Sunday, September 25, 2011
Off the Grid
Last post before I leave for my 2nd homestay of the semester. We are going to stay in rural villages and it is said to be one of the most intense things we will encounter here. Not to say it will be bad, many students love it, but I don’t think it will be easy. I was going to tell you guys what I know about it but instead I will just say this – I am not going to have internet access for the next 10 days and it is very rare that my telephone will work, so I hope nothing that urgent comes up. You will have to wait to hear about this upcoming experience!!!!
Saturday, September 24, 2011
My Walk Home Cont'd
9/23 Friday evening and I just got home a bit ago from my first walk home! It took about 75 minutes to get from our program center, which is located in the North part of the city-center, to my house located in a southern neighborhood removed from the center. I brought my camera along and this post will just describe the pictures in more detail than their titles.
First up is the taxi-be that I take to and from school everyday: the 139! It is usually red like in the first picture but there are a few out there that are hot pink and purple as seen in photo 2. Some have a sliding door on the side that you enter from while others have one that opens in the back. No matter the type of car, all taxi-bes have a driver and another worker who’s job is to collect the bus fare as well as call out where the bus is going and which stop is coming up. When you arrive you tell the worker “misy miala” and he alerts the driver to stop so you can get off. The smaller ones are made for 12 people not including children sitting on laps and the bigger for 16 but in reality full capacity is closer to 20 and 22 respectively.
Nabbed a picture of one of the taxis here as well. They are generally very old (some even 30+ years old) and may or may not require being hotwired each time they are started. Gas is extremely expensive so filling up the tank is extremely uncommon – much more likely is driving around near empty with an extra water bottle filled with gasoline under the driver’s seat in case the passenger has requested a long drive. Also worth noting, they are unmetered and you must agree/bargain a price before getting in. That means that the price goes up if you are a vazaha or if it is late at night etc… Worst taxi that I have taken was the one that required I hold the door closed while we drove.
Antananarivo is a very spread out city with essentially no planning. There are main roads that you can take but the city is filled with staircases everywhere you look. Some are big, some are narrow, some cement, some dirt, some lead to private residences, others are shortcuts. The only way to know where a staircase takes you is to try it out. The next few pictures are just a few examples of some staircases I passed by.
The concept of a store is very loose here. There are traditional stores that rent space in a building but the Malagasy are also extremely creative in their building practices and can set up shop just about anywhere.
The rest of the pictures are just random sights and views that I found interesting. A woman standing in front of a more legitimate store with her baby tied to her back via a traditional piece of Malagasy clothing called a “lamba” also balancing a large bag on her head as she walks home. A kid in a rice paddy. A few examples of nicer cement buildings and the backyard/dryer of a group of houses. The chain of gas station that has my favorite color way of the 3. The view from a block or two from my house; I usually come home around sunset and this view is even better when the sky is pink and orange. A barbed wire fence covered in beautiful flowers. And finally, one of the many chickens I encountered that roam the city.
First up is the taxi-be that I take to and from school everyday: the 139! It is usually red like in the first picture but there are a few out there that are hot pink and purple as seen in photo 2. Some have a sliding door on the side that you enter from while others have one that opens in the back. No matter the type of car, all taxi-bes have a driver and another worker who’s job is to collect the bus fare as well as call out where the bus is going and which stop is coming up. When you arrive you tell the worker “misy miala” and he alerts the driver to stop so you can get off. The smaller ones are made for 12 people not including children sitting on laps and the bigger for 16 but in reality full capacity is closer to 20 and 22 respectively.
Nabbed a picture of one of the taxis here as well. They are generally very old (some even 30+ years old) and may or may not require being hotwired each time they are started. Gas is extremely expensive so filling up the tank is extremely uncommon – much more likely is driving around near empty with an extra water bottle filled with gasoline under the driver’s seat in case the passenger has requested a long drive. Also worth noting, they are unmetered and you must agree/bargain a price before getting in. That means that the price goes up if you are a vazaha or if it is late at night etc… Worst taxi that I have taken was the one that required I hold the door closed while we drove.
Antananarivo is a very spread out city with essentially no planning. There are main roads that you can take but the city is filled with staircases everywhere you look. Some are big, some are narrow, some cement, some dirt, some lead to private residences, others are shortcuts. The only way to know where a staircase takes you is to try it out. The next few pictures are just a few examples of some staircases I passed by.
The concept of a store is very loose here. There are traditional stores that rent space in a building but the Malagasy are also extremely creative in their building practices and can set up shop just about anywhere.
The rest of the pictures are just random sights and views that I found interesting. A woman standing in front of a more legitimate store with her baby tied to her back via a traditional piece of Malagasy clothing called a “lamba” also balancing a large bag on her head as she walks home. A kid in a rice paddy. A few examples of nicer cement buildings and the backyard/dryer of a group of houses. The chain of gas station that has my favorite color way of the 3. The view from a block or two from my house; I usually come home around sunset and this view is even better when the sky is pink and orange. A barbed wire fence covered in beautiful flowers. And finally, one of the many chickens I encountered that roam the city.
My Walk Home
My Walk Home, a set on Flickr.
Last Friday was a beautiful day and we got the afternoon off. I decided to walk home and see the city a little bit. Took about 75 minutes, so I estimate about 3 miles, maybe more. Knowing my sense of direction, I literally just walked the bus route back, not sure if it was quickest, or had least turns (dad...) but I made it.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Politics in Madagascar
This will probably be my most boring post for most of my readers but I am an International Political Economy major, so it is interesting to me. Plus, nothing too eventful has happened this week since I returned from Vatomandry (editors note: “nothing too eventful” means I do not have any full stories to tell. In the scheme of an American day, there have been plenty of eventful days, but if I kept that frame of reference, I would ALWAYS be writing on here…). That being said, I wanted to give you guys a brief history of the politics here and the current situation as well. Not sure how much you already know, but I will assume it is nothing, sorry.
I would like to start off by saying that in Madagascar’s history – as a monarchy before colonization, as a French colony, and as an independent state – they have never experienced a transition of power via democratic election. Not once have the people in power giving said authority to the winner of a democratic election. I would also like to add as a general fact that since Madagascar gained its independence in 1960, every president has changed the constitution to benefit themselves and their party, therefore stripping it of its value as a political force. The leader of Madagascar, from royal monarch through current president, has traditionally enjoyed too much power with very weak systems of checks and balance in place. There is also a strong pattern of political parties losing all influence once their president is out of office and thus, no oppositional party is ever able to do anything.
This is just meant to be a brief history so I am going to skip most of the past, until 2002 when the last president, Mark Ravolamanana, took over. He was a very business oriented president and actually did quite a bit for development. He helped stimulate the agriculture here and decreased poverty by about 20-25% in his first 5 years in office. However, he had a lot of close personal ties to big business in Madagascar and began blurring the lines of politics and economics. He helped create monopolies and used his position as president for personal gain. A final straw was placed when he began negotiations with a Korean (I believe) company about selling land to them. It is currently illegal for any non-Malagasy people to own land here and that, among other things, started the protests.
He was eventually forced to handover power to the military and flee to South Africa. There are plenty of articles on the events that went on during the 2009 political crisis, for anyone interested, I’m sure a simple google search will yield more than you can read. The military then aligned with Andry Rajoelina and his newly formed TGV party. Rajoelina was appointed the president in 2009 and is still in power now, as the alleged “popular” choice. He was, and is, too young to be President according to the constitution so one of his first acts was lowering the minimum age to 35. From what I have gathered, from talking to my host family and an admittedly small section of Malgasy people, is that he is not too popular here. For one, crime and poverty have gone up in the last few years along with the price of most everything because of their need to import so much these days.
In his defense, about 80% of the economy is “informal” meaning that it is unregulated by the government and therefore untaxed. The informal economy includes subsidence farming and street vending, just to give a couple examples. Before Rajoelina took over, about 75% of the government budget came from foreign aid from the US, Europe and other countries. However, since the ’09 crisis, the givers fail to recognize this “popular” government and have cut off all non-humanitarian aid to Madagascar. I do not know enough to make judgments on his term but I cannot imagine any government would be effective if it lost ¾ of its budget instantly.
There are elections scheduled to take place early next year but it is almost certain that some controversy or opposition to the results will arise. In addition, the Malagasy people seem less and less interested in politics. Especially after their last political demonstrations in ’09 were met with bullets from the army – many were in disbelief that the government would shed Malagasy blood and the blame feel on Ravalomanana forcing him to flee.
So there is a very brief and very gap-filled history of Madagascar’s current political situation.
I would like to start off by saying that in Madagascar’s history – as a monarchy before colonization, as a French colony, and as an independent state – they have never experienced a transition of power via democratic election. Not once have the people in power giving said authority to the winner of a democratic election. I would also like to add as a general fact that since Madagascar gained its independence in 1960, every president has changed the constitution to benefit themselves and their party, therefore stripping it of its value as a political force. The leader of Madagascar, from royal monarch through current president, has traditionally enjoyed too much power with very weak systems of checks and balance in place. There is also a strong pattern of political parties losing all influence once their president is out of office and thus, no oppositional party is ever able to do anything.
This is just meant to be a brief history so I am going to skip most of the past, until 2002 when the last president, Mark Ravolamanana, took over. He was a very business oriented president and actually did quite a bit for development. He helped stimulate the agriculture here and decreased poverty by about 20-25% in his first 5 years in office. However, he had a lot of close personal ties to big business in Madagascar and began blurring the lines of politics and economics. He helped create monopolies and used his position as president for personal gain. A final straw was placed when he began negotiations with a Korean (I believe) company about selling land to them. It is currently illegal for any non-Malagasy people to own land here and that, among other things, started the protests.
He was eventually forced to handover power to the military and flee to South Africa. There are plenty of articles on the events that went on during the 2009 political crisis, for anyone interested, I’m sure a simple google search will yield more than you can read. The military then aligned with Andry Rajoelina and his newly formed TGV party. Rajoelina was appointed the president in 2009 and is still in power now, as the alleged “popular” choice. He was, and is, too young to be President according to the constitution so one of his first acts was lowering the minimum age to 35. From what I have gathered, from talking to my host family and an admittedly small section of Malgasy people, is that he is not too popular here. For one, crime and poverty have gone up in the last few years along with the price of most everything because of their need to import so much these days.
In his defense, about 80% of the economy is “informal” meaning that it is unregulated by the government and therefore untaxed. The informal economy includes subsidence farming and street vending, just to give a couple examples. Before Rajoelina took over, about 75% of the government budget came from foreign aid from the US, Europe and other countries. However, since the ’09 crisis, the givers fail to recognize this “popular” government and have cut off all non-humanitarian aid to Madagascar. I do not know enough to make judgments on his term but I cannot imagine any government would be effective if it lost ¾ of its budget instantly.
There are elections scheduled to take place early next year but it is almost certain that some controversy or opposition to the results will arise. In addition, the Malagasy people seem less and less interested in politics. Especially after their last political demonstrations in ’09 were met with bullets from the army – many were in disbelief that the government would shed Malagasy blood and the blame feel on Ravalomanana forcing him to flee.
So there is a very brief and very gap-filled history of Madagascar’s current political situation.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Beach Life
9/18 The kids on this trip and I have been referring to the USA as “real life” and the trip to Vatomandry confirmed that this was not real life. We stayed in bungalows literally ON the beach. It was unreal that our classroom had been replaced by a huge wall-less pavilion with banana leaf roof that gave us a view of the Indian Ocean and kept us cool when it got hot during the day. In the morning, we would have class for a couple hours to keep up on our French and Malagasy studies (with a break to lay in the sun for a bit) and we would then just explore the town of Vatomandry each afternoon. It was so nice to leave the pollution of Tana and finally get some fresh air!
SIT organized a visit to a government building there where we got to learn a little bit about local politics but the coolest part was that the people were so nice there. Always friendly and smiling and willing to “talk” (talk is in quotes because the language barrier usually mad it tough for both sides to truly understand). We got to go swimming in the Indian Ocean every day although the waves were always huge and the water was very strong; it was still fun to jump around for a bit until we became exhausted.
It wasn’t cyclone season but they are very common in the Vatomandry area later in the year and you could definitely see the effects on the community. Most of the buildings were made of just wood and sometimes cinderblocks with banana leaf ceilings, these structures are weaker but easier to repair than the cement counterparts that were sometimes used. My friends and I found a public school that was made of about 10 buildings until a cyclone 3 years ago destroyed 7-8 of them. Now they still use the 2-3 that are okay but the remains of 8 destroyed buildings still stand next to the school, mostly being used for extremely vulgar and graphic graffiti.
Yesterday, we drove back to Tana, but first, a couple of my friends and I woke up early to watch the sunrise since we were on the East Coast and got to watch it over the water. The drive usually takes about 8-ish hours but we stopped for lunch on the way as well. Plus, it was along a curvy road, similar to Highway 1 north of San Francisco for those who have that point of reference, and 3 of the students ended up getting sick on that drive back. Overall though, it was a really nice week, one that I am still kind of in disbelief that I experienced. Did I really spend the last week walking through rainforests, seeing wild lemurs, and living on the beach??
When I chose to study Madagascar, I did not put much though into the fact that it is a tropical island but I am learning that is more like that than it is like Africa. Not saying that is bad or good, just something I hadn’t really though about.
I am writing this on 9/18 as it says on the top and plan on posting it on 9/19, so I will say, GO NINERS!!!
SIT organized a visit to a government building there where we got to learn a little bit about local politics but the coolest part was that the people were so nice there. Always friendly and smiling and willing to “talk” (talk is in quotes because the language barrier usually mad it tough for both sides to truly understand). We got to go swimming in the Indian Ocean every day although the waves were always huge and the water was very strong; it was still fun to jump around for a bit until we became exhausted.
It wasn’t cyclone season but they are very common in the Vatomandry area later in the year and you could definitely see the effects on the community. Most of the buildings were made of just wood and sometimes cinderblocks with banana leaf ceilings, these structures are weaker but easier to repair than the cement counterparts that were sometimes used. My friends and I found a public school that was made of about 10 buildings until a cyclone 3 years ago destroyed 7-8 of them. Now they still use the 2-3 that are okay but the remains of 8 destroyed buildings still stand next to the school, mostly being used for extremely vulgar and graphic graffiti.
Yesterday, we drove back to Tana, but first, a couple of my friends and I woke up early to watch the sunrise since we were on the East Coast and got to watch it over the water. The drive usually takes about 8-ish hours but we stopped for lunch on the way as well. Plus, it was along a curvy road, similar to Highway 1 north of San Francisco for those who have that point of reference, and 3 of the students ended up getting sick on that drive back. Overall though, it was a really nice week, one that I am still kind of in disbelief that I experienced. Did I really spend the last week walking through rainforests, seeing wild lemurs, and living on the beach??
When I chose to study Madagascar, I did not put much though into the fact that it is a tropical island but I am learning that is more like that than it is like Africa. Not saying that is bad or good, just something I hadn’t really though about.
I am writing this on 9/18 as it says on the top and plan on posting it on 9/19, so I will say, GO NINERS!!!
Last Week's Excursion Part 1 - Rainforests & Lemurs
9/18 Back in Tana after an amazing week driving to the East coast of the island! Last Tuesday we made half to the journey and stopped in Andasibe for the night. In the morning we stopped at a memorial and got to visit a police museum. The museum was in memory of a massacre that the French committed on March 29th, 1947. They rounded up a lot of people, I do not remember the amount, who were believed to be rebels against the French and placed them on a train. When the train got to Andasibe/Moromanga, it was gunned down and the people were killed; their remains were not returned to any families and so they were unable to be buried in family tombs, which is terrible in traditional Malagasy culture. So a big tomb and memorial was constructed there.
Afterwards we went to a museum at the Police Academy and got to learn a little more about the history of Madagascar as well as see some of the training tools and confiscated materials. That night we stayed in Andasibe, which is a tiny town that shuts down by about 8:00 PM. Our hotel was made of three buildings that were not connected in any way nor did they look similar. The restaurant/offices were down the block and the two building that housed people were across a lot from one another. In general the Malagasy people go to sleep and wake up quite early but here particularly, the town passed out quickly. We went on a night hike in hopes of seeing some nocturnal animals but only saw a couple tiny lizards and it started raining pretty hard.
On Wednesday, we got to go to a national park and see wild lemurs for the first time! We walked through the rainforest that housed 11 kinds of lemurs, lots of reptiles, bugs, plants and so on for a few hours in the morning with a guide who was able to take us off trail a bit. We saw some cool bugs, chameleons, snakes and 3 types of lemurs (2 of which I got pictures of) and all types of plants. Pretty crazy that so many animals that live on Madagascar are ONLY found here. The most common lemur there is the Indry Indry, which is black and white, pretty big and very loud. I recorded a video as I was walking just so you guys could hear what those things sound like! Got some pictures I will post too.
After lunch we got back in the bus to finish our trek to the coast.
Afterwards we went to a museum at the Police Academy and got to learn a little more about the history of Madagascar as well as see some of the training tools and confiscated materials. That night we stayed in Andasibe, which is a tiny town that shuts down by about 8:00 PM. Our hotel was made of three buildings that were not connected in any way nor did they look similar. The restaurant/offices were down the block and the two building that housed people were across a lot from one another. In general the Malagasy people go to sleep and wake up quite early but here particularly, the town passed out quickly. We went on a night hike in hopes of seeing some nocturnal animals but only saw a couple tiny lizards and it started raining pretty hard.
On Wednesday, we got to go to a national park and see wild lemurs for the first time! We walked through the rainforest that housed 11 kinds of lemurs, lots of reptiles, bugs, plants and so on for a few hours in the morning with a guide who was able to take us off trail a bit. We saw some cool bugs, chameleons, snakes and 3 types of lemurs (2 of which I got pictures of) and all types of plants. Pretty crazy that so many animals that live on Madagascar are ONLY found here. The most common lemur there is the Indry Indry, which is black and white, pretty big and very loud. I recorded a video as I was walking just so you guys could hear what those things sound like! Got some pictures I will post too.
After lunch we got back in the bus to finish our trek to the coast.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Don't know how to only update the new pics
BenjaCohn's photostream on Flickr.
so here are all my pics with some new ones. if there is a link to my flickr, there arew descriptions up there. leave a comment for any clarification you ant and ill try and respond
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)