Madagascar - the land of baobabs

"MIRACLE": "Madagascar - the land of baobabs" September 13 - 23, 2015

Fifteen thousand kilometers through the ruin and poverty of man and nature

And again, I'm for the negative. Some of my friends are surprised: you consider Miracle to be the best travel company, why do you associate it with criticism. I not only think, but I am ready to prove with facts in hand that Miracle is really the best. And the negative ... Where without it in our reality. Only it has nothing to do with Miracle. As they say, flies separately, cutlets separately.

So let's start with people. There are 20 million of them in Madagascar. The average salary of a worker, according to the guide Olivier, is around $20 a month. How many for one with a bipod falls with a spoon, only the Lord knows. But the fact is, 10-15 children in a family are the usual norm here. And we also need to take into account the unemployed, the number of which, too, only God knows.

There are obviously fewer pensioners (without pensions), since people live only up to 50 years.

The main, main source of food for the vast majority of the population is rice grown here. Which is becoming less and less, because the ecological chain has been destroyed in the bud. Namely: almost the entire island was cut down the forest. The forest was cut down - the rivers became shallow and even dried up. The rivers have dried up - there is nothing to pour rice checks with. Then why do they cut the branch on which they sit? So after all, a tree is the only source of cooking and heating, albeit the most primitive, but a dwelling. A vicious circle of hopelessness.

Everyone in the family works, young and old. The husband, like millions of years ago, manually breaks large stones from the rock with a pick. The wife breaks them into smaller pieces with a sledgehammer. Further, the children “forge” with hammers to small fractions. This is how they get crushed stone in Madagascar for what - no construction and roads.

Which are building transnational corporations to take her wealth from the island. By the way, they hire for the construction not local residents who do not know how, but the Chinese. The little girl has barely learned to walk, and is already carrying a two-liter plastic water bottle uphill on her head. Apparently, in the family it is her duty. And so everywhere and in everything.

What can be obtained from such truly slave labor without any exaggeration? Our guide, Olivier, the only one out of a dozen children in the family, has made his way into the people, has become an intellectual. But no matter what he was asked, his favorite "Tumorow" was immediately answered - tomorrow. Patriot. He wants to rebuild his homeland. But for someone else to do it. For example, Russia, which is seriously counting on. Is it because the Republic of Madagascar still vegetates in poverty, if even its best representatives really want to remain only dependents.

In civilized countries, if you forgot something at the hotel, everything will be returned safe and sound. It's not like that here. Whatever you forget, forget it altogether. Even if you remember in an hour - another. “Tumorow,” Olivier replies with a grin when asked to call the hotel, “is the prize of the attendants.”

Fishermen choose from the sea everything clean up to the fry. Don't they understand that they leave themselves without a big fish? Surely they understand. But I want to eat today, but I still have to live until tomorrow. All along the way, as soon as our bus stopped, it was as if flocks of children with outstretched arms poured out of the ground. But they ask not for money, but for bread, a delicacy inaccessible to them. Having received a bun, like hungry little dogs, they swallow the pieces without chewing, hoping to get more. The sight will make your hair stand on end.

So, dear fellow citizens, if you want to see such a main attraction of Madagascar, hurry to this island. Enjoy the spectacle at the most nowhere, at the very least I don’t want to.

But Madagascar is a country of baobabs and lemurs, a knowledgeable reader will say. May be. Was. In ancient times, when it was still covered with forest everywhere. Now baobabs can only be seen in a small private reservation, which you can bypass in half an hour. You can even stroke the lemurs on their fur if you give them a banana, in two more very small, again, private reservations. True, there are two or three state rainforest reserves, which the population is also gradually cutting down. It is necessary to survive today, but try to live until tomorrow.

And yet, the tourists in our group were satisfied with the trip. Especially women. Including because they did not miss, did not ignore even the most seedy shop.

So, 200 thousand rubles spent on a ticket is not in vain.

And the last. I will have the audacity to advise our government to pay for tourist trips to Madagascar to everyone at the state expense. I am convinced that immediately the number of not only dissidents, but also those simply dissatisfied with Russian reality, will sharply decrease in our country.

PS. Catherine, as always, was on top. Who is she? Who knows - he knows. And who does not know - ask the company, this is its secret. Your humble servant does not betray other people's secrets.

PPS. I want to emphasize: everything that is written above is just, as the bureaucrats say, purely my personal opinion. There were about two dozen of us in the group. Surely everyone has their own point of view on all issues. Your obedient servant speaks only for himself. Vladimir Antonov

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