chez Philippa Paris 2002 photo Maï T

Greetings and all good wishes from Madagascar where I have been since the end of August, working with the United Nations on organising the Presidential elections to be held on 3rd December. As I write, the elections are not far off and tensions are rising. Preparations are somewhat chaotic and people here are still traumatized by the six month of unrest that followed the last presidentials five years ago and brought the country to its knees. It is a very different mission to Afghanistan where we were actually running the operations so we could put things right when they were going wrong. Here the elections are beeing organized by the Ministry of the Interior. The Malagasy government asked the UN for support and a technical team was put together for this purpose. We are here to advise but are not running the operations. There is a good deal of polite
nodding and our recommendations seem to disappear down the arcane labyrinths of the administration. However, they do eventually re-emerge as policy re-interpreted the Malagasy way.
That means strictly no confrontation, not all that much action. Of course, the ministry people are paid peanuts and this election is giving them a great of a lot more work, so motivation
levels are let us say, well rock bottom.

Madagascar is a very diverse, interesting place. Dwarfed by the African continent, it is actually huge (two and a half times the size of England). Antananarivo, where I am based, is on the high
plateaux and largely inhabited by the Merina people who are of Indonesioan descent. These people, traditionally the ruling class, are a little inscrutable, perhaps because of their Far Eastern
origins. The coastal people are of African and Arab stock and there is also a sizeable community of Indians and Pakistanis who have been here for generations. Eighteen ethnic groups share this island which seems to have every climate on earth, from temperate up in the highlands, to lush tropical on the coast and desert in the south.

The team is eclectic and the boss is terrific - a six foot five Malian noble tribesman who smokes Cuban cigars at 8 o' clock in the morning. If there is no run-off, it will all be over by
mid-January and.....

Phillipa Neave december 2006