Of kabary and hip-hop: coming full circle.

Picture this:
your two favorite MC's battling one-on-one in front of a captive audience, each one representing his "people". They are going back and forth, exchanging killer rhymes, clever one-liners and obscure references, with the laughter and the cheers of their supporters in the background.

By now, you are probably picturing some scenes from the "8 mile" movie (or the very odd Jodie Foster 's version of Eminem's "loose yourself" at U Penn's commencement.)

( photo via EW)

Now instead of a club, picture an engagement party. Instead of a mixing table, picture flower arrangements and cocktail bowls. Instead of two young rappers in FUBU clothing, two middle-aged speakers wearing formal suits and declining poems of yore.

A Kabary in the Malagasy culture is just that: an oratory art/battle in the most unsual setting. Something in between a Frank Sinatra roast and a Jay-Z/Nas battle, if you will. It's certainly not as aggressive but done right, it can be just as entertaining.
Done poorly, a kabary is the most boring hour you could ever spent.

So what is a Kabary ? Here is a definition:

"Kabary--pronounced Kabar--refers to Malagasy oratory plied by the mpikabary--the orator--during any social or family gathering such as political assembly, wedding, famadihana, burial, funeral, or condolence. Kabary involves using word play and Malagasy proverbs-"

In the setting of a Malagasy engagement party, each orator represents either one of the families. The choice of the orator should not be taken lightly because your family "street cred" ;) may depend on it. Should your orator be badly outperformed by the other family, words in the city would be that your family was too cheap to afford a decent orator and that you are indeed lucky to have hitched your sheep to the other family's fortune ( I am exaggerating here but you get the idea).

You don't want to bore the audience with a lifeless out-of-touch orator but you don't want to go to war with a young speaker either because he may be tricked by a more experienced "mpikabary" or he might use cultural reference that your uncles and aunts can't possibly understand.

In my younger days, I use to think that a Kabary was a inevitable nuisance and 1h1/2 of absolute boredom. Why couldn't we just let cousin X tie the knot with his bride and move on to the eating and dancing part ? Do we really need to hear those two old chaps exchanging wits and pleasantries about the pitfalls of matrimony?
Now I long for the time when our "designated hitter/orator" waxed poetry on the uncanny parallel between love lost and the Cameroon-England quarterfinal match at the 1990 World Cup.

(photo via Tatamo)

The importance of Kabary in the Malagasy culture cannot be overstated. We are, and will always be a society based on our oral culture. Consider that we have 18 tribes in Madagascar and yet all of them without exception have a tradition of Kabary.
To further illustrates the importance of Kabary, the tranofalala website lists a series of idioms related to kabary. Here are a few of them:

- Kabary anelekelan-trano: resolving a disagreement among a community between themselves instead of taking the case to court.
- Kabary tsy efan-kalahady: disagreement that cannot be settled by making simple apology, instead it needs the intervention of the elders or even the court.
- Kabarim-behivavy: a confusing debate during which all participants speak at the same time and raise their voices.
- Kabary tsara pasoka: a captivating kabary.
- Kabary am-panambadiana: call and response talk in a wedding ceremony between the bride's orator and the one of the groom. The groom or the bride might be represented by one or several orators depending on the family's custom.
- Zanak'omby tsy ampianarin-domano, zanak'andriana tsy ampianarin-kabary: used to say that you have special skills without having to learn them.

(Examples of Kabary can be found here, or here.)

The irony is that Malagasy youngsters are quite drawn to hip-hop culture but are not as inclined to revisit the elders' kabary. Our fondness for hip-hop comes from following American or French rappers. We are more likely to chant 50 cent's " In da club" in night-clubs than decline a kabary at a ceremonial.

It's a pity because this could be a case of old school becoming new school all over again. In both cases, one has to captivate and relate to your audience and at the same time, respond to the verbal gauntlet thrown by the opposite orator. It's usually quite tame but it's nevertheless a challenge.

One new young Malagasy blogger, Lomelle, is also a poetry slam artist. I wonder if she relates more to Lupe Fiasco or Dox or if she just naturally embraces both influences.

I, for one, am more likely to produce a Kabarin'adala (a blether) or a Kabarin-tsahona (nonsense) so I will let others be in charge of the "olan'teny"at the next family reunion.
No one needs to hear a Kabary with the words " Check out the hook will my DJ revolves it" in it.

Back to ideas and less pettiness: Obama's advisers on Energy & Enviroment @ Purdue tonight

Cameron Davis and Jack Darin ( his blog), Obama's advisers on energy and environment will be fielding questions at Purdue tonight. With gas price bound to reach $4/gallon in Indiana soon, I think I can guess what will be the center of attention. Obama's track record on environment is pretty good with legislations passed on renewable fuels and a bipartisan plan on fuel economy standards (CAFE) in the works.

Since Cameron Davis served with the United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi, Kenya, I am hoping to hear a global perspective on climate change as well during the talk.

It would be a nice touch since Nelson Mandela's grandson is also in town and that Purdue has one of the highest rate of foreign graduate students.

Here are the highlights ( from my POV) of Obama's plan for Energy and Environment policies:

- Confront Deforestation and Promote Carbon Sequestration.
- Clean Technologies Deployment Venture Capital Fund.
- Invest in a Digital Smart Grid.
- Re-Engage with the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.


For the details on how he plans to achieve these goals, click here.

More than anything, I would just be relieved to hear a conversation on policies and ideas again and less nonsense about bitterness or so-called elitism.

Finally, a few quotes I enjoyed about elitism recently:

Bill Maher in Salon.com: "When the anti-elite crowd demonizes the elite, what they're actually doing is embracing incompetence."

Jon Stewart: "If you don't think you're better than us then what the f**k are you doing? Not only do I want an elite President, I want someone embarrassingly superior to me. Somebody who speaks 16 languages and sleeps two hours a night, hanging upside-down in a chamber they designed."

Indeed, Jon, WTF.

Dr Aysou Haile Selassie on HIV/AIDS care in Ethiopia

A brief testimony by Dr. Aysou Haile Selassie on the conundrum of HIV therapy in sub-saharan Africa. Dr Haile Selassie oversees 4 Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) centers in Addis-Ababa:

"Thanks to a major awareness campaign that started a few years ago, most Ethiopians know the importance of getting tested and practicing safe sex. It is what we do about current HIV patients that still requires more effort on our part."

Ils ont dit: (Quotemonger, 1st take)

Quelques phrases entendues dans les news et ce qu'elles voulaient vraiment dire.
A few celebrity quotes in the news and what they really meant to say.
( Inspiration from Shoals and sipakv )

Patrick Ramiaramanana, Ministre Malgache:

« Rossy est un ami. Par ce geste, je le protège plutôt des opportunistes qui souhaitent greffer sur son art des intentions inavouées »

(Il voulait dire: Je connais Rossy. La preuve, je chante souvent Bal kabosy au karaoke. Mais les ordres sont clairs et je ne suis pas fou. Si il y a du grabuge, c’est à moi qu’on va demander des comptes.)

B. Obama, on real sports after B. Gumbel asked him how badly he would like to play GW one-on-one:

"He (president GW Bush) looks like a pretty good athlete [..] but I am pretty certain I can take him"

(What Obama meant: "I will cross GW over so badly that he will call his mama and ask her to renew her request for banning black people from the state of Texas during Katrina. I dare you to call me an elitist ever again. This is me, coming at you, Rucker-park style. Who’s next? McCain ? Anyone ? I thought so...)

J. Chirac, sur la crise alimentaire dans le Journal Le Monde.

« La contribution des financements innovants au développement des pays les plus pauvres sera une des priorités de ma fondation. Ce n'est, certes, qu'un moyen mais ayons conscience que, face au caractère inédit de la crise que nous vivons, la communauté internationale n'a d'autres choix que celui de l'imagination et de la solidarité. »

(Traduction: Si mon "copain" Nicolas croyait en avoir fini avec moi, il se trompe lourdement. Non seulement, je lui explique le problème mais je lui donne la solution, tout cela dans son journal préferé, Le Monde et je me pose en champion de la solidarité avec les pays pauvres. Pendant ce temps, il se balade à Londres avec sa mignonne et réprimande son gvt qui se crêpe le chignon. Je me demande si ils vont l’acceuillir aussi bien à Antanarivo qu’à Dakar après son fameux discours sur l’Afrique.)

Robert Mugabe on Zimbabwe:

“We pride ourselves as being top, really, on the African ladder... We feel that we have actually been advancing rather than going backwards.”

(What he really meant: I have lost track of the reality of my country for a while now that I don’t think anyone is really paying attention to my words anymore. I just hope that me talking will keep people from noticing that I lost my mind several decades ago.)

Willam Gallas, aprés une main dans la surface qui a mis Arsenal hors course pour le championnat anglais.

« Ces derniers mois, il était difficile pour nous de bien réagir après avoir concédé un but. On coulait très rapidement, Nous n'étions pas comme ça en début de saison. Nous devons travailler là-dessus pour la prochaine saison»

(Il voulait dire: La main, je l’ai fait exprès pour tester le caractère de mes coéquipiers. Et bien oui, on a encore du travail a faire. Moi, je suis un pro, je ne donne pas un péno comme cela sans raison. Mes coéquipiers m’adorent, il n' y a pas de souci. Fabregas m’a donné une petite claque après le match pour me montrer qu’il avait bien compris. Il a certes fermé le poing en me donnant la claque mais c’etait un accident.)

Update:

C. Kremen on Biodiversity in Madagascar:

“We show, in an analysis of wide taxonomic and geographic breadth and high spatial resolution, that multitaxonomic rather than single-taxon approaches are critical for identifying areas likely to promote the persistence of most species”

( what she meant: If we are to really protect the treasure of this planet, we have to have a broader approach than just saving the pandas, polar bears and lemurs of the world. No species is an island (no pun intended). )

Jean-Arnaud Coste sur le fait que la gauche en France supporterait Obama:

"Vous êtes vraiment d'une naïveté déconcertante pour croire qu'Obama est de gauche, c'est dingue… Il est certes peut être moins à droite que McCain mais il est bien plus à droite que Sarkozy par exemple ."

(Traduction: Je pense que le concept de "gauche/droite" est devenu obsolete. Mais puisque on en parle encore, je vais remettre les points sur les "i". Mais comme supporter R. Nader revient à donner de la confiture aux cochons, je rejoins ce groupe pour Obama, faute de mieux..)

Tidbits from Obama's visit @ Purdue.

Thanks to persistent emails from Purdue Students, B. Obama decided to come to Lafayette on Thursday. Tickets were gone in 20 minutes with lines stretching over 2 blocks.
I was ready to give up but Hildred hooked me up with a volunteering job as a usher.
I draw the short end of the straw though because I was designated with 3 other guys to organize the queue of supporters outside. The catch was that the rain was coming down like the Vietnam scene in Forrest Gump and the Shawshank escape combined. Of course, none of us had an umbrella. We cannot complain though because the people at the front of the queue were there 4 hours before the speech and drove from St-Louis. An estimated 2,800 people were in attendance.

(Three of the 5 volunteers who got soaked for Obama)

It was still the longest 1h1/2 ever. A wet shirt contest is really not that sexy when it's +5 Celsus and everyone is playing piano with their teeth. People were so numb from the rain and cold, I was telling them that 3 other gates were available and they just stared at me with a blank expression, not too sure if they still had feeling in their toes.
Thank goodness it was worth the wait.


A strong emphasis on education ( big surprise , we were in a university town after all) and why it was fiscally and morally irresponsible to stay in Iraq. He emphasized that withdrawal will not be easy and that the army might probably leave Iraq with much unsolved issues. However, he pointed out that if after 7 years, they were not able to solve the issues, nothing indicated that they could by staying longer. The speech was good but the Q&A's were more entertaining and revealed more about Obama.

Q: What do you make of the critics of your opponent that says you are all about beautiful speeches and no action ?
Obama: Funny how that criticism is not heard as often anymore. It's because she knows it does not work. I have proven myself at every level of public services. The essence of inspiring with words is the belief that actions can produce change, that politics does not have to be done they way that it is done until now. I have been campaiging for 15 months now, trust me, I too sometimes get tired of hearing myself talk. I would gladly take a vow of silence but this election is about getting as many people involved as possible in the most important elections of our time.

Obama: Lady , up there on the balcony, you have a question to ask it seems.
Lady (waiving from the balcony): me ?
Obama (smiling): yes, you. I called on you because I thought you were going to jump off that balcony the way you waived so hard.
Lady: What will be the biggest challenge for you when you are in office ?
Obama: I am not going to lie. Implementing change is hard. We will disagreee, many times, but I can promise you that I will listen to you and I will work work hard for you. One thing that needs to change is the habit that we have of giving carte blanche to our president. Hold your president accountable for their action.
Boy: What do you think of the Kyoto protocol and would you consider Al Gore in your cabinet?
Obama: I guarantee you that if I ever get into a position of forming a cabinet, I will invite Al Gore to participate in any capacity he wants to serve. We have been exchanging many ideas and many of his proposals are integrated in our plans. The Kyoto agreement is not perfect but instead of opposing it, we should have kept working towards perfecting it. This approach is true for most foreign policy. We need to start listening to others' point of view.

Finally, check out the video we took of Obama's shaking hands with volunteers and supporters. You can clearly hear : "I love you Barack" ( it was not me, it was a good friend of mine).

Now compare this to Sarkozy's infamous mixing with the crowds. You can clearly hear: " touches moi pas, tu me salis " ( Don't touch me. You soil me) followed by Sarkozy answering " casse toi alors, pauvre con" ( p..off, then. Jerk).

Now I know that's not fair. I know. One has shown he can stand the pressure of being president. The other one is Sarkozy. ( Too easy ? Oh darn ...)

Publications in Science: Madagascar, Dengue and CD4 testing

I do not talk about my day time job here often because the last thing I want to do is talk about work after a whole day spent doing just that.
Today, I will put my biologist's hat on because a rare tri-factor has happened within the past two weeks: 4 articles published in major issues that I would like to discuss.
One of the common phrases in the field of research is "Publish or perish". Not a great phrase but it sums up quite well how desperate we can be for a solid article. Even more important is the journal one is published in. Like most things in life, not all journals/references are equal.
A good way to identify how much of a "big deal" a publication is to look up its impact factor.
It measures the number of citations to a science journal and de facto, the relevance of a journal to its domain.
In a way, it would be similar to the number of links/reactions to a blog. It's a strong indication of the relevance of the journal (not an absolute measurement of relevancy but a strong indicator and just like blog authority on technorati or google PageRank, the way impact Factor is computed has been debated).
A combined impact factor ranking has Nature and Science as the top two of scientific revues, New England Journal of Medicine is third and Cell, fourth.
Personally, I would give an awful lot to be published once in any of the top 10 revues in this lifetime. I am not holding my breath by any means.
So 2 weeks ago, I-mei, my better half (much better half, in fact) got published not once but twice in Science. The studies explain the maturation process of the Dengue Virus and its impact on the infectious process. For those of you who wish to know more, here are images of the structural changes in the virus ( It makes no sense to me either).

(via sciencedaily)

Given the select company, that's already quite an achievement; now if you can get the cover of either Nature or Science, then you really hit the jackpot.

( via Science cover of April 2008)

That's exactly what Kremen et al. achieved yesterday: The cover of Science is a green reptile from Madagascar to illustrate a study about protecting biodiversity by prioritizing hot spots with better taxonomy approach.
One of the collaborating institute is le Réseau de la Biodiversité de Madagascar In Antananarivo, Madagascar.
This is a very rare feat so forgive if I wax poetic about the awesomeness of these moments. Those publications are the results of persistent research, talented scientists and asking correct, relevant questions.

Finally, I want to mention two more articles here. For the sake of complete disclosure, I am involved in the project mentioned in both articles. The two articles are not published in scientific revues ( who said:"Ha !"?). However, the Washington Post is nothing to snuff at, right ?
David Brown wrote an article 2 days ago about the importance of cell-sorting as biological tool to identify cells HIV patients who have developed AIDS and how it came about. A video illustrating the issue can be found here.

We presented the project at a business plan competition here in campus and finished 2nd out of 48 original projects entered. Not too bad for a nonprofit organization, no ?
And if you think I mentioned the last two articles because I felt threatened by the intelligence of the three studies published in Science, you are absolutely right. Hey, everyone cope with their own insecurity the best way they can.

(cell sorting via the washington post).

"Free at last" (fr)

Pour commémorer l'anniversaire de la mort de Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, une traduction partielle du discours du 28 Aout 1963: (I have a dream).

Unintentional comedy moment withTim Russert

Heard on the Tim Russert show last night:
Tim Russert and his guests, Andrew Sullivan, author of Daily Dish on the Atlantic and Christopher Hitchens of Vanity Fair debate the economy and Iraq and as Russert thank them for coming, here is what he says:
"Thanks to Andrew Sullivan, author of the "Daily Bush" on the Atlantic...."
sure it was 1:30 am and I was tired but it got me laughing like a kid. I know...I really need to grow up.
It's even funnier when you know Sullivan's stand on politics and sexual preference.
Tim Russert is not known for his blunders or his funny bone but it was refreshing to see him and Sullivan trying to first contain themselves and as the credits finally roll, laugh out loud about the mistake.

"This is not your election"

100% agreed.

The upcoming elections in the USA are about whom the American citizens would vote in as their president, not what the rest of the world would wish for America. As you may have noticed, I have followed with a certain interest the proceedings during the campaign. I have attended two political meetings in town, discussed the merits of each candidates with my fellow American co-workers and even created this group (mostly for fun). My co-workers know I cannot vote so they are often wondering why I would even care.

I am not alone here. The elections in the US are not meant for either the Brits , the Egyptians, the French, the Nigerians nor the Swedes ( and many others, about 25 groups by my count) but they all chimed in. You can find more reactions from all over the world at voiceswithoutvotes and submit your thought as well.

The important point here is that all these people are not just voicing their opinions about candidate lambda for the sake of making noise. We all know too well that this does not help by any stretch of the imagination (and in the case of the support from France, one may argue that it has the opposite effect, but more on that later).
It is not that all those folks suddenly suffer from a "Miss Universe pageant syndrome" and believe that World Peace is now within reach.


The point of all this support is that we also have our own fear to express.

It's the same fear that Americans have felt after 9/11. The fear born from the Bombings in Bali, Mumbai, London and Madrid. The fear that the world is being polarized and hold hostage by extremists and mass murderers . The fear that our families living in major metropolitan areas might also be someday swept away but some vicious acts. Terrorism after all, also killed thousands in Nairobi and was potentially active in Madagascar.

We wish for a candidate that would be the most effective in reducing terrorism on global scale.

The most agreed upon reason for 9/11 is that there was a major failure of the US intelligence system. An efficient network needs nations with common goals to come together and share data.
Hillary Clinton said a short time after 9/11, " You are either with America in our time of need or you are not".
Well, the rest of the world was with America. However, the way the war on terror was managed so single-handedly, we were not sure whether America really wanted the rest of the world to "be with" them in the first place.

Anti-French sentiment was at an all-time high when French diplomats dare to express reserve about the wisdom of attacking Iraq. After that decision, politicians did not think that they could win an election without weighing in on the darned French.
It was either R. Limbaugh with his "John Kelly is French-looking and has French relatives ..." or Mitt Romney saying: " Unless America changes course, we will become the France of the 21st century". Even the democrats at ourfuture.org came up with a mocking video saying " Merci McCain".

The candidate that is willing to rebuild those burned bridges with many nations will be the most effective in preventing future terrorist acts. Which president would US allies be more willing to share information on budding extremist activities with the bully who says: "with me or against me" or the one willing to listen to all points of view before making an informed decision ? Which method has the most chance to be effective and potentially avoid a catastrophic decision ?

Jeremy Piven, Ari from the HBO show "Entourage", explained yesterday to Purdue students and staff why he was traveling across the state of Indiana for the Obama campaign. Here is one of the reason why he supports Obama:

"We burned a lot of bridges. I want someone like Barack Obama speaking for us. It's a time when you're afraid to turn on the news. It's rough, it's tough. He was a guy that stood up; that guy, I want to roll with."

This is not our election, but when you see people like Piven with an acute awareness of what went wrong and the right way to fix it, you forget for a moment that you cannot cast your own vote. You just cheer them on, wish them good luck with their project and hope that the other shoe does not to drop.

It may not be our election but it sure feels like we all ought to be concerned with it. Terror does not live in a vacuum.

Here is a video of Piven talking at Purdue.