“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) .

Saudi Arabia is gearing up for the Haj season, where millions of Muslims will converge to Mecca to perform pilgrimage. At Crossroads Arabia, John Burgess writes:

With Haj due to start in just a couple of weeks, the Saudis are really bearing down on the issue of an outbreak of swine flu. Saudi Gazette reports on a conference of Saudi medical emergency experts to make sure that plans are locked down. The article notes that residents of Mecca and Medina will be among the first Saudis to be offered swine flu vaccines. This would help to establish a sort of fire-break in the case of a rapid spread of the disease.

In Turkey, the situation isn't as acute. Turkish blogger Erkan  admits that he was more afraid of previous pandemics:

I did not have a single moment of panic, I declare. I do not know why. I was more worried with crimean congo hemorrhagic fever or bird flu.
However, there is a low level panic feeling about swine flu now here in Istanbul, too. What is promising is that many ordinary people are in fact following authorities and try to take measures as much as they could. They are not fatalistic and they sure are not as indifferent as I am.

Meanwhile, at Memories Documented, Jordanian Qwaider shares a conspiracy theory:

A friend of mine, is one of those believing in every possible conspiracy that involves pharmaceutical companies. She would argue for hours on how vaccines are bad, and how the companies are deliberately taking actions to “reduce the human population” starting with the young, the weak and the ill.

He adds:

I think people are scared, and when people get scared they create demons, and feel afraid and threatened by them. When people are afraid many stick to the norms that they are comfortable with.

But diseases might require a person to go out of their regular routine to get better…

I'm not sure, but I believe in science… I really do, and I would take the words of doctors and pharmacist over the words of any conspiracy theorists no matter how hard they tried to convince me.

And The View from Fez, from Morocco, has the following update on H1N1:

Forty-two new H1N1 cases were confirmed on Thursday in the cities of Casablanca, Tanger, Marrakech, Fès, Benslimane, Oujda and Meknès, the health ministry said.

This takes the total of confirmed cases to 592, including 297 cases in schools, the ministry said in a statement.

All the patients are receiving home care, with medical check-ups, said the ministry, adding that none of the cases is complicated. The ministry made clear that no case of death was documented in the country.

Moving on to lighter observations, Jordanian Hareega writes:

I understand how terrible H1N1 can be, but if you smoke 3 packs of cigarettes and enjoy a ginormous seder of mansaf (Jordanian rice dish) everyday don't worry much about H1N1. Something else will get you faster.

In the same post, Hareega adds:

Seven Jordanians died of H1N1 so far. Ten times that number died while watching our football team lose to UAE 3-1. We need to set our priorities straight. Before vaccinating the nation send our football players to jail.

Anti-Armenia-Turkey protocol demonstration, Los Angeles, United States of America © Liana Aghajanian / Ianyan 2009

Days before the foreign ministers of Armenia and Turkey are due to sign two historic protocols likely to establish diplomatic relations and possibly opening the border between the two neighboring countries, media attention has spiked towards what many had previously thought was an unlikely development.

The border between the two countries was in 1993 by Turkey in protest at Armenia's occupation of 14-16 percent of Azerbaijan, its ally in the region, Azerbaijan. Writing on The Oil and the Glory, veteran journalist Steve LeVine sets the scene to what is already making headline news across the globe.

The main flashpoint between the two countries has been Turkey's 1915 massacre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians. Turkey refuses to acknowledge responsibility for the carnage, and permits pseudo-scholarly denials of the well-established history itself. […]

Yet, if the pact proceeds and the countries' parliaments go on to ratify it — not a certainty by any means — one is led to wonder what else is possible in the region.

Agents of Virtue also takes a similarly positive position on the latest developments. The blogger, who spent three years working in Armenia, says a breakthrough is necessary for both countries.

Armenia is landlocked, poor and cannot grow economically with closed borders. […] Businesses in Eastern Turkey have long wanted access to and across Armenia and Armenia needs the trade that will result - particularly if it then has additional access to the Black Sea […].

Finally, Turkey would like this diversion ended. It is a rising power in the Caucuses and Central Asia, not to mention the elephant in the room in the Middle East. Turkey is a competitor with Iran and is a democratic country - more so than any of its neighbors. […].

Nevertheless, the blog notes, ethnic Armenians in the large Diaspora are not necessarily going to be convinced by such matters. The blog says that it is therefore not surprised by protests staged abroad against the deal. However, it remains optimistic about a breakthrough.

The Armenia diaspora is demonstrating actively against any rapprochement. But then, I have always observed that, aside from summer vacations, they don't have to live in Armenia but can retreat to their pleasant California or French homes where they have running water, electricity 24 hours a day and incomes that exceed $35 a month. The Armenians, left to themselves, would have sorted out their international relations some time ago.

Settlements and compromises usually come gradually in diplomatic affairs. Finally, a major step appears to be on the verge of happening. Good.

Anti-Armenia-Turkey protocol demonstration, Los Angeles, United States of America © Liana Aghajanian / Ianyan 2009

Ianyan, a Los Angeles-based blog posts photographs and an account of this week's protest staged by 3,000 ethnic Armenians against the visit of the Armenian president, Serge Sargsyan, while on the U.S. leg of a whirlwind tour of Diasporan communities to listen to their concerns.

The protest in Los Angeles, which houses the second largest number of Armenians outside of Armenia, came on the heels of Sargsyan’s visit to diaspora communities in New York and Paris as part of a week long diaspora tour.

[…]

Sargsyan has met with strong opposition in both New York and Paris, where crowds clashed with French police. The atmosphere wasn’t any different in Los Angeles, where many, like Zaruhi Najarian echoed Santikian’s sentiments.

“The president is obviously here to get the diaspora’s opinion and we’re hoping that he will take our opinion into consideration and not sign the protocols,” Najarian, who expected to be at the protest until 8 p.m. said.

[…]

Many who were present made use of social media by tweeting about the event, including the Western chapter of AYF who posted photos, commentary and video of the day-long protests and Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee who wrote “After Paris, NYC, and LA who will toast serj?”

Life in the Armenian Diaspora is happy about the protests, but says that it is concerned how most Armenian bloggers are not writing on the topic. The Diaspora numbers in the millions, but only a few thousand have so far openly protested the protocols.

Even so, the blog believes that most ethnic Armenians abroad oppose them. It also says that there can be no compromise or concessions to either Azerbaijan or Turkey in return for open borders and and end to conflict.

I'm finding it a bit hard to believe that the repat and diaspora blogs are so dead. I'm very interested in hearing from the repats about what is going on in Armenia in regards to the protocols. […]

[…]

The support for these protocols is so minimal it's almost non-existent. […]

[…]

We do not recognize the current border! Ararat is ours! Moosh and Van are ours! Kharapagh is not for sale or up for trade! […]

Anti-Armenia-Turkey protocol demonstration, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2009

The protests, however, are not confined to the Diaspora. Writing on my Frontline Club blog, I also post photographs of a “hunger” strike against the protocols in the Armenian capital, Yerevan. It is unknown how many citizens are against the imminent signing.

[…] it has to be said, as some point out, the action is not exactly a hunger strike, but more like some kind of 48-hour fast with 24 party members refraining from eating until they are replaced two days later. Immediate recognition of the Armenian Genocide and territorial claims on Turkey might be central to the party's ideology, but the protest is remarkably calm and restrained. […]

[…]

[…] the protestors remain adamant that most Armenians are behind them in opposing the deal and are preparing for a rally to be held on 9 October. Approximately 700 people have signed their petition today, protestors add, although they can't give precise figures for the total number collected so far. […] An earlier meeting last month attracted just 500 people, and although Friday's rally will likely be significantly larger, for every passerby who put pen to paper today, more didn't.

Regional analyst Kevork Oskanian, writing on Security, in the Caucasus and beyond…., says that opponents of the protocols in both countries as well as abroad are as reactionary as each other.

The protocols published by the Armenian, Turkish and Swiss foreign ministries on 31 August have provoked an outcry among both Armenian and Turkish nationalists. Both societies were caught entirely unawares […]. After the initial shock, some of the criticisms levelled against the protocols were well-founded and –argued; others departed from trains of thought that bordered on the ludicrous and absurd. Among […] sympathisers of the ultra-nationalist MHP […] the narrative was one of ‘betrayal’ to the Turks’ ‘blood-brothers’, the Azeris. Among Armenian nationalists, in Armenia but especially in the Diaspora, accusations flew regarding a supposed betrayal of ‘Armenian historical rights’. On both extremes, the reactions were completely predictable in terms of their enduring, fossilised paranoia.

[…]

[…] With Karabakh and Armenia-Turkey interwoven with many of these issues, anyone seen as threatening such a hard-won grand bargain would soon find his options exhausted.

Unknown to most Armenians, but loved by many Kurds for his songs sung in the Kurmanji dialect of Kurdish, Aram Tigran has passed away in Athens, Greece. Born in 1934 in Syria, Tigran's death has affected many, and not least those recognizing the important contribution he made as a cultural bridge between Armenians and Kurds. On 7 August, Kurdistan and Hayastan - Hand in Hand reported that Tigran had been rushed to hospital.

Aram Tigran, the famous Kurdish singer of Armenian origin, have been rushed to the hospital and there is almost no information on Tigrans condition.

His family were survivors of the Armenian Genocide and he is considered among the best of contemporary Kurdish singers and musicians.

The following day, Facebook status line updates passed on news that the singer had died. Gurgîn, a blogger of both Armenian and Kurdish origin, posted details (translation by Google with some editing for English).

Den berömda kurdiska sångaren av armeniskt ursprung kördes igår till akuten i Athen, vid 07.30 tiden var hans hälsotillstånd allvarligt, han blev på direkten hjärndöd och förlorade medvetandet helt och hållet. Utanför Van Gelismos sjukhuset i Athen så samlades hundratals trogna beundrare enligt Aknews för att visa sitt stöd, flera kända artister från Europa och Amerika tog första flyget till Grekland för att se efter sin vän. Tigrans kropp har nu förts till Amêd i norra Kurdistan (Diyarbakir, Turkiet) där han nu kommer att begravas.

[…]

Jag har tidigare idag talat med hans släktingar och jag förstår att de inte vill och orkar kommentera händelsen, han har lämnat efter sig två döttar och en son som förmodligen alltid kommer att definieras utifrån sin far.

[…]

Musiken han skapat har slagit rot i flera miljoner människors hjärtan i Mellanöstern men de underförstådda budskapen han sänt har aldrig riktigt slagit rot i folks tankar och handlingar.

Jag har i egenskap av halv armenier och halv kurd sedan en tid tillbaka identifierat mig med Aram som fungerat som en brobryggare mellan det kurdiska och det armeniska folket.

Jag tror verkligen på att han ensam har fört ihop två folk genom att ha använt sin armeniska bakgrund och sin kurdiska röst.

Ianyan also posts an entry on Tigran and his legacy, while pointing out that online Armenian resources fail to include him in their lists of notable figures. Nevertheless, his message of peace and friendly relations between Armenians and Kurds was noted and conveyed by others on Twitter.

Aram Tigran 1934-2009. R.I.P.