“The reality as you know it on the ground in Madagascar is characterized by fatigue that is felt by the people of Madagascar, people who are hoping the crisis will come to an end. A crisis to which, after all, they are the hostages. Whereas the socio-economic situation in your country is getting worse day by day. The people of Madagascar deserve better destiny and that depends completely on you”

This sentiment seems to be shared by a large portion of the blogosphere who focused their attention on the other challenges affecting Madagascar. Several provinces are currently plagued by the cumulative disastrous effects of a severe drought, the toxic spill of a ship wreck that poisoned the livelihood of thousands of fishermen and the ecological disaster of illegal logging of the rain forests.
(Update: A power sharing agreement was signed by the 4 political movements over the week-end (BBC) where Madagascar will be led by 3 co-presidents. More analysis can be found on this political breakthrough on Reuters and Madagascar Tribune (fr) )

The ecological scandal of the Gulser Ana toxic spill

The Gulser Ana was a Turkish freighter transporting Phosphate that sunk off the coast of Madagascar, spilling toxic waste in the process and killing migrating whales and causing illness among the fishermen community. Although the disaster has been reported in a few media recently, the ship started to sink two months ago as Malagasy bloggers signaled on their blogs back in early September.
Tomavana wrote on his blog (fr):

En plus d’écarter le drame écologique du Sud de l’île des actualités nationales, la controverse politique autour de ces nouvelles nominations pose la question du suivi de ce dossier sensible

Joan asks simply: “Have you heard of the Gulser Ana ?”. In the comment section, Capt Collin Smith explores the possible causes of the grounding:

The only explanation which can exculpate the Captain and Officer of the Watch of this vessel is mechanical breakdown. Anything else is human error, and therefore incompetence, if not recklessness. How can a ship go aground in perfect visibility if the OOW and Captain are paying attention and properly trained? [..] Another practice to save money. The Captain and OOW should have been arrested when they got ashore, and held.

Mialisoa reports on her blog that (fr):

les habitants « souffrent de problèmes respiratoires, et de maladies cutanées et diarrhéiques ». Car non seulement ces personnes ont été exposées aux déchets toxiques, mais le nettoyage des zones polluées s’est fait sans vêtements de protection et sans équipements adéquats

The lack of report early on in the media prompted this reaction from Tomavana on twitter:

“@fanjakely j'ai l'impression que les habitants Sud #Madagascar sont des malgaches de 2nde zone. J'entends nos beaux discours mais nous sommes pas #Solidaire”

Ship wreck via http://mialisenfout.hautetfort.com

Unfortunately that was not the only source of worry in the region.

Severe drought

Rain has been very scarce in the Southern region. According to the Guardian, the unseasonal dry weather caused by climate change (10% increase in temperature) has prompted a severe drought and warning signs of famine for the past six months. Tovoheryzo Raobi Jaona explains how climate change has affected the south (fr):

“Avant, il y avait une sécheresse tous les dix ans. Or, depuis 2000, il y en a eu quatre”

Féroce Remanongona, an elected official goes further as to say (fr):

Nous prions le Grand Dieu que le cyclone passe chez nous. Même s’il détruit nos maisons, c’est mieux que subir la sécheresse

This is a powerful statement when one recalls how the recent cyclone devastated the majority of the region.

The Panos Insitute recently published a series called “Pushed to the Edge” about the effect of climate change on the Malagasy population in the Southern region. Here is a testimony from the report by Bruno:

I noticed that the weather had changed from our usual predictions, and the rainy seasons were starting very late… Not only was rice production affected, but also sweet potatoes and cassava. It was getting hotter and hotter, which made planting cassava challenging… When I harvested it, I discovered that the roots had become smaller, compared to my previous harvest. In terms of rice, I used to collect three to four large baskets and now I can harvest only one small basket. The change is so obvious that it makes me ask the question, “What is happening to the climate?”

A recent academic paper for the American Political Science Association by Richard Marcus illustrates the challenges of water resource management in the Ambovombe-Androy region. The paper states that

“Rural communities are suddenly faced with having to pay exorbitant costs for water. They are ill-prepared to carry out their municipal functions and unable to raise the level of user-fees or community taxes necessary to fund infrastructure development”

Stephane, a blogger from Foko Madagascar attended the UN conference on climate change in September and blogged about the challenges facing developing countries like Madagascar.

Finally, a resolution to condemn the plundering of natural resources in Madagascar has been introduced by Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) at the House of Representatives. Illegal logging of precious woods from the rain forest has been increasing with the political turmoil. Courier International and l'Express de Madagascar also reveals that the government allowed for exportation of precious rosewood in late September (fr). More details on the illegal logging of the rain forest are available here (fr) .

Many Malagasy bloggers/twitterers followed the exchange on the UN webcast and reacted instantly via twitter as the crisis in Madagascar took another improbable turn.
As Rajoelina was about to take the stage, Malagasy blogger Aliotsy noted:

Congo's rep just called on member states (SADC or UN?) to walk out on Rajoelina if he speaks. http://www.un.org/webcast/ #Madagascar #fb

Rashaja is a bit perplexed:

situation is quite funny actually…total mess, total confusion. President of Session and advisor not experienced enough? #UN #Madagascar

Samganegie adds (fr):

président de l'assemblé est même sorti de sa tribune, et ses assistant sont completement paumés !!#madagascar

Streetrover bemoans the state of politics in Madagascar:

Rajoelina shunned at the UN, its ambassador @ UN publicly named in an internatnl bribery scheme on the same day! #madagascar needs a break!

HairyT and Solofo agree that it was a low point in Madagascar's history:

RT @solofo: What a shame for #Madagascar . I don't care about #Rajoelina/ RT Pdt Prevented from Taking Floor at #UN

The pro-government blog Madagate weighs in on the incident (fr):

Ce moment irritant dans l’histoire de Madagascar fait déjà partie du passé. Car cette crise aura une fin, quoi qu’il puisse arriver. Pour le moment, la majorité des Malgaches de Madagascar commence à la vivre très mal car ils se perdent en conjectures.

In the meantime, Unrest has once again broken in the aftermath of the UN fiasco. Investgasy posted on twitter today:

#Madagascar: shootings in Anosy (Tana) right now, armed 4×4 are everywhere

. The report was later confirmed by Reuters, reporting tear gas launching and wanring shots fired at demonstrators.

Finally Jentilisa reports that young reservists of the army who fought by Rajoelina's side early in the crisis are now demanding that Rajoelina keep his promises (mg):

..ny rezervista tanora, nitolona tamin'ny andron'ny TGV, hidina an-dalambe izy ireo hitondra sora-baventy satria tsy tanteraka ny fampanantenana natao tamin'izy ireo, toy ny hanomezana asa ho azy ireo tahaka ny hoe fampidirana azy ho miaramila ary hotsinjovina manokana ny rezervista nanohana ny tolona.

Speaking at the United Nations headquarters in New York, the self-proclaimed King of Kings, who has ruled Libya for almost 40 years, spoke for around 100 minutes. Topics he covered ranged from criticising the UN structure to providing his take on the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan to discussing swine flu to hoping that US President Barack Obama would remain president forever… to calling for an investigation into the assassination of JFK.

Gaddafi, whose travels abroad attract a lot of media coverage because of his eccentric mannerism and his insistence to live in a tent, made a wave on Twitter. In New York, he pitched his tent on property which belongs to real estate tycoon Donald Trump - a plan which was aborted after neighbours complained. Reactions to this address ranged from calling the Libyan strongman a ‘fruitcake' to sympathising with his stance on a number of international issues.

Many Twitter users gave Gaddafi high points for entertainment.

ThomasRon notes:

New Yorker Kalimark is amused with the media attention:

Laura Quinny found the speech entertaining:

Bobonbusiness is confused about the way Gaddafi spells his name and wonders:

And Matt Cundill adds:

Meanwhile Zuzf wants more:

And Chickyog is hoping for Libyan oil:

Meanwhile, @bigajm notes how we have all become conditioned by mainstream media. He quips:

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Thanks to microblogging site Twitter, we have a summary of mixed reactions from Egypt and the Middle-East towards Farouk Hosny's defeat. In 140 characters, Twitter users

As expected, all Egyptians should be sad because their candidate for the UNESCO was defeated. And Hanan Abdel Meguid's sad tone was so obvious in the tweet below:

And Youssra was astonished, and it seems that she wasn't expecting him to be defeated:

But wait a moment. It looks like other than the above two tweets, no one else was sad. Even Cairo-based blogger and journalist Sarah Carr wrote the following post asking people to help her find those few ones who were sad for his defeat:

In fact, it seems the no one was able to help Sarah in her search, especially that the majority of the Egyptian Twitter users were not sad at all. Ahmed El- Sadek, for example, wrote here that he can't really say that he is sad:

Zeinobia on the other hand couldn't hide the wide smile in her tweet.

Mona Eltahawy was happy too:

She even wrote another Tweet thanking God because Farouk Hosny did not win.

And Amr Salama wrote:

So, it seems that most of the Egyptians were against him. Ahmed Shoukry wrote here to clarify that if this point of view is so common among the Egyptian blogs and tweets, then it is for sure the same point of view of the majority of people on the street:

But what really makes most of the Egyptian take such stand?!

Mona Eltahawy believes that it's because Hosny is not Egypt's candidate, but he's the Egyptian regime's candidate.

The following conversation between Mostafa Hussein, and JPierre also elaborates why people didn't want him to win:

And Cairo Gem has an almost identical point of view to Mostafa Hussein's:

AlAnany believes that Hosny tried to please both the Egyptians, the Westerners and the Israelis and at the end he pleased no one:

And as usual, all our political debates have to end with a cool conspiracy theory like this one.

For more reactions on Hosny's nomination before the election read Marwa Rakha's post here.

Reform Wollongong City Council, a blog from Australia, writes:

On Friday 3 April 2009 the Australian government, on behalf of Australia’s people, endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

And top marks to the Rudd government for doing what the Howard government found to be inconsistent with their 1950s vision for Australia!

[…]

Open Your Eyes News, though, seems unimpressed: “Tragically this is just a symbolic PR exercise to further boost Government ratings.”

But a blog from New Zealand, Big News, is encouraged:

[…]

Australia was one of just four countries to vote against [the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples] in 2007, joining the United States, New Zealand and Canada.

Now, wonder if New Zealand will adopt UNDRIP and reverse its decision like Australia has done? Should it?

Though the Declaration is non-binding, NZ's endorsement would signal to the international community this country is serious about commitment to Indigenous Rights. So it has a political effect, not a legal effect.

[…]

April 23 is UNESCO World Book Day – and just because the Global Voices team loves blogs, doesn’t mean we have forgotten other forms of the written word! In fact, because we think reading literature is such an enjoyable way to learn about another culture, we have a fun challenge for all Global Voices contributors and readers, and bloggers everywhere.

The Global Voices Book Challenge is as follows:

UPDATE: Tag your posts with #gvbook09 so we can find your posts.

If you would like to know what you should be reading from Vietnam, Bolivia, Mozambique or New Zealand, or any other country, just ask in the comments below! Someone is sure to give you suggestions.

And if you have any recommendations for any must-read works from your own country, please leave a comment too.

Once you have read your book (and written a post!) let us know – we’d love to discover what you learned on your literary expedition.

Feel free to use the images above and below to spread the word of the Global Voices Book Challenge!

Writing at Arabic Media Shack, Rob highlights reactions from a few Egyptian newspapers, on how this historic meeting would impact the Arab-Israeli peace process.

At the blog, which describes itself as a non-partisan site which analyzes political, strategic, and security issues of the Middle East, Rob states:

Fahmy Huwedi and Tariq Al-Bashri, top Egyptian commentators, have scathing columns in today’s Al-Dostor, criticizing the King for refusing to bring up violence in Gaza while handing the Israelis a major PR victory. Bashri goes as far to say that the King sitting in the same room as Peres is no less significant as Sadat visiting Jerusalem in 1977. However, he then goes on to undermine the credibility of his argument by saying that the US and Israel are behind attempts to instigate Sunni-Shia conflict in order to create a new enemy or distraction for the Arabs, so that they no longer focus on Israel. He compares this to how the US allegedly instigated conflict between Libya and Egypt following the Camp David treaty, creating a “new enemy” for the Egyptians other than Israel. How can the US can be blamed for instigating Sunni-Shia strife when the top Sunni scholars, such as Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, have been the most vocal in their anti-Shia rhetoric.

The blogger on Sukuma Kenya started the flickr pool in June, after he noticed that many UN vehicles in Nairobi were SUVs, and felt that the UNEP campaign did not communicate how it was reducing carbon emissions while it was asking individuals to ‘kick the CO2 habit'.

On the 27th of October, the Journalist-blogger Nick Wadhams noticed a yellow Humvee with United Nations vehicle plates. He posted a picture on his blog, noting a recent report about the United Nations procurement scandal.

Is it any surprise that Saturday's Nation newspaper contained this item: “The United Nations office in Nairobi may have lost Sh10 billion in procurement and administrative scandals over the past three years, an internal audit report has revealed.”

Sadly, this kind of thing was a common story when I covered the U.N. Maybe all that money is going to banana yellow Humvees.

Earlier this month, Nick posted an update after confirming that the yellow Humvee did belong to a UN employee.

PS: I was driving on James Gichuru Road the other day, climbing the hill as it approaches Wayaki Way, and what should I see hurtling in the opposite direction? You guessed it, the B.Y.H! I caught only the briefest of glimpses of the driver (was that you, Charles?), and considered turning around and following him. But there were two other passengers in our car, one of whom happened to be an eight-month-old baby who was angry about being 45 minutes late for a one-year birthday party. Next time, Charles! Next time!

PPS: In the spirit of full disclosure, I should note that we drive a 1989 Mitsubishi Pajero, which, to be honest, probably gets worse gas mileage than Charles' Humvee. At the moment, there is a problem with the injector pump and it spews a lot of black smoke. Working on it!

Commenting on the post, the blogger Baba Mzungu makes the point that NGO's often use 4×4s as they travel to remote areas, but he takes issue with the fact that the Humvee is driven by an ‘IT guy' in Nairobi( an urban area that is hardly the beaten path).

As a representitive of an NGO who travels off the beaten track (and let's face it, some of the beaten tracks aren't fantastic), I can see the arguement for using a 4×4. But an IT guy? In Nairobi? Driving the biggest bl00dy tank available?
Don't think so.

The Sukuma blog posts a humorous rhyme about the UNEP campaign and continued sightings of UN 4×4 vehicles. The rhyme was penned by Ed of African Works blog.

“Isn't it a bummer
when you buy yourself a hummer
and some prat puts you down on the net!
Global warming's just for fairies
the science about it undoubtedly varies
and most of its apologists are wet.
So even though I work for UNEP
I am rightly proud of my rep
as an aging but highly sexed eco czar
in a oversized gas guzzling toy of a car”

The sightings of SUVs appear to be continuing, as the blogger on NairobiKoll chimes in on the Sukuma blog with a link to a picture they took recently.

For a copy of the full report on the UN procurement scandal, the blogger Kenyan pundit made the PDF available for download on her blog.

Update Nov 23rd 2008: Nick Wadhams was able to categorically identify the owner of the yellow hummer, and had a chat with him. He posts a conclusion to the BYH saga on his blog.

Mashups

Rory of Carbon Smart Blog announced the Greening Africa Map by outlining the goal of the google map mashup and asking others to send in information about projects to be included.

My point is to highlight positive things that are being done in Africa. There are a lot of projects out there, but many are just not visible. The first projects on the map are mostly around Cape Town, just because I live here and have some firsthand knowledge of the area; but I don't want this to be a South African map.

Greening Africa Map

View Larger Map

Clean Up The World is an initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme. It is a global campaign to clean, fix up and conserve the environment and they have created a mashup to show the communities involved around the world. The activities mapped relate to water, recycling, tree planting, education and climate change mitigation. To visit the site please click on the graphic below.

Online Communities

Connect2Earth features environment related photos, videos and posts that are submitted by the public. The entries will be voted on by other members and the highly ranked entrants receive mobile phones from Nokia (A sponsor of the site). The winning entries will be shown at the World Conservation congress in Barcelona. Topics discussed include Global warming, waste & pollution, sustainable transport, mobile life & work, natural habitat, wildlife and clean energy.

connect2earth is a space for you to tell the world why you care about our planet

350

350.org is an online community of activists working to raise awareness of the target for reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere.

350 is the red line for human beings, the most important number on the planet. The most recent science tells us that unless we can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million, we will cause huge and irreversible damage to the earth.

But solutions exist. All around the world, a movement is building to take on the climate crisis, to get humanity out of the danger zone and below 350. This movement is massive, it is diverse, and it is visionary. We are activists, scholars, and scientists. We are leaders in our businesses, our churches, our governments, and our schools. We are clean energy advocates, forward-thinking politicians, and fearless revolutionaries. And we are united around the world, driven to make our planet livable for all who come after us.

Carbon Footprint Calculators

Ecorio

Jaimi Heimbuch of Treehugger referred to Ecorio as a super cool app that will be available on the new Android powered G1 Google phone. Ecorio is a mobile application that runs in the background tracking trips. It adds up the miles and shows the carbon footprint and cost of offsetting it.

Dopplr - Carbon calculator for trips

Dopplr is a tool used by frequent flyers to share information about upcoming trips with friends and colleagues. The service shows coincidences and helps people connect. Dopplr added the ‘My carbon' calculator that shows travelers their carbon footprint by utilizing data from AMEE, an organization better known as the ‘The world's energy meter'.

Online Game

World without Oil
This is an alternate reality game that is interactive and whose outcome is crafted by the players and their interactions.

The premise of World Without Oil was simple and provocative: What if an oil crisis started on April 30, 2007 - what would happen? How would the lives of ordinary people change? Players were invited to imagine how their lives and communities would be different and how they would cope if the world’s oil suddenly dried up. The “plot” unfolded dynamically. First, the players read the “official news” and what other players were saying. Then, using a combination of blog posts, videos, images and even voice mails, they told their own stories of the challenges they were facing. As the crisis continued, players updated their stories with further thoughts, reactions and solutions.

Anthony Williams of Wikinomics wrote about the game, saying

There is no doubt that fighting climate change will require a massive worldwide effort that could dramatically alter much about the world as we know it today. We need more than just smart public policy. And we need more than a comprehensive retooling of industry and our infrastructure. We all need to give up our oil addictions and that, in turn, will require us to make some pretty profound changes in our daily lives. Alternate reality games like World Without Oil could play a vital role in engaging the public in making those vital changes.

Via Carbon Copy.

“The Palestinians’ real tragedy is that they have not been able to produce a Nelson Mandela. Every single day, Muslims are killed by Muslims. You do not see a single Muslim leader get up and say, ‘Enough is enough.' It’s nearly as if we live in a world where if Christians kill Muslims, it’s a crusade. If Jews kill Muslims, it’s a massacre. And when Muslims kill Muslims, it’s the Weather Channel. Nobody cares.”

Read these and other quotes from Dan Gillerman, outgoing Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, on Elder of Ziyon.