Malagasy Miray as a reliable and objective citizen media

In more than one year, some people were trying to post some reliable information and others post information biased by their political affiliation. Malagasy communities around the world were looking for what really happened in their country but they are not satisfied of what Malagasy digital media give to them.

On one hand, some news online seems to be reliable. News from Internet website are felt as true and sometimes as scoops.  People think they do not need to verify what they read and they do not need to buy any classic media to crosscheck information. Computers, web and new technologies get up to the highest level of knowledge and that is the way these people conclude so do information on these new media.

On the other hand, bloggers report what they see, what they feel and what they hear about the fact. Some of them in Madagascar give their own analysis of one or more situations. As far as I am concerned, those last twelve months were very tough and hard because we have to pay attention of what we write about and post on our weblog. This is due to the fear of military violence and some special repressive force that can arrest you because of what you write.

New tools and new media were very helpful during this crisis. We look at twitter and Facebook to get informed and receive information about what really matter and where action is. After that we group all information we get and put them on a post with our personal analysis. We know some our friends live in which part of the town so their status can be reliable. After that, we try to crosscheck from those famous website such as sobika.com, moov.mg, orange.mg or topmada.mg.

Some virtual “friends” in our Facebook account seem to be more informed than us and some of them gave details of each situation. With these method, we were, for example, able to situate where the dam protesters and where is that bombs have exploded. So we share what we got to help readers avoid these obstacles.

With one post, we can obtain some comments from all parts. These contribute to improve what we give to become valuable information. And it will be possible for us to remember those day with all details included in the information. We create our history…

But the way we blog in Madagascar is not only to inform but contribute to express ourselves and reduce the bad feelings due to the social and political crisis. It is also a good mean of everyday life improvement. In fact, it can be qualified as a good therapy against frustration and personal disappointment.

In fine, I know some Malagasy and foreign journalists and reporters read our articles and can use them to develop and crosscheck what they got from their own source. We think global and we act local.

 

citizen media madagascar

Great nations came after great fight

I was wondering how former political crisis in Madagascar could really help the country to improve its way of living and its economy. Building a « great » nation is not such an easy thing but it could be very helpful to benchmark what was hapenning to the nations which have known war and big troubles. 

Malagasy should learn from the others…

When I was in Jozi, I visited the Mandela House in Soweto, I think it is located in Orlando West. This small house is plenty of great symbols. The story is that it was the first house « Madiba » really owned himself and he is very proud of it. 27 or 28 years in jail was not so lost. Those years contribute to strenghten the new era foundation. 

Madagascar is not so far from South Africa, it is within 3 hours flight from Johannesburg in South Africa. The main symbol of this house reminds me some other amazing stories of great nations that had known war. I was thinking about Germany, Japan, China, The USA, and so forth. I knew much more about apartheid and I could feel black people’s frustration during this tough part of their story.

In 2010, Madagascar will celebrate its 50th independence anniversary. Sometimes, I am asking myself if we are truly inependent. I have my own idea but it would be « politically incorrect » as we can say it in french. Let’s say : 50 years of manipulation and lie. It is said malagasy people are lazy. Sure, they could be but the right way was not shown to them.

People around me were trying to compare the actual life of former british and french colonies. some of these guys think that Madagascar ought to have belonged to commonwealth… As far as I am concerned, this idea is not so good if we take look at what happen to Zimbabwe. And how about Rwanda, Bosnia, Irak and Libanon?  These countries had also known some big troubles and how is it about now? I don’t know but in my opinion, they are in the right track to succeed. I might be wrong but we can explore this way.

Madagascar & Sout Africa

V-Day Malagasy

Henoy kely ange e

 »Tantaraiko anareo ny nahatonga ahy hankafia ny lalan-kitsom-pahafinaretako. Somary hanano sarotra ihany satria tsy dia ara-dalàna loatra ».

 »J’ai été violée par des militaires durant la guerre puis rejetée par mon village, je ne ressens plus rien de mon vagin décharné »

“Because despite efforts, women continue to be victims of violence, on the streets, in the workplace, and even in their own homes. »… »Domestic violence is a fact; but the public seems to be moved only by extreme cases in which women are killed-murdered by their husbands under the influence of alcohol or jealousy-as demonstrated by the incidents reported »

« Tiako ny zohiko. Tiako ihany koa ny vehivavy. Mazàna aho no tsy mampisaraka azy roa ireo »

« J’ai rugit dans la jouissance et dans la douleur. J’ai retrouvé mon vagin après mon accouchement, il saignait beaucoup mais cette fois-ci de bonheur. »

« In general, the success level was higher for girls than for boys…women enjoyed equal rights with men with regard to voting and holding office. »

HENOY VAKIO VIDIO: » Ny akon’ny zohiko »

monologues du vagin, podcast

Du riz et de la culture du riz et de la culture du riz et de la culture …

Free Rice est un site qui vous donne du vocabulaire, sous prétexte de vous entraîner à faire une bonne action:

Comment ça marche ?

Free Rice est un site initié par les Nations Unies. Son but est d’améliorer le vocabulaire anglais des internautes grâce à un quizz.
Le site propose un mot, puis l’internaute doit trouver parmi quatre propositions le synonyme du mot proposé.
Pour chaque bonne réponse, les annonceurs de la page versent 20 grains de riz au World Food Program. Plus d’infos ici [en]

Be careful, you might get addicted to this site, even if you studied English at the bloody American university of Caïro .

Enjoy !

action, anglais, faim, free rice, riz

Lost in translation

Les statistiques de Malagasy Miray montrent que 96 billets sont écrits en français, 26 en Malgache et 6 en anglais. Nous attendons avec impatience le premier billet sur MM qui ne sera pas écrit dans l’une des 3 langues officielles de Madagascar .
Hélas, il sera aussi indispensabe de demander à l’auteur de traduire le contenu de ce post tant que les traducteurs automatiques ne seront pas optimisés ( le seront-ils-jamais ?).
L’importance d’optimiser la traduction automatique est un débat qui a mobilisé un grand nombre d’experts et qui pose aussi des questions complexes auxquelles je ne peux répondre. Alors je voudrais saluer ici le boulot remarquable que les bloggers de Global Voices amin’ny teny Malagasy accomplissent au quotidien. On attend aussi avec impatience le retour de tsipelana malagasy que Dotmg avait crée et qui etait indispensable aux ignorants comme moi pour vérifier notre orthographe en malgache.

Traduire avec fidélité un article est un challenge plutôt ardu.
.
Je pense que tout le monde est d’accord pour dire que plus un article à traduire est long, plus la personnalité et la sensibilité du traducteur va transparaitre dans la traduction finale.
Il est plus ou moins acquis dans la communauté les traducteurs de blog que tant que l’idée générale de l’auteur est respectée, les variations sur un même thème seront inévitables.
Illustrons par un petit jeu la difficulté de traduire :
Dans le texte suivant se cachent des passages de chansons Malgaches et Françaises qui ont été traduites ( très) approximativement. Si vous pouvez identifier les chansons cachées dans le « you have got a friend » de Carol King, vous gagnez le titre de traducteur et accro à la pop « culture » de la semaine .
Il sera aussi alors votre responsabilité de traduire vos chansons préférées dans la langue de votre choix et essayer de faire deviner les autres. Ha !
Pour voir un exemple de traduction de chanson, allez donc voir les poeteries de Rajiosy.

Voici donc le 1er challenge ( Il y a 2 chansons malgaches et 2 chansons françaises cachées):

Le ”You have got a friend” medley (Carol King/James Taylor)

[En]
When you’re down and troubled
And you need a helping hand
And nothing, oh nothing is going right.
Close your eyes and think of me
And soon I will be there
To brighten up even your darkest nights.
[Mg]
When you need a helping hand,
When things are not going your way,
Remember dear, that somewhere,
You have a friend who really cares,
You are not alone, someone thinks of you
So let go of your sorrow
Through darkness or heavy rain,
I will be there, sooner than later,
[En]
You just call out my name,
And you know where ever I am
Ill come running, oh yeah baby
To see you again.
Winter, spring, summer, or fall,
All you have to do is call
And Ill be there, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You’ve got a friend.
[Fr]
I can only remember an immense wall,
But we were together,
Together we went through it all,
Do you remember?
[Mg]
We will be together
Through laughter or tears,
To withstand the hardships
Ready for the worse,
[Fr]
We told each other let’s meet again in 10 years,
Same day, same time, same faces,
We will see when we are 30,
If we have become great men.

[I cannot believe I just wrote that. Too easy, hey ? Oh darn...]

Happy Holidays, Bloggers !!

open translation

Six degrees of separation

It is the hypothesis that anyone on Earth can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances with no more than five intermediaries (c.f. wiki).

So let’s play this game and see how far we can go.
Here is my list of popular or unpopular persons & I know them or did
work with/for them at one point or just know someone who knows them.

Harrison Ford Madonna Sophie Marceau James Cameron VANF Hearst family Michele Larroque Rossy Johnny Depp Ricky

Marc Ravalomanana Vanessa Paradis Lisa Marie Presley Njakatiana Jacques Chirac Tony Parker Bodo Dan Rather Roland Ratsiraka Rachel Bilson

Jay Leno Nini Donia Elia Ravelomanantsoa Feu Pape Jean-Paul 2 Jaojaoby Keira Knightley Bruce Willis Francis Turbo Nini- Kiaka Fafa- Mahaleo

and … You! Tell me about your chain of acquaintances and remember no more than 5 intermediaries!!!

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How random encounters can make a difference:

(Photos via Luke Freeman, BBC)

We had an exchange awhile ago with fellow contributors to this blog (Harinjaka, Jogany…) on how little things can sometimes make a major difference. It is called the and it is also the subject of a book, « the tipping point », by Malcom Gladwell (« le point de saturation » in French). Hjk wrote about it ( For the life of me, I cannot retrieve the link), Jogany eluded to it in her last « Thank the skope » post and it is also a part the of underlying simple idea of this blog (right Tattum ?): the people we meet along the blogopshere can lead us to achieve more (cf Many, Tovamanana and Hjk’s wordpress malagasy project).
The reason for this post is that this concept is most certainly not restricted to the blogging communnity. Here is a story that you may find interesting:

Writing for Madagascar’s president »
By Luke Freeman
Antananarivo, Madagascar

Luke Freeman is an an anthropology lecturer in London who « set off microphone in hand to Madagascar to live the life of the young cowboys who drive herds of long-horned, hump-backed zebu on foot across this vast Indian Ocean island. »
In Madagascar, he taught an English class and met a certain Marc Ravalomanana who was one of his student. The rest,as they say, his history. As Luke described: « One night I was a dusty cowboy surviving on dry meat and rice, sleeping on a bed of straw on the starlit plains of western Madagascar. The next evening I was dressed in a dark suit and flying over the same plains in the presidential jet. »
Yep, in this new trend of globalization, life happens at rabid pace.
An interesting piece is the description of the president and the way he operates from his point of view:

« Although he may be politically inexperienced, 54-year-old President Ravalomanana is no hothead.He had established his dairy business by taking quick decisions and seizing opportunities. He had seen in me somebody who could solve his communication difficulties and help him address the English-speaking world, with whom he is keen to forge political and economic alliances.On a domestic level he had found someone who knows the Malagasy people from the bottom up, and who, unlike him, lives with cattle drovers and rice farmers.He saw my use to him before I did. It may just be that the cowboy who wandered in off the plains could be the person to help him. »

On a personal note, I was struggling to decide what to do with my life after school. Fundamental research lacked a certain practical aspect to me. I was wandering the laboratory facilities at school when I saw an article about a project called « X » designed to make affordable diagnostic tools for HIV in Africa. The next morning, I took the elevator with a man who looked just like the person in the article. I stepped out of the elevator, introduce myself and the rest is history.
Take home message ? Keep doors open and network agressively. « Ny gasy tsy tia misehoseho« . This is very true and don’t get me wrong, I value humility as a great trait of character. However, seizing opportunities is not antonymous with being true to oneself and making things happen.

Cheers,

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