Tired of the picturesque island's debilitating political crisis, Malagasy youth are reading the riot act to their politicians and have asked them to put their act together. But with limited access to the corridors of power, Madagascar's young population have so far been reduced to airing their grievances at public forums. 'The young have been pushed to take part in many political battles. But once the backed people seized power, they always failed to solve our problems,' said Mr Désiré Ranaivoson, the head of the National Platform of the Young (PNJ) and one of Madagascar's interim president's right-hand men.

In Madagascar, grassroots struggles against corporate-driven land grabbing have emerged as a political point of focus in the growing global spotlight on land grabs throughout the global south, a process that the UN special rapporteur on the right to food says has 'negative effects on the right to food as well as other human rights'. Mass scale corporate land occupations are expanding throughout Africa, and Madagascar is an example of the intensity of the corporate push for national lands but also on the ability for communities to resist such land grabbing.

The 1.3 million hectare agricultural project planned in Madagascar by South Korean company Daewoo Logistics exemplified the risks of large-scale land acquisition for local people, governments, and investors alike. It also highlighted issues associated with agricultural investments of this type in terms of economic growth, equity, and social cohesion. However, despite the failure of this project and the new political context in Madagascar, the flow of agricultural investments continues. What regulations are available to govern such projects? asks the Madagascar Land Observatory.

'We're calling on all citizens,' said Riovoarilala Rakotondrabe, putting the final touches on a giant poster announcing a massive community clean-up for the coming Sunday. 'Since we are in the midst of the rainy season, the city administration has recommended that each fokontany [the basic administrative unit at the neighbourhood level in Madagascar] should carry out collective cleaning,' she said. Rakotondrabe is local head of the association charged with maintaining water infrastructure, hygiene and sanitation.

The burden of paying for education in Madagascar has shifted to the poor after donor funding was frozen in the wake of a coup on 17 March 2009. About 70 per cent of the education sector had been funded by donor countries, but since Andry Rajoelina seized power from former President Marc Ravalomanana with the backing of the military, state financial support to the education sector has become erratic.

According to Patrick Rakotomalala, historians and political analysts will probably look at Madagascar’s two-year crisis from the standpoint of internal factors: a cyclical crisis characterised by power struggles between various political and economic interest groups obsessed with the conquest of power and its privileges. On top of this, there is the incapacity of successive governments to define and build a model of sustainable development that would free people from poverty and chronic under-development.

Patrick Rakotomalala

Patrick Rakotomalala

The price of rice, the staple food in Madagascar, has doubled in the past two years, forcing residents in the capital, Antananarivo, to halve their consumption. 'At almost 2,000 ariary (US$1) a kilogramme, rice has become a luxury item,' Tiana Randrianirina, a rice seller at the main market in the capital, told IRIN.

In parts of Madagascar's drought-prone south people have resorted to eating cattle-feed, as successive years of crop failures and the current lean season give food insecurity a firmer grip on the region. 'For some time now people have been changing their eating habits, with many eating red cactus that is usually given to cattle, or tamarind mixed with water and earth,' said Harinesy Rajeriharineranio, southern Madagascar coordinator for Actions Socio-Sanitaire et Organisation Secours (ASOS), an NGO focused on health and sanitation, based in the southeastern city of Fort Dauphin.

The United States is worried about a 'considerable deterioration' in press and other freedoms in Madagascar. A sharply worded critique by the US Embassy expressed concern about 'the constant harassment of political dissidents and journalists' on the Indian Ocean island. The statement also referred to reports of arbitrary arrests and mistreatment of suspects linked to a failed military mutiny last month.

In the aftermath of the referendum and simultaneous failed putsch, a veritable waltzes of arrestations and investigations are shedding a sad shadow on the island, says this Global Voices post. The referendum lowers the presidential age to 35 years old (from 40 years old), allows Andry Rajoelina (now 36 years old) to participate in presidential elections, to stay in power indefinitely during the transitional period, however long that period becomes.

Military officers in Madagascar say they have taken over the island nation. Col Charles Andrianasoavina, who made the announcement, was one of the officers behind a coup that brought Andry Rajoelina to power last year.

Soaring demand in China and political unrest in Madagascar are fuelling illegal logging for hardwoods in the African nation, a report concludes. Global Witness and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) talked to loggers, government agencies and traders to compile their report. In China, they discovered beds on sale for $1m, made from Madagascan wood.

Although 70 per cent of Madagascar’s 20 million people are peasants, the country depends on imports for 20 per cent of its staple food, rice. Also, 30 percent of Madagascar’s land can be used for agriculture, but only 4 percent of the land is actually farmed. The government has neither the budget nor any effective strategies to address these problems. “All we do is hope for investments and technology transfers from overseas,” says Rakotoson Philibert, secretary-general of the Ministry of Agriculture.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned that Madagascar is at risk of a crop-eating locust plague, potentially jeopardizing the livelihoods of 460,000 rural families. An unknown number of immature swarms of Malagasy Migratory Locust have moved out of the country’s south-western corner, where they are usually contained, and have spread to the east and north.

Madagascan female activists are asking that the right of women to participate directly in politics be included in a new draft of the country’s Constitution, so that there can be 30 percent of female politicians in parliament by 2012 and 50 percent by 2015.

Madagascar 50th Independence Day Anniversary is on June 26th and the festivities are already underway . In spite of a star-studded line-up of international entertainers, the atmosphere is not exactly festive because of the political uncertainty and the economic hardship that has resulted from the 18 month-long crisis

The EU will extend next week the suspension of 600 million euros of development aid to Madagascar for 12 more months for failing to return to democracy after a March 2009 coup, a draft statement showed. The European Union, the island's largest donor, suspended the aid last year in response to the army-backed overthrow of Marc Ravalomanana's government.

Calm has been restored after clashes in the Madagascar capital Antananarivo between rival security forces. Madagascar's army and police exchanged gunfire with a rebel police faction. The faction has retreated to its barracks and is trying to negotiate a way out, a military officer says. Madagascar has been in political turmoil since opposition leader Andry Rajoelina assumed power in January 2009, with military backing.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the government of Madagascar to investigate a Saturday raid on the opposition radio station Fréquence Plus that resulted in the arrest of an opposition leader while he was on a live radio programme.