When traveling in Madagascar, no one can escape the original vibes that the island offers. Throughout the country, people dance and sing to the sound of the kabosy, a typical instrument of Madagascar. Halfway between the guitar and the mandolin, the kabosy has frets that do not cover the whole width of the neck, which allows to play chords with a simple slash. Guitarists will understand! The shape, the material and even the name of the kabosy, and especially the tuning can vary from one region to another.

In 1920, the first kabosy was made by Malagasy people in the central part of Madagascar. At that time, the strings were not made of iron but of "tadim-pitana", a rope for fishing.

What is a real traditional kabosy?

Although there are many types of kabosy today, the most traditional one is made with a diatonic tuning, which means that the key on which all the notes are played is discontinuous. As a result of recent research, there is also the chromatic kabosy with all its bars being full without interruption, just like the keys of a guitar.

At the beginning, the kabosy was only played in the center of Madagascar; but as time went by, it spread southwards to give birth to the kabosy of Fianarantsoa and the kabosy of Antsirabe. One thing that distinguishes the southern kabosy from the central kabosy is that it does not have the small broken fingerboard in the middle.

The Kabosy is an instrument for all types of music.

The kabosy does not have a specific rhythm but can be played at any time. In general, the difference between the traditional kabosy and the guitar lies in the fact that the touch is not chromatic like that of the guitar, but is broken or diatonic. A traditional kabosy does not contain dice notes. However, for chords created according to later research, with a chromatic key, dice notes have been added.
Many artists and kabosy players look forward to new technology to reduce the effort they need to make while playing. Malagasy artists do not merely play a unique and groovy style of music, they share knowledge and sensitivity with the whole world.

Sources: Madagascar Treasure Island, The World, Guild of American Luthiers

Today, we celebrate International Youth Day 2021. Across the Commonwealth and beyond, young leaders are driving positive change to ensure a better future for all. Young leaders are continuing to deliver vital work through the COVID-19 pandemic. Young leaders continue to strive for change, fairness and equal world. The International Youth Day is a day set aside by the United Nations to draw attention to cultural and legal issues that concern young people.

International Youth Day was established on December 17, 1999, when the United Nations General Assembly endorsed the recommendation of the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth and adopted resolution 54-1-20 on youth policies and programs, which recommended, among other things, that August 12th of each year be declared International Youth Day. The United Nations, for statistical purposes, defines people aged between 15 and 24 as youth, without prejudice to other definitions by member states. That said, several UN entities, instruments and original organizations have different definitions of youth that the UN Secretariat recognizes.

The International Youth Day was created with the aim of endorsing consciousness particularly among young people. The world program of action for youth started before the year 2000 and aims at contributing in 10 main fields which are: starvation, poverty, education, employment, health, drug exploitation, childhood felony, recreation events, child and young women and the environment.

The activities during the International Youth Day.

Youth friendly activities are organized all over the world on the 12th of August and they include youth conferences, debates, concerts, sporting events, youth camps, learning forums, parades and mobile exhibitions that showcase the achievements of young people.

2021 theme.

Every year, the United Nations chooses a leading theme based on many criteria. This year, the celebration focuses on “Transforming Food Systems: Youth Innovation for Human and Planetary Health”.

Sources: United Nations, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, International Institute for Sustainable Development

The Malagasy taboos or fady form part of the Malagasy customs, and have been passed down from generation to generation. The so-called fady is unique among other practices because of the punishments that directly affect the individual and can lead to life-threatening disabilities. It can also be dangerous to descendants of those who willingly disobey and denigrate it. Fady is basically based on the belief in secret powers that the ancient Malagasy used to believe in, although we no longer hear about many of them today.

There are many types of fady in Madagascar, including fadin-tany or land taboos, fadin’ody or traditional medicine taboos and fadin-drazana or traditional taboos.

The Fady is a specific taboo placed on a community or place which inhabitants, visitors and immigrants, have to respect to avoid curses and the accusation of a sin or “manota fady” in Malagasy. It can be something that you can do or eat but is forbidden in a particular place. Even so, the taboos are not necessarily the same in different places in Madagascar, it just depends on the local customs. For example, it is forbidden to eat or bring food with pork before swimming in some rivers or seas, but there are places where such a restriction is not applicable.

The magic of traditional Malagasy medicines or "ody" - from the term fanafody or medicine - also has its fady called fadin'ody. To make it simple, the ody is like something that goes out and then returns to the place it came from. It is like coming back home. It is mainly used to help people cure evil spells or diseases. Fadin'ody are the things that cannot be done during the treatment if one wants to succeed in the healing process. Healers, or those who have been chosen by their ancestors in this practice, often inform their patients about the fady to be observed. For example, there are animals that cannot be eaten during specific follow-up treatments.

The very origin of the taboo itself is still unknown, but what we know so far is that the taboo comes from ancient ancestors who are considered worthy and respected. Thus, there is also the so-called fadin-drazana that the members of a given family or a community must respect.

There are also many types of fady that have been instilled for educational purpose. For example, Malagasy people are not allowed: to point a finger at a tomb at the risk of losing the guilty phalanx or making the offending person a leper; to kick the wall at the risk of causing the death of the maternal or paternal grandmother; to whistle after dark, otherwise the ghosts will come.

Sources: New York Times, Antsirabe Tourism, Madagascar Treasure Island

Why is knowing how to recover from failure significant? Although the feeling of failure may be tormenting and difficult to get through, failure is often the very thing needed to push us in the right direction. Understanding our feelings when we are down will help us appreciate our feelings when we are up.

Therefore, without failure, we would be less capable of compassion, empathy, kindness and great achievement. Failure allows for upward movement outside of the comfort zone. But how to bounce back from our tough times?

Give power to what knocks you down in the first place. Giving power to what knocked us down does not mean that we are telling our mistakes that they won. Instead, it does live under talking about our failure all the time, and sharing that to others in order to draw new lessons. Energy grows where energy goes. When a person has a conversation about something rapidly, when this person shares it with another person, he or she is giving energy to that thing.

Give yourself a thousand second chances. Have grace with yourself like your job is not to get it perfect. Your job is just to get better, to get to your best. What is necessary to understand is that your best five years ago is not your today. Avoid to judge yourself based on what you know now. Here is the key, look back at a decision you made in 1999 or 2010 and judge yourself for something you did back then, based on what you know now.

Stay patient. When we fail, we may feel like a dark cloud is hovering over our head, following our every move. Everything feels pointless and we wonder why we are even making an effort in the first place. It feels like we know how to think positively, but those positive encouragement are surrounding like a nuisance to us. Patience is an important tool in overcoming frustration. It allows us to suspend judgment long enough to make informed decisions, thus paving the path to a fulfilled life. Patience itself is less about waiting, it is more about building the resilient necessary to change our perspective and grow from our mistakes.

Learning through failure. It is important to take time and think what exactly is happening to you and what you can learn from it. Taking time to listen to your own thoughts, to someone else, and to what is really going on around you will help you to retry and succeed.Therefore, what you need to do is to analyze what went wrong and why. Pay attention to your feelings by always remembering that in every crisis, there is an opportunity. Failure leaves clues to success; search for them high and low and find out if it is your mindset that needs to be changed or if there are other factors influencing the results.

Source: The book “Bounce Back”—written by Susan Kahn

Do tablets, instead of slates, make good or bad students? From interactive whiteboards to virtual classrooms, new technologies are becoming more and more widespread in schools across the United Kingdom and other advanced countries. However, its detractors are worried about the impact of screens on students’ health and academic results.

How does digital technology transform education? Will computers completely replace books?

For some teachers who have decided to replace traditional textbooks with more interactive screens, they believe that digital tools make it much easier to access authentic materials. The challenge of bringing digital technology into the classroom is to complement the parental watch— which may or may not happen at home— and to learn how to sort through information, which is the key point for tomorrow's citizens. These teachers maintain that digital technology allow students to work in a more personalized way, according to their academic level.

However, do hyperconnected students perform better than the others?

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has conducted a study on the impact of equipping students with digital tools on their academic results in more than 60 countries worldwide. Philippe Bihouix, author of the book "The disaster of the digital school", points out some of its surprising conclusions. The author finds that the level of use of digital tools in school is associated with significantly lower academic results. He adds that there is no positive correlation between the level of digitalization equipment of school systems and student performance. OECD studies show that the more students use the screen, the less they are likely to succeed. For example, in a reading comprehension test, a child who reads a text on a screen will get a lower understanding of what is written than another child reading the same text on a printed document.

However, despite these findings, the report still recommends the use of new technologies at school.

For François Taddei, a researcher and director of the interdisciplinary research center that advocates for educational innovation, it is not just a matter of putting children in front of tablets, it is necessary to master the content, especially to know how to use them.
For other teachers, operating without the digital is no longer an option. Companies today go digital. Letting students leave school without appropriate digital education would be a real danger nowadays.

Sources: The Digital School, Evidence for Learning, Cambridge International, The disaster of digital school, The interdisciplinary Research Center

The pandemic paralyzed many industries, but restaurants faced a particularly difficult year. While dining dropped dramatically, food delivery saw tremendous growth. DoorDash and Uber Eats, the two largest delivery apps by market share, both saw their business double from the end of 2019 to the end of 2020. As of February 2021, DoorDash held by far the largest market share in the U.S.; but some cities have their own favorites, such as Uber Eats in Miami and Grubhub in New York. Restaurants are relying on these delivery apps more than ever.

How delivery apps have changed the restaurant industry.

DoorDash by itself delivered 543 million orders between January and September 2020. In an economy where there are about 9.5 million fewer jobs in February 2021 compared to February 2020, the flexibility of food delivery as a job can be beneficial.

While the delivery boom has provided new jobs for drivers, restaurants have faced some challenges. Delivery apps charge fees to restaurants in order to make money. Uber Eats charges about 350 dollars in setup and equipment fees, plus a 15- to 30-percent commission for each delivery. Grubhub charges a 20 percent marketing fee, a 10-percent delivery fee and a 0.30-cent processing fee plus 3.05 percent.

DoorDash said the company does not disclose specific fee amounts as the company offers a variety of services to sellers. These fees translate into higher food prices for consumers as well. There is the price of the meal you would receive if you physically went to a restaurant. The price usually goes up when restaurants offer food on these apps. Then come delivery fees, which are sometimes covered by subscriptions like DashPass and Grubhub, and service fees. There are also regulatory fees that companies, including DoorDash and Uber Eats, added to their accounts after cities like New York capped delivery fees at 15 percent.

After cities and states banned indoor dining in March 2020, restaurants across the country had to find new ways to stay in business. The majority of online orders come from third-party apps like DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats. According to an analysis, nearly half of U.S. consumers used one of these food delivery apps in February 2021. The demographic trend is still pickup and delivery.

To help businesses in the early months of the pandemic, Grubhub suspended fees for independent restaurants in some major cities, Uber Eats waived delivery fees for more than 100,000 independent restaurants in the U.S., and DoorDash offered zero commission on pickup orders and implemented a $20 million merchant marketing program, among other initiatives.

Prior to and during the pandemic, U.S. restaurants could pay up to 30 percent in commissions for these delivery apps, in addition to other fees such as marketing and delivery costs.

Sources: Washington Post, The New York Times, Consumer News and Business Channel, Uber

There will be days where you may feel like everything is amazing and everything is going right. Then there are days where you feel like nothing is going the way you want it to. However, we cannot stay powerless and just wait for good days to come!

Choose to not be defeated. The very first thing that you can do is to make the decision that you will not let yourself be defeated. It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the pressures of life beating down on you by simply telling yourself that you will succeed. You are already on the path to positivity.

“Life is not the way it’s supposed to be, it’s the way it is. The way you cope is what makes the difference.” – Virginia Satir

The power of statement rests in where you choose to apply your mindset. If you choose to be optimistic, then you are going to open your world to different opportunities to solving your problems.

Face your fear with head held high. It can become really easy to be afraid of making the wrong decision. Being positive requires people to be confident enough to not always get things right or to do things perfectly but to be ready for the challenges that may lie ahead of them. One simple and helpful trick to get into this mindset is to get your body physically active. Go running, do jumping jacks, start lifting weights. The more physically active your body is, the more ready it is to conquer any kind of action.

Build up your community and use your tough times to help other people. Dealing with people is probably the last thing people want to do when they are down. However, multiple studies show that when people are feeling depressed and they actually help someone else out, they in turn will gain some of those good feelings and will actually turn their mindset around. Humans by nature, thrive when they see others succeed, so whenever you are feeling beaten down and times are tough, help lift others up!

Slow down when you feel stressed. Pumping yourself up to take action and calming yourself down to manage stress are two totally different things, but both can help you think, act and behave more positively. For example, when you are speaking about something stressful, try slowing down your speech and you will start to see that your calming tone allows you to really address the situation much better. By focusing on the grace and simplicity of your voice, you can better connect to your situation and approach it in a much more rational and positive way.

Sources: Forbes, Lifehack, The Book “Resilience” written by Eric Greitens

The way parents talk to their children is the single greatest factor in shaping their personalities and their independence. Raising happy, healthy and self-confident children is a much more difficult job than it seems, but by gum, it is possible. According to some study, there are certain ways that parents respond to and interact with their children which help to ensure their success in life.

•    First thing first, one of the most helpful tips parents with independent children do is to ensure their children have rules. Children need rules within which they can grow. Most of the time, parents tend to establish communication, discipline and obedience without coming across as a third world dictator. Some parents make the mistake of trying to be friends with their children or not establishing firm guidelines because they fear their children will resent them for it. However, kids want to be cared, nurtured, and taught. Subconsciously, children expect their parents to provide a set of guidelines so they will have some structure and stability in their lives.

•    Empower children to make their own decisions. When children can make differences between what the rewards and the punishments are, for any given situation, children will build self-confidence through making their own decisions. Soon after, they will be able to take good initiatives; they will be empowered to make decisions and take responsibility for their actions. They need parents’ love, care, guidance and direction. Mutually, parents also need their kids to listen to them and to follow the home-established rules so that they both can take advantage.

•    Talk to children in a certain manner. The way parents talk to their children is the single greatest factor in shaping their children’s personalities and independence. The foundation of self-confidence or independence is self-esteem which is defined as how much a person loves and respects oneself. When children grow up, they have no self-concept, they have no idea of themselves. They take on their whole beliefs about themselves from the way the most important people in their lives—their mother and father—treat them. Hence, if parents want to have a great impact on their children, constantly they are encouraged to feed their kids positive reinforcement by lessen criticism. Based on several searches, destructive and negative criticism is seen as the greatest destroyer of personalities in the world. Here is the key, always tell them how wonderful they are, always build them up and be understanding when they are going through hard times sometimes.

Sources: Psychology Today, Defend Innocence, Girl Scouts, Mind Champs, Mayo Clinic

Over hundreds of years, European explorers have sought out the legendary golden cities of California on this coastline. Yet treasure hunters have always missed the entrance to one of the world's most beautiful harbors, "The Golden Gate".

Where does the name "Golden" come from?

Many believes that the Golden Gate Straight and the Golden Gate Bridge were named after the famous California Gold Rush, but this is not the case. The gold rush has nothing to do with the name of the Golden Gate. Back then, the entrance to the bay that lies between San Francisco and the Pacific Ocean remained hidden for so long because of, as the explorers used to say, the rocky shoreline, turbulent waters and the invisible opening sign. The bay opens about three miles back from the Pacific. Its entrance is only a mile wide, difficult to spy from the sea. As a matter of fact, it was a land expedition that finally spotted the entrance from the nearby hills. 230 years later, the first Spanish ships passed through, and a 19th century U.S. Army Captain John C. Fremont gave the passage its name of Golden Gate.

Today, anyone entering the bay from the sea must pass under San Francisco's most iconic structure: "The Golden Gate Bridge". It is hard to imagine today that before the bridge was built, the only way to cross the bay was by ferry. Boats carried about 50,000 commuters a week. Not surprisingly, the greatest opposition to the bridge came from ferry operators. However, in 1930, San Francisco voters finally gave engineer Joseph Strauss the green light. Strauss said he dreamed of building the largest such thing a man could build. His design ranks up there with the Empire State Building and the Brooklyn Bridge as a symbol of American progress and ingenuity.

The entire bridge is 1.7 miles long. Its towers rise 746 feet above the bay. To build a similar bridge today would cost over one billion dollars. In 1937, the Golden Gate made its debut as the world's longest suspension span. Its two main cables stretch 4,200 meters from tower to tower. The Golden Gate Bridge is called a suspension bridge because the roadway is suspended from the cables, which are held by the two towers and anchored at each end of the bridge. While most bridges at the time were painted black, the Art Deco-style Golden Gate was painted reddish orange—or international orange— to catch the light and stand out in the fog.

Sources: History, Golden Gate, National Park Services, Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy

For people in Antambahoaka on the southeast coast, in Mananjary and surrounding area, raising twins is seen as a "fady" (taboo). The origin of the fady kambana or "taboo of twins" remains unknown. According to legend, the original Antambahoaka man married a woman who died after giving birth to twins. His two other wives suffered the same fate. This led him to decide that his descendants would never raise twins again. In the Manajary region, twins, regardless of their gender, are considered evil or even devilish.

The fady kambana continues to be an ancestral practice in Antambahoaka and consists of rejecting twins at birth or even abandoning them.  In the past, they were killed or one of them was excluded from the village. Anyway, for the sake of their children, some mothers have decided to break the ancestors’ oath and to keep their children even if it means being ostracized from the community. These mothers run the risk of being rejected by their spouses, their family, and the community, and excluded from the family tomb, which makes them even more precarious and fuels the belief in the taboo.

In 2008, the Analysis and Prospects Center on the Development of Madagascar (Capdam) conducted a survey on fady kambana at the request of the United Nations Committee on Human Rights. A book has been published: The Mananjary twins between abandonment and protection, explaining that abandoned babies have a low life expectancy because they are left at the bottom of a tree or on the roadside. In the old days, they were deposited along the Pangalanes Canal, promised to a certain death; today they are placed in reception centers where their destiny is not certain. Some families now prefer to place their twins in shelters, such as the “Centre d'Accueil et de Transit des Jumeaux Abandonnés” (CATJA)— the Reception and Transit Center for Abandoned Twins— or to have them adopted by close relatives.

"Many dies before the end of the first semester, mainly from dysentery and malnutrition, without mentioning the shock of abandonment. The luckiest ones may be taken care of by adoptive families in France," explains a volunteer from CATJA in Mananjary.

Finding one and a half tons of rice every month to feed the hundred or so children taken in, without state subsidies, is the ever-recurring challenge of the CATJA center. In 2013, the “Tsy Manary Zaza” association – “We do not abandon our children” association —was set up with the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to defend the rights of children and help parents raise their twins.

Sources: The New Humanitarian, United Nations Development Program, United Nations Children's Fund