Headline, November25, 2013

''' MADAGASCAR : 

MELD -mystery- MINGLE - '''

Two-and-a-half times the size of Britain and almost 300 miles from the East African coast of Mozambique, this tropical, dramatic country was one of the last places on earth to be inhabited and many of its unique animals evolved in happy isolation.

Similarly, the Malagasy people  -whether through poverty, isolationist politics or simple geographical position  -have survived the past many centuries largely untouched by great outside influence. 

With only a small but growing, trickle of tourists, their lives are still governed by complex tribal ritual and beliefs.

Some years ago, -the most famous of these has had the anthropologists reaching for their notebooks, is their attitude to death. For the Malagasy, the dead live on, and every few years bones are dug up and invited to join the village celebrations.

They may be asked advice on planning matters. The bones are then returned to the grave, ceremonially wrapped in a new shroud. The Malagasy are then careful to spin the bag of bones around a few times before reburying to ''disorientate them and discourage visits to the living world.''

The landscape is dotted with tombs, and elaborate graveyards feature carved story-telling statuettes and the many horns of sacrificed zebu. It is common for 50 zebu cattle to be sacrificed at an average funeral.

Statistics show that Madagascar produces 80% of the world's vanilla: an essential ingredient in Coca cola and ice cream. This doesn't seem to have brought wealth to the island. 

Madagascar's only remaining resource   -Their Forest. Fifty years ago, the Island was thickly forested, but now only 8% remain. Satellite pictures show erosion bleeding Madagascar's red soil into the ocean all around the island, and only recently have attempts been made to preserve the forest.

Just in time for the Lemurs. These animals form the Darwinian link that preceded moneys on the evolutionary chain, and Madagascar, with no natural predators until the arrival of man by boat from Indonesia in the fifth century, is the only place where the Lemurs were able to opt out of the evolutionary race. 

Those who take zoology seriously find in Madagascar living clues that underpin the theory that the continents were united. Animals found in South America and Madagascar form an otherwise inexplicable link across the oceans.

But the key ingredient is the local people. In Madagascar the eighteen tribal groups blend African and Indonesian features but have a culture that owes little to either. Their exposure to foreigners has been so minimal that they have never learnt to resent wealth and though poor, even children are too shy to beg.

The average Madagascan is too busy trying to make ends meet to frolic around the most beautiful beaches in the world. This is an utter shame as the island boasts some of the very very best in the world. The all time favorite is Libanon beach, near Fort Dauphin, where yellow shore slopes steeply down into the deep blue waters of the Indian Ocean.

Or on Ile Marie, where miles of white sand stretch out towards Africa, dotted with bamboo bungalows built on the hope of some future tourist boom. 

It might be linked by fauna, but Madagascar feels like neither Africa nor South America. It feels like an untouched continent, lost in its own time zone, somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of Madagascar. See ya all on the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

'''!!! When You Like It : You Love It !!! '''  

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless