Blog Action Day 2011 #BAD11- About Food

Today is the Blog Action Day, and this year's theme is Food.

I choose to talk about one special Malagasy product, 100% natural, but can compete with medicines and pharmaceuticals produced by devcelopped countries.

I was surfing on the web when I discovered that even NASA pilotes in America and the European Space Agency used it, and while it's powder or spaghetti in Madagascar, in these countries it's like a pill. And since we produce it here, the price is not high, it's accessible to all. So far the price of a sachet is about 5000ar

There are three ways to use this product.

1. It can be used as a dietary supplement for those who are malnourished.

2. It can also be used for various treatments.Only the doctor can prescribe the dose needed by the patient. Therefore, the dose is not the same for thos who are on a diet, for those who are malnourished, athletes or students.

3.Everyone can also take it daily, but again don't forget that it's better to consult a doctor before, because, for example if you don't eat salt, your dose will be different.

We, and the children we help through the Antananarivo SaD project of the Tetezana Onlus Association, use it as a food supplement for those children of disadvantaged families, to give them more protein and antibody, to fight against diseases.

You're probably wondering: But what is that Malagasy incredible product? It is Spirulina.

Menabe's spirulina is produced by ECAR SPIRMEN. The Diocese ECAR Morondava and CODEGAZ France cooperate for the production, everything is done in Madagascar.

To celebrate the day, which is also the World Food Day, here are the virtues of spirulina

Spirulina is an edible seaweed. Everyone can eat it, it contains 60% to 65% of everything we need to fight against malnutrition, and to increase health protection. It also protect us from anemia, fever and stress. It is recommended that children, pregnant woman, elder persons and athletes should also take it.

We can eat it with all kinds of foods (depending on everyone's preference) such as rice, pasta, yoghurt, sauce, or even the nem you buy in the streets.

There's already a notice on the back of the sachet :

If it's a sickness, or a temporary malnutrition, take 1/2 or 1 teaspoonful of spirulina (2 to 5g)

If it's malnutrition, take 1 spoonful

But don't cook spirulina, don't mix with something hot. And take it non-stop during 2 or 3 weeks.

Here are some interesting spirulina composants:

Vegetal proteins about 60%

lipid 6

glucid 19

minerals 8

some oligonutriments

vitamin A (β-carotene) 100

vitamin B1 to B12 22

vitamin E 10

Fer 60

phosphor 800

Calcium 1400

Magnesium 200

Chlorophyll 790

Γ-linolenic acid 1000

I hope that you will benefit from this product. You can find spirulina in pharmacies and Ecar Antanimena.

Is Y-zit really cheating on his wife??

I was translating a post about plagiarism in music society in South Korea, and at the same time was consulting my facebook when I saw something which is worth a blog post, on Y-zit's wall.

Y-Zit is a really well-known Malagasy singer, member of the foreign band called "Tragédie".

Well, we don't know yet if it's really true [if it was really his wife who wrote all the stuff] or if his account has been hacked, but...
It was today July 4, around 11.26am.Apparently, he forgot to disconnect his facebook and her wife saw it. She made some search with it (she surely read his messages and stuff) Then "she" discovered he is cheating on her. "She" exposed the truth by writing with Y-zit's account on his wall. We can't see it anymore since it's already deleted but hopefully I print-screened it (thank you for the idea, dad!!)
"She" wrote:

[Translation] I'm Y-zit's wife....yes, he left his facebook connected.... and thanks to it i discovered he is cheating on me!!!!!!! so for those who warned me: thank you!!!! her name is mahery rovaharivolanjaka rabezanahary!!!! bitch i leave him to you!!!!!! he's not worth it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's the print-screen (click to enlarge):


I don't whether it's a hacking or not but just wait and see...

GV Summit 2010 - Things I learnt

Phew! The exam is finally finished. Let's continue with my GV memories!

Talking to people from around the world permitted me to know something new, which can be very different from what happen here, in Madagascar.

For example, Ruben Hilare, from Bolivia told me that in his country, we should NEVER say "thank you" to someone who gives us water. Interesting since in Madagascar, we are used to thank for almost everything we receive. There is even that recitation that says: "Raha misy manome zavatra ho anao, kingao ny hiteny hoe 'misaotra tompoko o!'" (When someone gives you something, never forget to say "thank you!")
It's also during the Summit that I knew about the existence of the people called "Aymara".

I heard from Catalina that in Colombia the only language used there is Spanish, in the street, at home, with friends, at school... But in Madagascar, we speak many languages, depending on where we are: at school, apart from language courses, the teaching language is French, so most of the time, we always speak French with teachers, at least during the class. With friends, there are many options. Me, for example, generally I speak Malagasy, but I also speak French with my friends. I speak Japanese during the Japanese course (though I'm not very skilled yet). I also speak Japanese with some other friends. At home, I speak Malagasy with everyone, sometimes I speak French with my sisters and sometimes English with my parents. In the streets... We can hear many languages: Malagasy, French, English, African, Chinese, Korean...

But apart from that, I learnt to communicate, to share... and I also improved my English. Yay! :)

GV Summit 2010 - People I met there

GV Summit 2010? It's a precious moment in my life.

Arf, I don't know where to start.

When I first heard about GV, I was very interested because for me, it will be the first foreign website to be translated in Malagasy. When I thought about it, I was very excited about becoming a translator. There was no hesitation, I accepted. I've never thought about meeting anyone belonging to GV, going abroad to attend a summit, or something like that. Well, let's skip that, it's a long story.

And then comes the summit. And I was invited. I was like: " (Ô_Ô) OMG!!! What a great surprise!! I will see those people!!! I can't believe it."

Since my dad who is also a translator for Lingua Malagasy is member of the googlegroup: GV-Authors, I often read discussions. There are names that got stuck in my head due to their frequency in my daddy's mailbox: Claire Ulrich, Solana Larsen, Jeremy Clarke, David Sasaki, Georgia Popplewell, Maryalice Quinn, Tomomi Sasaki, etc...,
or Leonard Chien, whose mail: "Today on GV Lingua" is very indispensable for me when I look for new-translated posts or for posts to translate,
or also those who are the authors of some posts I translated: Hamid Tehrani, Sylwia Presley, Suzanne Lehn, Jillian C. York, Tarek Amr, Alexey Sidorenko, etc...

There are also people who I've never known before the Summit: Catalina Restrepo, Sopheap Chak, Elisa Thiago, Debora Baldelli, Namita Singh, Filip Stojanovski, Karlo Mongaya, Ethan Zuckerman, Le Marietta, Paula Goes, Ruben Hilare, Sonam Ongmo, etc etc etc

And sooo many more !!!

Meeting all of you in person was a great moment in my life! GV People are all so nice :)

One of the funny part of this is that I was wrong about the gender of some people (like Jillian C. York, who, for me was a man until I see HER in person) hahahaha

Haha, so many memories :) I have many things to tell. Maybe I will write the rest later...maybe not, it depends on my freetime. But one thing is sure: I will never forget that Summit. 6-9 May, Santiago de Chile.


Photo by David Sasaki aka Oso