Talk:Madagascar

Section on animals

There should be a section on animals.

The Galápagos_Islands page has a section on the conservation of its island's animals. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sp0 (talk • contribs) 16:47, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

Other use

I provided a link to the computer-animated film, Madagascar - The Kooky One 00:49, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

Non-Decimal Currency?

I don't think the assertion that Madagascar has non-decimal currency is correct: "The Malagasy franc, divided into 100 centimes, is the currency unit (6,588 Malagasy francs equal U.S.$1; 2001 average)." Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2003. © 1993-2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

The Malagasy franc has been replaced by ariary as the currency since 1 January 2005. One ariary can be divided into five iraimbilanja. Hawklord 14:38, 2005 Apr 25 (UTC)

High background radiation and colonization impacts

Where should the high background radiation facts go, and where should its negative impact on colonization attempts go? BACbKA 21:24, 13 Dec 2004 (UTC)

This information should probably be under the "Geography" heading.24.83.178.11 12:23, 26 April 2007 (UTC)BeeCier

Malagasy?

I was reading an article on African law by a British scholar and I noticed that it continually referred to "Malagasy" rather than Madagascar. From looking at the handful of articles on Madagascar, it appears to me that the official name of the nation that is coterminus with the island is the "Malagasy Republic". If this is correct and current, and if Malagasy is the common term for the island in British english, then Malagasy should redirect here instead of to Malagasy language, and this article should plainly state all of this in the intro. Not knowing anything about this beyond what I just perused, I don't feel comfortable making the changes myself. Postdlf 00:59, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)

This is the old name used in the 1960's. Malagasy is the adjective for Madagascar. The name is now Republic of Madagascar, perhaps because people thought that Malagasy was the name of the country. Hawklord 14:01, 2005 Apr 17 (UTC)

People from Madagascar are called Malagasy. The malagasy spelling of Madagascar is Madagasikara.Another reference is just a confusion between terms--Gollum

What I meant above was that the name originally used was Malagasy Republic, but now it's Republic of Madagascar, so the adjective has been replaced by a noun. Hawklord 14:23, 2005 Apr 25 (UTC)

Not really any different from England - we live in England, where we have English culture Tomandlu 15:47, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

"Malagasy Republic" was the name used in English at the UN for awhile, but Madagascar has been used for at least 20 years. I'm not sure when the change was made. Newyorkbrad 01:19, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

In case you're interested, Malagasy works as an adjective as well as the name of the people. You wouldn't say Madagascarian, except in British English. Along this line of thought, the French equivalent for Malagasy is Malgache. Now you ask, why do the Malagasy use the English term to describe themselves than the French term? After all, the French have had a solid colonial presence there. The British did attempt the colonial thing but it didn't stick. I haven't had a solid answer to this. I do remember getting the feeling that they respected the Americans more than the French; after all Bush acknowledged the legitimacy of their new president. And I think the Americans sent aid after a hurricane swept through the south. And the French were the colonialists.

Some one needs to find out just when the name changed from Malagasy Republic to Madagascar. The article currently says when MG was officially started, but except for saying that it is a FORMER name, it doesn't tell us when it stopped being used. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 211.225.34.160 (talk) 04:28, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

One Sentence?

The written history of Madagascar began in the 7th century, when Arabs established trading posts along the northwest coast.

Can the contributors, moderators, and whoever else contribute more to the non-european history of Madagascar? I think we can do better than one measly "before the whites came" sentance. In fact, with Africa articles (and practically all non-European articles of history), we need to wean ourselves from orienting the histories based on a low interest in precolonial, white contact attitude.

———————————

There has been a very good history book recently published here in Madagascar by a Malagasy historian (I am not sure if I am allowed to write his name and its title) that can answer this question. Unfortunately most of the literature on the subject is in french. But if you want to know, the fisrt permanent settlements on the island date most likely from the 4th century CE if not earlier! Knowledge of the island possibly dates from long before. Madagscar stays one of humanitiy's "last frontiers" though.

Fanoendor 07:47, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

asian features?

nevermind. i looked at some other websites and have come to the conclusion that asian means indian/arab.

ASIAN FEATURES!

Asian features in madagascar can ALSO mean indonesian, malaisian and, since the 20th century, chineese. Madagscar is the indan ocean's melting pot. Is there somewhere (an article) where this aspect can be discussed more?

Fanoendor 07:50, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Bias?

Regarding:

"During this period a strategy of nationalization of private enterprises, centralization of the economy and "Malgasization" of the education system crippled the economy, leaving traces even today of a highly centralized economic system and a high level of illiteracy"

Does this represent a bias against a centralised economy? Perhaps this should be explained, instead of just saying that because the government was socialist the country deteriorated. Was there corruption? Were there transport issues that interfered with policy enactment?

I think that statement is valid, but I agree with your concerns about expanding on it and explaining the situation behind it. As is, it does suggest a bias, but I would guess the intent was to explain why the economy and education system is in the relatively poor state it is in. Historically, there is weight to this point of view. I didn't write it myself, and I don't know enough about the topic to expand it though. For the time being, I think that the statement should remain in the article because I believe it is more useful there than not there at all, which may have not been what you were concerned about. Sifaka 01:02, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

I agree with the fact that there is a bias in attributing the deterioration of the country to the socialist regime. The whole world might not agree with this but I think socialism does not mean necessary failure...If this is true then we have to redifine the word "failure" to be more oriented to the capitist stand point. Moreover, "high level of illiteracy" means what for you without a given rate; a figure or data should be shown to support this affirmation. --Tendro 07:13, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

largest cities

What are the five largest cities in Madagascar. Many people ask this question every day. Why not answer it. PLEASE

Data from a census taken in July 01, 2001 lists the major cities by population. No doubt the numbers have changed as the birth rate is pretty high there, but probably the cities are still almost in the same order. The info is from this web page: http://www.citypopulation.de/Madagascar.html Sifaka 01:02, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

Rank, City, province, population

1 Antananarivo ANT 1,403,449

2 Toamasina TOA 179,045

3 Antsirabe ANT 160,356

4 Fianarantsoa FIA 144,225

5 Mahajanga MAH 135,660

6 Toliara TOL 101,661

7 Antsiranana ASI 73,491

8 Antanifotsy ANT 59,000

9 Ambovombe TOL 57,000

10 Amparafaravola TOA 43,000

11 Taolagnaro TOL 39,000

12 Ambatondrazaka TOA 36,000

I wonder about the accuracy of these figures, the source does not reference its source. For Antananarivo, the figure is clearly the sum of 2001 estimates for the three districts Antananarivo-Renivohitra, Antananarivo-Atsimondrano and Antananarivo-Avaradrano, so sizeable rural populations may be included. For Toamasina, it's the district Toamasina I, Toamasina II has been left out, so it may be more accurate. Same with the following places.

As for the latter part of the list, I can't find any primary source. The figure for Antanifotsy seems suspiciously high, I remember it as an unimportant village, and the list of telephone subscribers is very short. Hawklord 22:04, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Sport

What are the sports in madagascar? I have no idea, could someone fill me in?

Yes there is a large stadium near the center of the capital city where soccer is played. That sport is very common in Madagascar.

I heard rugby was one of the most popular sports there, does anyone think there should be a section on sport in Madagascar?

Soccer (football) is the most common sport. Basketball has become more popular in recent years. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.217.152.77 (talk) 04:33, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Proposed WikiProject

In my ongoing efforts to try to include every country on the planet included in the scope of a WikiProject, I have proposed a new project on Eastern Africa at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals#Eastern Africa whose scope would include Madagascar. Any interested parties are more than welcome to add their names there, so we can see if there is enough interest to start such a project. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 16:25, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

Economy

It seems to me that the last sentence in the Economy section is a kind of non-sequitor. It also shows a bias indicitive that it was added by somebody who wanted to redirect to the accompanying link to Mine Your Own Business. I didn't delete or modify it but I was wondering if it strikes anybody else as odd sounding. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by WeekendKruzr (talk • contribs) 06:01, 12 February 2007 (UTC).

Adjectival form

Please see the discussion at Talk:Madagascan presidential election, 2006.--Pharos 11:56, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

• I think this issue is settled, per this statement of the government of Madagascar. Please avoid the incorrect "Madagascan" in future; it takes a lot of trouble to fix.--Pharos 04:24, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Bias in economy section

I'm not a registered user and this page is protected. Someone should can the biased conclusion to the 'economics' section.

"Despite the democratically elected Mayor of Fort Dauphin supporting the ilmenite mining project, outside environmental groups led by World Wide Fund for Nature have stymied development, constraining the local population to the endemic poverty caused by 70% unemployment as documented in Mine Your Own Business."

The word choice is over the top. Also, according to the Mine Your Own Business wiki, the film was funded by a Canadian mining firm. There should be some secondary source for that statistic before it goes into the article

151.201.149.26 05:07, 1 April 2007 (UTC) 1 April 2007

Agreed, and I think it's unreasonable for half of the economy section to be dominated by a debate that relates to .5% of the country's GDP. I've simplified the section with a simple reference to ilmenite mining, added an external reference to it, and left it at that. Warthog32 23:58, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

proposed revised Constitution of 2007

someone who knows the situation must edit. Is an important referendum for the future of the country. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.55.199.9 (talk) 20:21, 8 April 2007 (UTC).

Three official languages?

I read an article stating that English will become the third official language. Is this true?

Yes, article 4 of new Constitution "Le malagasy est la langue nationale. Le malagasy, le français et l’anglais sont les langues officielles." see http://www.assemblee-nationale.mg/Projet-Rev-Constitution.pdf

It's just too sad. The entire world is becoming americanised. Aaker 20:21, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

This whole discussion about official language should be closed, it's not that someone is not happy about having english as official language and commenting here that the history of the whole country has to be re-written —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.21.23.189 (talk) 06:28, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

How many people actually speak English in Madagascar? The article is quite vague about it.AtikuX 02:35, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm no expert, but I do not believe that any substantial proportion of Malagasy people speak English, or at least no more than you would expect in any other non-Anglophone African country among the educated classes.--Pharos 18:53, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

official languages

English is an official language!!!

If English is an official language why isn't it in the infobox?

Because people keep deleting it. Hawklord 12:09, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

This whole discussion about official language should be closed, it's not that someone is not happy about having english as official language and commenting here that the history of the whole country has to be re-written.

Spelling Mistake, Caption for photo of Girl

The caption for the photo of the girl reads "Girl from vilage" should be village (83.104.138.141 04:25, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Diego Suarez

Under "French Intervention" there is a link entitled "Diego Suarez" It is clearly a geographical reference when read in context. However activating the link goes to "Diego Suarez, the Garden Desinger", this would seem inappropriate and I propose the link should point to "Antsiranana", the modern day name of the port in question. Molby61 00:23, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Malagasy Scouting

Can someone render "Be Prepared", the Scout Motto, into Malagasy? Thanks! Chris 03:27, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

East/South Africa

I find it a bit strange to have this article in the category Category:East Africa and at the same time to include the navigational box {{Countries of Southern Africa}}. Which one is correct? --Eleassar ^{my talk} 11:39, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

....May be because Madagascar is located in south-east of africa,--Tendro 07:15, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

Contradictory??

Where is the article contrdictory, if it isn't then please remove the tag, thanks! 71.112.234.62 02:56, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

See the previous section. --Eleassar ^{my talk} 10:13, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

• • This is about cat vs navigational box? Madagascar is in both East and Southern Africa. That's what South-East Africa means. There's nothing contrdictory in that or, as the misuse of the warning box suggests, the article's content. Please either fix what you think is wrong or remove the box. T L Miles 13:00, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

What misuse? Cats and navigational boxes are part of the article's content as much as everything else. Please, cite the sources for your claims. According to the UN scheme of geographic regions Madagascar is part of Eastern Africa.[1] This is important not just because of this article but also because currently there is a template called {{Countries of East Africa}}, and it does not include Madagascar. Perhaps it should also be renamed. --Eleassar ^{my talk} 18:13, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

Okey-dokey. Removed {{Contradict}} and added both cats and nav boxes for Eastern and Southern Africa. There is no listing of Madagascar in the East Africa nav box, but I'm not the one who had the issue with this, so I'm not going to mess with the box. If you have further problems with Madagascar's listing in Nav boxes of the Regions of Africa, please go edit the nav boxes at their templates.

Please note: the articles Southern Africa and East Africa adress you concerns, stating that while the UN lists it as East Africa, some others list it in Southern Africa or both. Unfortunatly, having the "contradict" warning box over such a semantic issue made the article look seriously flawed at first blush, when in fact the problem was minor, a matter of interpretation, and is (I Hope) now fixed to your satisfaction. T L Miles 18:44, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. I have explained my concerns at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Africa#Regionalisation: Madagascar. --Eleassar ^{my talk} 08:10, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

WWII

"During World War II, Malagasy troops fought in France, Morocco, and Syria." Fine, but on which side: Allies or Axis? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 211.225.34.160 (talk) 04:32, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Since they were a French colony at the time then they fought WITH the French. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.217.152.77 (talk) 04:35, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Religion

The religion section is reading a little rough-the section on Christianity is very straightforward and gives no indication of the dynamics of the church there (I was looking for information on the currently controversial charismatic church). On the other hand, the Islam section was obviously written by a different person, someone enthusiastic about Islam. It reads like a brochure for the Muslim community in Madagascar, and is longer than the section on indigenous beliefs, despite Islam being currently the religion followed by fewer people. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Matveiko (talk • contribs) 19:09, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

The two paragraphs seem fairly appropriate, although I suppose it could be argued that the paragraph on Christianity is somewhat scanty. I don't know enough about such things to improve / expand that paragraph. Personally, I think the solution would be to improve and expand the paragraphs on Christianity and traditional faiths, and leave the paragraph on Islam as it is. michaelb ^{Talk to this user} 22:15, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Móric Beňovský

I removed the following from the article because it is not generally believed by historians:

On October 1 1776, the natives of Madagascar elected Móric Beňovský (Matthew/Maurice/Móritz Benyowsky/Benovsky/Benyowszky) King / Emperor (Ampansacabé) of Madagascar on the Mahevelou plane. Among other things, Maurice introduced Latin script for the Malagasy language. (In the history of Madagascar, the King Andrianampoinimerina (1786–1810) is mentioned as the national unifier—in fact he built upon the efforts of the Ampansacabe Beňovský.)

It was added to the article on December 16, 2006 at 09:24 by IP Address 217.73.25.254. It is not in the History of Madagascar article. David Reiss 06:32, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

Possibly poorly phrased sentence in Religion

"In the 1800s, it is said that members of the Mkodo tribe would sacrifice young women to man-eating trees, although some argue that these tales may be fabrications." Doesn't this seem like something of an understatement? Only some "argue" that tales of man-eating trees are fabrications? Maybe this should be rephrased to reflect that human Mkodo human sacrifice in general is argued by some to be fabrications (and accounts of man-eating trees are clearly fictitious)? Also, this has no references whatsoever. Thanks. michaelb ^{Talk to this user} 22:15, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Orphaned section on lemurs

Howdy. An anon IP added this section on Lemurs a few days ago which doesn't quite work on the main Madagascar page. I'm removing it, however if someone wants to find a good home for the little lemurs I though I would link to the diff here for the purposes of an easy copy/paste. Thanks. —Noah 05:39, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Nevermind, I looked into it further and it's a copyright violation. The source can be found on a WWF page. —Noah 05:48, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Madagascar island split from India some 80 million years ago.

Unless we are willing to accept the ideal that all of Africa was part of India ... the geographical shape of the continent of Africa - and ignore the coastal outlines of Mozambique; can we truly say that Madagascar split from India instead of the African continent I think not. Because Islamic and Arabic traditions are intertwined with Madagascar ... does not necessarily mean that it split from the Asian Continent and the African continent has to be given more credit than that. I strongly encourage the geologist and historians to take another look at Madagascar and re-assess what really happened. With a total of 5% of animal and plant population being on the island shows that it was part of a much bigger geological plain and more so than the 'sub-continent' of India. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ngudger (talk • contribs) 18:13, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

The Austronesian immigration to Madagascar is not mentioned in the history section.

65 million years ago madagascar split from now what is called Africa. According to linguistic studies, the majority of Madagascar's population came from Austronesian immigrants who sailed there from across the pacific. Why isn't this mentioned here? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.55.199.241 (talk) 05:24, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

The Lead

What is meant by "most notable" in the lead. Is there a way to say it that isn't opinion-based? "Most notable are the lemur infraorder of primates, the carnivorous fossa, three endemic bird families and six endemic baobab species." Life.temp (talk) 08:08, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

lemur

the lemur is a four legged animal with a backbone, 2 heads and a long neck —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.207.50.67 (talk) 21:44, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Please put this Category:English-speaking countries and territories--85.117.43.111 (talk) 08:15, 28 June 2008 (UTC)