Apparently, It was a Bad Idea

Madagascar is facing a civil war after Andry Rajoelina, the Mayor of the capital city Antananarivo, denounced President Marc Ravalomanana as "a dictator, a scoundrel and a thief." Protests and violence have gotten out of hand, leaving about 100 people dead. My sister-in-law's family lives there and it stinks with the dead and burning bodies. For now they are safe, but they are close to the violence.
I asked Ken and Eva what they thought, "Who side are you on?" They basically told me that while they don't really like either one, the mayor is clearly the greater of the two evils. He just wants power, and so he creates contention and encourages his supporters to over throw the president. Honestly he has enough followers to become president if he waits until 2011.
So here is what I find funny. Rajoelina actually declared, that he was ruling Madagascar now and that the people will be following him. He told school children and civil servants to stay home on Monday, to show solidarity. No one really did that, showing that he overestimated his support.
So what do you do to a mayor who's a rebel rouser? You fire him, duh! And that's what they've done.
I must say that the guy has a lot of guts to suddenly declare himself in charge.
So, I was in el baño thus pondering if I would have the guts to do that. I'm not a huge fan of the U.S. government as it is. Could I ever just stand up and say, "President Obama is a dictator, a scoundrel, and a thief. He doesn't deserve to be our president. I do. I am the president now and I will be giving the orders!" I had just finished that thought when the light bulb in el baño let out two loud pops and went out. According to cartoon laws of physics, if it had suddenly come on, that would mean I had a brilliant idea. Since it exploded and went out, apparently the universe was telling me it was a bad idea.
So I have come to the conclusion not to overthrow the U.S. government. Too bad, as president I was going to take over Canada and Mexico. Then I was going to turn around and sell Mexico to Ireland. They deserve more land and I would much rather have leprechauns sneaking over the borders with their spunky attitudes and pots of gold...not that I mind Mexicans coming here, as long as they do so legally.

Cute as a Button!

So my parents got back from Madagascar a few weeks ago and they took this picture of a cute little girl. I loved the small story behind the picture.

They were walking down the street, and they saw this little girl. When they initially saw her she was all bent over at an uncomfortable ninety degree angle, with a pop bottle on her back and a blanket in her hand. Balancing the pop bottle seemed quite athletic to my dad at that moment in time. She would balance it and then try to swing the blanket around her back, but the pop bottle would fall and she would pick it up and place it on her back again and swing the blanket around her back. They soon realized that she was playing “MOMMY” and the pop bottle was the BABY! Most of the women that have young children in Madagascar carry their babies on their backs. My dad hurried as fast as he could to get his camera out to take a picture, but he was a little slow. By the time he took the picture, she had straightened up, and was attempting to wrap the blanket around her again. The bottle was visible, but had snuck up by her neck as he took the picture. The photo is not one of the greatest photo’s that he has taken, but it still shows the adorable face of this little Malagasy girl, and because of the story behind the picture, it definitely is one of my favorite pictures from their trip!

She was probably really surprised to look up and see white people staring at her.