A wave of change is sweeping through the world

A wave of change (hopefully for the better!) is sweeping through the world; I am sure of it.

At home, a newly minted president taking over from pathetic, lackadaisical leadership stood up for the hardworking people of our country. I can only hope that other leaders of the world begin to take their lessons from him.

In a remote corner of the world, the new president of the Maldives, also taking over from bad leadership, told the world that Maldives would be carbon neutral by 2020, the first country to do so!

And only a few months ago, Bhutan's king of 30 years stepped down early to crown his 28-y/o son in power while also ushering a new move to democracy. The younger king has spent quite a bit of time abroad, including his education at Oxford and has a much more global ideological vision for moving his country forward.

And then this...I do hope that this change is also for the good...

Not sure if you heard about the coup that took place in Madagascar over the past 24 hours. But I've been following the news and been worried. SO little is known in the western world about the politics of this small island nation. I have been in regular contact with a friend of mine, based there and was quite concerned for his safety. A month ago, when we met in Los Angeles, he seemed depressed and worried about the chaos in his motherland. This morning, after a frightful 24 hours, we heard from him. This is what he had to say.

Yes, the former president was a normally good president after being elected...; but then, he got "high" on his almost unlimited powers and used it against the madagasy people´s interest.

[for example, the former president has been responsible for]:

• selling...all the fertile land in Madagascar for 99 years [author's note: he is referring to land leasing laws that the old government has put into place]

• the monopoly of numerous businesses for private interest.
  

• the small farmers' desolate situation caused by shameless overall control of business opportunities by people with big political and economic power (on this subject there should be written a book, title: THE ORIGIN OF OUR POVERTY).
  

• the mishandling of microcredits in Madagascar, in cooperation with international banks, who discovered 36% interest rates(!!) and people take it because they have no choice! Local banking institutions who want to give out domestic savings for less than half of this interest rate, are not allowed to!

• the [mishandling and privatization] of natural resources for [private gain]

• the suppression of democratic opposition and free media (imprisonment of opposition leaders, close dawn the tv channel, eliminate free speech and fire even too liberal cartoonists)

...these and many other political and economical phenomena, mixed into presidential powers, are the avoidable cause of the misery of our people in this moment.

THERE IS CERTAINLY NO EXCUSE FOR ANY KIND OF VIOLENCE [but there isn't an excuse for his] imprisonment of the opposition leaders, or for shooting instead of dialoging. And please let us try to put things cronologically right: the dialogue was refused and then the protesting started!

Today is a big day for me , my family and my kids => the end of Ravalomanana dictatorship in Madagascar ( He owned everything in our country and it have to stop) CHANGE

I don't know the future, and what will be happen tomorrow, but please pray for us to have a wise president who will think of the interest of the malagasy people and Madagascar which is one of the poorest countries in the world today.

I am safe and I am free and I am happy. Thank you for your love and support!