East of Africa: Arrival

by Stephen Greenwood (RSS feed) on Dec 3rd 2009 at 9:00AM

Adriaan and I are barreling down a small cobblestone street in a dusty 4x4. Several people narrowly miss the car's bull bars as they dash across the road, yet hardly flinch when we brush past them. I look out into the mass of people; skin tones are a mix of brown and black. Moderately well dressed people walk next to beggars with torn shirts.

The market we're passing feels as crowded and energetic as those that I left behind in Hong Kong 48 hours ago, except there are far fewer neon lights and far more visible indications of poverty.

I hang my arm out of the window; the air is noticeably chilly and thin. I mention this to Adriaan and he explains that Antananarivo sits at roughly 4,200 ft above sea level in Madagascar's central highlands - not quite the hot, dry, barren desert I had somehow pictured.

Adriaan is the co-founder of an enterprise called ToughStuff, a company that manufactures solar panels & LED lamps for people in developing nations. He speaks with an air of sincerity and conviction about the company, and tells me that he's spent over 15 years working in Africa with various organizations, but this is by far the most exciting project he's seen.

The excitement is infectious, and I realize that I have an interesting twelve days ahead of me as I document and gather promotional material for their launch.

He justifies why Madagascar is an appropriate location to begin ToughStuff's rollout: it's the fifteenth poorest country in the world, two thirds of the population live below the international poverty line, and some areas of the 226,597 sq mile island are so remote that they won't be linked to the electricity grid until 2040 or 2050. I try to take all of this in as we approach the center of Antananarivo.

We pull into view of the tallest hill in the city, where the Queen's Palace is perched high above the congested streets. Its inescapable presence on the hill feels like a permanent reminder to the masses of their lowly place in the world. The unattainable.

Ironically enough, the palace was almost completely destroyed by a fire in 1995. Work has since been done in an effort to reconstruct the building, but today it's still mostly a hollow stone shell. A grand work in progress; an appropriate symbol for a country undergoing so much political turmoil in recent years.

Beneath the palace, large letters hang onto the hillside in a strange attempt to mimic the famous Hollywood sign. A-N-T-A-N-A-N-A-R-I-V-O. An-tana-na-rivo. It's an intimidating word if you don't break it down. Adriaan tells me that most of the locals refer to it simply as "Tana", but warns me that I'll encounter plenty of trouble pronouncing other town names and people's last names.

We exit the car on a main street in the hills of the city. My ears are filled with a buzz of strange language and commotion. Vendors anxious to sell me things call out a word I haven't heard before. "Vazaa! Vazaa!" they call out.

Adriaan tells me that it will be my new name for the next two weeks; foreigner. After getting my attention, they begin speaking quickly in French - which immediately tests the boundaries of the 8am French courses I took in college.

I stumble through a few botched sentences, and they transition into broken English. We end up meeting somewhere in the middle, as my brain begins to recall the daunting conjugations, precious masculine and feminine assignments, and proper syntax.

It becomes clear that it's possible to get by with English in Tana, but it certainly helps to know a bit of French if you're going out on your own.

We make it to a hotel near the center of town called the Radama, named after the first King of Madagascar. It's a clean, quiet place with a surprisingly reliable wireless internet connection and a hospitable staff.

The room I'm given has a balcony, and I spend a few moments staring out over the city as the sun begins its descent for the evening. It's a beautiful scene, and I soak it up; anxious to scrub off the last traces of Hong Kong smog to make space for the red dirt of Madagascar.

Follow the East of Africa series, all throughout this month - here. If you missed the introduction to this series, check it out here.

By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT    Friday, 20 November 2009 15:32 ROME, November 20, 2009 ( CISA) - Libyan President Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has called for an end to the buying and selling of African farmland by rich nations during UN hunger summit the headquarters of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, Italy.

Speaking at a UN hunger summit, he described it as “new feudalism” which could spread to Latin America as well.

“We should fight against this new feudalism, we should put an end to this land grab in African countries,” Libyan Colonel declared.

“Rich countries are now buying the land in Africa. They are cheating African people out of their rights. This is also going to happen in Latin America,” Gaddafi said.

However, Gaddafi’s call was disputed by Kanayo Nwanze, who heads the U.N. International Fund for Agricultural Development. Nwanze said, "It is wrong to call them land grabs. These are investments in farmland like investments in oil exploration. We can have win-win situations."

But French Farm Minister Bruno Le Maire was quoted by the Reuters news agency agreeing with the Libyan colonel - that "predatory" farmland acquisitions in poor countries should be halted.

In the past two years, various non-African countries China, India, South Korea, Britain and the Arab Gulf states leading the pack have picked up huge tracts of farmland in Africa by lease or purchase, to produce food or biofuels for their own use.

In Sudan, South Korea has acquired 1.7 million acres of land to grow wheat. The United Arab Emirates, which already has 74,000 acres hectares in Sudan, is investing in another 959,000 acres to grow corn, alfalfa, wheat, potatoes and beans.

In Tanzania, Saudi Arabia is seeking 1.2 million acres. According to reports most of the land claimed by foreign acquisition was already in use by local people. - CISA

Introduction

There are many theories about a land called Lemuria, Pacifica, or Mu. Most of what is written about Lemuria is metaphoric - linking to the patterns of creation and sacred geometry.

It is about spiraling consciousness that moves from higher frequencies of thought - a higher harmonic - to slower - lower frequencies as we experiencing many places at the same time.

As with Atlantis - one has to wonder if Lemuria ever existed in the physical realm - or is it just a metaphor - to remind us that out souls are experiencing multidimensionally - some of which we believe are other planet experiences.

As is Above, so is Below - ALL being polarity of experience. As we have the Atlantis in the Atlantic region - we must have its Pacific counterpart - Pacifica. All realities are created based on the digits of sacred geometry - the blueprint of all we experience.

As an opinion - Lemuria is a grid program that exists parallel to our own. Those who feel linked to it - are more-than-likely experiencing in both realities simultaneously.

In truth - Lemuria - from our perspective in third dimension - is theoretical and will not merge with us - until a point at which we expand our consciousness to fully understand all of our multi-dimensional experiences. We are moving to that end now. Stone markers are found in our reality - to remind of of ancient and lost civilizations - in which we coexist. In the end - we awakening to our true nature. The hermetic seals of consciousness, so to speak, are opened with a bang - the 'end time scenario' of an explosive ending. We instantly spiral consciousness back to greater understanding of all.

Many see this as the movement into a Golden Age - the gold being a metaphor for Alchemy of consciousness into awareness - the blue and the gold - the blueprint and the alchemy. When we see ourselves back as the Lemurians - we are seeing ourselves in higher frequency. One must not forget that time is an illusion that brings depth to physical experience.

All happens at the same time.

1.- James Churchward

Symbolic drawing made in 1931 by Mayan glyph researcher, James Churchward, depicting a cataclysm of earthquakes and volcanoes that allegedly sank the continent of Mu in the Pacific Ocean.

Churchward's map showing how he thought Mu refugees spread out after the cataclysm through South America, along the shores of Atlantis and into Africa.

James Churchward, in books such as The Lost Continent of Mu (1931), wrote that the Motherland stretched from the Hawaiian Islands to Fiji and from Easter Island to the Marianas. Churchward considered the Nan Modal site on Pohnpei Island one of the seven sacred cities of Mu. Today its ruins sit on a swampy lagoon filled with mangrove trees. Rising about 30 feet in height, black volcanic stones weighing many tons are stacked crisscross like a child's frontier fort.

It's one of the more enigmatic sites in the entire Pacific, yet archaeologists cannot explain how it got there.

Indeed, stone monuments of mysterious origin dot the entire Pacific, from Japan's spectacular underwater site at Yonaguni to cryptic Petroglyphs on Hawaii's Big Island. Menehune Ditch on Kauai is built from dressed and fitted stone slabs like something ancient Romans would have erected, very different from typical Polynesian style. And of course there is Easter Island, centerpiece of many Lemuria theories. Its hundreds of colossal stone statues and written language point to an advanced culture, yet it appeared on the world's most remote spot. Why?

The legends of Easter Island speak of Hiva, which sank beneath the waves as people fled, while Samoans called a similar place Bolutu. It was stocked with trees and plants bearing fruits and flowers, which were immediately replaced when picked. On Bolutu men could walk through trees, houses, and other physical objects without any resistance. The Maoris of New Zealand still talk about arriving long ago from a sinking island called Hawaiki, a vast and mountainous place on the other side of the water.

There's yet another puzzling piece of evidence. A map of the lost continent published by the Lemurian Fellowship corresponds almost exactly to boundaries of the Pacific Plate. But the map first appeared long before geologists even knew of the plate's existence.

Their detailed map places the capital just north of present day Maui, near the center of a vast continent stretching from Australia to the Rocky Mountains!

2.- Tony Earll

In the 1970s Tony Earll's Mu Revealed (one of countless books written about the sunken civilizations Atlantis, Mu and Lemuria) claimed to be "an astonishing account of the archaeological discovery that proves the existence of Mu".

From the cover:

"When the Hurdlop expedition began excavating, it was with the hope of proving or disproving James Churchward's startling theories about Mu, the ancient lost continent of the Pacific...What they found was beyond their wildest expectation -- the diary of Kland, a young priest who had emigrated from Mu before its destruction! Painstakingly restored and translated, the diary scrolls provide breathtaking glimpses into the everyday life of Mu at the height of its splendid, doomed culture."

3.- David Childress

According to David Childress various esoteric sources, the first civilization arose 78,000 years ago on the giant continent known as Mu or Lemuria and lasted for an astonishing 52,000 years. It is sometimes said to have been destroyed in earthquakes generated by a pole shift which occurred some 26,000 years ago, or at approximately 24,000 B.C.

While Mu did not reach as high a technology, supposedly, as other later civilizations, it is, nevertheless, said to have attained some advanced technology, particularly in the building of long-lasting megalithic buildings that were able to withstand earthquakes. However, it was the science of government that is sometimes said to have been Mu's greatest achievement.

Supposedly, there was one language and one government. Education was the keynote of the Empire's success, and because every citizen was versed in the laws of the universe and was given thorough training in a profession or trade, magnificent prosperity resulted. A child's education was compulsory to the age of 21 in order for him to be eligible to attend citizenship school. This training period lasted for seven years; so the earliest age at which a person could become a citizen of the empire was 28. Earthquake-resistant walls were important all around the Ring-of-Fire, in ancient Mu.

It is claimed that the Elders of Lemuria, known as the Thirteenth School, moved their headquarters prior to the cataclysm to the uninhabited plateau of Central Asia that we now call Tibet. Here they supposedly established a library and school known as 'The Great White Brotherhood'.

4.- Helena Petrovna Blavatzky

In her book The Secret Doctrine (1888), Madame Blavatsky claimed to have learned of Lemuria in The Book of Dzyan - which she said was composed in Atlantis and shown to her by the Mahatmas. However, in her writings she gave Philip Schlater the honor of inventing the name, Lemuria.

Blavatsky located her Lemuria in the Indian Ocean about 150 million years ago. She may have obtained her ideas of a sunken land in the Indian Ocean from Sanskrit legends of the former continent of Rutas that sank beneath the sea. But the name Rutas sounds too spiritless and uninspiring to have held such a prominent place in cosmic history.

Blavatsky placed her "Third Continent of the Third Root Race" in the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and Malaysia. Surprisingly, many scientists of her day concurred and even came up with the name, derived from 'lemur', the ghostlike primates who supposedly lived there. Blavatsky described the Lemurians as "the third root race" to inhabit the Earth. They were egg-laying beings with a third eye that gave them psychic powers and allowed them to function without a brain.

Originally they were bisexual - their downfall came about after they discovered sex.

[These are metaphors for male and female - polarities and moving from beings of light who have no sexual orientation as they do not exist in the electromagnetic energies of a physical body.]

5.- The Rig Veda

The myths and traditions of India abound with references. The Rig Veda in particular speaks of "the three continents that were"; the third was home to a race called the Danavas. A land called Rutas was an immense continent far to the east of India and home to a race of sun-worshippers. But Rutas was torn asunder by a volcanic upheaval and sent to the ocean depths. Fragments remained as Indonesia and the Pacific islands, and a few survivors reached India, where they became the elite Brahman caste.

6.- Rudolf Steiner

The Austrian mystic Rudolf Steiner claimed that during the sixth and seventh subraces (of the Third Root Race) colonies were established as far away as Easter Island. The continent girdled much of the Pacific near the Equator, and thousands of island peaks remain to mark its former glory.

7.- Edgar Cayce

Edgar Cayce made a distinction between Mu, which floated off the coast of Baja California, and Lemuria, whose location is confusing to say the least. According to Cayce: "The Andean, or the Pacific coast of South America, occupied then the extreme western portion of Lemuria." Either he meant eastern, or Earth's land masses have changed a lot, perhaps due to a pole shift or crustal slippage.

The channeled entity Seth spoke of a civilization called Lumania on the island of Maskara, whose mountain peaks today form Indonesia.

Both Blavatsky and Ruth Montgomery (The World Before) dated Lemuria to millions of years ago. Yet most sources define the Lemurian era as roughly 75,000 to 20,000 B.C., still prior to Atlantis. Some scholars believe the two civilizations co-existed for thousands of years.

A handful of radical geologists (called Catastrophists) believe a continent called Pacifica existed within the last 100,000 years, and that its fairly rapid submersion caused mountains on the perimeter to rise and created hundreds of volcanoes called the Ring of Fire. Sea levels worldwide were disrupted as water rushed in to fill an enormous basin created by the sinking and caused oceans to drop hundreds of feet.

Lemuria's appearance with a full-blown culture has spawned many interesting theories, including visits from extraterrestrials who introduced a new species of genetically engineered humans to replace their dim-witted ancestors. (This might explain the reference in Genesis to the 'sons of gods' mating with the 'daughters of men.')

In any case there is no question humanity made a kind of great leap around 40,000 B.C. with advances in transportation, technology, art, and language. In Europe the Cro-Magnons, in the Pacific Lemurians.

What was Lemuria like?

Was it home to a gentle race of mystics and dreamers or an advanced society whose technology helped bring it down? According to Theosophy, Lemurians had pliable, jelly-like bodies and slowly developed physicality. The first Lemurian subraces were apelike, egg-laying hermaphrodites who communicated by mental telepathy through a 'third eye.' This atrophied after Lemuria's fall and became the pineal gland still found in modern humans. These androgynous beings lived in perpetual torpor like the Lemurian Dreamers that the channeled entity Lazaris speaks about.

Finally, the ever-increasing density of matter helped usher in an era of sexual reproduction, and two distinct sexes emerged from one being. This marked the fall of man, and henceforth male and female would strive to reunite as one body through sexual intercourse.

Yet most sources claim Lemurians were much more like modern humans, living in an idyllic paradise, largely agrarian with lush forests and an abundance of flowers and fruit trees. Feminine principles of sharing, cooperation, and creativity produced a society virtually free of crime, strife, and warfare. Lemurians were vegetarians and lived in harmony with nature and other creatures, and they had a highly developed psychic and telepathic senses, which were applied in practical endeavors such as horticulture. People believed in 'mind over matter' and were adept at manifestation and other 'reality creating' techniques. This tradition survives, some claim, in the Polynesian concept of mana and various fire-walking ceremonies throughout the region.

Even traditional anthropologists are puzzled by a pre-Polynesian culture that stretched across most of the Pacific. Widely separated locales displayed astonishing similarities in village life, religious cults, myths, and foods such as coconuts, bananas, and taro. Over time each area, such as Polynesia, grew more diverse and distinctive and eventually lost contact with the other.

The languages of this culture were thought to be Austronesian, which includes hundreds of related tongues still found today from Polynesia to distant Madagascar.

What happened to Lemuria?

Can an entire continent sink or vanish? That's something most geologists say is impossible. Yet the event is widely supported by Pacific area mythology from Australia to Arizona.

From Hopi legend:

'Down on the bottom of the seas lie all the proud cities, the flying patuwvotas, and the worldly treasures corrupted with evil..."

Faced with disaster, some people hid inside the earth while others escaped by crossing the ocean on reed rafts, using the islands as stepping-stones. The same story of escape to dry land appears in the Popul Vu epic of the Quiche Maya and the Modoc tribe near Mt. Shasta among many others.

According to the Rosicrucians of San Jose, California, the disastrous cycle began with volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and collapse of subterranean gas belts. Magnetic waves started moving around the globe, and Lemuria began to go under. Fortunately, there was time enough for small groups to salvage part of Lemuria's precious wisdom, which was stored in crystals. Some colonists reached India and from there Mesopotamia and Egypt, while others migrated eastward on crude rafts to the Americas, forming the racial core of the earliest Indian tribes. In fact, California was home to history's oldest people: pure Lemurians who later became the California Indians. That would explain why America's oldest human artifacts were found on Santa Rosa Island off Santa Barbara, dated around 25,000 B.C.

The same time Lemuria may have slipped beneath the waves.

Lemuria

Lemuria is the name of a hypothetical "lost land" variously located in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The concept's 19th century origins lie in attempts to account for discontinuities in biogeography. The concept of Lemuria has been rendered obsolete by modern understanding of plate tectonics. Although sunken continents do exist like Zealandia in the Pacific and the Kerguelen Plateau in the Indian Ocean. Lemuria has been adopted by writers involved in the occult, as well as some Tamil writers of India. Accounts of Lemuria differ, but all share a common belief that a continent existed in ancient times and sank beneath the ocean as a result of a geological, often cataclysmic, change.

The Kerguelen Plateau was formed starting 110 million years ago from a series of large volcanic eruptions. The presence of soil layers in the basalt with included charcoal and conglomerate fragments of gneiss indicate that much of the plateau was above sea level as what is termed a microcontinent for three periods between 100 million years ago and 20 million years ago. The Kerguelen continent might have had tropical flora and fauna about 50 million years ago. It finally sank 20 million years ago and is now 1 – 2 km below sea level the sedimentary rocks similar to the ones found in Australia and India, suggesting they were once connected.

Topography of Zealandia. The linear ridges running north-northeast and southwest away from New Zealand are not considered part of the continent, nor are Australia (upper left), Fiji or Vanuatu (top centre) Zealandia , also known as Tasmantis or the New Zealand continent, is a nearly submerged continent or microcontinent that sank after breaking away from Antarctica between 85 and 130 million years ago, and then from Australia 60-85 million years ago. It may have been completely submerged about 23 million years ago, and most of it (93%) remains submerged beneath the Pacific Ocean.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/353277.stm

A recovered sample of the 'lost continent'

Though living lemur species are only found in Madagascar and several surrounding islands, the biogeography of extinct lemurs extends from Pakistan to Malaysia. The wide range of the animals inspired the name Lemuria, which was coined in 1864 by the zoologist Philip Sclater in an article "The Mammals of Madagascar" in The Quarterly Journal of Science. Puzzled by the presence of fossil lemurs in both Madagascar and India, but not in Africa nor the Middle East, Sclater proposed that Madagascar and India had once been part of a larger continent.

Sclater's theory was hardly unusual for his time. The acceptance of Darwinism led scientists to seek to trace the diffusion of species from their points of evolutionary origin. Prior to the acceptance of continental drift, biologists frequently postulated submerged land masses in order to account for populations of land-based species now separated by barriers of water. Similarly, geologists tried to account for striking resemblances of rock formations on different continents. The first systematic attempt was made by Melchior Neumayr in his book Erdgeschichte in 1887. Many hypothetical submerged land bridges and continents were proposed during the 19th century, in order to account for the present distribution of species.

After gaining some acceptance within the scientific community, the concept of Lemuria began to appear in the works of other scholars. Ernst Haeckel, a German Darwinian taxonomist, proposed Lemuria as an explanation for the absence of "missing link" fossil records. According to another source, Haeckel put forward this thesis prior to Sclater (but without using the name 'Lemuria'). Locating the origins of the human species on this lost continent, he claimed the fossil record could not be found because it had sunk beneath the sea. Other scientists hypothesized that Lemuria had extended across parts of the Pacific oceans, seeking to explain distributions of species across Asia and the Americas.

The Lemuria theory disappeared completely from conventional scientific consideration after the theories of plate tectonics and continental drift were accepted by the larger scientific community. According to the theory of plate tectonics (now the only accepted paradigm in geology), Madagascar and India were indeed once part of the same landmass (thus accounting for geological resemblances), but plate movement caused India to break away millions of years ago, and move to its present location. The original landmass broke apart - it did not sink beneath sea level. However, as Madagascar and India separated approximately 90 million years ago, long before lemurs existed, their former union does not account for the distribution of lemurs.

In 1999, drilling by the JOIDES Resolution research vessel in the Indian Ocean discovered evidence that a large island, the Kerguelen Plateau, was submerged about 20 million years ago by rising sea levels. Samples showed pollen and fragments of wood in a 90 million-year-old sediment. Although this discovery might encourage scholars to expect similarities in dinosaur fossil evidence, and may contribute to understanding the breakup of the Indian and Australian land masses, it does not support the concept of Lemuria as a land bridge for mammals.

Madame Blavatsky's Lemuria

Lemuria entered the lexicon of the Occult through the works of Madame Helena Blavatsky, who claimed in the 1880s to have been shown an ancient, pre-Atlantean Book of Dzyan by the Mahatmas. According to L. Sprague de Camp, Blavatsky was influenced by other writers on the theme of Lost Continents, notably Ignatius L. Donnelly, American cult leader Thomas Lake Harris and the French writer Louis Jacolliot.

Within Blavatsky's complex cosmology, which includes seven "Root Races", Lemuria was occupied by the "Third Root Race", described as about seven foot tall, sexually hermaphroditic, egg-laying, mentally undeveloped and spiritually more pure than the following "Root Races". Before the coming of the Lemurians, the second "Root Race" is said to have dwelled in Hyperborea. After the subsequent creation of mammals, Mme Blavatsky revealed to her readers, some Lemurians turned to bestiality. The gods, aghast at the behavior of these "mindless" men, sank Lemuria into the ocean and created a "Fourth Root Race"—endowed with intellect—on Atlantis. One of the most elaborate accounts of lost continents was given by the later theosophical author William Scott Elliott. The English theosophist said he received his knowledge from the Theosophical Masters by "astral clairvoyance." In 1896, in "The Story of Atlantis & The Lost Lemuria", he described the continent of Lemuria as stretching from the east coast of Africa across the Indian and the Pacific Oceans.

James Bramwell described Lemuria in his book, Lost Atlantis, as “a continent that occupied a large part of what is now the South Pacific Ocean.” Bramwell described the people of Lemuria in detail and attributed them with being one of the “root-races of humanity.” According to Bramwell, Lemurians are the ascendants of the Atlanteans, who survived the period “of the general racial decadence which affected the Lemurians in the last stages of their evolution.” From “a select division of” the Atlanteans - after their promotion to decadence - Bramwell claims the Aryan race arose. “Lemurians, Atlanteans, and Aryans are root-races of humanity,” according to Bramwell.

James Churchward, another prolific writer on the theme of lost lands, identified Lemuria with Mu.

Is Nan Madol Lemuria ?

Source: http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/11481/

Nan Madol is a ruined city that lies off the eastern shore of the island of Pohnpei (presently one of the four states in the Federated States of Micronesia) and used to be the capital of the Saudeleur dynasty until about AD 1500. The city consists of a series of small artificial islands linked by a network of canals and is often called the Venice of the Pacific. The name Nan Madol means "spaces between" and is a reference to the canals that criss-cross the ruins. Nan Madol was the ceremonial and political seat of the Saudeleur dynasty, which united Pohnpei's estimated 25,000 people. Set apart on the main island of Pohnpei, it was a scene of human activity as early as the first or second century AD. By the 8th or 9th century islet construction had started, but the distinctive megalithic architecture was probably not begun until perhaps the 12th or early 13th century.

Little can be verified about the megalithic construction. Pohnpeian tradition claims that the builders of the Lelu complex on Kosrae (likewise composed of huge stone buildings) migrated to Pohnpei, where they used their skills and experience to build the even more impressive Nan Madol complex. Like Lelu, one major purpose of constructing a separate city was to insulate the nobility from the common people.
map of central Nan Madol

A local story holds that when Nan Madol was being built a powerful magician living in the well inhabited region on the northwest of the island was solicited, and that his help was a major factor in completing the building. In particular, he was responsible for supplying the huge stone "logs" used in much of Nan Madol by "flying" them from their source to the construction site. The elite centre was a special place of residence for the nobility and of mortuary activities presided over by priests. Its population almost certainly did not exceed 1,000, and may have been less than half that. Although many of the residents were chiefs, the majority were commoners. Nan Madol served, in part, as a means by which the ruling Saudeleur chiefs both organized and controlled potential rivals by requiring them to live in the city rather than in their home districts, where their activities were difficult to monitor.

Madol Powe, the mortuary sector, contains 58 islets in the northeastern area of Nan Madol. Most islets were once occupied by the dwellings of priests. Some islets served special purpose, like food preparation on Usennamw, canoe construction on Dapahu, and coconut oil preparation on Peinering. High walls surrounding tombs are located on Peinkitel, Karian, and Lemenkou, but the crowning achievement is the royal mortuary islet of Nandauwas, where walls of 18 to 25 feet (7.6 m) high surround a central tomb enclosure within the main courtyard.

Supposedly there was an escape tunnel beginning at the center of Nan Madol and boring down through the reef to exit into the ocean. Scuba divers continue to look for this "secret" route, but so far a complete tunnel has yet to be discovered. Today Nan Madol forms an archaeological district covering more than 18 km² and includes the stone architecture built up on a coral reef flat along the shore of Temwen Island, several other artificial islets, and the adjacent Pohnpei main island coastline. The site core with its stone walls encloses an area approximately 1.5 km long by 0.5 km wide and it contains nearly 100 artificial islets - stone and coral fill platforms - bordered by tidal canals.

Carbon dating indicates that the construction of Nan Madol began around AD 1200, while excavations show that the area may have been occupied as early as 200 BC. Some probable quarry sites around the island have been identified, but the exact origin of the stones of Nan Madol is yet undetermined. None of the proposed quarry sites exist in Madolenihmw, meaning that the stones must have been transported to their current location. It has been suggested that they might have been floated via raft from the quarry, but no one has successfully demonstrated the process. Archaeologists have yet to unravel the mystery, and some modern Pohnpeians believe the stones were flown to the island by use of black magic; however, a short dive between the island and the quarries shows a trail of dropped stones.

In 1985, the ruins of Nan Madol were declared a National Historical Landmark. Currently, a greater effort is being made to preserve them. Permission for a visit is necessary and a small fee is charged.

via disclose.tv

 

Projects in Madagascar could provide a model for stemming deforestation. But first these efforts must deal with the poverty and political upheaval that threaten forests, reports Anjali Nayar.

Anjali Nayar

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Félix Ratelolahy and his team of field researchers are hiking through the dense growth of the Makira forest in northeastern Madagascar. Uapaca trees tower over them, with their spider-leg roots tall enough to walk under. Brilliant white orchids pour out of their perches in the trees. And every so often the leaves above rustle, as googly-eyed lemurs dance among the branches.

Ratelolahy, an ecologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and his team have spent most of the past year in this 5,200-square-kilometre forest to determine how much carbon is stored there. And today, after a three-hour hike up a precipitous slope to their first survey point, the team methodically gets to work setting up circular plots and measuring the diameter of trees.

"We record all the numbers — the trees, the dead wood and the leaf litter," says Ratelolahy, looking up from his clipboard. "And then back in the capital, poof, the computer calculates the amount of carbon in the forest."

On these multiple-week traverses through the forest, Ratelolahy has glimpsed much of the region's endemic beauty, such as the leaf-tailed gecko and the all-white silky sifaka — a type of lemur that is one of the rarest animals in the world. But his missions have also been disturbing, he says. Over the years, Ratelolahy has watched subsistence farmers slash and burn away the margins of the forest to grow rice. And he has come across gangs pillaging the forest for rosewood, ebony and quartz. "It looks as though bombs have fallen on the place," says Ratelolahy about the ransacked areas.

Makira is on the front line of the war being waged to slow global warming. As one of Madagascar's largest forests, it stores millions of tonnes of carbon. But as in most forests in the country, that carbon is being rapidly released to the atmosphere as trees are cut down for agriculture, timber, mining and firewood. The WCS, in collaboration with the government and other organizations, is hoping to protect Makira and, at the same time, generate money to support local communities by 'renting' the forest to rich countries.

The idea is that wealthy nations could meet their greenhouse-gas emissions targets in part by buying carbon credits from developing countries such as Madagascar. The poorer nations could earn money by keeping their forests standing, rather than cutting them down (see 'A growing market').

This strategy, known as reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD), is one of the topics up for discussion at the UN climate-change summit in Copenhagen this December. Countries will negotiate whether REDD should be included in the climate deal that takes over from the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.

Proponents for REDD say that this mechanism is key to cutting deforestation, which accounts for around 20% of greenhouse-gas emissions. It is also estimated that REDD could generate billions of dollars each year for forest conservation, far more than is currently spent. Hoping to cash in on the future market, projects have burgeoned around the developing world, with those in Madagascar being some of the earliest to take shape. The projects are also helping to establish technical standards and methodologies for carbon accounting.

REDD projects must keep the promised forests standing. To succeed, this means addressing the poverty and political instability in developing countries that often lead to deforestation. These problems are particularly acute in Madagascar, where a coup earlier this year disrupted conservation efforts and raised questions about the future of REDD there.

Non-governmental organizations such as the WCS and Conservation International are working through the turmoil. But even they are worried. "We could have a very difficult time selling carbon if this political situation becomes the norm," says Lisa Gaylord, head of the WCS in Antananarivo, the country's capital. "Why would an investor want to come here?"

Hungry for land

Madagascar is one of the wealthiest countries in terms of biodiversity, but its people are among the world's poorest. Around 85% of the population live below the World Bank's $2-a-day poverty line and most rely heavily on the country's natural resources.

Félix Ratelolahy surveys rice paddies in land once covered by forest.A. NAYAR

The hilly countryside is scarred by slash-and-burn agriculture, locally known as tavy. Once people fully exploit the fertile river valleys, they head uphill, clearing the forests to cultivate rice, the country's staple food. These rain-fed fields are harvestable for only a few seasons before productivity drops and villagers clear new land for their crops.

Estimates of Madagascar's original forested areas vary widely, but some studies suggest that trees once blanketed 90% or more of the island. Since aerial photographs of the country were taken in the 1950s, forests have decreased by more than 40% and by about 2005, they covered only around 15% of the country.

Over the past two decades, deforestation has been decreasing slowly with the creation of protected areas. Grants from the World Bank and USAID helped Madagascar to become one of the first countries in Africa to develop and implement a national environmental action plan.

By 2000, the nation had protected 17,000 square kilometres of forest, mainly as national parks. But further expansion of the park system stalled because the funding stream from donors dried up. So, in 2001, the government teamed up with non-governmental organizations and started exploring the idea of selling carbon credits from their forests. "It was clear that there was a carbon market emerging and that avoided deforestation could be a very powerful way of protecting forests in Madagascar," says Frank Hawkins, vice-president for Africa and Madagascar of Conservation International in Washington DC. Hawkins was part of the team that popularized REDD on the island.

The efficacy of a REDD project depends on how much carbon the project will prevent from being released in the absence of protective measures. Calculating that number requires first measuring the current carbon content of a forest — as Ratelolahy and his crew are currently doing — and then projecting future deforestation rates with and without the project in place. The WCS is doing that by using past satellite imagery and making forecasts that account for factors such as the proximity of the forest to roads and villages.

A study in 2004, conducted in collaboration with the non-profit organization Winrock International in Little Rock, Arkansas, estimated that the annual rate of deforestation was 0.15% in Makira. The analysis projected that the rate would rise to 0.2% a year by 2034 without any intervention. But with the REDD project in place, the deforestation rate would slow to about 0.07%. These preliminary estimates indicated that the 30-year project would avert the release of more than 9 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent, similar to taking 2 million cars off the road in the United States for a year.

Madagascar's other two active REDD projects, in the Ankeniheny-Zahamena and the Fandriana-Vondrozo forest corridors, run by Conservation International, are each projected to prevent emissions of 9 million to 10 million tonnes of CO₂ during the same time period.

Together, at a conservative price of US$5 per tonne, the REDD schemes in Madagascar could yield up to $5 million a year for conservation and community development in the country, about the same as the budget for the national park system. Christopher Holmes, the technical director of the WCS's Madagascar programme, says 50% of the money from future carbon sales will go to the communities. The rest will be used to cover the costs of running, monitoring and marketing the project.

In the future, the WCS intends to pay the affected communities directly using the carbon money from Makira, but currently there is no distribution mechanism in place. In the meantime, the money will go to health and development projects aimed at reducing poverty. "People are not walking five kilometres to find forest to cut down to plant rice on a 30° slope because that's the best thing to do," says Holmes. "They are doing it because it's the only thing to do."

But setting up a REDD project in this remote part of the country is challenging, he says. Without much existing infrastructure there, the WCS has had to establish community organizations and legislative bodies that allow each community to manage their forests.

In Madagascar, the government owns the forest, so the conservation organizations are helping local communities to gain rights over the natural resources through management contracts. But progress is slow. "Some of the communities require two days of driving and three days of hiking on foot to reach," says Holmes. Since the project started in 2003, only one-quarter of Makira's 83 community organizations have signed the contracts with the government.

The contracts give communities legal access to a buffer zone surrounding a core protected area of the forest. When someone in the community wants to build a new house or dugout canoe, that person applies to the community's organization for a permit to use the buffer zone.

Because such agreements effectively limit how much local residents can take from the forest, the WCS is trying to help communities in other ways, through projects to increase rice production and by expanding the country's ecotourism industry into the Makira region. But for now, communities such as the remote village of Andaparaty on the eastern cusp of Makira do not see the potential benefits of carbon sales.

Pressures on the forest

At sunrise, the riverside village is already bustling. Women are busy laying out a patchwork of woven mats topped with drying rice, beans and vanilla. Later, their meagre produce will be taken downstream to be sold.

Barnety, a man nearing 80, watches the ebb and flow of his village. He is a tangalamena or traditional leader in the community. When he was a boy, he says, there were only a few families in Andaparaty. Now there are hundreds of people competing for the same land. Bit by bit, the forested slopes around the village have been stripped away to plant rice and cassava. When the Makira project reached Andaparaty in 2004, Barnety supported it. "Our lives depend on the forests," he says. "If there aren't any forests, if there isn't any land, we can't live."

But without a sustainable source of income and food, some villagers are finding it difficult to accept restrictions on their access to the forest. "People are frustrated because before the project, they were completely free to hunt, fish and cut down the forests," says Cressant Rakotomanga, president of the local community organization.

It could be years before carbon payouts come through a UN-regulated REDD system. The WCS and its donors have already spent $1.9 million to establish the Makira REDD project, and the support going to local communities will increase when the carbon funds arrive. But for the people of Andaparaty, the support can't come soon enough. "People are wondering where the money from REDD is, or if it will ever come," says Ratelolahy.

Political unrest in Madagascar makes the future of REDD projects there even less certain. On 17 March this year, following two months of protest, the 35-year-old mayor of Antananarivo, Andry Rajoelina, took the presidency in a military-backed coup.

“Because of the instability people feel more liberated, which translates into more exploiting.”

Haja Salava

The ensuing political instability caused a surge in illegal wildlife trafficking, mining and logging activities, threatening the country's forests. "Because of the political instability, people feel liberated, which translates to more exploiting," says Haja Salava, the director of Masoala National Park, adjacent to Makira.

Armed gangs are ravaging the northeastern region for its valuable rosewood and ebony. The park rangers and community members who have tried to impede the illegal trade have been threatened with death, says Salava.

In the past few months, thousands of illegal loggers have been raiding his national park, Salava estimates. In his dilapidated office in the regional capital Maroantsetra, he scrolls through his monthly reports to the government. The pages are a collage of photos of men posing with freshly cut wood. The loggers aren't afraid of being caught because, despite Salava's repeated calls for assistance, the government police do not stop the trade, he says. "It's a free-for-all."

Mariot Rakotovao, who led the country's Ministry of the Environment and Forests at the time, said his department had ramped up police patrols in the region and had fined illegal loggers.

But the Missouri Botanical Garden, which has been following the illegal timber trade, estimates that more than 850 shipping containers of rosewood have left the country since January, when the political problems began. Almost all of the exported wood was from illegal logging, says Porter Lowry of the Missouri Botanical Garden, which has conservation programmes in Madagascar.

The environment ministry did not respond to requests from Nature for comment. A government official, who asked not to be named, challenged the claim about such shipments. "That's a lot of wood. I don't believe it," he says.

Wood for sale

Other details of the timber trade are more certain. On 21 September, the government issued an inter-ministerial order allowing another wave of timber exports. The new shipments would have a combined value of tens of millions of dollars. According to the ministerial order, the shipments are designed to empty the stockpiles of timber in the country's ports and are limited in number to discourage operators from returning to the forest to cut more precious wood. The order also stipulates that taxes on the exports will raise money for the central treasury and for forest conservation through a new fund called Action against the Degradation of the Environment and Forests (ADEF).

Jean Roger Rakotoarijaona, chair of the REDD technical committee that is putting together the country's national strategy, says legitimizing the exports of illegally felled wood will only propagate more cutting in Madagascar. He also questions the purpose of the new forest fund. "We already have a national forest fund that needs replenishment," he says. Regarding the new fund, he says, "I'm a little worried about what this is going to be used for".

The ongoing illegal felling of trees could lead to a lot of extra carbon emissions. But even worse for Madagascar's REDD projects, the country's political instability has caused international donors to cut funding for forest and development programmes.

In March, the World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility froze a $200,000 grant supporting Madagascar's work preparing a national REDD strategy. That delay imperils Madagascar's chances of winning a follow-up $3.6-million grant to implement the plan, says Rakotoarijaona.

The environment and forests ministry also lost about 95% of its funding, which had come from international donors, says Rakotovao. The cuts have severely impeded the ministry's ability to manage and patrol the country's forests, he says.

Investments in the country's carbon-credit projects have also stalled. The World Bank's BioCarbon Fund put a hold on its initial payment to buy offsets for 1.5 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions from one of Conservation International's REDD and reforestation projects in eastern Madagascar.

The loss of funding for development projects that provide rural communities with alternative livelihoods also means more people are returning to slash-and-burn agriculture. "The short-term pillaging of forests is a problem, but slash-and-burn agriculture is the worst poverty trap," says Hawkins. "In Madagascar, it leads to the permanent loss of forests — you can't dig yourself out of that."

In the past few months, pressure from the international community forced Rajoelina into power-sharing talks with the country's three former governments. The aim is to bring about elections before the end of next year. But even if the political situation stabilizes and investors come back, there is a long road ahead to get REDD working in the towns bordering Makira.

The WCS is running workshops to teach villagers how to increase their crop production. But few people have adopted the improvements, says Jean Jaonary, the local community organization president in the village of Ambodivoahangy, on the northeast side of Makira. "Using the new method, my rice production has doubled," he says, while wading through the neat rows of his lime-green fields. "I don't know why other people haven't caught on."

As Jaonary walks through Ambodivoahangy's rice fields with Ratelolahy, women and men are busy with work, their straw hats popping in and out of the greenery. Ratelolahy says the land is all the rural populations have, and they are weary of new ways of farming and efforts to keep them out of the forest. He has faith that REDD can help these communities, but it will take time to convince each of the villagers to change. Looking towards the future, Ratelolahy summons up an old Malagasy saying: "Cows don't all wake up at the same time." 

Anjali Nayar is an International Development Research Centre fellow at Nature.

Ghana's oilfield: $4.6bn drilling project 3and1/5km below the surface. The BBC interviewed the GNPC's director , the institution protecting Ghana's interest. Question:how significant is the Jubilee field to Ghana's economic development? We are talking about billions of barrels of oil, specifically 1.5 billion barrels beneath the surface, the current production is at 130, 000b/d, in 2-3 years increasing to 240,000b/day, with an objective of 400.000b/d.
From the current production figures, Ghana will benefit from 55% of the oil . Some laws are already implemented... The president's desire : to make the oil a blessing not a curse as opposed to Nigeria.

Rwanda, to become a high-tech powerhouse: million of computers are arriving in Kigali. 5 years ago, Rwanda began building a fiber-optic cable across the country. The Government of Rwanda is investing large sums in high-tech fiber-optic cable linking up with East Africa. 15 years ago this country has seen genocides. A knowledge economy is to be implemented, advanced softwares used in the banking world are taught at universities with the belief to attract major call centers in the financial services industry. Computers are accessed in elementary schools. .. Primary schools are benefiting from 1 Laptop/child Project. Thousands children across the country are getting access to these computers.

Accra, Ghana: wide range of medical screening & treatments, bamboo & hot stone massage, hydrotherapy, bio-therapy, bubbling massage. The clientele of the holistic centre situated on the bank of river Delta is increasingly international. Hospitals across Accra offer a wide range of surgical services. Advanced facilities are available but not at reach of most Ghaneans. Western-trained doctors + tax breaks. Increasing the gap between the haves & have-nots. But Accra's goal is to combine health-care & tourism

South Africa, the wine industry: it managed to export 400 million litres of wine last year despite the crisis. The wine festival is raging now in South Africa.

South Africa put Africa on the map for the race into space: Special Reports on Africa 2 weeks ago : South Africa joins the space race. The "SumbandilaSat" micro-satellite, took off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome on 17 September 2009. A project funded by the South African government, it was developed by the Sunspace lab, a local space technology firm on the Western Cape that develops satellite technology, mostly for the telecoms and agriculture industries. At Sunspace, the satellite was developed by students at South Africa's Stellenbosch University.

Social Networking Unites African Activists

Online communities build democracy, demand accountability

 

By Laura Henderson
Staff Writer

Washington — “Africa’s future is up to Africans,” President Obama told an audience in Accra, Ghana, on July 11. A global audience, including many members from Africa, has responded to that statement on the Department of State’s America.gov eJournal Facebook site.

“You have the power to hold your leaders accountable, and to build institutions that serve the people,” Obama said. In Africa as elsewhere, social networks are providing an opportunity for people to work together to do just that.

During Obama’s and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s separate trips to sub-Saharan Africa, and at the president’s meeting with African leaders at the United Nations in New York, the message about the importance of good governance, and the conviction that Africa’s future is up to Africans, were central. In August, Clinton made her way across sub-Saharan Africa, meeting with leaders of seven African nations, and telling audiences in Kenya, “The U.S. cannot solve Kenya’s problems. … We cannot dictate to you how to run this government; it is not up to us. … The answers to Kenya’s challenges lie with Kenyans.”

Internet users from across the globe followed the progress of Clinton’s tour through the America.gov Facebook page, taking part in a worldwide conversation on the most significant challenges facing Africa today. Throughout the month, fans of eJournal USA posted more than 700 comments, responding to questions about the roles of U.S. citizens and Africans in the continent’s development.

Of those participating in the conversation on the site, 57 percent said that the most important challenge Africans face is establishing good governance. Many participants urged the United States to pressure their governments to curb corruption and promote greater transparency. They also discussed the economic and social implications of more open governments, free and fair elections, and stable regimes.

The conversation was lively and pointed. In answer to the question “What is good governance?” participants responded:

• “Good governance depends on transparency, accountability, and equality in ways that are responsive to the needs of the people.”

• “Good governance to me is the act of living in peace of the people, having the heart of the people you are leading, thinking about what to do that other who are under you power may benefit from it.”

• “Good governance means the greatest good for the greatest number.”

• “Good governance begins with me.”

The full conversation, gathered in an online publication, can be viewed at http://bit.ly/AF_Comments (PDF, 2.4MB).

EXPANDING CIVIL SOCIETY INTO CYBERSPACE

Many credit Obama’s ability to galvanize grass-roots support via online tools as an important factor in his primary and general election victories in 2008. As president, he continues to use Internet forums and inspire a social movement in which citizens can discuss policy and government actions. Civil society has expanded into cyberspace, helping democratize political debate.

The use of new communication technologies and social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube and MySpace is gaining ground in Africa, and Africans have discovered that social networks are useful tools for promoting change.

One Facebook group, This African Can, connects Africans to other Africans to exchange ideas and encourage active participation in the development process. The group posts discussions on such topics as “informing your city mayor, state governor or local governor,” “developing strategic relationships” and “submitting business ideas,” and members share African blogs and Internet resources.

The creator of the group, Kim Hannah Moran, said, “I believe and rely on what Africans do best naturally, and that is networking. … This is a natural thing with Africans; cyberspace has just made it simpler, better and faster for them.”

A recent campaign by Nigerians, “Light Up Nigeria,” used social networks to reach the Nigerian diaspora to bring attention to inadequate electrical infrastructure and to demand change. Through a Facebook site, Twitter and blogs, they assembled a virtual global community to take action on an issue. Find out more about this effort on the America.gov blog entry “Can Nigeria Live Up To Its Promise?“

Social network platforms have learned that they can adapt to low-bandwidth environments. According to data collected by O’Reilly Media Inc., from January to April, the number of African Facebook users grew by 86.9 percent. In August, Facebook launched Facebook Lite, a version for users with less reliable Internet connections, offering the potential to open up many low-bandwidth areas to the opportunities that Facebook offers for hosting intra-African and cross-border dialogues. Facebook also recently introduced a Swahili version of its site.

The discussion on democracy, good governance and related issues continues on the Department of State Facebook page and on America.gov blogs, where all ideas are welcome.

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Every sunday morning near Ankatso Bus station (Sans Dizina - 119) you can watch this ... Lemon Football Show. A famous street sport in Antananarivo, mostly near Car Parkings.
While you watching those amaizing guys, you can also taste the "Mokary aux Coco" (kind of local sweet blinis with coconut taste) for 50 ariary each and drink some ... Limonade :

Warnning: Don't do this at home in a Highway