Madagascar

When you Google Madagascar, three of the first four results are for the animated film of that name, which I have not seen, but understand involves in some way animals retreading the “fish out of water” meme by showing us what “city animals” might do if placed among “wild” (but also talking, and pants-wearing) animals.

None of this, of course, has anything to do with the nation of Madagascar, a nation I didn’t really know anything about (except that lemurs live there — part of the island’s amazing biodiversity, most of which is singularly unique). However, I got interested in finding out more after I read this story in Saturday’s New York Times. It turns out Madagascar is the world’s largest producer and exporter of vanilla, and the national economy took a dive after Coke switched to New Coke, which involved less vanilla.

Also it’s desperately poor (which you might predict in a country whose whole economy depends on the whims of the Coca-Cola R&D team), and there’s increasing pressure on the government to actually do something about the poverty there. Partly because of this pressure, but mostly because the government shut down a TV station that broadcast a speech of the former president (who was also once the head of the junta, and is now living in exile in former colonial overlord France – confused yet?), the country’s in political turmoil. The leader of the political opposition (Andry Rajoelina, a 34-year-old former disc jockey now under the protection of the UN) gave the president four hours to quit on Sunday. No dice.

Then, the president (Marc Ravalomanana) said he’d hold a referendum to see if the people wanted him to step down. Nope. Rajoelina then upped the ante, saying the president should still step down and also that he (Rajoelina) was now giving orders to the military. Um, what? The military’s now taking orders from an unelected opposition figure? This would be bad news for Madagascar, because not only has it had its share of coups, but it’s also receiving a lot of foreign aid that is contingent on having elected governments and no coups. The military, perhaps wisely, refused to confirm Rajoelina’s claim that he was ordering them around. That was yesterday, and Al Jazeera’s got a take on the story here.

Now it’s Monday, and the BBC is reporting that Rajolina is calling for the military to arrest the president. Meanwhile two mortar shells went off near the president’s palace, but the military says they don’t know anything about that. The latest update from the Voice of America says there’s gunfire in the capital city and the army has forced its way into the presidential palace. It looks like a coup may be in progress – something the African Union has toothlessly condemned. This, by the way, in a country of 20 million people, 70% of whom live on less than $2/day.

The Malagasy people (that’s what you call people from Madagascar) have one of the most amazing origin stories in the world. They are descended from people who, in ancient times, traveled more than 3,700 miles from Indonesia. Here’s what Jared Diamond, one of my intellectual heroes, had to say about this in his book Guns, Germs, and Steel (I’ve added the boldface font):

These Austronesians, with their Austronesian language and modified Austronesian culture, were already established on Madagascar by the time it was first visited by Europeans, in 1500. This strikes me as the single most astonishing fact of human geography for the entire world. It’s as if Columbus, on reaching Cuba, had found it occupied by blue-eyed, blond-haired Scandinavians speaking a language close to Swedish, even though the nearby North American continent was inhabited by Native Americans speaking Amerindian languages. How on earth could prehistoric people from Borneo, presumably voyaging on boats without maps or compasses, end up in Madagascar?

Here you’ve got a fierce and dedicated people, with a wild history of piracy and repeated beating back of colonialism until finally they were a French protectorate for about 70 years. But since independence in 1960, it’s been a mixed bag for Madagascar. And just when it seemed like the country might be out of the political turmoil that plagues so many countries in the majority world, all this happens.

Yes, the opposition’s got some good points – it’s distasteful to see the president buying a new plane ($60 million! That’s like one-ninth the gross of the first Madagascar movie, which in turn was about three percent of Madagascar’s GDP) while his people starve; also closing down the TV station is worrisome. Also, Reporters Sans Frontiéres issued this press release the other day saying that five newspapers have been shut down while the protests go on. Never a good sign.

It’s not often you see a political opposition group setting deadlines for resignation for a sitting president. And it it’s not unusual to see a little whiff of the former colonial “relationship” in the wind during tough times – the former president’s been in exile in France despite having been sentenced for embezzlement to 10 years hard labor in Madagascar (and you don’t see France rushing to return him any time soon); meanwhile, the new opposition leader has taken refuge in the French embassy as he protests the government.

Here in the U.S., we’re worried things from the trivial (Will LiLo be arrested?) to the more important (Where did, exactly, all that AIG bailout money go?), but even in the middle of a raging economic crisis we still have the luxury of knowing that the military will probably not decide to overthrow leaders serving out their elected terms. Not so in Madgascar. Here’s hoping they reach a peaceful solution and find some way to elevate their poor.

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