On the eve of Rajoelina announcing that he broke off all mediation talks in Madagascar and will organize with his government parliamentary elections, information that the rosewood illegal trafficking is still underway made surface.
A large shipment of illegal timber by a French shipping company is expected on december 22nd.
( Images via news.mongabay.com)
In effect the traffickers of the world are saying:
"Merry Christmas, Madagascar forest, it was fun having you around, no hard feelings Ok ? It's not personal, it's just business. Enjoy desertification while we make millions of dollars"
Yes I am pissed off.
The current government has already sold Madagascar Uranium 5 cents on a dime to an Indian Company named Varun (updated link) and now they are still leaking out the country's natural resources as we speak.
It's not like they are taking us by surprise either.
Remember Black Monday on Jan. 26th when Antananarivo was looted while security forces were nowhere to be found ? Well, it turns out that was just the tip of the iceberg.
The real goal was to take control of the Rosewood business the same day by sending gangsters into National parks and effectively starting the illegal trafficking.
Reporter Razafison investigates ( by the way, a must-read blog about Conservation in Madagascar):
"Elles ont profité du trouble politique pour opérer une razzia un peu partout dans l’île, un hotspot de la biodiversité mondiale. Selon James MacKinnon de Conservation International Madagascar, le taux de déforestation des aires protégées est de 0,13 % par an contre 0,65 % pour les aires non protégées. Mais, en temps de crise, les pillages des forêts sont intenses et incontrôlés."
I do not care about keeping a modicum of neutrality anymore. I waited and waited for them to redeem themselves and give me a reason to hope. I am done waiting.
This transitional government has proven 10 times now that they are in it to sell Madagascar to whoever offers the most money.
I want them out now. No make-believe elections that are paid for by the Rosewood money.
There is a reason why they will not share the power with others. They have some shaddy businesses to hide, that's the reason.
All I want for Christmas are leaders who are not selling away my homeland.
All I want is to not go back to a desert island because thieves had to make a few more bucks.
Happy Holidays, still.
Again, I understand your anger. I'm myself completely gutted ... but, I don't know, "The real goal was to take control of the Rosewood business the same day by sending gangsters into National parks and effectively starting the illegal trafficking."
ReplyDeleteIsn't that a bit extremely, Lova ? Coincidence, gut feeling maybe but don't you think, you need evidence to support that ?
Quoting Razafison "Elles ont profité du trouble politique pour opérer une razzia un peu partout dans l’île..."
Doesn't this mean that this traffic started under Ravalomanana but we didn't really know about it. We knew once he was gone ?
Andry & co failed to prevent the peak of this massacre because they were busy somewhere else (finding people to join the government and stuff like that) or because of their lack of experience or competence or restricted means ...
"This transitional government has proven 10 times now that they are in it to sell Madagascar to whoever offers the most money."
I genuinely don't know about this. My question is : Is it possible at all that those deals intiated under Ravalomanana (Uranium, water ...) reached a stage where it was impossible to backdown ?
That might be very naive of me, but it's not right to rule out possibilities. I wanna know whatever the answer.
I meant "a bit extreme". Should read myself before posting not after :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you for the comments and questions:
ReplyDeleteabout Jan. 26th, it's certainly a lot of gut feeling. However, if you were to go back to what I wrote on GV that day, I posted a tweet by Daniel Austin posted close to a National park and he witnessed gangs rampaging in forest before any of the Tana mess happened. So I do not have firm evidence except from Razafison's write up and that testimony. But I am trying to connect the dots there.
There is no doubt that the rosewood traffic started when Ra8 was in power. The article detailing the investigation said so very clearly and I said so myself in a previous blog post.
The point I am making is that at some point, we have to learn from our mistakes as a country and not repeating the same pattern every time, whether under Ratsiraka, Zafy, Ravalo or Rajoelina. And if you are going to remove someone from power and bypass the electoral process under the pretense that you have to save the country NOW, you have to justify your action by at the very least not stealing from the country yourself. Otherwise spare us the comedy and wait for elections like any reasonable person would. Because TGV foregoes the elections, people died, people lost their jobs and we are back to the stone age which was not the case 1 year 1/2 ago.
Hi Lova !
ReplyDeleteYour term papers, all done ?
Sorry if I didn't read all of your previous posts and tweets. By reading this one, I didn't know I was meant to have read them ;-)
The latest news have enlightened me ... I can't believe the prime minister gave the green light for the rosewood to leave M/car ! I'm extremly upset and saddened by this decision and the impact it will have on our forest.
If you still feel like writing about this issue, I think you should focus entirely and exclusively on the rosewood (not mix it with looting, uranium or your feeling for Andry. One at a time and not too much works better). Anyone reading (pro TGV or anti TGV) should agree 100% about the fact that the "decision" taken by the government is wrong for the environment, wrong for the economy, the tourism ... damaging for the future, wrong for every single Malagasy whatever his political preference.
Happy new year !