Things foreigners like in Madagascar

I have asked a few foreigners I know who have been here in Madagascar 3 things they like here. Here are the answers I have received:

Claire Ulrich:

I like the color of the ground, the “Rouge Madagascar” – “Red Madagascar”, Malagasy chameleons, small and big ones, the straw round hats, and then certain air there, which speaks to me about my childhood, about my father who had discreetly worked for a long time in Malagasy countryside , and of all those people I met , formerly, and recently, by returning there.

Christi Turner:

I love street coffee, and how wonderful a way it is to meet and get to know people, absorb the rhythms of daily life in whatever town you’re in, catch up on news….I love frippery! the endless used clothing markets of Tana made me realize that I actually love shopping, which i hate to do in america — but when it’s this much fun and crazy and surprising and cheap, and recycled too!, how can you not feel great about it?

kanefa indrindra ndreky, zaho tia mikoragna am’teny gasy e!

meaning: but most of all i love speaking Malagasy (and speaking like a northerner!), being made to feel like I’m a real part of the community through sharing in the language, and discovering things about the Malagasy people and culture that I would never imagine understanding without knowing Malagasy.

Lia Naficova:

the wonderful welcomeness of the Malagasy people.I second the frippery!
 

mofo gasy.

ravitoto.

the abundance of the exotic fruits.

the setting down of the sun, either on the mountains, on the rainforest, on the landscape of Tana, or of Morondava

the warmth and the mystery.
there’s definitely no place like it!

and then added

I can go on for days.

Ashley Cee:

friendly people, taxibe, mofogasy 😉

Martina Lippuner:

I don’t only like but love: – the variety of fruits and veggies – the mentality of improvising, help yourself with what you have and make the best of every situation – henakisoa sy ravitoto – te variety of landscape, biodiversity but also cultural differences – the fact that i learnt something interesting every day – chatting with people on the market – good beer 🙂 – zebu steaks – the weather (even now… 😉 )

Well, those were a few more than three, sorry! hard to decide on only three things 🙂

Brett Bruen:

Madagascar has the most unique environment in the world. It has fascinating biodiversity, mix of cultures and natural resources.

I will update this post if I receive more answers. And anyone is welcome to also share the things they like in Madagascar.

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 7,700 times in 2010. That’s about 19 full 747s.

 

In 2010, there were 20 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 133 posts. There were 74 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 158mb. That’s about 1 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was January 12th with 84 views. The most popular post that day was Gasigasy: Vary amin’anana sy kitoza.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were fijery.wordpress.com, ariniaina.com, facebook.com, twitter.com, and friendfeed.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for homeless people, homeless people on the streets, lemur, malagasy people, and tsimbazaza zoo.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Gasigasy: Vary amin’anana sy kitoza January 2010
7 comments

2

Homeless people sleeping in the streets July 2009
6 comments

3

Madagascar: a place to go in 2009 says New York Times January 2009
5 comments

4

Visit at the zoo of Tsimbazaza May 2009
11 comments

Survey result on the Constitutional referendum #Madagascar

I recently made a little survey about the Constitutional referendum of 11/17 in Madagascar. I was not sure if I would write something about it since only 15 people replied to the online survey (which is now closed) and 16 other people on paper. Well, I finally decided to share the result in this post because I value everyone’s opinion.

The first question was: Are you going to vote?

25.8% said YES; 64.5% said NO and 9.7% said they did not know yet at the moment of the survey.

YES, they wanted to vote because it is their right and their duty to do so. So that they would be able to express their voice. One person said that they did not really want to vote but they heard that there would be a sanction for those who would not come.

For the NO side, the reason can be divided into 3 groups. The first group said that they would not have time for this, they would not be able to do this (because they live abroad), they were not interested in it, or they did not feel concerned, they did not understand the reason of this referendum, it was just nonsense. The second group is people who believed that this referendum was a way to legalize the current regime, and the YES is anyway sure to win. The third group is convinced that the current situation of Madagascar, the political crisis and the social problems are not convenient for an election now and would not bring proper solutions to all the issues. 

The second questions were: Would you vote for the Constitutional referendum? Why?

Unfortunately, the only one person who said would vote for the Constitutional referendum did not give more detail about their choice.

Some of the people who said no for the first question still answered this second one restating the same reasons they had mentioned above. Some were against the Constitutional referendum because they were not for Andry Rajoelina’s regime, the HAT government. Some others did not believe in better changes for Madagascar in this new Constitution, some even added that it would just be for the benefit of Andry Rajoelina and it would bring too much power to the existing executive administration. Other people did not agree with some new texts of laws proposed in this Constitution.

Two people said they would make a blank vote because they did not really know what to choose, what this Constitution was about and that they would not want to regret if they would have made the wrong choice.

The third question was: What would you like to say more about this Constitutional referendum?

We received 7 responses to this last question.

1. Citizens should be aware of what the referendum is really about. I wish that they dedicate more budget on information campaigns than propaganda. Would there be transparency and honesty?

2. Those who will not go voting are coward people.

3. This referendum is a waste of time and money.

4. (abusive message)

5. For me it is just for the form but there is no concrete thing in it.

6. I wish that the referendum would be a complete failure.

7. This election will bring positive things.

 

For the D-day of the Constitutional referendum, the polling stations were calm according to the pics shared by Jentilisa. But on the meantime, we had a controversial news about some rebellious militaries  who did a coup attempt reported by Dadandry in the Cyber Observer.