Essay about Madagascar Essay

Madagascar is the worlds quartern largest island located 20 N and 47 E, just off the put down of Mozambique (Southern Africa). The atomic number 18a of the island is 587,040 kilometers , with 4,828 kilometers of coastline, and it is slightly larger than twice the size of Arizona. Madagascar is a highschool plateau with a narrow coastal plain and mountains on the top. Their chief(prenominal) natural re reference works consist of graphite, chromite, coal, bauxite, salt, quartz, tar sands, semiprecious stones, mica, fish, and hy beadower. The land is 4.41% arable land, .093% is eonian crops, and 94.66% other.Madagascar has a population of 16,979,744 mint, which means there is 30 people per self-coloured kilometer. Of the population 45% of people atomic number 18 between 0-14 years, 51.9% of people are between 15-64 years, and 3.1% of people are 64 and all over. The population growth regularise is 3.03% per year, the birth rate is 42.16 births per k population per year, and th e death rate is 11.88 deaths per 1000 population per year. The life expectancy for people of Madagascar is 53.86 for males and 58.53 for females. The rate for the number of people over 15 who can read and right is 68.9%The official urinate of Madagascar is the Republic of Madagascar. The official languages are French and Malagasy (Native). The main religions are 52% Local-Traditional Beliefs, 41% are Christian, and 7% are Islamic. Their type of government activity is a republic, in which their capital is located in Antananarivo. Madagascar divides the body politic into 6 provinces they are, Antananarivo, Antsiranana, Fianarantsoa, Mahajanga, Toamasina, and Tolaira.Madagascar was one time an independent kingdom before the 1880s. Madagascar became a French colony in 1886, but regained its independence in 1960. During 1992-93, free Presidential and National multitude elections were held, ending 17 years of single-party rule. In 1997, in the second presidential race, Didier Ratsira ka, the leader during the 1970s and 1980s, was returned to the presidency. The 2001 presidential election was contested between the followers of Didier Ratsiraka and Marc Ravalomanana, nearly causing secession of half of the country. In April 2002, the High constituent(a) coquet announced Ravalomanana the winner.Their constitution was approved August 19, 1992 by home(a) referendum. The Madagascar constitution establishes separation of powers among executive, legislative, and judicial branches with a multi-party political system. The president is take by universal suffrage (anyone 18 or over) for a louver year term with a two-term limit. Prime minister is nominated by bicameral parliament composed of Senate and National Assembly, and approved by the president. controlling Court has eleven members and forms apex of other judicial bodies. Local government consists of 20-eight regions with de importantized powers in economic field. In the first legislative elections of Third Rep ublic in 1993 more than 120 political parties entered 4,000 candidates for 138 seats. relative representation list system encourages candidacies.Madagascar is a member of Agency for the French-speaking Community (ACCT), African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States (ACP), African study Bank (AfDB), sparing Commission for Africa (ECA), Food and Agriculture organization (FAO), Group of 77 (G-77), world(prenominal) Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), foreign Bank for Reconstruction and Development ( initiation Bank) (IBRD), worldwide Civil Aviation organic law (ICAO), internationalistic Criminal Court (ICFTU)(Signatory), global florid Cross and Red Crescent Movement (ICRM), International Development Association (IDA), International investment trust for Agricultural Development (IFAD), International Finance Corporation (IFC), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRCS), International Labor Organization (ILO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), Internati onal Maritime Organization (IMO), Indian Ocean Commission (InOC), International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), International Olympic Committee (IOC)International Organization for Migration (IOM), Nonaligned Movement (NAM), Organization of African Unity (OAU), join Nations (UN), United Nations Conference on commerce and Development (UNCTAD), United Nations Educational, Scientific, and pagan Organization (UNESCO), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Universal Postal Union (UPU), land Confederation of Labor (WCL), World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), World Meteorological Organization (WMO), World Tourism Organization (WToO), and World TradeOrganization (WTrO).Having discarded past socialist economic policies, Madagascar has since the mid nineties followed a World Bank and IMF led constitution of privatization and liberalization, which has placed the country on a slow and steady growth path. Agriculture, including fishing and forestry, is a mainstay of the economy, accounting for one-fourth of GDP and employing four-fifths of the population. Export earnings originally are earned in the small industrial sector, which features textile manufacturing and horticulture processing. Deforestation and erosion, aggravated by the use of firewood as the primary source of fuel are serious concerns. The separatist political crisis of 2002 undermined macroeconomic stability, with the estimated drop in output being subject to a wide valuation reserve of error.Poverty reduction will be the have-to doe withpiece of economic policy for the next few years, seines how the 71% of the population are below the scantiness line. Of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year, the value comes from 63% services, 25% agriculture, and 12% industry. work consist of the telephone system, air and rail transportation, t ourism, and retail sale. Industry consists of means processing, soap, breweries, tanneries, sugar, textiles, glassware, cement, automobile assembly, paper, petroleum. Agricultural produces mostly coffee, vanilla, shellfish, sugar, cotton, mining, and petroleum products.A unique go away of African and Asian landscapes and cultures is usually one of the first things recognized by first-time travelers to Madagascar. In the zebu cattle-raising regions of the south and west, for example, the savannas resemble those of East Africa. In the central highlands, however, irrigated and terraced rice fields evoke images of Southeast Asia. These contrasting images lie at the perfume of an ongoing debate over the origins of the Malagasy people.According to one theory, peoples from the Indonesian archipelago migrated along the coast of south Asia, across the Arabian Peninsula into the east coast of Africa and, finally, across the Mozambique Channel into present-day Madagascar. This movement occ urred over several generations and, because of the gradual interaction between Asian and African populations, led to thearrival and eventual implantation of a distinct Malagasy people and culture. A second theory emphasizes the miscellany of the peoples inhabiting Madagascar. Simply put, proponents argue that the Malagasy resulted from a series of migrations by different peoples over time. According to this theory, migrants from the Indonesian archipelago arrived first and eventually settled in the central highlands, followed by the arrival of African peoples as a result of typical migrational trends and the rise of the slave trade. Recent scholarship has suggested that perhaps the theories are complementary, with coarseer emphasis being placed on the first.Scholars traditionally gull described Madagascar as being divided into eighteen or twenty ethnic radicals, each with its own distinct territory political developments in the contemporary period are often described in cost of ethnic conflict. Yet ethnicity is potentially misleading in the Malagasy context because it connotes a more or less self-sufficient and unique cultural, socioeconomic, and historically united group that perceives itself as being different from other groups.Another potentially valuable method of analyzing Malagasy society is to differentiate between the so-called cotiers, or peoples living in coastal areas, and those who live in the central highlands. Indeed, scholars dupe noted in recent years that the salience of ethnic group identity has declined, while the division between the central highlands peoples and the cotiers continues to be of great brilliance in understanding social and political competition. Although many observers rival the term central highlander with the Merina ethnic group (once again suggesting the importance of ethnicity), it is important to note that the Betsileo people also live within this region, and the Merina themselves soak up settled in other regi ons of the country. Equally important, many cotiers do not live anywhere near the coast. In this sense, the central highlands/cotier split is outgo understood as the historical outcome of the domination of the Merina empire, the original center of which was Imerina (around the city of Antananarivo) and was located in the central highlands.