Wednesday, June 13th, 2007
Listening to Nature: MADAGASCAR TEDstory
What happens when one of the world’s poorest countries shelters the most precious but most vulnerable natural environment?
That country is Madagascar and that most unique and vulnerable environment is the ecosystem there where 80% of the flora is endemic.
I have been blogging for more than two years now. I come from Madagascar but I have been living abroad for twelve years. In my blog I try to portray Malagasy people and Madagascar beyond the cliches and the stereotypes that you routinely see on the internet, like here and here.
Six months ago, many of fellow Malagasy bloggers wrote about fires devastating my country. These fires are the product of slash and burn, the ancestral way of getting rid of forests to gain more land. The results are devastation, rainforests disappear and with them all the animals and plants which use them as habitats.
You can read it about in French here or here or here, and also in Malagasy here
I wanted to help the Tanindrazana (the land of the ancestors is how we call our country), because the authorities do not ceem to care about slash and burn and newspapers are blase and only us bloggers see something wrong. And I thought then that blogging was not enough. Those posts called for action. But what could one do from the comfort of a chair and behind a screen?
Well little did I know that an opportunity for action would arise with TED Africa in Arusha!
Yes, being chosen as a TED fellow would grant me the opportunity to rise the profile of Madagascar’s high endemic rate and the danger that all those unique animals and plants would disappear very soon if those fires do not. Madagascar is a beautiful Country and us Malagasy people are very welcoming, but some people who cannot place Madagascar on a world Map … This is one of the reasons why I blog.In Arusha, I was pleasantly surprised to see how many people were curious about my country. For many of them, even the African ones, it was the first time they met someone from Madagascar … and I had so many things to say because it is what I do everyday on my blog.
And then, one day, one lady TEDster caught me and told me :
- Hey, You know what, we were just talking about you, and you appear…isn’ it amazing ? I told your story to Chris Anderson and he will give you 3 minutes on Stage tomorrow, to speak about your country so you have to prepare your presentation…
- Wow ! I am so honored about that, ma’am, but … my English is so bad, people will not understand anything … and my laptop just broke down yesterday, the guys (Tedfellow software developer Soyapi & Emmanuel) tried to fix it but they told me that the hard drive is dead … I really want to do it but … sorry, I’m really sorry
I can’t.
- Come on , your English is not that bad, don’t say that. I know you can do it … can’t you find some pictures on the internet ?
- Yes, I think I can find some but …
- Ok ! so here is a flash disk, go and find the photos and bring it here tomorrow morning … we’ll work on it.
(…)
After that, I was rushing everywhere to get the presentation ready : I ran to take the last shuttle to the hotel. I told my friends Daudi and Emmanuel and they were excited too … they knew about my broken Laptop so Daudi just lend me his.
Many of the fellows did not sleep that night, they just stayed awake untill I finished my slideshow. They all helped me. Emmanuel from Kenya, Daudi from Kenya, Bond from Nollywood Nigeria, Erik from South Africa, John and Manuel… This was AFRICAN FELLOWSHIP.
As I worked on my presentation, they discussed issues about Africa and climbed the kilimanjaro beer , every one shared his experience and point of view about politics, economics and gave suggestions on how to build a better Africa.
For me, that moment was one of the best TEDGlobal Africa conference moments.
The Internet connection at the hotel was excruciatingly slow and it took me two hours to download a dozen of pictures, write down something to say on stage etc.
At three o’clock on the morning, I finally had a rough draft of my speech and some pictures from flickr. The guys were still awake and the discussion was still going on … when we decided to go to bed, it was 5 o’clock and I had to give a presentation in a few hours.
I could not sleep …my heart was beating faster and faster …
In the morning, I took the first Shuttle, and went straight to the speaker room to finish my slideshow … we put the flash disk on the computer … and … NO MADAGASCAR presentation…the file was not there …nothing.
- What ?
- Your file is not there, the technician said. Did you take off the flashdisk properly ?
- Yeah … I mean, I remember that I saved it …and …@#$%^&*
I ran back quickly to the hotel, may be I would catch Daudi having his breakfast …I took a cab because I did not want to miss the conference… When I arrived to the hotel, Daudi had just left 10 mn ago re-@#$%^&*
I ran back to the conference place, wondering what on earth I was going to do. I was convinced that I had missed the conference, that I had missed my opportunity, … At break time, I found Daudi, and asked him to send the file by e-mail so I could start working on the file with the technician […]
At lunch time, we had a blogger meeting so I had lunch with all my fellow bloggers from TED ; among them was Ramon Thomas, who keeps a Blog about Dating Tips Personnal Developpement in South Africa , his job is speaking coach (I din’t know that):
- Take two big breaths before you start … You’ll be fine
- Thanks Ramon
…
I saw Chris Anderson (Ted Curator) before the evening session and he told me that, he would put me at the end of the first session on this evening which is within couple of hours…
And I did it ! … I made a case for Madagascar and its endangered species in front of people who believe that protection of endemic species was important. For me, it was a victory for biodiversity and humanity, and an opportunity to protect Madagascar’s unique species far into the future.
From blogging in the comfort of my chair and hiding behind my screen, I had taken a baby step towards ACTION.
When I was on stage , I was not alone, I was with the RAZANA, with my family, my mom, my brother for the transport (we lost on our the way to the airport), Morgane for her love, all my friends on the Malagasy Blogosphere (Lova,Jogany, sipaKV and Tomavana for the inspiration), Klara for the vision, all the Tedfellows who helped me during that long exciting sleepless night, all the Tedsters who made this 3mn presentation happen …
Update
It turns out that the baby step I took on TED stage that night is just the start. After TED, the action is now taking me back to Madagascar, and more specifically to a village of the southeastern region, where three of my fellow bloggers have joined me in working on CONCRETE PROJECTS, to fight against poverty, to fight for the Malagasy people, to fight for the unique plants and animals, to create safe and sustainable housing for the people who have to re-build their houses and start anew every year, because cyclones strike and do not leave much in their wake.
Thanks to TED, our organization FOKO-Madagascar is born.
Please help us educate our people
- provide facilities
- spread ideas
- infrastructures
- increase awareness
Help us expose the Madagascar situation.
Another happy end of my story … One Day after my presentation, TED’staffer, Tom Rielly, helped arrange to send gifts for all fellows: we had the choice between a Mac or a PC. I now have a brand new Mac Laptop from GE, Google and AMD, and worldspace Radio from Noah Samara.
Jane Goodall and me at TEDGlobal“For Andriankoto,
follow your heart”
Jane Goodall** photo courtesy: ted conference
Tedstory co-writed with SipaKV
