25 days and the submission of the Best Of Malagasy Blogs is over so it’s not yet late, you can drop some here. If you don’t know much about the Malagasy blogosphere you may start here or directly among the nominees in the category Tanora Gasy (blogs focused on the Malagasy youth), Kolo Gasy (Blogs on Malagasy culture), Mpivoy Gasy (Malagasy online activists), Teny Gasy (Blogs mainly writen in Malagasy language) and Vita Gasy.
I’m always laughing when I see these ads. Almost the same offer at 0,1Ar difference on the prices.
Senegal holds its 11th African title
Senegal 2009 Afrobasket Women Champion (c) Ymagoo
The Fiba Africa Women Chamionship 2009 ended yesterday with a final opposing Senegal and Mali. A final that never was when Senegal took an early 20pt lead and never felt threatened till the final buzzer. The Mali we saw yesterday was not the same as we used to watch and enjoy throught out the competition. It was a sort of revenge for Senegal because in 2007 Mali snatched the title in their homeland.
Madagascar sits at the 8th place
The last 10 days had been tremendous for the Malagasy basketball world. I guess either the players or the federation has drawn lessons from this event. Apart from the Jeux de la francophonie, this was the highest basketball international competition we hosted. This 8th place (2 places better than in 2007) does good to us even though we felt that we could have had a higher seed without an unprofessionalism and unfairness from the referees against Mozambique.
Individual Awards
Aya Traore MVP Afrobasket Women 2009 (c) Ymagoo
I didn’t know much about players in Africa before we this Afrobasket. I knew they had higher level and had more players playing outside of the continent. When you watch Senegal’s ball handling, you know they’ve got experience beside the talent.
Aya Traore MVP. The Senegalese forward largely deserves it. She definitely contributed to the perfect record of her team. Kani Kouyate, the Best Scorer (125 pts). She reminds me a lot of my favorite player, Allen Iverson. A kamikaze penetrating an opponent lign without fear. Attracted to the basket like a magnet. The only flaw I saw in her game is her shoot. The Best Rebounder is Djene DIAWARA. Mali’s center grabbed 72 boards. The award for The player who’s made the most 3pt shoots goes to the Malagasy team captain, Prisca Gouges RAZANANIRINA. The way she advanced to the center of the court we guessed she did not expected this one. The Fiba staff started to give the “Revelation” award this year in Madagascar and it went the the Malagasy PG Maiwenn Harihanta ANDRIAMILANDY.
Prisca Razananirina - Maiwenn Andriamilandy (c) Ymagoo
Madagascar won the Fair Play Award. This is so great. That means all the efforst of each one (staff, coaches, players and supporters) were not in vain. We, as fans and supporters, felt that our team deserved more but this is how the game is.
My MVP is Tahinjanahary Ange Rasoambolanoro
Ange Rasoambolanoro (c) Ymagoo
I say RESPECT. For me she deserves the MVP award as much as A.Traore because she has done amazing things for the team. The only difference is that those things did not bring victories. Her ability to create her own shoots or drive to the basket sets her among the best players in Africa to have an eye on. She is among the top 5 players in 3 different categories
- 14.2 PPG (5th) with a total 117 pts (4th)
- 3,8 APG (2nd) with a total of 30 ast (1st)
- 2 STPG (3rd ex.) with a total of 16 stls (3rd ex.)
Final ranking
- Senegal
- Mali
- Angola
- Ivory Coast
Positive, this is the word that can sum up this championship for us. The next Afrobasket Women will be in Mali in 2 years. And I hope we’ll be there.
A last vid before ending this post. Semi-final : Madagascar – Mali 
Today is the Blog Action Day about Climate Change, thousands of blogs are uniting to raise more awareness and put pressure on each individual and world leaders to take quick and apropriate actions. The fight is worthwhile since the future of our kids is at stake. I’m pretty skeptical on the direct impact of this online activism here in Madagascar but since blogging has once helped Baby Kambana, why wouldn’t it do the same for all of us. We want to tell the World as well that we do care.
I’ve read several posts about Climate change lately, direct effects on people’s day-to-day lives on their jobs and the area they live in. I do agree with the ones who say that we should start with oursleves. Ariniaina is never fed up saying “Be the change you want” each time we discuss social or environmental issues at our club. But it is not enough, we need more sensitation, we need to make people aware of what climate change can bring about and give them suitable options if needed. I’ll take a simple example. The bush fire and the charcoal. How many of the Malagasy homes are using coal and woods to cook? 80-90%? We just can’t afford other source of energy in the long term. And this is where higher responsibles should take actions.
This is a global challenge involving each one of us and we’ll do this for no one but each one of us … and the future generation 
