One country, two words

Well, back again, folks, and nice to be here – I’ve been missin’ ya! OK, I had plenty to keep me busy in the meantime, just looking at everything that’s Madagascar, which is a lot. The picture above is Madagascar, but then again it’s not. It’s just a place to rest after a hot and dusty week on the RN7 – that’s the road from the capital, Tana (Antananarivo), down to Tuléar in the south. It’s a road many people travel, but even so it was hardly overrun by tourists. More’s the pity, you might say, as the country needs all the foreign currency it can get. I could (and no doubt will) write plenty more, but two words will suffice here to convey the overall impression: poverty and friendliness. I’d been three times before, but only to Diego Suarez in the north, and for work, so I hadn’t seen how well those words sum up the whole country. In the first lies a tragic story of corruption, greed and political incompetence; in the second a moving and magnificent reaction of a whole people in the face of hardship. There’s plenty to see in Madagascar, not least a lesson in life.

In praise of the Informal Economy

Informal purchase of a jackfruit in Mamoudzou

My first reblog, part of the reblog Wednesday initiative. The Global Consilium blog deals with important issues in a serious and informative way, which I somehow never manage to do myself. It’s worth checking out, and this topic about the informal economy caught my eye especially, as Mayotte is quickly making that transition from a largely informal economy to one that is regulated .

Global Consilium

Busy market in Dhaka, Bangladesh- IFPRI -IMAGES via flickrCC

The informal economy is everywhere, from street food vendors, cell phone dealers, mini markets, to Facebook-based stores; the dynamism that informality brings to the world economy is undeniably on the rise. According to the World Bank, informal economies generate up to 40% of Gross National Product (GNP) in the developing world. However, despite its significance, the informal economy is usually misunderstood and underestimated.

In informal economies, individuals lack the protection of a safety net that they would otherwise obtain in the formal economy (such as that of a social security or health insurance). Additionally, informal economic activity cannot be taxed, and it is very hard to track for statistical purposes. Yet, despite the obstacles and the challenges that informality represents, one thing is clear about informality: it keeps economies going.

Not surprisingly, informal economies are a great alternative to rising unemployment…

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The Resin Mystery

Confiscated kwassa-kwassa in the Frontier Police compound.

We had dinner last night with our very nice neighbours, Philippe and Christelle. The conversation turned, as it often does in Mayotte, to the question of illegal immigrants. I’ve posted on this topic before, giving as concise an account as possible of a problem which, it seemed to me, has no ready solution.

Philippe, however, came up with one last night: prevent the export of resin to Comoros. Apparently they get it all from Mayotte, and without it, they can’t make the fibre glass boats they use to cross, called kwassa-kwassa. As these are regularly confiscated by the Frontier Police in Mayotte, there’d soon be no boats left. Given that this seems a very straightforward solution (though you’d have to compensate the resin exporters), I asked Philippe why it hasn’t been done. He doesn’t know. I suspect it can’t be as simple as it seems. But what is the obstacle? Your fearless reporter will investigate further and let you know.

In the meantime, for anyone wanting to learn more about the immigration issue, the link below is to a distressing documentary of 23 minutes in French. Of those that survive the crossing, many find work as builders, undeclared and uninsured. Children are often left behind in Mayotte when their parents are sent back to Comoros. The boys then turn to burglary, the girls to prostitution. Could so much tragedy be avoided by stopping the supply of resin? Somehow I doubt it.

Mayotte and the immigration issue