The Yoghurt King and the Disc Jockey
The event that has dominated my entire stay here in Madagascar is la crise politique. The present regime, headed by a baby-faced ex-radio disc jockey, took power illegally, just over a year ago. The ex-president, a yoghurt factory-owning multi-millionaire is now in comfortable exile in South Africa. The ex-Pres, although being legitimately elected, generally approved of by the populace, and having presided over strong economic growth and significant environmental protection, had difficulty distinguishing between state assets and his own. He also was taking Madagascar out of the sphere of French influence and into the arms of the anglophone world. Most Malagasy people believe that France helped organize the coup that brought our disc-spinning friend to power, with the assistance of a dissident army faction. The result has been an unmitigated disaster for the country and the already long-suffering people. Madagascar has been isolated internationally. The US won’t buy its maquiladora clothes, the tourists have fled in droves and the present regime is selling off everything it can at bargain basement prices. Crime has exploded and the feeling of insecurity among the population is palpable. This state of affairs has cast a pall over my entire stay here and I can only hope that it is resolved soon to alleviate the suffering of these peaceful, hard-working people.
The event that has dominated my entire stay here in Madagascar is la crise politique. The present regime, headed by a baby-faced ex-radio disc jockey, took power illegally, just over a year ago. The ex-president, a yoghurt factory-owning multi-millionaire is now in comfortable exile in South Africa. The ex-Pres, although being legitimately elected, generally approved of by the populace, and having presided over strong economic growth and significant environmental protection, had difficulty distinguishing between state assets and his own. He also was taking Madagascar out of the sphere of French influence and into the arms of the anglophone world. Most Malagasy people believe that France helped organize the coup that brought our disc-spinning friend to power, with the assistance of a dissident army faction. The result has been an unmitigated disaster for the country and the already long-suffering people. Madagascar has been isolated internationally. The US won’t buy its maquiladora clothes, the tourists have fled in droves and the present regime is selling off everything it can at bargain basement prices. Crime has exploded and the feeling of insecurity among the population is palpable. This state of affairs has cast a pall over my entire stay here and I can only hope that it is resolved soon to alleviate the suffering of these peaceful, hard-working people.
Malagasy families eat rice three times a day
The Solar Cooker Fiasco
Before leaving the US I was asked to help get some new solar cookers out of Customs in Madagascar and to demonstrate them to interested parties. Sounds easy enough? Little did I know that I would be required to haunt the halls of the Customs Dept everyday for five weeks, have a rubber stamp made up in order to “customize” a document and having triumphantly liberated the cookers from the maw of the bureaucrats find out that the dashed things didn’t even work properly! I tested the cookers several times, but could only reach an oil temperature of 108 degrees C, whereas John, the inventor regularly reached over 200 degrees C in his native Hawaii. Even my little home-brewed unit, the Acme Windshield Reflector Solar Cooker, out performed the stainless steel giant. John is stumped by the poor performance, but I think that the tubes sent to me were defective and that the next shipment will be good. However, they will have to find someone else to stalk the Custom halls!
Before leaving the US I was asked to help get some new solar cookers out of Customs in Madagascar and to demonstrate them to interested parties. Sounds easy enough? Little did I know that I would be required to haunt the halls of the Customs Dept everyday for five weeks, have a rubber stamp made up in order to “customize” a document and having triumphantly liberated the cookers from the maw of the bureaucrats find out that the dashed things didn’t even work properly! I tested the cookers several times, but could only reach an oil temperature of 108 degrees C, whereas John, the inventor regularly reached over 200 degrees C in his native Hawaii. Even my little home-brewed unit, the Acme Windshield Reflector Solar Cooker, out performed the stainless steel giant. John is stumped by the poor performance, but I think that the tubes sent to me were defective and that the next shipment will be good. However, they will have to find someone else to stalk the Custom halls!
A village lady in Finararenna demonstrates her new Acme Windshield Reflector Solar Cooker
Ambohimahamasina
I found Feedback Madagascar, a Scottish NGO, online and contacted Samantha Cameron, the regional director in Fianarantsoa, a town south of Tana, to offer my services. Through her, I visited the village of Ambohimahamsina to check out a recently installed solar system that wasn’t working properly. I also took a tube solar cooker and a water sterilizing unit, hoping they would be really useful there. After all the hassle of getting these cookers out of Customs, you can imagine my state of mind when I discovered the tube had been completely smashed in transit from China. The water sterilizer was a big hit though, and my own little Acme Windshield Reflector cooker generated some interest too. I soon found out why the PV system was performing so poorly. In the Northern Hemisphere, we orient our panels towards the South, and in the Southern Hemisphere, the opposite holds true. Well, someone had managed to flaunt this cardinal rule of orientation, with disasterous consequences for the battery. After only 6 months of operation, the $400 battery was ruined.
I found Feedback Madagascar, a Scottish NGO, online and contacted Samantha Cameron, the regional director in Fianarantsoa, a town south of Tana, to offer my services. Through her, I visited the village of Ambohimahamsina to check out a recently installed solar system that wasn’t working properly. I also took a tube solar cooker and a water sterilizing unit, hoping they would be really useful there. After all the hassle of getting these cookers out of Customs, you can imagine my state of mind when I discovered the tube had been completely smashed in transit from China. The water sterilizer was a big hit though, and my own little Acme Windshield Reflector cooker generated some interest too. I soon found out why the PV system was performing so poorly. In the Northern Hemisphere, we orient our panels towards the South, and in the Southern Hemisphere, the opposite holds true. Well, someone had managed to flaunt this cardinal rule of orientation, with disasterous consequences for the battery. After only 6 months of operation, the $400 battery was ruined.
Dr Jacqui gives the solar water pasteurizer a careful examination
I decided to completely revamp and expand the system and offered to pay for half of it, about $1,000. This particular system is on a remote rural clinic, which serves over 16,000 people and has a permanent doctor, with whom I stayed. Dr Jacqui, a gusty and gutsy Malagasy lady was always ready with a smile, a joke or a jibe about wimpy vahaza, whichever the situation called for. I had help from two local men, M. Donne and M. Jaques. The first, with some knowledge of electricity, the second, ever-so-sweet, but a walking hazard on a job-site! We installed the PV system in 3 easy days, then spent the next 7 completely rewiring all the lights in ten rooms of the clinic. I was extremely satisfied with the results, given that the village is on the eastern side of the Hauts Plateaux, where the weather was foggy in the morning and cloudy by 3pm. Everyone was delighted with the new system, since now night-time births are well illuminated, attendants can turn on a light for an emergency and clinic staff get reliable electricity in their modest homes.
The clinic's new solar array - three times the original size and now pointing in the right direction!
I really only got one day off and with a couple of other volunteers took a hike round a local mountain. Unfortunately, it was foggy all day, but our guide told us where everything was and we just had to imagine the rest! A highlight was a lunch of duck with a local family and a visit to small raffia weaving cooperative. This region is on the edge of the eastern mountain range and is being developed by the local people, with help from Feedback, as a center of hiking and eco-tourism. I was very impressed by the initiative and follow-through of these people. The land is fertile, the rainfall copious and the people industrious, (if somewhat given to over consumption of the local cane spirit). In my next epistle, I will describe two weeks I spent in a village in a region to the west of Tana, en pleine brousse, in what the Malagasy call the “Far West”. Quite, quite different from Ambohimahamasina.
We climbed this mountain, but on a much foggier day!
A dance troupe strut their stuff at a celebration in Ambohimahamasina
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