Gaelle Mann writes that Malagasy-born designer Loumia Hiridjee and her husband Mourad Amrasy were among the casualties of the attacks at the Oberoi Restaurant in Mumbai (fr). Loumia Hiridjee, 47, had a dual Indian/ French citizenship and created with her sister Shama the successful lingerie brand princesse tam-tam (fr). The couple is survived by their three children.
Mahefa Rakotomalala writes at L'express de Madagascar that the alleged land deal with South Korean company Daewoo has been officially rejected by the Malagasy government. The minister of land reform explained in a press release to local newspapers that anyone can request to lease an unlimited amount of land but it has to be approved by the state cabinet (fr).
South Korea has just leased half of all the arable land in Madagascar according to the Financial Times. This has stirred quite a debate in the Malagasy blogosphere about land sovereignty and economic development. It is still unclear whether the land deal has actually been signed by both parties. Meanwhile, bloggers are arguing whether this sort of deal should be considered “neo-colonialism”.
Here is an overview of what is know so far.
Dotmg announces that the free Malagasy spell checker he has been developing is now operational. The software, which is, as far as I know the first of its kind, is:”opensource, and is released under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 (or above). It is part of a larger project called tsipelina, and the project is available on tsipelina.sourceforge.net. It requires PHP and a webserver, as it is written in PHP.”
As the economic crisis continue to worsen, both US presidential candidates, European leaders and heads of international organizations predict that international aid will have to be reduced.
Ethan writes about reporting from remote parts of Africa :”How do we get stories from places like Ilakaka, remote locations in Africa with no permanent press presence? Historically, we’d have to wait for something bad to happen - a mining disaster, an outbreak of disease. I see the photos in the Globe as evidence of what might be a healthier form of storytelling - a picture of a place that’s fascinating, whether or not it’s especially “newsworthy” today. The gembloggers are an interesting complement to this sort of reporting.
The type of water conditions these programs are attempting to address, photo: McKay Savage.
Noel blogs about the use of solar power in rural clinics in Madagascar: “Solar power has been given to these clinics four years ago and people have become very thankful. After all, rural clinics in the country actually do see around 400 patients each month. That’s a huge amount of patients. And when some emergency arises, it’s good to have electricity.”
Andry is a new blogger from Madagascar. He describes himself as “the cyber observer”: “My name is Andry Rakotoniaina Andriatahiana and I am Malagasy. I am a lawyer, more specifically I work as a legal counsel for an International business and taxation law firm located in Antananarivo, capital of Madagascar.”
Dago Tiako describes street activities in Madagascar: “Suddenly, you notice lots of people making a circle. You think there must be an accident. You come nearer to se what’s going on. In the middle of the circle, there is a man almost nude (he is wearing only a little pair of shorts). He marks out lots of lines or drawings on the ground. He tells something about life, the future or the meaning of dreams.”
Dago Tiako describes street activities in Madagascar: “Suddenly, you notice lots of people making a circle. You think there must be an accident. You come nearer to se what’s going on. In the middle of the circle, there is a man almost nude (he is wearing only a little pair of shorts). He marks out lots of lines or drawings on the ground. He tells something about life, the future or the meaning of dreams.”
The Malagasy blogosphere is unanimous in saluting the passing of Rado, the renowned Malagasy poet.
Jentilisa writes a detailed biography :
“Zanaka mpitandrina ny tenany, teraka tamin'ny 1 oktobra 1923 (tapabolana sisa manko) ary Ankadivato ilay fonenana nahalehibe azy. Notezaina tanatin'ny fitiavana an'Andriamanitra sy ny tanindrazana tahaka ireo hafa novolavolaina tanaty lasitra protestanta nandritra ny fanjanahantany”
Source: Global Voices OnlineBookmark/Search this post with:
David Sasaki loves Madagascar, an island in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. And he is not the only one…
In an article published in March, economists William Easterly and Yaw Nyarko noted that in Sub-Saharan Africa, remittances (money sent by immigrants abroad back to their home countries) on average amounted to 81 percent of the foreign aid received by an individual country.
Gildas Le Lidec, the French ambassador to Madagascar, astounded his audience at the July 14th celebration last week by announcing that he was leaving his post after only six months:
Je regrette profondément que le président de la République de Madagascar ne m'ait pas accordé la moindre chance pour pouvoir remplir l'exaltante mission dont je rêvais depuis longtemps.
Source: Global Voices OnlineBookmark/Search this post with:
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