FBC Vakinankaratra

Le second atelier tenu le 10 Octobre a produit beaucoup d’articles mais surtout les premières photos de classe en ligne de la section Comm d’ESSVA.

FBC_Diana

Elle a voyagé dans la région d’Antsohihy cet été et nous rapporte de très belles images du quotidien dont elle bloguera  dans les jours a venir.

FBC_Patricia

Après un super compte-rendu lors du Barcamp, elle nous partage en ligne ses photos de voyage a Bruxelles avec les Rising Voices

Mais aussi les albums des clubs et des èvénements de Foko Madagascar et dans le monde :

Barcamp

Album mis a jour, au fur et a mesure du déroulement de l’évènement ICT le plus Ouvert de l’île

FBC_Vakinankaratra + FBC_Tamatave + FBC_Majunga +FBC_Tana….n’attendent plus que FBC_Fianar et FBC_Diego?

FBC Vakinankaratra

Blog Club Antananarivo

FBC Toamasina

Blog Club Mahajanga

http://yrha.wordpress.com

http://farakel.wordpress.com

http://rasmetal.wordpress.com

http://tahinasoa.wordpress.com

http://imahaka.wordpress.com

http://essvacomm.wordpress.com

http://lovakely.wordpress.com/

Law and Dream from AndryDago

http://andrydago.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/law-and-dream/

Vous les vazaha nous les Malgaches (Vazaha and Malagasies) from Pati

http://patiettoi.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/vous-les-vazaha-nous-les-malgaches/
(English translation)
For those of you who do not know, originally the word VAZAHA meant French people, but for others it simply means “foreigners”. But I don’t really want to discuss etymological origins of words here. I will speak of the different kinds of relationships that young Malagasy girls have with young or not so young Vazaha.

On one hand, vazaha are like everyone else, so we may have all sort of feelings towads them: love, friendship, and vice versa. Therefore going out with a vazaha is as normal, natural and human as it comes.

However, dating a vazaha has become for some Malagasy, a matter of pride, not to say a distinctive sign. Again, there is nothing wrong with that but what I want to emphasize here are the different ways that Malagasy girls use to distinguish themselves in that manner.

Because the Internet has now become more acessible, it is one of the most utilized tool to date a vazaha. More precisely, arrange meetings via internet. As you know by now, meetings are not only for articles and chat rooms but also webcams. You might wonder what is wrong with that so I’ll tell you.

Nowadays, it is not only about seeing the other person but also to watch each, see what I mean ? There are special cyber meeting rooms for activities that require a certain degree of privacy so that girls can show their most intimate parts to the one on the other side of the webcam. I do not know whether it’s something we imitated from elsewhere or if it’s a trend born in Madagascar but in any case, the evolution of technology is not only about technology in this country !

And what does it to have to do with vazaha? Well, it’s especially with vazaha that Malagasy girls do it every so often! … To be continued!

Se relever from Lomelle

http://as2coeur.wordpress.com/2008/09/29/se-relever/

To rise again by Lomelle:

Youth demands that one must go through various challenges to mature and understand that life is not just a walk in the park. After traversing my own challenges, I quickly understood that the hours  spent in misery allow us to rebuild ourselves, reassess our priorities and evaluate our lives so far.  Life is made of ups and down but it is staggering to realize how easily we stumble. I think we all went through that. We pain ourselves to build something for a while and then within seconds, everything falls apart.  Enough to drive you  bonkers.

One day, as I was browsing through books, I read a sentence that rung so true to me that I had to share it with you. It picks you up when you are down and keep fighting when you are about to give up. “The greatest of victory is not to never stumble but to rise up everytime we fall.”

So anytime you feel defeated because someone sabotaged you, keep in mind that as long as you keep rising up, you will always be the greatest winner.

To all bloggers, don’t give up, don’t ever give up.

Women at work from Ariniaina

http://ariniaina.wordpress.com/2008/09/29/women-at-work/

My Grandmother [my Mom’s mother] did not work at all, in her life. I mean, she did not earn money. She told me women stayed home. The traditional belief says that the husband makes money and the wife takes care of the house and the kids. So, only men worked.

My Grandmother explained that life was easier and cheaper at that time. Women did not need to earn money. Men could afford all the needs of the family (with 7 sons and 7 daughters ).(read more here)

Tourism in Madagascar from MomaDago

http://momadago.wordpress.com/2008/09/28/tourisme-in-madagascar/

In our country ,you could find many beautiful sources for tourism as you like.For example ,the fauna and flora ,handicraft,or if you like to dive there is an wonderful place like in the south of Madagascar(Tulear),the sea is nice ,it’s blue like the sky,the baech is white and very cool to see the under our ocean.Not far for this area ,in Morondava ,you have the same,in Belo sur Tsiribihina.Apart that ,if you really like the Allee de Baobab ,you could find a wonderful place if you visit this site.But anyway,if you like barbecue,we have all see food that you never regret to tast and enjoy it.However,the weather is always nice to excit you to dive see all around our beautiful country.

I.C.E. stands for I’m Crazy about English and is an English club in Antananarivo.
http://www.iceclub-mada.com/

Our first goal is to promote the English language and its use in Madagascar.
Thus, the club gives you the opportunity to practice your English through its different activities and enables you to meet new friends who may share the same interests. We don’t really teach English even though we give some new words and idioms in our weekly brochures and meetings.

The ICE Club carries out different activities such as radio shows and the “English Corner” in the Midi-Madagasikara newspaper. We also hold outdoor activities like excursions, site visiting and so on. Recently, we launched the Movie Projection every 2nd Saturday of the month at a random member’s place.

And now that ICE is a part of FOKO, its members are happy to discover the media citizenship with blogs.

]]> http://club.foko-madagascar.org/2008/09/eng-foko-blog-club-12-ice-im-crazy-about-english/feed/ http://club.foko-madagascar.org/2008/09/foko-blog-club-12-welcome-ice/ http://club.foko-madagascar.org/2008/09/foko-blog-club-12-welcome-ice/#comments Mon, 22 Sep 2008 23:01:30 +0000 admin http://club.foko-madagascar.org/2008/09/foko-blog-club-12-welcome-ice/ Durant les mois de Juin, Juillet et Août, les super bloggers de Foko étaient soit en vacances, soit en train de réviser leurs examens. Cela les a donc éloigne de leurs activités de Média Citoyen. Pour la rentrée, l’équipe s’est mobilisée activement pour relancer en beauté les FBC en planifiant des activités techno-sociales, des FBC a n’en pus finir, des surprises et des surprises. Comme nous sommes très généreux avec notre communauté de supportes, nous allons sortir les nouvelles…a compte-goutte!

Voici donc 10 nouveaux blogs créés le dimanche 20 septembre au Teknet par les I.C.E. Mais qui sont-ils? Découvrez-le en lisant leurs blogs :

http://gigantus.wordpress.com

http://ariniaina.wordpress.com

http://andrydago.wordpress.com

http://davidrichman.wordpress.com

http://ravoz.wordpress.com

http://thefinalandlastkill.wordpress.com

http://mamadago.wordpress.com

http://faratiana.wordpress.com

http://moonlightgirl.wordpress.com

http://dagome.wordpress.com

Formé après les événements du 11/09/2001, par des décideurs politiques, d’artistes, et de groupes d’universitaires. La cession de 2008 a été rejointe par des professeurs, des journalistes, ainsi que des représentants des ONG, c’est aussi la première année que les jeunes sont invités à débattre sur des solutions sans frontière pour les problèmes sans frontière.
C’est à ce titre qu’en tant que membre de FOKO-MADAGASCAR que j’ai pu assister à 1 journée de cette mobilisation. Notons que Madagascar était représenté par Patricia R de Rising Voices. Plusieurs jeunes des différent  pays comme : l’Inde, le Pakistan, l’Israël, la Hongrie, Les États-Unis, ainsi que l’Azerbaïdjan, la Moldavie et La Géorgie, la Turquie (hôte de 2009), Maroc  …….étaient représentés.

Chaque année donc quelque part dans le monde se tient ce forum sur l’INTERDEPENDANCE DAY. Notre hôte de 2008 est Bruxelles, ville de diversité et de richesse culturelles.

Je n’ai pas assisté à l’ouverture du débat du 09/09, je suis arrivée au 2ième  jour de ce fort moment de partage. La conférence et le débat prenaient place à la maison de culture de Molenbeek. Cet endroit n’a pas été choisi par hasard, c’est dans ce quartier qu’il y a une forte présence d’immigré en Belgique. La diversité de cette commune a été mise en valeur par la présence de multitude de centre communautaire qui essaie de mettre à profit cette diversité pour accroître la qualité de vie de Molenbeek.

Un icône de la ville, un prêtre nommé Daniel Alliet nous a guidés dans cette commune aux multiples facettes durant 2 heures. Il nous a expliqué son travail au sein de cette communauté multiple  hormis d’officier les dimanches à son église. Il est une des figures de l’alphabétisation des immigrés qui ne cesse d’accroitre dans cette commune. Lors de notre promenade, une forte présence de la communauté arabe nous à tous interloqué, nous nous croyons téléportés en Maroc ou en Algérie. Cette communauté reproduit tout simplement  ce qu’ils vivent dans leur pays sans soucis d’intégration dans la ville qui les accueille. Notre promenade débutait aux alentours de 18h heures, où les femmes sont en plein préparation du repas du Ramadan, ce qui expliquait que les rues étaient envahies que par des hommes et des enfants.  Une des variétés du multiculturalisme, et de la mixité à prendre en compte dans une société urbaine à multiple style de vie. Ce prêtre fait aussi parler de lui dans le sens où c’est souvent dans son église que les sans papiers entame leur grève pour avoir une régularisation immédiate de leur situation.
Après 2 heures de marche, vint enfin le temps de repos et du repas du Ramadan où nous avons été conviés à partager avec la communauté musulmane. De découverte en découverte la soirée s’est prolongée dans un bar à shisha (ah ! photos censurées !!!) où nous n’avons pas fait que fumer mais aussi gouté au bon thé sucrée marocain. La musique nous dépaysait totalement.

Le lendemain, le 11/09/2008, se tenait aux halles de Schaerbeek un panel de discussion sur la remodelisation de la planète et de la ville. A mon grand désespoir nous n’avons pas pu assister à cela, la faute à pas de chance nous nous somme perdu dans Bruxelles………….Mais j’ai quand même eu des échos. Il a été dit que la géographie interurbaine est une des forces motrices les plus dynamiques du monde en ce début de XXIè……..
De notre coté donc les jeunes comme nous n’avions plus accès à ce débat nous avons organisé notre débat à nous sur l’implication des jeunes dans le milieu politique, ce fut 20 minutes d’échanges très fructueux pour chacun qui a appris des leçons de notre homologue Turque qui essaie de modifier la législation chez eux pour que des jeunes puissent siéger au parlement, en effet ils essaient de voter que les jeunes de 25 ans puissent participer à la vie politique de leurs pays, et nous Madagascar, est ce que nous sommes prêts jeunes Malgaches à prendre notre avenir en main ??? La vie politique ne doit pas simplement être un acquis pour les ainés mais doit avant tout être un outil pour nous les jeunes de sortir du marasme que notre pays subit aujourd’hui. Sommes-nous conscient que l’avenir nous ouvre la porte ? Un des buts du Global Voices Online est de nous inclure Madagascar dans un programme d’ouverture vers le monde alors sans tarder prenons la main qui nous est tendue !!

Après ce mini débat il était temps pour moi de rentrer en France, je ne remercierai jamais assez Global Voices de l’accueil qui m’a été offert lors de mon petit escapade. David de Rising Voices m’a beaucoup aidé à faire connaissance avec ses jeunes du monde entier, Merci encore et au plaisir de se revoir à Madagascar prochainement peut-être qui sait…,

Condoms for Adolescents - Abortion - Youth unemployment

Patricia in few months has made extraordinary progress in blogging and writing skills (especially in english). Today she is intensively answering to her supporters comments and is keeping things…politically correct.

“No sex before the marriage”: this rule still to be respected by some young persons, but the most of them can’t follow it! So, if we really can’t avoid sex before getting married, what to do?

In spite of its prohibition and many ways existent for avoiding it, abortion always exists, most of the time in total discretion. Why to abort? Is there any other solution aside it?

The unemployement was ever a problem for Madagascar since many years. In spite of this fact, no important and suffisant solution hasn’t yet found till now!

Dans la peau d’Amlah

Diana is known from her project to help Baby Kamba and when you discover her other posts, there are no doubts about her activist fiber:

In Amlah’s shoes (part two)

“Aryan , hold me in your arms, I am hurting”. “I am hurting” those were the words that I kept repeating and that are already overwhelming Aryan who does not what to do.
“3 murderers are needed to kill a being, a defenseless innocent being and still, we have yet to succeed.”

Everything started when Aryan told me that we were going to see his friend, a health care provider. He gave us 2 tablets of misoprost containing 4 pills each.
Aryan’s friend told us that one ought to be moving around a bit after taking the pills. At 4h30 am, Aryan wakes me up: “ Amlah, wake up, you need to take your pill now so that you feel better in the afternoon”. I refuse to wake up because I slept late last night. However, I suddenly realize the situation and rise up to take the pill.
“Aryan, Amlah, where are you two going so early ?” Aryan’s mum has obviously awaken.
“ We are just going for a run”. Her mum bought it and we head for the deserted streets so that no one wonders what we are up to.
Suddenly I feel a sharp pain in my belly. I cry in pain in the middle of the street. The sun has arise and the mist that protected us from the public eye is slowly fading.
“Let’s walk faster” Aryan says. I am trying hard but we still need to stop from time to time in front of the Indian shops for rest. Crying, I tell Aryan “ I am tired and I am hurting everywhere”. We finally arrive at my place where my bed looks like a million bucks to me at this time. Aryan is looking for wet towels because I am starting to bleed.
As I wake up, I feel better because the pain has subsided a bit and my precious is next to me. He asks me how I feel and I told him I am fine. I am fortunate to have Aryan’s love because most guys would have left as soon as they hear of pregnancy. Everything goes as plan for the next 4 days. I am still bleeding a bit but deep inside, I am in great pain. “ Allah will never forgive me for having killed his creation”. I feel like eating seasoned manguo achar all the time. It’s not usual for me to still have cravings so I decided to take a pregnancy test again.
I yell in panic “Aryan, how come it’s still positive ? ” I am shouting at him as if it’s his fault. He runs outside to find his friend. They come back and he says:” we will give youa shot, my dearest, I am also tired of putting you in harm’ s way like this so we will take care of it one and for all”. So another road paved with broken glasses and sharp thorns waits me. I so want this to be over with. My body is internally bleeding and my heart is torn. Allah , have mercy on me.

[Translator’s note: this is part II of a fiction piece translated from Diana’s work]

Why

From Patrick

Some of them (children) aren’t  intitled to their right because of the differents kind of distinction or discrimination on account of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, whether of themselves or of their families. WHY?

Madagascar: Land of my people.

by Zouboon

It has been 48 long years since Malagasies have been given the authority to decide our nation’s, beautiful Madagascar’s fate.
There are still however some hints, even indirect ones, that show that foreign residents are in charge in our country.
Because it has only been one month that we celebrated our independence, our patriotic heart cannot but tell the truth. The questions rises : “do we Malagasies repudiate a young spouse, to give others a new partner”, or do foreigners dominate us and take advantage of our poverty? The reality is that foreigners enslave us and control wealth in Madagascar, and are the pampered ones. How many are those foreigners white (Europeans), Chinese, South Indians who all gather our island’s wealth. Many of them own huge local industries, and we Malagasies are their lowly employees. Those from abroad own the industries, which are built locally, the finished products are sourced from local material. However they are the ones getting the most gain, us Malagasies, whose sweat and material generate the finished products, only get the left over crumbs foreigners deign leave. And finally, those foreigners are much respected and feared. We Malagasies lick their feet and plead for the wealth that is ours in the first place.
There is a saying “The owner is begging for his own organs”. The saddest thing is our helplessness and indeed even our mentality has been altered. The belief that whites are above blacks has been internalized.
Following is my message : may the stepping over the vanquished stops, may we stop drowning in our milk like cockroaches do, because our love for Gasikara is eternal, indeed eternal. May our Gasikara never become a foreigners’ land.

The offer from Mrs Annellie Rozenboom to publish our bloggers’ articles and instauring a special FOKO column brought intensive and very creative writing from every corner of the island. The Madagascar English Journal is a weekly publication distributed to high-schools to promote the use of English (which is now Madagascar’s 3rd official language with French and Malagasy). They quickly recognized the versatily of the likes of Rondro or Ledheada and we are now frequently asked to submit more on culture and society in exchange of a small stipend converted in connexion hours (again to keep the focus on online presence). This interest in their work from the great staff at Mada Journal (a publication sponsored by the US embassy), their advices to help write in a more journalistic  way (integrate few lines of interviews, illustrate with pictures,…)  and the opportunity to be read by thousands were the reasons behind these last weeks’ flow of blogging.

Foko, Friendship, Family and the (forgotten) blogger

Traditions and beliefs in Madagascar’s regions (2)

How do you have fun in Madagascar ?

Selection of post-blogging contest posts

Mahajanga posts

About 20 participants, web developers, university professors, college students and web professionals attended the workshop at the University of Antananarivo and were expecting a lot of this Ajax /Web 2.0 marathon training.

Douglas MBIANDOU led the workshop. He is a 31 years old computer engineer from the school of INSA Lyon. He is the technical director of the company Objis and also Chairman of the Club of Digital Solidarity.
Douglas MBIANDOU plays an important role in the development of materials for Francophone Africa thanks to his training at Objis. We will soon be a hundred Africans to have received free training thanks to his educational activities (“that’s 2500 Euro tax not included” my buddy says, smiling)

Originally from Cameroon, He travels between Paris and Dakar to try to minimize the digital gap between Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world.. He already trained regions in West Africa and Central Africa in web 2.0and now he does it for the Indian Ocean.

The classes were loaded with information and helped us understand the bases of Web 2.0 (from a developer perspective), optimizing products to the fullest thanks to various very useful tools and links that were made available to everyone. –To quote Patson famous phrase “ça c’est CADEAU “(and that is free GIFT)

As far as the participants I was looking forward to meeting, they were nice and showed a lot of solidarity. most of them are members of AMUL, four of us are from the company ORCHID-Systems (A company specialized in publishing softwares for microfinancing, and the first Malagasy company of its kind in this field), three more were from e-saina (a company specializing in the development of open source software and network installation). I also recognized the Malagasy blogger Andry Hialy aka Za Gasy which is both a member of the AMUL office and one of the most diligent student at the workshop.

We all hope to use what we have learned for development of the country. Personally, I hope to strengthen the training capacity of the Foko Blog Club and the development of FOKO. So many thanks to the Francophonie !
For more information, you can consult the website of AMUL (ps. the site is still inweb 1.0 format, but surely a big overhaul will be made after this training).

(Photo credits to Harinjaka).

GOO’BYE

Tamatave’s University city,

Is a green and clean campus,

Buildings and white houses,

They are all pretty indeed.

Time is running away,

For 4 years at University,

It seems like yesterday,

Because of our unity.

What wonderful time,

During our 4 years together,

According to me, it was fine,

But I don’t know for the other.

Now it’s time for saying goo’bye,

For all of my classmate, indeed my friends,

I’m sure that one day, we’ll meet again.

So Sir, miss let’s say goo’bye.

Special message for:

Harista and Priscilla Théline,

I love you like crystal clean,

And I won’t forget you forever more.

Hey! Don’t worry!

Be happy everybody,

‘Coz life is always like this,

I mean, please take it easy.

When you’re emotional,

Or get some problems,

You just read this poem,

I think that is all

I wrote this poem to memorize my best friends at University. Patrick loves you!!

by Patrick (please see also his very touching pictures)

_____

Back in November 2007 during the first Blog Club with the Namana Serasera Madagascar, we were introduced to Ravatorano on the chatroom with these few lines :

08:09 ravatorano-madagascar mbola tsisy pro zany ato ra jogany an

there is no pro here jogany

08:09 ravatorano-madagascar mbola vao mianatra e

we’re still learning here

But the improvments he realized in such a little time and the notoriety i gained on the Malagasy blogosphere made us forget about Ravatorano! In fact his intensive blogging inspire continuously many forumists from the Namana Serasera Community and we can’t also miss his jovial presence during each chatroom at each FBC. So please welcome cheerfully Ravatorano !!!

best posts to be translated soon.

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