RTA, a local TV station that was one of the SMS voting precursors in Madagascar launched a new show which the audience will fully get involved in. They use the term “RTA 2.0″, something my friend Manantsoa does not agree with because according to him there can’t be direct interaction between the videos and the viewers, “How do we do to comment and rate them?” he asked . The principal of the show is simple, you record a short video from your mobile phone and then give it to RTA.

When I asked Kya about this new show she said that it could make us more creative. “It’s like your Facebook status” she said. “You’ll have to be creative to get comments on them”. I watched 3 videos last weekend, in fact their passing 2 or 3 each day – but in a slot of time I’m usually at the bus station – and resume all of them on weekends. And I was a bit scared. They can be called “creative” but I see it more as “violent”. Like a boy throwing himself into a thorny fence or in a channel of dirty water. In the third vid, a guy stood in the treet in a pile of tires and then another man came up, gave him a kick and got him crash on the ground. I say, wow, isn’t that dangerous? It can lead to something like the Jackass show. And as my little sister told us it has appeared as trendy in her highschool to perform self-injuring stunts.

Anyway, I just saw three and I can’t draw a conclusion based upon them to shoot the show lol. What could make  people feel reluctant to take part is maybe the procedure of submission, or let’s say the things you have to do before your video will be on air. Recording – that’s the easiest part – then burning it on a CD – we can still do that more over the price of a blank CD is affordable. The hardest part is no doubt the “bring it to us” one. It needs time, the RTA’s HQ is not in downtown.

Talk about your first three posts, a game, let’s call it like that, started by Lova and which I was invited to take part in. Going back to my early days of blogging is a bit fun after unconsistently writing for more than a year.

My first post was Workshop with Foko Madagascar. Unlike some other bloggers that started with me I didn’t find a good introductory post and decided to skip the well known “Hello World”. I must say that I waited something like 2 days after the workshop to create my own blog because I thought I’d only post on the ICE website. But since the workshop introduced me to the world of blogging I thought it would be logical if my first post would talk about it.

My second post dealt with Rain. Actually, it was during the rainy season. I used to be wet going home for my umbrella wasn’t much of a help and now I’m already preparing my self to dry my shoes with my mom’s hairdryer… again. I tried also in this post to illustrate the daily life of Tana’s inhabitants during that season.

And If Madagascar used Nuclear Energy was my third one. Initially, I entitled it “What if Madagascar used Nuclear Energy”. At the time I’d only discovered a thin part of the Malagasy blogosphere – I’m keeping on discovering it – and didn’t know DotMG’s what-if. I saw the topic on a Malagasy discussion forum and wanted to put down what I thought of it.

So, I will choose 3 bloggers to keep it up. I’m really curious to know more about Tomavana’s first posts and the same goes to Lomelle and Ranjiva

I could be one of them, queueing up – a long one that goes around the Carlton’s parking and then along the fence just near the road – for about 2 hours under a burning sun before entering the fresh hall of Carlton, filling out job application forms, going through eveluation tests, paying attention to advices given to me, attending conferences. And in some cases going out there with a simple hope of a call from a responsible of recruitment we met or talked with.

The “Salon des métiers” (Job Show), as I’m writing this post the show has drawn a lot of people. The newly 20,000 unemployed [fr] due to the crisis thiken those who were already looking for a job. This 2 day event was organized by the International Labour Organisation in order to help unemployed Malagasy people to find a job. When I was there, I saw young people, I guess they’ve just finished their studies and are ready to enter the world of work. Some are fresh from highschool and want to know what study to do to find a job that will allow them to convenably fulfill the basic needs of their family in the future. I could see older people as well.

In there, I saw the ILO’s poster with the motto “Promoting decent work for all” and I’m asking if the “decent” still counts among the ones in crucial need of  a job. The ones who are ready to take any work that passes under their nose because they have not paid their bills for 3 months and running into debts. I’m also thinking of what happened to my friend Ariniaina few days ago, the insecurity that reigns in Tana and in the suburbs, the impunity of the burglars in the day light. Anything is good as long as you can get money out of it. The meaning of “decent” or “respectful” has no more sens. “the end justifies the means” took its place.

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.

I wanted to write a post about Swine Flu two days ago after reading in a newspaper that more than 160 cases have been confirmed. If I remember well, the first case was found in August and then an important rise have been observed these last 3 months till we reached this figure[fr] (207 cases).

Even if the pandemic has touched upper class so far, the Government is making sure to take appropriate measures. A hotline was set up for people who want to have more information about the swine flu. There is also the high cost of the Tamiflu whose prices range from 86,000 Ar to 93,000 Ar (higher than the official minimum salary which is around 60,000 Ar ~ $30), an amount that the majority of the Malagasy people can’t afford. The daily Midi Madagasikara says that all the stock are done or already booked. The first school closed because of the swine flu in Madagascar is located in Isotry, it is a private one. The threat of the pandemic reaching a lower class is somewhat worrying. The difficult access to sanitary facilities and clean water to keep basic hygene will be a challenge for us to control the pandemic. As of today, the Swine Flu has caused no death, a positive point that I wish will stay as it is.

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

I’ve seen a better Madagascar
The miracle did not occure. We didn’t expect one but we also didn’t think of losing by as much as +50pts (39 to 90). The Malagasy team was not a match for the Senegalese in the 4th day of the tournament. Senegal remains then at the top of Group A. “Self confidence”, we didn’t have it once we steped on to the court yesterday. We knew it was going to be hard and a win was out of reach but that should not have prevented us from playing a better basketball. It is so frustrating to see your team having a poor game though you know they can do better.

It seemed as if our players were lost, having no options and just leaned upon chances on both ends of the floor (28 turnovers). No fastbreaks, no shoots, we were waiting for one another to take responsabilities letting the Senegalese have a promenade on the court (5 players scored +10pts). At many times we slowed down our game instead of running to the basket, something we’re good at. It was not the same team I cheered in the previous game. Maiwenn and Ange stayed on the bench through the 4Q, maybe to save energy for the game against Mozambique.

Tiry, the most consistent of the Malagasy players, was doing her job (23pts) and was the only one who was hot. Belinda, had minutes and did everything but scoring. The ball didn’t want to go in.

We should be more united during hard times. I felt the frustration between the players as the game went on. Of course this is my point of view as a public but I say we surrendered too early.

Madagascar and Mozambique will fight for the 3rd seed in Group A today to avoid facing the #1 of Group B – which will be probably one of Mali, Angola or Ivory Coast – in the quarter finals.

Mali grabbed its 3rd Win. The defending champ had a slow start yesterday against Angola but catched up by appplying stifling defense that turned off Angola’s offensives. I don’t remember her name , she’s from Angola’s team, but she made the shoot of the championship yesterday when beating the buzzer from half court.

Note : Madagascar was supposed to host the FIBA Africa Women Championship in 1972 but could not because of the unrest at the time. This year, almost the same thing was about to happen. A problem of unpaid wages was evoked yesterday as the responsables of the stats claimed what was due to them. It is said that they had a talk to the Federation and everything has been settled.

The loss against Cameroon of the night before was to be forgotten. This is the third (straight) day of competition and dwelling on something bad won’t change anything. If I had to say something about this it would only be “lack of size”. We didn’t feel confident since the start of the game and lost valuable possessions. Plus our shooters felt short all night.

Afrobasket Women 2009- Madagascar South Africa

The game against South Africa was a must-win for both teams if they wanted to have a chance to advance to the quarter finals. Once I saw the average height of the South African players I said to my friends “Guys, we have our chance today”. I said it in my previous post “we’re good but we lack height in the paint”.

Madagscar had trailled through the first 10mn during which SA imposes its pace. Both teams seemed to opt for the “run and gun” tactic. Something I do like. SA also played fastbreaks well and their point guard was unstopable in the first half. The second quarter was better for the Malagasy team, we led in score for the first time at 1:00 to go when Maiwenn drived in for a layup  to set Madagascar ahead by 3pts. But SA drilled a 3pt before the buzzer to even the game at 40.

The second half was another thing for us. I don’t know what the coachs said to the players but we scored 35pts in the 3rdQ. A periode where Ange woke up. She drove in, took mid range  shoots and the ball always got in (32pts). Prisca, who felt cold the night before, reconciliated with her outside shoot and pourred down from the 3pt line – she scored 16pts.

It’s not easy to record a video and cheer at the same time.

Discovering Belinda Mboma, an expat from Belgium. She was one of the few players who scored more than 10 pts during the game against Cameroon. She is an all around player that can play at any position. She can drive, play post-up back to the basket and she can take 3pt shoots as well. Even though she didn’t not play much in the last game I’m sure she will gain more and more minutes as the tournament goes on.

As of today, two Malagasy players are among the top 3 scorers of this Afrobasket Women 2009.

Tahinjanahary Ange RASOAMBOLANORO (21 PPG)
Maiwenn Harihanta ANDRIAMILANDY (17 PPG)

This evening we’ll be playing Senegal – undefeated so far. When asked about this up coming game, the coach Aimé remained realistic and said “I won’t even say anything about this”.

Nigeria and Malia dissappointed me

It was kind of a bit boring as a game. Maybe my expectations were too much but I was dissapointed by the tiny-score game. As far as I remember, the last time I watched a less-than-50pt game was in highschool.