongst Malagasy and hope even rarer.
Maybe it is time to revisit the goals here.
Maybe if we accept that we will never be an economic powerhouse, we can start focusing on doing the things we can achieve.
Our history is fraught with trying to hit the home runs when exploiting our rich natural resources ( mines, oil, tourism, arable land, etc.) yet time and time again, we failed to truly achieve sustainable progress, even for indices that should be directly related to these investments: GDP, trade balance, export, entrepreneurship...
what we see is international corporations settling in and identifying resources to exploit and very little wealth trickling down on Malagasy local economy.
By no means, am I advocating that we forgo foreign investments, on the contrary. What I am saying is that we should not be obsessed with rapid growth when evaluating how well we are doing. Instead we should do monitor other criteria and concentrate on improving those. Why ? because the criteria I propose are achievements that depend solely on us and very often, I hear that those are the ones that matter the most to Malagasy in their everyday lives. Let's consider a putative list:
1) Health care coverage: a stunning statistic came to me recently: 38% of doctors are unemployed yet 70% of Malagasy don't have access to a doctor ( either financially or geographically). Surely we can find a way a solution here.
2) Preventing that rain forest from disappearing. What seems like an exaggeration decades ago is now a very concrete reality, thanks to rosewood logging and slash and burn. We may not be able to regrow the forest but we can still stop a total extinction.
3) Better democracy. A strong man at the top has always been the motto of Malagasy politics. Maybe we believe than an authoritarian regime is more conducive to rapid development. Well, that was not the case here, as corruption and greed doomed any kind of sustained growth. So let's see more
4) More civil engagement that would make sure that authorities don't abuse their power. It might slow down economic activities but may also ensure better distribution of wealth. If anything, Malagasy are known to be good at writing in general and like to engage in conversations. Let's encourage more bloggers, more press freedom and dissent.
5) Food security: a reaffirmed commitment to agriculture and support for farmers.
6) More education/literacy and information dissemination. The challenge with education and health care is that those are rarely self-sustainable projects. Yet, many individuals have to carry the burden of both education and health care with out-of-pocket expenses. (A close friend had to pay for school fees for his three children and also suffered a heart attack. Since Malagasy hospitals are not able to provide the appropriate care, he has to be evacuated to France for a total costs that will probably wipe out all of his savings and more. He is one of the lucky one who can still be send to France for an otherwise near death sentence)
7)Reducing ethnic boundaries: anyone who lived in Madagascar is aware of the underlying tensions between ethnic groups. It is not always out in the open but it is more palpable when crisis hits. Any measures that would encourage direct dialog between ethnic groups ought to be supported. Additionally, decentralizing decision centers ought to help prevent famine and the heterogeneous distribution of wealth.
8) Support small businesses.
9) Reduce GNI.

By shifting the focus away from GDP and production, I do not mean to romanticize poverty. I am emphasizing the fact that the arrival of Total, Rio Tinto and other big corporations have done little for social progress anyway so any revenues that trickle down here should be considered as bonus and not something to count on to initiate development. That can only come for a commitment from the state, small businesses and civil society.
It is also an acknowledgment that aiming to maximize profit for individuals as it is the case now in Madagascar lead to the absurd but common situation where "nouveaux riches" are parading Ferraris and Hummers on roads that can barely fit cars of such size. I am also unsure where is a pride in showing off such luxuries when 89% of the population live with less than $2/day, especially when this sudden wealth strangely coincides with the peak of rosewood logging last year.

Explaining Aid Conundrum with Sports Analogies (Oh Boy..)

2010-08-26T12:41:00.003-04:00

Image by Keith Allison via FlickrHaving now spent a good chunk of my life in the US, I have always been fascinated by how much people here know their sports. Not only do they know their local teams, they argue with a fair amount of complexity the different options of the game. 5 out of 10 highest network primetime telecasts of all time in the US is sports related. I think it is fair to say that there is considerably less awareness about aid, aid education and its complexity. Saundra and I had a short exchange on twitter about the title of her website: " Good intentions are not enough". Saundra has devoted a great deal of effort educating professionals and the general public about how to do aid the right way (#smartaid). We were wondering why it was so difficult to explain the never ending conundrum that is summarized in the title of her blog. As Saundra pointed out, there is a plethora of experts who have undertaken to clarify this counter intuitive concept (the list is too long to compile here) but the issue just won't go away and the push back from well-intentioned celebrities and others is rather "intense".
Here I will attempt to my own layman's version for understanding that good intentions are indeed not enough. As luck would have it, I will choose sports analogies to do just that, a field fraught with dangerous cliché if there ever was one. (Here aremy take on some of the most heated debates in aid).
In professional basketball, the whole point of the competition is to play and win the last game of a season. It involves about 30 teams who will spend an incredible amount of money to achieve this goal.
In 2004, The Detroit Pistons surprised most sports analysts when they won the trophy with a team of virtual no-names by soundly defeating arch-favorite LA Lakers who won the previous two seasons and bolstered four Hall of Famers ( O'Neal, Bryant, Malone, Payton). NBA fans were only mildly surprised by the result. They know to expect that there are more factors to consider than just talent and star power. One must take into account the chemistry of the players and their ability to do what they are suppose to do on the court.

In aid, the ultimate goal is to find the most efficient way to improve the lives of people that aid is aimed to serve. You would note right away that this goal is not as clear-cut as the goal in pro basketball (we will come back to that notion later) The star power that celebrities bring when they engage in aid effort is immediately evident: they are able to reach more people, induce sympathy which translates into more funds for the cause they champion and in theory, more help for vulnerable population.

What aid professionals are telling the good intentioned people is: "Remember the Pistons". The ultimate goal is to win the "whole thing": Help people in an efficient manner. There is a chance you will get close to do so by bringing in Karl Malone with Shaq and Bryant but you might also mess-up a proven way to achieve your goal by not carefully considering all the factors involved. What is your strategy? ( i.e who is your Larry Brown, the coach who has unlimited experience and knowledge of the field), who will do the critical, daily behind-the-door work? (ie, who is your Ben Wallace, defense specialist)? ) Who will coordinate on the court on where everyone needs to be? ( Who is your Rasheed W. ?) You get the point: to get there, you don't always need three worldwide stars who will fund raise (or score 25 points each) but you will need specific expertise at specific locations.
The analogy can be carried further that the arrival of Malone and Payton was in the end detrimental to the Lakers because it took away shots ( that the other stars could take) and roster slots for a less visible but better fitted contributors.

However, the reason why the analogy does not totally match is because there cannot be a true clear finish-line in aid. When can one claim that it achieved what one set out to do? Where does one set the bar for acceptable poverty and diseases ? But lord knows we try. That's why aid agencies like to set milestones: eradication of Malaria, the 3 by 5 initiative in AIDS, 50% above poverty line of $2/day by 2015 in Madagascar etc... It becomes even more complex for humanitarian aid. What are the goals here ? Build back to the pre-earthquake level in one year? If higher than pre-earthquake, then how much more?

But aid in general can sometimes also have loftier goals: more democracy, open societies, poverty alleviation and it also has less-generous, ulterior motives (national security, sphere of influence, privileged trade partnerships..)
The equivalent in sports would be targets such as: Go from a .500 season to the playoffs; raise team free-throw % from 65 to 72 and points allowed per position from 1.2 to 0.8. In general, those criteria matter very little to casual fans but we tolerate them and accept that there is a whole field devoted to sports econometrics because there is a palatable goal to link it all together: Win it all at the end.
Again, can't have that in Aid (unless you count Word Peace, of course). So the aid observers will have to be content with their field batting .303 average instead of .287 ( all that with the budget of the Kansas City Royals when compared to other more "power-yielding" fields)
Finally, let me try the sport analogy one last time on another current heated debate in aid. Aid transparency has gained major ground because it makes little sense to donate money to a cause without any feedback. What kind of transparency is the question that Scott Gilmore aims to clarify in his conversation with Aid Watch and others. Gilmore argues that it is transparency of impact that matters not process, summarized by this striking sentence:

"In this case, I really don’t care if World Vision blew 90% of their budget on strippers and Grey Goose vodka.What I want to know is what did they deliver? "

This debate can be tied to the other debate about overhead for non-profit organisation.

In sports, fans care about how the budget is allocated: players salaries, luxury tax etc.. but at the end of the day, LA Lakers fans would not have cared one bit that O' Neal made 30 millions more than Karl Malone in 2004 had they had won the whole thing. They want to know why they did not win and only then wold they wonder about the discrepancies in salaries. Was the fact that salaries were so unbalanced a factor? Probably but it is an issue only because 1) they did not come through 2) The chemistry may have been disrupted.
The chemistry factor needs to be assessed first before we worry about whether K. Malone was underpaid.
La Lakers fans care only about championships. Similarly aid recipients will only care about how, in the short and long run, this aid project will affect their lives.

The difference here is that aid recipients are usually much better judge that NBA fans at knowing what works and what does not, that and the fact that millions of LA fans all have some access to Lakers game and can move on to the Dodgers minutes later while aid recipients fight for the limited global attention while keep their dignity in the process.

Bois de Rose de #Madagascar: Merci a tous ceux qui ont continue a enqueter

2010-08-22T18:02:00.002-04:00

(Un grand merci a l'equipe fabuleuse de Global Voices en francais et de GV In Malagasy pour les traductions toujours excellentes):

Voici l'article racontant comment beaucoup ont risque leurs vies pour que la lumiere soit faite sur le pillage de la foret malgache (en malgache et en anglais ici)

L'une des conséquences de l'interminable crise politique à Madagascar est son impact désastreux sur l'environnement, particulièrement sur la forêt primaire, pillée pour le très juteux trafic de bois précieux. La collaboration entre associations de protection de l'environnement et d'autres plus particulièrement axées sur la transparence a été essentielle pour prouver ces pillages. L'enquête menée par différentes associations indépendantes a montré que le trafic de bois de rose rapportait 460000 dollars américains par jour. Le compte-rendu a aussi révélé qu'il se déroulait avec la complicité du gouvernement de Madagascar qui autorisait l'exportation des containers contenant les grumes d'arbres de bois de rose. L'enquête s'est déroulée sur plus de deux ans et a commencé sous la présidence du précédent président [aujourd'hui exilé]. Ces informations n'ont fait surface dans le débat politique et les médias à Madagascar qu'au cours des derniers mois, en partie à cause des preuves irréfutables apportées par les associations.

Video de Globalwitness.org prouvant l'abattage illégal de bois de rose à Madagascar

De nombreuses associations impliquées dans la défense de environnement et la transparence doivent être remerciées pour cette enquête, menée à bien en dépit du chaos politique, des risques judiciaires et des menaces de mort. Nous avons interviewé Rhett A. Butler, créateur du site de vulgarisation scientifique et de protection de la nature Mongabay et Reiner Tegtmeyer, membre de l'équipe Global Witness, une association qui dénonce la corruption dans l'exploitation des ressources naturelles et le commerce international, sur les nombreux défis de la protection de l'environnement dans un pays ravagé et sur le rôle joué par les nouvelles technologies dans la collecte de données pour l'enquête. Le rapport complet sur le trafic et les autorités malgaches impliquées est disponible ici (Global Witness) et ici (Mongabay). Des études importantes sur les politiques de protection de l'environnement ont également été publiées par Madagascar Wildlife Conservation et l'Institut Jane Goodall ainsi que par l'International Resources Group, USAID et les Parcs nationaux de Madagascar. Ces enquêtes ont pour la plupart été menées séparément, si l'on excepte quelques collaborations.

"L'équipe de Mongabay à Madagascar- Crédit photos : Benja R. de wildmadagascar.org"]

Le rôle des nouvelles technologie et le coût de l'enquête :

Rhett Butler explique qu'une collaboration a été nécessaire non seulement pour rassembler les preuves mais aussi pour attirer l'attention des médias et sur les réseaux sociaux en ligne :

Jeremy Hance, Rowan Gerety et les informateurs sur place ont été essentiels pour rassembler et organiser les informations. Les informateurs ont pris des photos avec des téléphones mobile et des appareils numériques très simples, ont envoyé leurs informations par email et SMS. Ils surveillaient les chargements dans les ports et communiquaient les géolocalisations et leurs infos par téléphone mobile. Le Missouri Botanical Garden a financé l'achat d'images satellite haute résolution qui ont été utilisées pour prouver où le bois de rose était stocké. Ces informations ont été transmises aux autorités malgaches (qui n'ont rien fait ou presque), au service de la pêche et de la vie sauvage des États-Unis (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), pour qu'il puisse lancer une enquête en invoquant la Loi Lacey, à la délégation française à Copenhague (COP15) et aux médias (qui ont en général ignoré l'information). [..] D'après ce que je sais, acheter des images satellite revient cher et la qualité des images de Google Earth n'était pas suffisante (résolution et fréquence) pour notre enquête. Mongabay n'avait pas de budget et s'est appuyé en grande partie sur le travail et la collaboration de bénévoles.

Reiner Tegtmeyer a aussi souligné que beaucoup de personnes (de Global Witness ou indépendants) ont été impliqué dans l'enquête et la rédaction des rapports. Il donne la ventilation des coûts d'une telle enquête, qui dépendent de :

a) la portée géographique et thématique de l'enquête b) les conditions de transport et le cout des billets d'avion vers le pays cible , c) le nombre de personnes/associations et de parties prenantes concernées par le sujet de l''enquête qu'il faut consulter d) les experts locaux (experts techniques, guides, traducteurs) devant être recrutés. Le cout d'une enquête de quatre semaines sur le terrain comme celle de Madagascar revient à entre 50 et 80 000 dollars américains, et comprennent les dépenses pour le soutien logistique et administratif, l'assurance, la production et publication des rapports.

image satellite de containers de bois de rose, prêtée par les Missouri Botanical Gardens"]

lire la suite sur Global Voices

Al Jazeera telling it like it is in #Madagascar :400% increase in violent crime in the capital

2010-08-18T15:51:00.000-04:00

State of Denial indeed:

Take home point: "The US embassy reported a 400 per cent increase in violent crime in the capital, Antananarivo."

"Andry, You are doing a Heck of Job! "

It's Still About People, not the Countries, Right? (and Other Debates about International Development)

2010-08-17T17:44:00.000-04:00

Image via WikipediaLet's get the obvious stuff out of the way right away:
1) International development is complicated. Even though it does not feel that way, international development is still a fairly young field field when compared to diplomacy, domestic policy or national security.
2) I am passionate about the topic and eager to learn more but I make no claim that I have enough perspective or experience to fully grasp all the intricacies of the subject. My point of view is that of a person from one of the poorest country in the world, with field experience in health system in developing country and some awareness of the current academic debates. I am just trying to lay out in layman's terms the topic of debates in international development.
To the matter at hand, let's list the hot topics and how I understand them:

a) Humanitarian vs. development aid:
- You probably read the many articles asking why the international community is so slow or doing so little to help with the natural disasters in Pakistan. You may not know that there are also other natural disasters ongoing in Niger and Madagascar that draw little attention as well. Humanitarian aid is the equivalent of your 911 call at the global level. We know for a fact that some 911 calls are more quickly answered than others, depending on the location of the call. The answer to why 911 emergency services sometimes don't respond to calls could provide insights into the lack of responses in humanitarian aid.
I think most would agree that whatever is necessary to get 911 responses to the most number of urgent callers should be done.
I also suspect that many people who think that development aid has not produced much results in some regions become reluctant to donate for humanitarian aid. It is unfortunate that there is an amalgam there but it is understandable. In mnay places where drought is cyclical, the lines between humanitarian and development aid are often blurred anyway.
It just makes me wonder whether when we bemoan the lack of efficiency in aid, we might provide people excuses for not contributing when a catastrophe strikes.

b) Professional workers vs Crowdsourcing in Humanitarian aid:

Much has been said on either sides of the conversation here. I like a spirited, smart conversation as much as the next guy so the back and forth between Patrick Meier and Paul Currion was insightful. I am worried though that the debate was escalated to a point where a consensus best protocol cannot be drawn out. I don't think that there is any doubt that professionals should have the final say in conducting aid but there's got to be a way to incorporate local citizens in information gathering. I believe that the latest deployments of Ushahidi have hinted at such consensus. Whether contribution from the crowd is really adding critical value depends on the situation but from my outsider point of view, engaging the most affected citizens through technology adds a psychological positive aspect that may prove invaluable.

Image via Wikipedia

c) Efficiency vs Wide range impact.
International aid comes mostly from taxpayers money. Therefore, especially in the times of economic recession, it should be used in a manner that provides the most positive returns, a notion that is still a bit of a challenge in the aid sector ( although much progress have been made).
Determining what programs work best is the subject of a whole field. But there is an argument to be made that if reducing poverty worldwide is the first priority, more funding and effort devoted to this cause cannot be that bad, can it? In other words, the sheer amount of means and will committed to would induce some incremental change.
This notion has been shut down by many experts, and it is not only about size of the funding and potential dead weight, it is also about the number of different NGOs trying to tackle the same problem in their own "pre-carre". There is such a thing as too many NGOs diluting the efficiency of the overall effort. The conundrum of the collective action problem is multiplied by hundreds at the global level. Still, if we agree that there are no one size fits all solution to development, maybe having multiple NGOs is not such a bad thing.
Small NGOs are also easier to measure in terms of impact. The key is probably in being able to coordinate the whole lot more efficiently.
Government has also often argued that NGOs can phagocyte the health system of a country by taking away health workers from public hospitals and therefore argue that aid should funneled through the government to prevent this problem.
This is discussed further down in the sovereignty portion but there is an assumption here that government will do the right thing and we all know that is far from a given (same goes for NGOs btw). It would be easier to make sure NGOs have a horizontal health programs covering all aspects of health rather than redirecting money that may not have been there if gvt were solely in charge. One could also argue that Gvt pay want to pay their workers more if they really want to prevent brain drain.

d) Self-justifying vs Self-sustaining the sector

The elephant in the room is that for the aid sector to survive and raise funding, it needs to show that the problem they are trying to tackle is a pressing need. Therefore, solving the problem sometimes can take a back seat to fundraising. This is also true for non-aid related international agencies who rely on donations from countries for everyday expenses. But the aid sector is clearly not as sordid as what some may believe. Aid workers would rather not have to confront the challenges that they face on daily basis. When they do, they will try to fix it with all their experience and skills but it's not easy. So no one should expect aid workers to work for free; yet the people they help are usually not able to pay for their services. Fundraising is a must for any NGOs and it takes resources. I don't have a suggestion here but just like school teachers and health workers, aid workers are part of an industry that just cannot be expected to self-generate enough funds to be sustainable. And just like those professions, I don't think anyone would advocate that we just do away with their contributions to society. I have seen first hand what happened in places where aid was needed and yet absent. Not humanity's finest hour.

Image via Wikipedia

e) Trade vs Aid:
The most well-known and debated subject in international development. I would just refer you to Attiyey/Mwenda vs Bono, Pr. Sachs vs Pr. Easterly, D. Moyo vs O. Barder Vs P. Collier
because it would do the subject no good to try to summarize it here but if you want to understand the complexity of international development, make sure you follow those discussions and then read C. Blattman's take so that you are not totally at loss and refusing to engage further in the field.
I will just comment quickly on two points that is often made here by proponent of trade. Aid is only helping corrupt government by either feeding them or allowing them to not take care of issues that NGOs are providing. I think this need to be thought-through more thoroughly.
There are no evidence that a corrupt government would care for those issues in the first place. The important measure to take is not to stop providing the service but to highlight that the government is not pulling its weight and that budget allocated for these issues are not followed through.
The other point is that the aid provided is often conditioned in a way that only certain companies can benefit from the cash provided through aid. I believe that these practices are the ones that undermine the credibility of the aid sector the most and need to be done away with quickly if a transparent conversation is to take place.

f) Sovereignty (State-Directed Development) vs Inference (International Involvement)

This topic is quite personal to me because of its current implication in the history of my homeland of Madagascar. Pr Kohli argued in his book "State-Directed Development: Political Power and Industrialization in the Global Periphery" that cohesive-capitalist states have been most effective at promoting industrialization. it emphasizes the role of the state in providing the structure for a sustainable exit to poverty. In the end, the State will be the one factor that decides the fate of a nation. This is not great news for many African nations who have seen their share of poor leadership from head of states, mediocre governance that resulted in a few military coups in the recent years. A solution that would involve an increased role from the private sector and civil society, bypassing the errors of the State would be more than a welcome sight.
In a now infamous economic experimentation to ending poverty, Madagascar has tried to see how a large scale development project lead by foreign entities would pan out for the agricultural growth of a country that has resources but lack the means and the know-how. The experiment failed before it began as sovereignty of the land was deemed more important that the potential fall out of the investment. Now the "Right for Madagascar to decide its fate for itself" is again being thrown around by the populist transitional government to prevent foreign mediators from brokering an exit to the crisis.
Don't get me wrong, I understand the concept of a sovereign nation, I am also keenly aware of the negative implications of foreign inference in the development of a country (colonization and occupations of all sorts come to mind). But let's be real, if poverty alleviation and true development of a country is the final goal, all contributions (national and foreign) should be welcome. All solutions, foreign and national, to endemic corruption at the governmental level (that push Gvt into pillaging its own national forest to sell logs illegally) should be welcome.
When the coup happened in Madagascar, one of the resulting resolution from the US was to cancel the AGOA Trade agreement. Pr Easterly at Aid Watch discussed the issue in details. I understand that there is a need for punishment for leaders who undertake coups or any actions that threaten human rights. But the reality is, thousand of workers were thrown in the streets as a result of the AGOA annulment. The government then blamed the US for taking jobs away from Malagasy workers. AGOA was an effective project in alleviating poverty. I don't think aid ought to be tied or conditioned to the action of a corrupt government. Development is after all about helping the people right ? Punishing its citizens economically has done very little in putting Madagascar back on the track of democracy. People in most of the places I know that need aid are functioning in spite of their government, the only economic pressure that would work is the freezing of foreign assets of corrupt governors, but that solution is rarely implemented.
The take-away points is that when in doubt about a program or a policy, people in development ought to ask:

1) Is this action going to affect the people of the region I help in a negative way ?( the good old "primum non nocere" thing)

2) Would this make sense if I try it back home?

3) Is what I am trying to achieve crystal clear with the people I help?

4) Will this still run when I leave ? Did I teach someone something?

On Ethnicity in Africa Today

2010-08-11T22:38:00.000-04:00

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Just as the inhabitants of Scandinavia and the Mediterranean countries must be considered as two extreme poles of the same anthropological reality, so should the Negroes of East and West Africa be considered as the two extremes in the reality of the Negro world. Cheikh Anta Diop

Ethnic identity has always been lurking in political discussions in Africa. Yet many African thinkers argue that ethnicity was never a prominent issue until colonization began. Whether ethnocentrism played a major role in the recent polls in many African countries is still being debated but it is certainly cause for concern for many intellectuals advocating for more democratic elections. Other argues that ethnicity might have been polarized by past and present political motivations but it is still a salient reality of the African continent that has to be accounted for in any regional analyses. Evan Lieberman, for instance, argues in his book Boundaries of Contagion that ethnic boundaries in South Africa impedes on the efficiency of HIV/AIDS policies when compared to Brazilian policies.

It goes without saying that ethnicity is a sensitive subject when discussing African policies. When attempting to tackle narratives about Africa, one would be remiss not to recall Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina's sarcastic rant in Granta magazine on "How to Write about Africa":

In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don't get bogged down with precise descriptions. Africa is big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying and warring and emigrating to read your book.

(In a follow up article, Wainaina explains the genesis and the fall out of his rant)

"Binyavanga Wainaina by WhiteAfrican on Flickr under CreativeCommons License Attribution 2.0 "

While Binyavanga Wainaina warns against the pitfall of brushing braod strokes and pay attention to the regional specificities when writing or trying to understand political events in Africa, other writers suggest that ethnic identity is a marginal part of African history to start with and might have lost its relevance with the new generation. Kenyan blogger Andrew Maina reflects on the impact of ethnic identity, especially in the context of elections and the potential generational shift in the relevance of such concept:

Just what relevance, if any ethnic identity has in modernity, even in the life of a person of my generation [..] We Africans have already seen how high the price can be for entire communities caught up in the wrong ‘tribal block’ in the wrong place at the wrong time, Kenya in early 2008 and Rwanda in 1994 being the most graphic cases. Should the fact that you happen to be born to family with ambiguously relations to some fat old man in a suit, a house on a hill be the defining factor on how you vote ..] You mostly end up with a government full of mediocre individuals mostly either lining their pockets with tax money or simply failing to stand up for you when you actually need his assistance. Certainly, ethnicity should not be allowed to dictate some things yet the reality is it often does [..] Mostly the effects are negative, retrogressive, and or unappealing. Can things be different especially now, as I believe many African countries are set to witness a generational shift in leadership to a crop of leaders with no memory of colonialism? Perhaps yes, perhaps not.

African Writers: Raharimanana, Mabanckou and Nimrod

Anna Gueye, blogger with Senegalese ties, explains that ethnic identities were not part of Africa's heritage until the arrival of colonization [fr]:

Les groupes ethniques sont en grande partie un héritage colonial, qui ont émergé comme des instruments pour contrôler les personnes et se partager leurs ressources [..] Les colons européens ont encouragé l'assimilation des Africains en groupes, par la création d'unités administratives qui ont ensuite été étiquetés en termes ethniques, comme cela s'est produit en Ouganda avec la classification obligatoire des populations locales en fonction de leur «tribu », comme cela s'est produit aussi au Rwanda. [..] Les Africains eux-mêmes ont participé à cette création de « tribus », pour ne pas complètement s’exclure du processus d’allocation des ressources par les colons. L'ethnicité a ainsi été promue et définie afin de « poursuivre l'avantage matériel », pour reprendre la description Crawford Young. Et ce n’est pas fini, les politiciens se maintiennent au pouvoir grâce à ce système

Ethnic group are for the most part part of the colonial legacy that emerged as a tool to control people and share resources [..] European colonists encouraged the assimilation of Africans in groups by creating administrative units who were then labeled ethnic groups with the mandatory classification of local population according to tribes in Uganda and Rwanda [..] African themselves contributed to the creation of tribes in order to not be completely excluded from the allocation of resources by the colonists. Ethnicity was therefore defined and promoted as a way to pursue "material benefits" as Crawford Young developed. And it is still relevant today, politicians are still using ethnicity to stay in power.

Ethnocentrism was a concern in the pre-electoral period in Guinea as Guinee50 pointed out [fr]:

C’est regrettable et inquiétant que tout problème politique dans ce pays, commence ou finit toujours par des passions ethnocentriques. Disons clairement que nous avons érigé l’ethnocentrisme en mode de vie [..] j'avoue que l'ethnocentrisme est le thème qui m'a beaucoup plus donné l'envie de m'exprimer en ligne pour dénoncer à ma manière les dérives communautaristes

It is regrettable and worrisome that all political problems in this country starts and ends with ethnocentric fever. Let's say it clearly, we have build ethnocentrism into a way of life [..] I admit that ethnocentrism is one of the reason why I decided to blog so that I can denounce the communitarian diatribes.

In Madagascar, as elections are approaching, Achille52 bemoans the fact that his country seems to always trail behind on the path of democracy and development. He identifies ethnic identity as one of the reason why Madagascar is always falling behind [fr]:

Les candidats à n’importe élection utilisent deux armes principales, la première est la menace de la guerre tribale. « Ne choisissez pas untel, car il est betsimisaraka !! Ou ce gars est un Betsileo, et il va nuire à votre région !!« . Ce genre de discours est récurrent, et se trouve dans la bouche de tous les politiciens pour une seule raison, l’identité ethnique efface les efficacités du programme électoral. Les candidats n’ont plus besoin de développer les problèmes sociaux, et ce qu’ils comptent faire pour les résoudre.

Candidates to any elections always use the same discourse, the first one is the threat of a tribal war. "Don't pick this guy, he is Betsimisaraka !! Or this guy is Betsileo, he will be detrimental to your region!!" This kind of speech keeps coming back because ethnic identity erase the need for efficient electoral programs. Candidates don't need to find solutions to social issues anymore or even develop a strategy to solve them.

In the end, African writers Eugène Ebodé (Cameroon) and Jean-Luc Raharimanana (Madagascar) believe that Africa may need to redefine ethnicity and citizenry to move forward [fr]:

Pour que l'Afrique sorte de l'apitoiement et des clichés, il lui faut reconsidérer non pas ce que l'ethnie veut dire et recouvre, mais ce que la citoyenneté partagée révèle comme nouveaux enjeux, nouveaux comportements sociaux, éthiques et politique.

For Africa to escape the clichés and pity party, it's not the meaning nor the implication of its ethnic groups that it must reconsider but their commonality as citizens of the same continent with its shared aspirations and its shared social, ethical and political comportments.

Perspectives from the #YoungAfrica Delegates at the Newseum Unconference

2010-08-07T18:21:00.000-04:00

The US President's Forum with Young African Leaders took place in Washington, DC from August 3-5 2010. Delegates from Sub Saharan Africa were invited to exchange ideas on development in their countries as many were celebrating their 50 years of independence.

(Article cross-posted at Global Voices Online)

When the President of the United States Barack Obama opened his remarks at the White House Town Hall meeting by telling the Ghanaian delegates that "they will see each other" again for a rematch at the 2014 World Cup, the delegates gladly accepted the challenge. They also accepted a more significant challenge, that the development of their nation and as a matter of fact, of the continent as a whole rested primarily on the shoulders of African youth. The three-days-long get together in Washington DC was remarkable because of the dynamism and fearlessness of the young African delegates. The meeting were filled with passionate pleas for more collaboration between African nations, calls for holding political leaderships more accountable, boosting innovation, promoting tolerance towards diverging political or religious point of views and the role of internet in making their goals achievable.

Delegates from Madagascar, Mali and Niger- Under CC license 3.0 share alike

All the delegates were well-versed in the intricacies of information technology but many of them expressed the worries that most of their compatriots still did not have access to internet and were therefore shunned from the exchange of ideas that take place online.

Halilatou Issoufou Mamane is a Graduate student from the University of Niamey Abdou Moumouni who also completed a degree in international relations/economics from Wellesley College. She is a member of Harambe Endeavor Alliance, a group of African students and young professionals who strives to push the African Intellectual pool worldwide to reinvest into the economic development of Africa. She states in the following video her hopes for her country, the changes she would like to make happen to remedy the status quo and her disappointment at the incomplete portrayal of Niger in international media and [Fr]:

“C’est vrai que l’on a la famine et que les retombées de l’uranium ne sont pas distribuées equitablement. Mais il y a tellement de gens qui essayent de faire bouger des montagnes au Niger mais on en parle pas parce que soit ils sont dans des regions éloignées, mais aussi parce que les medias ne sont intéressé que par le sensationel. [..] Nous avons besoin que les histoires positives sont mieux connues pour ne pas sombrer dans le pessimisme. Je pense que grace aux resources naturelles, le Niger peut-être un des tigres de l’Afrique dans 20 ans et que l’on parlera du miracle nigérien. “

“it is true that we have famine and that the benefits of Uranium are not equitably redistributed. Still, there are so many people who are trying to move mountains in Niger but we don’t hear about them because either they are located in remote regions or because media is just interested in the sensational news [..] We need positive stories to come out so that we don’t dwell into pessimism. I think that thanks to our many natural resources, Niger could very well be the next Tiger of Africa and that we will be speaking of the Nigerien miracle in 20 years”.

Mamame adds that her relative who sells tomatoes in Southern Niger does not have access to internet. He sells his tomatoes to larger corporations who take advantage of the fact that he is not aware of the latest market price for his goods and results in substantial loss of income.
In Chad, Jareth Beain is the Head of Program on Public Resource Management, Group for Alternative Research and Monitoring of the Chad-Cameroon Petrol Project. He argues that African inventors would gain to be more supported and recognized outside of their country. He explains the principle of an invention by his colleague Djerassem Bemadjiel in Ndjamena that aims to provide enough electrical power for a village with just one liter of gas [fr]:

“The idea is to combine a foraging device to drill a wellbore for water with a fluid pumping system that will create a pressure gradient that will feed the generator in energy.”

The invention is currently under examination for patent and the details of the invention can be found here. Djerassem Bemadjiel hopes that better internet access will facilitate the sharing of their local inventions and collaboration with other engineers.

Real time and fact-based news about Togo are the main goals of Eric Nopklim Kaglan and his agency Savoir News. He argues that press freedom and a reasonable conversation cannot take place if there is no consensus on the basic facts. He is reassured by the fact that all sides of the Togolese political scene as well as the international community have approved of the integrity of their journalistic work. He is also proud of the fact that his agency is the only private online news provider in Togo, it maintains its sustainability by providing rapid fact-checked information to subscribers for a fee.

Antoine Assalé Tiémoko from SOS Justice Cote d\'Ivoire and Eric Nopklim Kaglan, Head of English Desk of Savoir News

For Ivorian Journalist Assale Tiemoko Antoine, governance, transparency and freedom of the press are the key to development in Africa. Assale knows this from personal experience. Not unlike his colleagues from Le Nouveau Courier a few weeks ago, Assale spent 12 months behind bars from December 2007 to December 2008 for his reporting on government corruption. He promotes transparency through his association SOS Justice Côte d’Ivoire and his blog. Other activists for press freedom in Africa are highlighted in this article by Mohamed Keita for the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Internet can also be a vehicle for better communication between communities who are sometimes at odds. Aminatou Daouda Hainikoye is adamant that the women’s rights movement in Niger needs to take into account both the important cultural specificity of her country but also embrace the basic principles recommended by international human rights organizations [fr]:

She argues that an exchange of point of views between religious leaders, defenders of Nigerien’s identity and human rights activists must continue on a regular basis for women’s rights to make progress in Niger. Being an advocate of both her faith-based community and women’s rights organization, Aminatou Daouda Hainikoye hopes to be the bridge between the two communities.

Statement by Young African Delegates at Newseum read by Marie Tamoifo Nkom from Cameroon ,Nadja Gomes from Mozambique, Najma Ahmed Abdi from Somalia.

The forum appropriately concluded with a statement read by three women delegates in English, French and Portuguese in which they reasserted that they are ready to lead and change the narrative about the African continent [Pt]:

Many delegates also made it clear that they saw the United States as a partner but not as a savior in their task of taking their regions through the next 50 years of their independence. A group of delegates spontaneously came together in a song to put the final touch on a busy but hopeful trip.

Dr. Johnson on the tie that binds Africans and African Americans

2010-08-05T23:11:00.002-04:00

From Dr Johnson's speech below at Newseum for the President Forum with the Young African Leaders:

"...On Behalf of the some 4 million women of African descent across this nation and throughout the diapsora, I extend to you our hands of friendship, of solidarity and of support [..] As you return home and take the experience with you and begin a new ones and continue your important work of creating better families, better communities, better nations and ultimately a better world, go home knowing that your struggle is our struggle, your fight is our fight and though have much to do in your homeland to create a brighter future for this generation and the generation yet to come, know that we too, on these shores have much work to do as well. None of us have yet earned the right to raise to a place of complacency. There are still before us too many wrongs that need to be righted, too many opportunities that need to be expanded, yet in reflecting on the amazing accomplishment of our shared past, I could not be more confident in our capabilities to achieve the goals that our ancestors barely dared to even desire [..] It is this year that you celebrate a half century of freedom from the tyranical oppression and natural resources depletion that colonization has brought to your shore, know that we too, those of us who call ourselves African Americans have a very personal understanding of your contemporary situation, we are in fact not as far along the path of freedom as you found yourselves today..."

Want to Rid African Elections of Cheating ? Demand Better Opinion Polls

2010-07-30T18:39:00.000-04:00

Image via Wikipedia

As mentioned before here, 2010 is a critical election year for many African countries, including Madagascar. Incidentally and unfortunately, many of the elections for 2010, past or upcoming are fraught with suspicion of fraud, landslide victory or ethnocentric voting. For every democratic election that proceeded as well as hoped in Ghana or Somaliland, we have two or three elections that have many people wondering whether the democratic process is worth the effort if people who don't play by democratic roles end up winning the game anyway.

If you know me a little bit, you know that I read and watch way too much sports. In that field, there are many ways to try to curb cheating thanks to performance enhancing drugs but the easiest way to suspect foul is to find unexplained "jumps" in an athlete performance.
In baseball, the steroids era is filled with players with a sudden increase in performance ( Tejada, Sosa etc..), Ben Johnson went from 10.1s to 9.83s in a year and tennis man Petr Korda enjoyed a career year in 1998 before being banned for ingesting substance.

This is especially relevant for politics where a country cannot easily go back after releasing official results and undo the results if evidence of malfeasance were found. The damages must be caught right away. The only way to suspect that something fishy is going on is if the electoral results are way off compare to the opinion polls. The problem is, robust opinion polls are expensive to carry and difficult to conduct properly without the proper experience. For opinion polls to be meaningful and trustworthy, they need to be conducted repeatedly which also costs money.
Opinion polls are not part of the culture for many of the countries trying to embrace democratic elections. We start to see many polls on website and online forums but as you know, internet penetration is still too low for the medium to be truly representative of most nations.
But maybe technology can still be of help here. It's been highly documented that mobile phones are driving a few of the progress seen in sub Saharan Africa. We have seen that text messages mapped on platform like Ushahidi have been used as election monitoring tools.

So why not use this very technology for opinion poll surveys ? It sure is not as scholastic or as meaningful as election monitoring or crisis reporting but in my opinion, it could be as important for developing sustainable democratic nations for the long term.
If every young people, farmers or cab drivers can instantly and repeatedly weigh in about the performances of their political representatives on issues that matters to them.

I think this is where crowd sourcing could have the most relevant and more importantly, the most "measurable" impact. A low-cost easily implementable platform, comprehensible goal than can be sustained over a long period. Awareness of such polling project can be raised progressively and geo-location can be added, anonymously.

I am sure there are drawbacks to such an idea but I think the positives could outweigh them. After all, what could be more important that getting the electoral results right without having to worry excessively that ballots stuffing occurred ?

A party can try to game an election on a fixed period but one cannot cheat opinion polls over a whole year.

An additional positive aspect would be that political leaders would be hold accountable, even on non-electoral years when they see their positive feedback falling off the cliff.

Right now, some believe that the transitional government is at an all-time low in popularity well others think that they still have the support of the "people" (Ridiculous numbers were offered by several politicians when asked about their popularity during the 2009 crisis).

Continuous reliable opinion surveys conducted by independent entities would answer that question.

I dream of the day a website like Five ThirtyEight would come to life in Africa. That day, one will know that democracy has taken roots on the continent.

A Few Thoughts on Democracy, Journalism and Grandma

2010-07-21T12:26:00.001-04:00

The good folks at the Comittee to Protect Journalists graciously asked me to opine on the state of media in Madagascar. For the piece, they suggested that I describe a bit about how I experienced media while growing up. Three memories stood out in my mind, my aunt who was the very first news anchor on Malagasy National television, our earnest weather man Ravince and my grandma's radio stereao from the 30's that fostered her love affair with a Malagasy "radio sitcom" (more on that later).

Traditional House in Madagascar

So here are my thoughts on the future of journalism in Madagascar (en Francais ici). Keep in mind that I wrote the article before the report from Reporter Without Borders came out and I am glad to see that we are in agreement on where journalism stands back home. I wish the best to the folks who are currently trying to draft the "Code of Communication and Ethics" in Madagascar and hope that they consider those thoughts and bloggers'perspective when they put the finalize the document. As Andrew Vachs says "Journalism is what maintains democracy. It's the force for progressive social change." As stated before on this blog, independent journalism or acts of reporting can take many shape or form but its existence as a reasonable platform for information and opinion is critical.

The link between democracy and media has been examined at length worldwide. From DC to Antananarivo, There is worrisome trend that the democratic process is being hijacked by an increased polarization of the civil discourse and deliberate disinformation. At the commencement ceremony in Ann Harbor, US president Barack Obama asked the students how they will save democracy in America.

He said that violent rhetoric in the media "closes the door to the possibility of compromise. It undermines democratic deliberation." His advice: "If you're a regular Glenn Beck listener, then check out the Huffington Post sometimes. If you read The New York Times editorial page the morning, then glance every now and then at The Wall Street Journal."

I think that this idea should be explored further, especially in the run-up for elections in countries like Madagascar. I am just spiting ideas out there but would it be totally crazy to ask voters days before they cast their ballots, to fill out a multiple choice questionnaires on their take on key arguments and whether a consensus can be found on these issues? This will ensure that there is a minimum exposure to basic information to balance the extremist diatribe and maybe a modicum of evaluating pros and cons before voting.

And still it might not be enough though, as a recent study pointed out.

This article by J. Keohane explains that we make a reasonable assumption that in a democracy, once facts are revealed to the population, they will get things straight and change or reinforce their opinion accordingly. It is the premise for the intrinsic value of debate and open societies. Yet, researchers are disputing this assessment, they affirm that

" Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger."

The reason:

“The general idea is that it’s absolutely threatening to admit you’re wrong,” says political scientist Brendan Nyhan, the lead researcher on the Michigan study. The phenomenon — known as “backfire” — is “a natural defense mechanism to avoid that cognitive dissonance.”

This is the scariest finding I have encountered in a while because I saw it came to life during the political crisis in Madagascar and its many detrimental effects.
You can put all the effort you want in trying to get the information correct (i.e the Ushahidi platform for Madagascar), distribute it as widely as you can (blogs, newspapers, radio etc.) and encourage conversation and debate. Still, at the end of the day, information made barely a dent in trying to fond a consensus or an exit to the ongoing crisis. Malagasy media and blogs have tried to put information out there regardless of the political agenda: we illustrated the Daewoo land grab issue at length, we put videos of the military repression of protests in February and in April and later, we have been writing and posting about illegal rosewood trafficking since 2009 and the plight of the Southern region (phosphate spill and malnutrition).

I am still hopeful that putting information out there will lead to positive change or at the very least, a start of a conversation between factions that openly dislike each other. It is critical that we find an exit. Literally, lives are a stake here because the longer the crisis goes, the less likely we are to be able to take care of malnutrition and the pillage of natural resources (rosewood etc..).

So here is hoping that there is a threshold of information that can be reached in order to breakthrough to a positive resolution. We may not like each other or have opposite opinions but we still need to start listening to each other, somehow.

Here is the part of the story that could not be included in the CPJ story about my grandma and the effect of media in Madagascar:

antique Malagasy stereo

"Growing up in Antananarivo, biweekly family reunions at my grandmother were tradition. We were about 25 gathered around the table and sharing a meal. My grandmother would rarely let anyone help her in the kitchen and would spend the whole morning cooking and making sure every single
one of us was fed and comfortable. She would listen to everyone's stories an add a few of her own that would invariably make one of her children blush. However, once the clock stroke 2:00
pm, she would drop everything, turn her radio that she purchased in the 30's and would listen religiously to a daily radio sitcom. She was not the only one, as most Malagasies would be totally sucked in by this well-produced but low-budget radio sitcom. The story tellers were brilliant, all of them with a flawless grasp of the nuances of Malagasy tradition of oral story telling.
The funny thing is, most of our written press, like in most of former French colonies, is in French and we never really question why that is or find issue with it. In fact, our embrace of the french press is reflected by my grandmother not-so-guilty pleasures of reading French popular magazines, the likes of Paris-Match and Gala. But when it came to radio, the Malagasy language ruled the air, seemingly as a tribute to this enduring tradition of oral storytelling."

How is that relevant to democracy and media you ask? I love my grandma but she was a hardheaded woman, it would have been difficult to change her mind on any subjects. However, evidently if the medium was right (radio sitcom), she could be an avid listener. We can reach people if we really want to but it will require more effort. If we want democracy to persist, we won't have much of a choice.

La série #Jesuisvieux ,traduite:

2010-07-18T20:03:00.000-04:00

An unexpected but deliciously nostalgic hash tag, #jesuisvieux, has been trending on the French speaking social media scene. Since July 26th, twitter users have been going down memory lane, posting tweets relating their memories from youth with the hash tag #jesuisvieux ( #Iamold for men) or #jesuisvieille ( #Iamold for women). The timeline for the hashtag was filled with often humorous, sometimes sweet updates and provides a good snapshot of the evolution of information technology usage and its demographics.
It is unclear whether the article in the New York Times on July 15 entitled: "Aging Gracefully, the French Way" has anything to do with the twitter trend but aging is certainly on a lot of people's mind in the francophone world and they seemingly embrace it openly.
A few newspapers have collected and curated the best of them. Here is an article by Coline Bérard at L'Express.fr: "Twitter c'est pour les vieux", (twitter is for old people in English) and Belgian newspaper Le Soir is currently posting and monitoring a live blogging session about the #Jesuisvieux hashtag on the Cover It Live platform.

According to Hashtags.org, #jesuisvieux hash tag made up to 0.03% of tweets worldwide on July 27.
Here are a few tweets that have caught out attention:

From @JocelyneRobert in Montréal, Canada:

On ne brimait pas nos élans sexuels avec la menace des ITS mais avec la menace de l'enfer #jesuisvieille

We did not suppress our libido with the threat of STDs but with the the threat of hell #IamOld

Pierre Côté:

J'ai surfé sur le WWW en utilisant NETSCAPE #jesuisvieux

I surfed the web using Netscape

Anna Gueye from Senegal and La Hague, Holland:

#jesuisvieux il y avait des 1ères classes dans le métro #jesuisvieille

There were first class seats in the metro

slim404 in Tunisia:

Le 7 nov. 1987 j'étais content. Mon père m'a dit : "tu va pas à l'école aujourd'hui, on ne sait jamais" #jesuisvieux

On Nov 7 1987, my dad told me:" You are not going to class today, who knows what can happen.

@bravepatrie:

J'ai vu des ministres démissionner quand ils étaient mis en cause dans des affaires. #jesuisvieux

Ministers actually resigned when they were implicated in scandals

Necessepas:

J'ai été amoureuse d'Albator #jesuisvieille http://youtu.be/SpE9Yo9dmIo

I was in love with Captain Harlock http://youtu.be/SpE9Yo9dmIo

Boris:

Je me souviens avoir vu la comète de Halley #jesuisvieux

I remember seeing Halley's comet

sophiedurocher:

Dans ma jeunesse, il n'y avait pas Internet pour que des anonymes qui n'ont pas de vie déversent leur haine et leur mépris. #jesuisvieille

When I was young, There was no internet for no-life anonymous people to pour down their hatred and comtempt

Dugomo:

Voler des 33 tours, c'était quand même plus héroïque que télécharger #jesuisvieux

Stealing LP records took more guts than downloading songs

Kristalynm9:

J'ai déjà imprimer un travail de Cégep sur une imprimante a ruban de Commodore 64 a @tremblay96 #jesuisvieux

I did a print job for CEGEP on a Commodore 64 printer in @tremblay96

fastclemmy:

on est tous le vieux de quelqu'un #jesuisvieux

We all are someone else's elder

Finally Lionel suggests that one of the top contributors to the meme is Global Voices own's Anna Gueye:

lionelchollet:

L'une des toutes meilleures séries #jesuisvieux #jesuisvieille, au niveau mondial, est, sans conteste, celle d'@annagueye http://is.gd/dN00B

One of the best #jesuisvieux #jesuisvieille series worldwide is wihtout a doubt @AnnaGueye's

[ Cross-Posted at Global Voices ]

"Un Monde plus Vaste, un Web plus Vaste " Traduction de la Presentation de E. Zuckerman pour TED Global (Oxford)

2010-07-17T21:37:00.002-04:00

Ethan Zuckerman, co-créateur de Global Voices, a donné une présentation à la conférence de TED Global à Oxford le 14 juillet 2010.
Voici sa présentation qui explique les potentialités du web si on arrive à créer un vrai terrain d'échange entre les différentes régions du monde, ce qui est encore loin d’être le cas.

Cette présentation mérite d’être connu sur le web francophone. Voilà pourquoi je l’ai traduite ci dessous à partir de cet article sur son blog:

Traduction:

"Etant Américain, j’essaye d’éviter de tout forme de football qui ne s’apparente pas a du football américain, mais cela a été bien difficile d'éviter la Coupe du monde 2010 quand je vais sur Twitter, il y avait de nombreuses phrases mystèrieuses dans la liste des termes « tendances »: "Vuvuzela", "Furia Roja", "Octopus".
Pendant des semaines, le terme le plus « trendy » sur Twitter a été "Cala Boca Galvao". Etant un américain monolingue, je ne savait évidemment pas ce que cela signifiait. Heureusement, un certain nombre de twittereurs brésiliens ont bien voulu éclairer ma lanterne. Ils ont expliqué que "Cala Boca Galvao" signifie "Sauver le Galvao" et a été le cri de ralliement pour une campagne internationale pour sauver l'oiseau rare Galvao ...

qui est en voie de disparition. ( Cette vidéo permet d'expliquer le sort de l'oiseau - ca en vaut la peine, croyez-moi :-) )
En fait, c'est une situation très triste - l'oiseau Galvao est non seulement superbe, il a aussi évidemment des pouvoirs stupéfiants, qui ont emmené certaines personnes à se livrer à des actions choquantes envers ce pauvre Galvao.

Heureusement, beaucoup de gens lui sont venu en aide. Lady Gaga bien évidemment a sorti un nouveau single - en fait, plusieurs nouveaux singles - intitulé «Cala Boca Galvao".
Et comme il s'avère que la raison pour laquelle tant de personnes ont twitté sur "Cala Boca Galvao" - et la raison pour laquelle je devrais tweeter aussi -, c'est que dix centimes seraient remis à la Fondation pour sauver la Galvao à chaque tweet.
C’était bien sûr, un canular qui a très bien marché . Bien évidement, l'oiseau Galvao n’existe pas, il n’y a eu aucun don, aucun nouveau single de Lady Gaga, et je ne vais pas parler de ce que Diego Maradona sniffe dans ces moments perdus. Galvão Bueno est le commentateur de football sur Rede mondial au Brésil, et ses commentaires semblent suffisamment agacé les utilisateurs de Twitter au Brésil assez qu'ils ont organisé une campagne pour lui dire de se taire: «Cala a boca» signifie «Ferme la ».
Il y a plusieurs leçons à tirer de cette histoire. La première est que les Brésiliens sembent prêt à prendre la tête en termes de générateur de mémés sur Internet au dépent des Américains et les Japonais, ce qui pourrait indiquer que l’on aura droit à plus de blagues capoeira mystèrieuses et moins de références Pokemon, ce qui pourrait être une bonne chose ou pas c’est selon.
Et ceci est un bon rappel que ça vaut la peine d’aller sur le web et demander aux gens d'adhérer à votre campagne – même si elle est totalement ridicule - tant que tout ce qu'ils ont à faire est de faire un copier/coller.
Mais la leçon principale, c'est que le monde est beaucoup plus vaste que nous le pensons en général.

Environ 170 millions de personnes visitent chaque mois Twitter, et 19m (11,2%) sont brésiliens. Plus d'un sur dix utilisateurs d'Internet au Brésil vont sur Twitter tous les mois, qui est une proportion plus élevée que dans la plupart des pays - de l'Internet en utilisant grandes nations, la seule avec un pour cent de plus de personnes qui utilisent l'outil est le Japon.
Il ya des millions de japonais et brésiliens sur Twitter. Si cela vous semble surprenant, c'est parce que la plupart de vos amis en ligne ne sont ni japonais ou brésiliens. Twitter a mené une enquête téléphonique qui révèle que un quart des utilisateurs aux États-Unis sont des afro-américains ... ce qui était assez surprenant pour la plupart des utilisateurs américains, qui croient que Twitter vient d'être utilisé par des geeks blancs.
Ce qui est surprenant, c’est que une idée de la conversation afro-américaine sur Twitter est tout près, avec juste un clic sur les sujets « tendances » sur Twitter qui n’ont pas rapport à la coupe du monde - ils sont souvent emmenés par des conversations des utilisateurs afro-américains sur Twitter. Fernanda Viegas et Martin Wattenberg - deux spécialistes de la visualisation qui a créé le logiciel IBM ManyEyes - a examiné un ensemble de donnés sur Twitter un week-end de mai et a découvert qu'il y avait une ségrégation raciale importante dans l’utliisation de Twitter ... et pas seulement comme on s’y attendrait –par exemple, «cookout» est un terme employé en majorité par les twittereurs noirs alors que « oilspill » (la marée noire) a été un sujet à prédominance blanche.
Des outils comme Twitter - outils qui nous donnent une vision du monde à travers le filtre de nos amis - peuvent nous isoler dans ce que mon ami Eli Pariser appelle des « bulles filtrées" - Internet est trop grand pour être compris dans son ensemble, alors nous avons une image du monde qui est êtrangement similaire à celle que nos amis peuvent avoir. Si nos amis sont au Brésil, ou si nous connaissions certains Brésiliens, peut-être nous aurions compris la blague sur Cala Boca Galvao rapidement - si non, on y comprend rien. Le reste du monde est à portée de clic, mais que nous le voulons ou non, nous sommes habituellement à filtrer que ce qui nous intéresse.
Ce n'était certainement pas ce qu’on attendait de la révolution du web.
En 1995, Nicholas Negroponte, le directeur du Media Lab du MIT, écrit au début de son livre "Being Digital" une histoire de la façon dont les atomes sont différents des bits. Il a assisté à une réunion sur l'avenir de l'industrie technologique aux Etats-Unis, et il ne peut pas s’êmpecher de penser au fait que l'eau que l’on sert sur les tables en Floride provient d'Evian en France - quelqu'un s’est donné la peine de déplacer ces bouteilles en verre rempli d'eau naturelle française jusqu’aux États-Unis. L'avenir, selon lui, ne se trouve dans le transport, pas dans la vente et la négociation de ces atomes lourds –mais il se trouve dans la circulation des bits, rapide et léger.
Sur ce point, il s'avère que Negroponte s’est trompé. En 2010, il arrive souvent que les atomes soient plus mobiles que les bits.
Fidji fait maintenant concurrence à d'Evian pour le leadership dans la catégorie « import de l'eau en bouteille » aux US – (je vais vous épargner ma diatribe sur l'absurdité de cette catégorie particulière) - et simplement mentionner que vous êtes beaucoup plus susceptibles de rencontrer l'eau en provenance des Fidjis, un jour donné dans les États-Unis que vous êtes de lire des nouvelles sur les îles Fidji, sans parler du cinéma ou de la musique en provenance des Fidji, en dépit de l'injustice politique aiguë qui se déroule là-bas en ce moment.

Les infrastructures d'un monde « mondialisé » nous laissent croire que nous vivons dans un monde Friedmanesque réduit à la taille d’un appartement. De Londres, un petit saut de puce et on est dans le Bengal et de là, Suva est juste un autre saut de puce supplémentaire.

Une fois que nous arrêtons d’être obnubilé par les infrastructures - les routes, les routes aériennes, les routes maritimes, les câbles - et commençons à étudier les flux de trafic, il est clair que certaines parties du monde sont beaucoup plus connectés que d’autres. La mondialisation est inégalement répartie. Londres et New York sont beaucoup plus proches que l'ensemble des régions de Johannesburg et Rio.
J'ai passé une grande partie de cette décennie à étudier comment les nouveaux médias parlent de l’actualité mondiale, parce qu'il y a un phénomène que je trouve profondément troublant.
Pendant mon enfance dans les années 70 aux États-Unis, 35-40% en moyenne du journal d’actualités étaient centrés sur l’actualité internationale. Aujourd'hui, ce pourcentage est maintenant en moyenne de 12-15%.
Comme le président de Public Radio International Alisa Miller a souligné dans une conférence TED en 2008, ceci peut conduire à une image plutôt distordue du monde. Sa présentation était alors centré sur un cartogramme - Une carte qui sur laquelle la taille d’un pays dépend de l'attention qu’elle recoit des médias. L’attention porté aux États-Unis, et à un nombre limité d’autres pays, produit un élargissement considérable sur quelques centres d'intérêt restreints et de vastes zones où la couverture est inexistante.
Avant de rejeter ce thèse comme étant un simple problème limité à la télévision américaine - qui, j'en conviens est souvent terrible - permettez-moi de vous dire que je vois le même phénomène dans les journaux américains de qualité supérieure comme le New York Times, qui accorde une attention beaucoup plus importante aux pays riches nations, ce qui signifie que vous avez 8 fois plus de chances de trouver un article sur le Japon dans le Times que sur le Nigeria, en dépit du fait que les pays ont des populations de tailles comparables.
La plupart des médias que j'ai étudié démontrent un faible similaire pour les pays ayant un PIB élevé. La BBC montre un biais différent : la couverture des pays pauvres qui faisait partie de l'Empire britannique est excellente, tandis que la couverture de ceux qui ne l'étaient pas tend à être faible.
Mon espoir était qu’avec la montée d'internet et des médias numériques, nous verrions une image plus large du monde parce que c'est tellement plus facile maintenant de couvrir l’actualité internationale qu'il ne l'était il ya trois décennies ; au lieu d'expédier des films d'une zone de guerre vers le Royaume-Uni pour être développés puis diffusés, vous pouvez publier la vidéo sur YouTube.
Il ya des exceptions notables – les blogueurs ont accordé une attention très particulière au mouvement vert en Iran, par exemple - mais ma recherche suggère que les blogueurs les plus populaires sont au moins aussi hermétiquement porté sur les pays riches qui attire une plus forte attention que les médias traditionaux. Il y a beaucoup de blogueurs du monde en voie de développement sur internet –l’équivalent des infrastructures dans mon analogie - mais très peu d'attention - le flux dans l’analogie- vont vers leurs sites.

Et les médias que nous créons collectivement sur des sites comme Wikipédia montre que ces même préjugés existent aussi – Voici une étude réalisée par Mark Graham, à l'Oxford Internet Institute, montrant les articles de Wikipédia qui ont des informations géocodées. Il donne un idée des biais géographiques que nous voyons sur wikipedia dans son ensemble, et des forces et faiblesses du projet quand il s’agit de couvrir les différentes parties du monde, si ce n'est pas le même scénario sur tous les articles géographiques dans Wikipedia et peut sans doute surestimer les disparités que j'essaie de souligner ici.

La promesse de l'Internet - l'idée que tout est juste à un clic - c'est que, ici en Grande-Bretagne que je peux lire les journaux de l'Australie, l'Inde, le Nigéria, le Ghana, le Canada, sans frais et ainsi me retrouver avec une vision plus large de la monde. La vérité est que - en moyenne - je ne veux pas de ça. J'ai analysé les données de Doubleclick Ad Planner, en regardant le Top 50 des sites d’actualités dans chacun des trente pays - au Royaume-Uni, plus de 95% du trafic vont vers les sites sur l’actualité nationale. C'est un de ces rares cas où les États-Unis peut accuser le Royaume-Uni d'être plus fermé que nous – Les américains aiment lire la BBC, le Telegraph, le Guardian, et 6% de notre lectorat vont vers les médias britanniques. Mais ce n'est pas seulement aux États-Unis ou au Royaume-Uni - vous verrez que les utilisateurs d'Internet en Inde - qui sont eux, en moyenne beaucoup plus riches, -et plus alphabétisés que le citoyen moyen en Inde - passent 94% de leur temps sur les sites de nouvelles nationales indiennes.
C'est à cause de données comme celle-ci que je conclue qu' Internet n'a hélas pas encore rapproché le monde comme Nicholas Negroponte pensé qu’il le ferait. Au lieu de cela, ma crainte, c'est que cela fait de nous des «cosmopolites imaginaires». Nous pensons que nous avons maintenant une vision élargie du monde, parce que grâce à la télévision, aux journaux et à Internet on peut avoir une image beaucoup plus ouverte que ce qui était à la disposition de nos parents ou grands-parents. Lorsque nous regardons ce qui se passe réellement, notre vision du monde pourrait en fait être entrain de se rétrécir.
Avoir cette image élargie du monde est essentiel pour la survie de cette planète. Au cours de ces quatre jours à TED, nous allons entendre parler de problèmes comme le réchauffement climatique, les pandémies, la sécurité collective qui ne peuvent pas être résolus par des individus ou des nations agissant seuls - ceux sont des problèmes mondiaux et ils vont exigent de nous des solutions mondiales. Et parce que le thème de la conférence est "Voici de bonnes nouvelles", il est intéressant de souligner que les possibilités les plus intéressantes - à même de faire une différence, de faire quelque chose de beau ou de faire du profit - sont d'envergure mondiale. Nous devons construire des solutions basées sur des efforts de collaboration massive, de coopération transnationale, qui doit commencer par un dialogue qui rassemble à travers les différences linguistiques, sociales, et nationales.
Alors, voici les bonnes nouvelles - nous avons les outils nécessaires pour faire cela, l'infrastructure qui pourrait rendre le monde plus ouvert. Et nous commençons à comprendre ce que nous avions besoin de faire pour établir des liens à travers le monde qui sont réels et non juste des théories.

Ces six dernières années, une des parties les plus satisfaisantes de ma vie a été de faire partie de la communauté de Global Voices. Ce groupe de blogueurs du monde entier essaye de changer le paysage des médias du monde entier en amplifiant les voix qu'on n'entend pas très souvent - les voix de personnes venant des pays en voie de développement, qui s'expriment sur internet. Vous serez guère surpris, d'apprendre que nous n'avons pas encore réformé l'ensemble des médias du monde entier - cela va prendre encore quelques années, j’imagine. Mais ce que nous avons appris, c'est qu'il existe des techniques qui sont essentielles si vous voulez obtenir une image d'un monde plus ouvert - et plus important encore, si vous voulez construire des outils, des systèmes et des institutions qui aident les gens à trouver un monde plus vaste – Voici les outils qui s'avèrent être utiles :

Inviter plus de monde sur le net: Raising Voices

Tout d'abord, il faut se rappeler que le World Wide Web est certainement loin d’être le monde entier. Cette image nocturne de la terre la est déjà vieille de dix ans, mais c’est encore un portrait assez frappant des 1,8 milliard de personnes qui sont en ligne et de 4,8 milliard de personnes qui ne sont pas. (Cette image, en passant, semble être un élément obligatoire de chaque conférence TED - J'espère juste que je serai le premier à montrer cette année ...)

Ces taches sombres sur la carte ne sont pas les regions silencieuses - ils ont juste tendance à ne pas être bien représentés dans les médias du monde entier. Grâce à Global Voices, j'ai beaucoup d'amis à Madagascar, et je peux vous dire que l'une des choses qui les ennuyent est le fait que Madagascar est mieux connu pour le film de Dreamworks que pour les merveilles naturelles de leur pays.
Foko Club n'a pas commencé comme un projet visant à changer les perceptions internationales de Madagascar - elle a commencé comme un club pour les élèves du secondaire d'apprendre l'anglais. Qui s'est transformé en un club pour les personnes intéressées par l'internet, et qui est devenu un club de blogueurs, qui s'étend à l'échelle nationale.
Foko est devenu quelque chose d'autre au début de 2009, lorsque la politique malgache sombré dans le chaos quand le maire de la plus grande ville, Antananarivo, a renversé le président avec le soutien de l'armée. Comme le nouveau gouvernement fait taire temporairement la plupart des médias indépendants, internet a été l'un des rares endroits où les gens pourraient faire un rapport sur les manifestations et tout à coup les élèves associés à Foko diffusent des rapports avec leurs blogs et des caméras de téléphones cellulaires. Si nous voulons un monde plus vaste, nous aimerions trouver des façons de faire des voix dans des endroits que nous n'entendons pas souvent comme à Madagascar.

Une Traduction distribuée, humaine, transparente et par défaut

Voici l'astuce - vous ne savez probablement pas parler malgache. Même si vous le parliez, l'Internet devient de plus en plus un espace profondément polyglotte, ce qui signifie que bien qu’il y a de plus en plus de contenu en ligne tous les jours, le pourcentage du total de l'Internet dont chacun de nous a accès se réduit de plus car il est écrit dans des langues que nous ne parlons pas.
Lorsque nous rencontrons les mots nous ne comprenons pas - que ce soit dans le monde réel ou du monde en ligne - nous avons tendance à les ignorer. Et l'internet est fait de manière à les ignorer aussi – faites une recherche sur Google pour "apple" et vous pourriez obtenir des pages en langue espagnole avec le mot «pomme» en eux, mais vous n'obtiendrez pas de ceux qui ont le mot «manzana» ou «Ringo» .
Dans leur nouveau navigateur Web, Chrome, Google a fait quelque chose de très intelligent et subtil - il détecte la langue de la page que vous cherchez et offre à traduire la page pour vous. Vous pouvez configurer le navigateur pour qu'il traduise toujours en chinois pour vous ... ce qui signifie que si vous cliquez un lien vers un site en langue chinoise, vous n'avez pas à automatiquement cliquez sur le bouton retour dès que vous voyez des caractères incompréhensibles
Le problème est que la traduction de Google en utilisant la machine, qui est assez impressionnant entre l'anglais et le français, et plutôt horrible entre l'anglais et le chinois. Ce que je voudrais c'est un bouton qui me permet de demander une traduction humaine d'une page et soit payer quelqu'un par Mechanical Turk pour publier cette traduction, ou faire savoir un bénévole qu'il y a quelqu'un qui veut lire cette page dans une certaine langue.
Il s'avère que les volontaires sont capables de traduire beaucoup plus que vous pouvez l'imaginer. Zhang Lei, qui vivait aux États-Unis au cours de la période précédant les Jeux olympiques de Pékin, où il y avait de nombreux médias américains consacré à la Chine et les droits de l'homme au Tibet. Lei trouvait que la barrière linguistique entre les locuteurs chinois et anglais a conduit à un grand nombre de conflits qui n’étaient pas nécessaires, alors il a commencé à organiser avec des amis la tâche de traduire des des médias influent de langue anglaise en chinois.
Yeeyan a 150.000 volontaires inscrits, et ils publient 50-100 articles chaque jour, avec le contenu du New York Times et des sites comme Read Write Web. Avant d’être brièvement censuré par le gouvernement chinois, Yeeyan avait un partenariat avec le Guardian pour l'édition officielle de ce journal. Alors, voici ma question: où est la version en langue anglaise qui nous donnerait un aperçu de ce qui se dit dans les médias chinois? Si nous voulons un monde plus vaste, nous devons prendre au sérieux la traduction, et essayer d’en faire une routine, par défaut et de manière transparente.

Erreur de Filtrage: Surmonter le phénomène "mouton de Panurge"

On peut imaginer un avenir où des projets comme Foko nous aident à entendre des voix de part le monde, et où Yeeyan traduit dans les langues que nous comprenons. Comment allons nous faire pour décider de ce qu’on va lire?
Le monde est beaucoup trop grand pour nous tous d’en faire le tour expérience, et Internet est au au moins aussi écrasant. YouTube a récemment annoncé que l'on publie 24 heures de vidéo chaque minute chaque jour - si vous vouliez regarder d'une journée de vidéos, il vous faudrait près de quatre ans, et c'est sans s'arrêter pour dormir, l'utilisation de la salle de bains ou obtenir la psychothérapie tu désespérément besoin. Nous avons besoin de filtres afin que nous puissions faire face à toutes ces informations.
Nous avons tendance à utiliser deux types de filtres pour gérer l'internet –les sites de recherche, qui sont formidables pour nous dire ce que nous voulons savoir, et le réseau social, qui promet de nous dire des choses que nous ne savons pas que nous voulons savoir. Il y a beaucoup de gens qui essaient de créer des découvertes « accidentelles » en profitant du fait que non seulement vous êtes sur Internet maisvos amis sont aussi sur Internet. Et si vos amis - ou simplement quelqu'un ayant des intérêts similaires - trouve quelque chose d’intéressant, cela pourrait être aussi une découverte fortuite pour vous aussi.
Il y a juste un problème important avec cette méthode. Les êtres humains sont des animaux à instinct de troupeau. Comme des animaux grégaires, nous nous déplacons en groupe. Et qu'est-ce que vous voyez sur un site comme Digg ou Reddit - ou les liens que vous recevez de vos amis sur Facebook ou Twitter - c'est ce que le troupeau voit en ligne . Le troupeau peut vous aider à trouver quelque chose qui est inattendu et utile, mais il est peu probable de trouver quelque chose qui se trouve à l'autre bout du monde.
Voici Amira Al-Hussaini . Elle est le rédacteur en chef pour le Moyen-Orient et Afrique du Nord pour Global Voices, et elle a l'un des métiers les plus difficiles que je connaisse, qui est d'aider à distiller le chaos qui est la blogosphère du Moyen-Orient et d’en faire une histoire cohérente que nous publions sur le site. De plus, il faut aussi qu'elle le fasse en trouvant un moyen pour que les gens qu'elle représente - Israéliens et Palestiniens, les Syriens et les Irakiens - se sentent représentés de façon équitable. Mais son plus grand défi est de trouver l'histoire qui va capter votre attention, soit parce que c'est drôle, surréaliste, émouvant ou tout simplement magnifiquement dit.
Pour vous aider à trouver des histoires fascinantes, mais en dehors de l'orbite normale que vous connaissez, c’est la tache d’un bon DJ, ou un directeur de musée, ou un éditeur. Les gens qui excellent dans ce domaine sont des experts - ils ont une profonde compréhension de ce que vous savez, ce que vous ne connaissez pas et ce que vous aimeriez savoir. Il est difficile d'automatiser - Je pense qu'il serait effectivement impossible à automatiser - et c'est normal - l'internet pourrait utiliser ces éditeurs, leur permettant de nous guider vers des découvertes intéressantes. Pour un web plus vaste, nous avons besoin de cette troisième forme de filtrage - nous avons besoin de recherche, social, mais nous avons aussi besoin de ces bergers pour nous aider à sortir de nos troupeaux et de trouver des voix différentes.

Expliquer le contexte: les Personnes-Ponts

Quand on entend des voix venant de parties du monde dont on parle peu, quand nous sommes en mesure de lire des voix dans d'autres langues, quand les conservateurs qualifiés nous pousser en dehors de nos zones de confort, nous pouvons nous retrouver en territoire inconnu.

Cette image est prise de l'un des meilleur blogs technologiques sur Internet: Afrigadget . Le blog met en avant un large éventail de hackers sur le continent africain, des développeurs de logiciels mais aussi des forgerons. Le message du blog n'est pas de nous apprendre comment faire un ciseau sur l'arbre de transmission d'une Land Rover – mais c'est pour nous apprendre quelque chose sur la manière dont le recyclage peut conduire à la créativité et comment les gens innovent quand les moyens sont limités.
Pour comprendre ce genre de message et d’image, nous avons besoin d’un contexte pour une image comme celle-ci. Et pour le contexte, nous avons besoin d'un guide.
Erik Hersman est le fondateur du blog Afrigadget. C'est un geek Américain, qui est le chef d' entreprise de logiciels primés et influents. Il est aussi Africain. Il est né dans le sud du Soudan, est allé à l'école secondaire au Kenya, et parle couramment le swahili. C'est un gars qui a un pied dans chaque monde, et se passionne pour expliquer chacun de ces mondes à l'autre. Erik est un pont, il est l’un des rares individus qui peut rendre des geeks américains intéressés par les forgerons du Kenya et vice versa, parce qu'il comprend les deux mondes et peut créer des liens entre les deux.
Si nous voulons un monde plus vaste, nous avons besoin de célébrer, de reconnaître et d'amplifier l'influence de ces personnes-pont.
Et nous avons besoin de volontaires pour traverser ces ponts.

Si j'etais un joueur dans la NFL, je pense que je passerai probablement mon intersaison ~a panser mes blessures et à dépenser mon argent. Dhani Jones passe son temps à voyager dans différents pays et trouver des athlètes différents pour apprendre et s’entrainer ensemble. Il a un tv show sur le Travel Channel qui est assez remarquable - et pas seulement parce qu'il est fascinant de voir un athlète professionnel acquérir les compétences nécessaires pour jouer au water polo ou à la lutte thai. Ce qui est fascinant c’est que Dhani est en quelque sorte en mesure de projeter un sentiment d'ouverture, de bonne humeur et d'approche qui permet aux personnes d’établir un vrai contact avec lui quelque que soit pays qu'il visite.
Dhani est un xénophile - une personne qui travaille dur pour construire des ponts et d'interagir avec un monde plus vaste. Je regarde son show parce qu'il est une source d'inspiration aussi bien que qu’un prof qui aide à apprendre à connaître le monde dans toute sa diversité et sa complexité.
Mon défi pour vous dans cette salle n'est pas seulement d'être un xénophile ou un pont - plupart d'entre vous le sont déjà, ou vous ne seriez pas venu à 'une conférence axée sur les idées provenant du monde entier. Mon défi est le suivant - Aidez-moi à comprendre comment construire des nouveaux outils, réformer les systèmes éducatifs, les systèmes d'immigration et les gouvernements afin que nous encouragions les gens qui veulent rendre le monde plus vaste. Comment pouvons-nous encourager une culture de xénophiles, célébrer les bâtisseurs de ponts et réarranger les médias de sorte que nous vivons un monde plus vaste et pas seulement dans notre troupeau? C'est ce que j’essaye de faire et j'aimerai avoir votre aide."

The Famine That Shall Not Be Named

2010-07-12T22:24:00.000-04:00

The largely underreported food crisis in Sahel has taken worrisome proportions as about 2.5 millions of people in Niger are currently affected by food shortage. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has decided to scale up emergency operations to protect the population at risk. Bloggers in Niger reflect on yet another food crisis after the one in 2005, a food crisis this year that is the result of shortage of rainfall last year.

[Men Facing Sahel Desert by Nawal_ Under CC license on Flickr "]

D. Evariste Ouédraogo wrote the following about they way politicians always try to spin food crises in Niger in a way that would put them in a more favorable light [fr]:

En 2005, les autorités avaient toujours tenté de convaincre l’opinion que la menace de famine était une simple rumeur malveillante, déshonorante. [..] Quelques jours après, son Premier ministre (PM), dans des propos non moins fallacieux, appelait pourtant à l’aide, la Communauté mondiale, pour cause de …famine [..] Aujourd’hui, la vérité est toute nue : dix jours seulement après le changement de régime au Niger, on apprend, dans une déclaration télévisée du chef de la junte au pouvoir, que la famine “menace l’existence de millions de Nigériens dans quasiment toutes les régions”. Le déficit en vivres est alors estimé à 400 000 tonnes. Tout le contraire donc des péroraisons de Mamadou Tandja, qui était allergique à l’idée de risques de pénurie alimentaire.

In 2005, the authority tried to convince the opinion that the threat of famine was only a shameful rumor [..] A few days later, the prime minister, in no less fallacious terms, still asked for help the international community because of...famine. in 2010, the truth comes out again: 10 days after the change of regime in Niger, we learn from the chief of the military junta on television that famine threatens millions of Nigeriens from all over the regions. The shortage of food was estimated at 400 000 tons. Total opposite of the statement by Mamadou Tandja who was allergic to the idea of food crisis.

Grioo.com asks out loud the tough but conspicuous question that many Nigeriens wonder about: "where did the cash influx from the Uranium trade go?" [fr]:

Qu’on se rappelle les tiraillements entre l’ex-chef de l’Etat du Niger et les premiers responsables d’AREVA à propos du renouvellement des contrats d’exploitation de l’uranium. [..] On ne dénoncera jamais assez ces slaloms qui permettent à des délinquants à col blanc d’extorquer impunément les fonds publics qui devraient servir à sauver de nombreux concitoyens en manque de nourriture, d’eau et de soins de base. Les masses d’argent tirées des ressources minières ne profitent généralement pas à la majorité silencieuse. Un paradoxe africain qui n’étonne guère. Mais aussi un scandale qui doit prendre fin en ce début de millénaire. A croire que les ressources minières n’apportent que misère aux populations africaines. Et il en sera tojours ainsi tant qu’elles ne seront pas utilisées à développer les cultures céréalières.

Let's remember the tension between former heads of state in Niger and the leaders of Areva about the renewal of uranium exploitation contracts [..] We will never denounce sufficiently all these slaloms that allow white collar delinquents to embezzle public funds that should contribute to helping citizens who lack food, water and basic health care. The amount of money from mining resources never benefit the silent majority. An African paradox that does not surprise anymore. However, this scandal must end now at the beginning of the millennium. It's almost as if mining riches only brings misery to African population. It will always be the case until the resources are not used to develop grain fields.

Kathryn Richards at Care shares a few thoughts and testimonies on the "hungry season" as the rural population finds itself in dire needs of animals to herd:

Niger is a country of contrasts. Rich in newly found uranium and oil but its people crushingly poor. [..] Food is readily available in the market – but at an inflated price few can afford. Families are selling off their livestock at reduced prices to buy food. Mohammed Gusnam was one of these people: "It is difficult. As herders we were like princes, proud. Now the pasture land is disappearing and we are stuck in the village. The village is like a prison to me."

The current response to the food crisis, however, seems to be speedier than in 2005. Cyprien Fabre, head of the regional bureau of the European Commission Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) offers the following assessment [fr]:

Des mécanismes d’alerte précoce et d’intervention sont en place dans la plupart des pays touchés, et des fonds ont été alloués rapidement. Les opérations sont en bonne voie au Niger, au Burkina Faso et au Mali. Le Tchad a besoin de plus d’acteurs pour une intervention efficace.

Many alert and intervention systems are in place for most affected countries and funds were allocated accordingly. Operations are well underway in Niger, Burkina-Faso and Mali. Chad needs more agents for an efficient intervention.

Still many organisations believe that the resources are still too slow to arrive. They identify two reasons for the delay: 1) making sure that donors are coming through with funding and 2) the challenges of reaching the population in the most remote areas. Many think that cash disbursement might be faster and more effective for the short run than sending food [fr]:

Au cours de discussions avec les membres des communautés, davantage de personnes ont dit préférer les espèces aux semences. Les communautés ayant accusé les pertes de récoltes les plus importantes ou qui vivent plus loin des marchés tendent à opter pour les semences ; celles qui ont accès aux marchés, ont accusé des pertes de récoltes moins graves, ou ont un accès limité aux terres tendent au contraire à privilégier le cash.

During conversations with the members of the communities, more people said that they'd rather have cash than seeds. The communities that had lost the most crops or those who live the farthest from markets tend to choose seeds; those who have access to markets have not lost as much or those who have limited farming lands tend to favor having cash.
======
Cross-posted at Global Voices

La Francophonie: Diaspora and Development in #Madagascar #Cameroon #Mali

2010-07-08T17:15:00.000-04:00

The diaspora of the developing countries worldwide is often mentioned by development experts as a potential driving factor for poverty reduction and the francophone region is no exception. In fact, two conferences are taking places in the upcoming months in Cameroon and Mali about the role of diaspora in supporting development in their respective countries [fr]. Still, the current suggested policies to promote more involvement from the diaspora are not without controversies and require more channels to facilitate collaborations between all development actors (local NGOs, private sector, international agencies and government).
Farafina outlines the goal of the conference in Mali and how they foresee the diaspora contributing to development in Mali [fr]:

Le Forum Tremplin propose de rencontrer sur leurs stands des entreprises et cabinet de recrutements du Mali, d'Afrique et de France dans les domaines de l'informatique, la banque-assurance, les
industries pour le compte d'entreprises (reconnues), en tout 200 emplois (seront disponibles)

The Forum Tremplin offers a gathering place for companies and recruiting agencies in Mali, Africa and France in the fields of information technology, banking, insurance and other industries for renowned companies. In total, 200 positions (will be available)

The Original African Diaspora by WhiteAfrican- Under CC License

In Cameroon, the conference that will take place in Yaounde from August 11-13th 2010, wants to draw inspiration from diaspora from other African nations [fr]:

Sous le thème, "La diaspora camerounaise, un véritable acteur du développement", il sera question pour les participants, de chercher les voies et moyens pour amener la diaspora camerounaise à s’impliquer davantage dans le processus de développement économique du pays. Pour le MECAM, « à l’instar des pays comme le Mali ou le Sénégal, où l’on sent une réelle implication de la diaspora dans le développement économique, la diaspora camerounaise qui apporte déjà beaucoup, le fera davantage dans un cadre réglementaire »

The theme of the conference is "The Cameroonian diaspora, a true agent of development". The idea is for all participants to find ways and means to bring the diaspora into committing further in the economic development of the country. According to the MECAM (Ministry of Economy and Commerce): just like in Mali or Senegal, where one can feel a true engagement by the diaspora in the economic development, the Cameroonian diaspora is certainly already bringing a lot to the table, but it would be able to do more within the regulated structure.

Net Emigration Map via WorldMapper.org - CC license

In Senegal, Ferdinand Mayega believes that for the Diaspora to effectively help the country, a focus on education and intellectual exchange to augment the knowledge capital and reach the tipping point towards development is key [fr]:

Tout ce challenge doit se faire dans un environnement propice au progrès et aux débats d’idées en associant les universitaires et chercheurs vivant en Afrique. Il peut s’agir de créer des masses critiques, des regroupements ou des pôles d’excellence pour le décollage de l’Afrique.

The challenge is that all of this must happen in an environment that is favorable to progress and to the exchange of ideas and engage scholars and researchers who reside in Africa. It is about reaching a critical mass of centers or hubs with top-notch quality of ideas for Africa to take off.

In a presentation on knowledge management in Morocco, Othmane Bouhali stresses out that there are specific know-hows on grid computing and supra-conductivity the Moroccan diaspora have acquired that they should voluntarily offer to share with others back home [fr]:

faire appel aux différentes compétences de la diaspora marocaine, pour accomplirdes missions, sur place et /ou à distance, en appui ou dans le cadre des programmes de développement de leur pays d’origine, sur la base du volontariat et d’un engagement déontologique.

One must call onto the various expertises of the Moroccan diaspora to accomplish missions, on site or remotely, to support or within the structure of development program in their country of origin. This must be done on voluntary basis driven by a commitment based on deontology.

The role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in development through which most diaspora operate, have been intensely debated in Haiti, especially as the country is embattled in the recovery process after the recent catastrophic earthquake. Alice Baker reports on a recent conference, Cardicis, that offered a few policy suggestions on the role of NGOs [fr]:

They explained that the larger NGOs have no interest in involving the Haitian government which hurts Haiti and its people. And the kicker: someone suggested NGOs should be nationalized to make them part of a government led system. The government could then coordinate and oversee the reconstruction effort while regaining a central role.

Similar to Haiti, Sipakv notes that the role of diaspora for Madagascar has always been debated intensively, given its relatively important size. She also remarks that, just like the proposal in Haiti, the African Union suggested that NGOs could be represented in some kind of governmental capacity [fr]:

Il paraitrait que la diaspora a bien un role a jouer, l’Union Africaine le dit dans son Report of the conferences of the Diaspora and African NGOs on the popularization of science and technology, disponible ici:

"Providing human and technical resources;
Lobbying governments, institutions, and foundations to support the programs;
Being represented in government structures; (aha !)
Providing advice on policies and technical issues;
and Participating in networks to benefit communities and nations in the Diaspora"

...Assez controversee quand meme le fait de recommander a la diaspora d’etre integree dans les structures gouvernementales. Je n’ose meme pas penser aux implementations concretes d’une telle directive.

It appears that the diaspora has a role to play in development, the African Union says so in its Report of the conferences of the Diaspora and African NGOs on the popularization of science and technology, available here:
"Providing human and technical resources;
Lobbying governments, institutions, and foundations to support the programs;
Being represented in government structures; (aha !)
Providing advice on policies and technical issues;
and Participating in networks to benefit communities and nations in the Diaspora"
... It is a bit controversial for them to suggest that the diaspora should be integrated in the governmental structures. I don't even want to think about the practical implications of such initiatives.

There is some ideas to be explored further there says Apolo Ndyabahika on a post entitled "What Africa Needs" on Project Diaspora . The only way diaspora can effectively help with investment in projects back home is if government build the foundations of solid legislative regulations to reassure the diaspora and other investors:

our governments are starting to realize the importance of good legislation that protects local and foreign investments. As African countries work to lure investors to our lands we are challenged by investors to have strong property rights to protect their investments. Tanzania is in the process of working to use investment bonds to fund massive infrastructure project like a multi-billion dollar railway line to Rwanda. A limitation to this and other international investment is their weak legislation.

The controversial idea of NGOs getting more integrated with government work is not as big of a controversy when compared to the reactions towards economist Romer's proposal for reducing global poverty, recently published in the Atlantic journal. The fragile legislative structure of some developing countries is also at the core of Romer's argument that advocates for creating cities within countries that would be under the administration of foreign entities in order to give them more control over their investments. Romer proposed such projects to be implemented in Madagascar with the leasing of large amounts of farm lands to foreign entities and it may have played a role in the ensuing political crisis:

Romer made his pitch for a charter city, and Ravalomanana responded that he wasn’t sure one was enough; if Romer could identify two rich countries willing to play the role of government trustee, it might be better to launch two parallel experiments.[..] Barely a year after launching his venture, Romer was on the brink of a rare coup: a nation of 20 million people was about to embrace a neo-medieval, neo-colonial scheme untested in the modern history of development. But then a different sort of coup occurred—the kind of coup, unfortunately, that underscores the obstacles to Romer’s project.

Teddy MS Ruge, founder of Project Diaspora, was not pleased with Romer's idea and the all-too-common assumption that foreign groups would know better how to develop a country and overlook local talents and the diaspora. He asks on twitter about Romer's proposal and the situation in Madagascar:

Ruge's question is certainly pertinent to the debate on strategy for poverty reduction from all around the developing world and the empowerment of their citizens. It also remains unclear why some regions have lagged behind others when it comes to harnessing the potential of their respective diaspora to stimulate development.

[This article is cross-posted on Global Voices]

#WorldCup: An African coping with Ghana's Cruel Loss

2010-07-02T22:11:00.001-04:00

Yeah I know, it a just a game, even if it's a beautiful one.

I probably should not be writing about Ghana's loss because the pain I feel is nothing compared to the heart break over there in Ghana. But our support, as Africans, was unconditional and our pride, as the Black Stars bid the world cup farewell, is immense. And like Cameroon against England in 1990, another loss in the 1/4 final in additional time for an African team after taking the lead.

Ghana lost in the most cruel way possible and a whole continent shed tears with Gyan, the unfortunate hero of a valiant team, a united team who gave it their all.

Gyan was magnificent before the historical loss against Uruguay, he was heroic during the game, playing his heart out on two bum ankles and then he missed the "unmissable" kick, the penalty kick that would have sent the continent to the top 4 in the final seconds.
It was a scenario straight out of a greek tragedy, a few inches too high, inches too close to heaven.

Despair city, a whole continent gasping in disbelief.

Then came the dreaded penalty kick. I hate those but what a test for one's mettle.

The first guy who comes out from Ghana, is against all odds you guessed it, Gyan. I don't even want to know what goes through his mind as he walked to take the kick.
He kicks it with no hesitation and scores.

The pain is still there after he scores though, because he knows he needed the first one in the worst way.

The rest of the contest is history. Uruguay makes them as Mensah misses his, totally worn out physically by the battle. Congratulations to Uruguay, talented team who deserved to go continue.

The lesson learned here is the important story. Gyan got punched in the gut in the worst possible way, failing the hopes of billions of people. And yet, he turned around right away and focused himself enough to kick the perfect penalty, the one that should have been.

Gyan could have declined to kick, fearing what another failed kick could do to him, his career and his country. There was little to gain and so much to lose in kicking again.

But Gyan what we wish most of our leaders on the continent would do. He did not shy away from doing the right thing, he stepped up, ready to take the blame, yet again, knowing what it could cost him.

Maybe the fairy tale was not meant to be for Africa, not yet at least. Maybe the road to success is paved with these incredibly cruel losses. Gyan showed us how we should face yet another setback.

Pick ourselves up, try again and again. Gyan was inconsolable at the end and I could not help but shed a tear with him. Yes, it's just a game and why in the world would a guy care so much about Ghana, when Takoradi is the closest he's ever been to it ?

Because the Black Stars truly united the whole continent. They played as one so we rooted as one. They made many mistakes but they also had many moments of brilliance and never let go of the hope. They danced together and embraced the support of the whole continent and dedicated their victory to us.

So this Malagasy guy thank you for the lesson in courage, Ghana. If only your effort can inspire African leadership across the continent and show them how to handle adversity with character, maybe this loss would not be in vain after all.

Of Independence Day Celebrations in #Madagascar

2010-06-24T09:05:00.000-04:00

Madagascar 50th Independence Day Anniversary is on June 26th and the festivities are already underway . In spite of a star-studded line-up of international entertainers, the atmosphere is not exactly festive because of the political uncertainty and the economic hardship that resulted from the 18 month-long crisis.

Raising the flag and lighting up lanterns to celebrate independence are an enduring tradition in Madagascar around this time but it seems that there are less flags this year for various reasons. The atmosphere was further dampen by the death of a pedestrian who got run over by a motorist for the presidential cortège [fr].

The festivities have certainly overtaken mainstream media but several bloggers wonder whether it is justified to have a costly celebration in times of economic uncertainty and mass malnutrition in the southern region. Many Malagasies have enjoyed the entertainment, a welcome respite from the everyday grind.

Many bloggers opined on the issue. Ndimby recalls the famous words of a Roman statesman and wonders what happened to the promises of less public spending [fr]:

on se demande où sont passé les grands slogans lancés sur la Place du 13 mai contre le gaspillage des deniers publics pour des futilités ? Sans doute est-ce le prix à payer pour que le DJ Andry TGV puisse marquer à sa manière de son empreinte la vie nationale. C’est donc l’occasion de lui rappeler ces mots de Cicéron : « Plus on est placé haut, plus on doit se montrer humble ».

One wonders where have all they gone, all the slogans about less public money spending that were shouted at the Place du 13 mai? Maybe that is the price to pay for Andry TGV, the deejay to mark with his own imprint national history. This might be a good time to remind him of Marcus Tellius Cicero's words:" The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk"

[/

Blogger Randy argues on his facebook page that Independence Day does not belong to any political party and that he is glad to see foreign artists come honor Madagascar [fr]:

ému en voyant le rapper américain Big Ali entrer sur scène drapé du drapeau national malgache. Il s'en est jamais séparé tout au long du show [..] La fête de l'indépendance n'appartient à personne. le drapeau national, tout comme l'hymne, fait partie des institutions sacrées de la République que chaque citoyen doit respecter indépendamment des dirigeants.

(I was) moved to see the american rapper Big Ali enter the scene draped with a Malagasy flag. It never left him during the whole show [..] Independence Day does not belong to anyone. The national flag, like the anthem, is part of the sacred institutions of the republic that each citizens should respect independently of the people currently in charge.

As independence day approaches, several criminal trials related to the turmoils of the past year are underway in Antananarivo.
10 radio journalists have been imprisoned since mid-may [fr]. As many bloggers pondered about the meaning of the 50th anniversary of independence for many francophone countries, Basyvava turns to domestic affairs and wonders out loud whether the justice system in Madagascar can be called "independent" [mg]:

Fitsarana izay niniana natao amin’izao ankatoky ny fankalazana ny faha-50 nahazoana ny fahaleovantenam-pirenena izao. Ny eo anivon’ny fitondranana FAT no hita toa namaritra ity daty hanaovana ny fitsarana ity, izay heverin’ny mpanarabaovao, fa fitsabahana mivantana amin’ny asan’ny fitsarana eto amintsika.

The trials are scheduled around the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the independence day. The leaders of the HAT (the transitional government) seem to have selected this date and therefore one has to wonder whether the judicial system is really independent in our country.

Finally, in this milestone year and given the past turmoils. Mitiyu wonders whether this "democracy", that every Malagasy politicians seems to claim as their ultimate goal, is it really worth it for countries like Madagascar [fr] ?:

On parle souvent d’élection, une manifestation de la démocratie. Si nous analysons les issus de certaines élections et l’impact social, économique ou politique de certaines élections à Madagascar on peut se demander si on a réellement besoin de la démocratie car en fin de compte on lave le cerveau du peuple « manipulé », on leur explique qu’ils sont malheureux et on leur demande de descendre dans la rue au nom de la démocratie.
Avec la démocratie, on met aussi en avant la liberté d’expression. Est-ce que cette liberté d’expression existe-t-elle à Madagascar ou est-ce qu’on doit toujours se cacher derrière une autre identité ou sous la ligne éditoriale imposée par le patron de presse pour mieux s’exprimer en toute quiétude?

We often talk of elections, as a product of democracy. If we analyze the results of some elections and their social, economic and political impact, one wonders whether we really need democracy as we can just brainwash and "manipulate" the people, you tell them they are unhappy and we ask them to go the streets in the name of democracy.
With democracy, one also need to talk about freedom of speech. Is there a true freedom of speech in Madagascar or do we always have to hide behind a secret identity or an editorial line imposed by the director of press to express ourselves?

[Cross-posted on Global Voices ]

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