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= = = = =__MY COUNTRY FACTS: MADAGASCAR__=

__Year that country joined the UN: __ Madagascar joined the UN on 20 September 1960.
__**PEOPLE**__

-What are the people of the country called? The people living int hese country are called malagasy.

-What is the official language? What other languages do people speak? The official language is the malagasy and french. But the people speak different dialects such as antankanara, bara, masikoro, northern and southern antankanara, plateau, sakalava, tandroy-mahafaly, tanosy, tesaka, tsimihety... ehich are different types of magalasy speoken in different small areas.



-What is the most practiced religion? A 50% of the population follows Christianity, a 40% follow traditional beliefs of the country, 2% are muslims and the rest follow no religion or are hindu or jewish.

FLAG: It was adopted in 1958. It has a vertical white line in the left side which occupies a third of the flag aprox. and next to it two equal size horizontal lines, the top one red and the other green The red colour stands for sovereinghty, the white colour means purity, and together they belong to the ancient Merina Kingdom and indicate the ethnic origins of the Malagasy people. And the green color represents the hope, and the hova, the largest part of the peasants who played a significant role in the independent movement.

__**GOVERNMENT**__

-Is it a democratic or non democratic state? Madagascar is a democratic state.

-What is the name of the leader of the country? The leader and President is called Hery Rajaonarimampianina.

-What type of government is the country ruled by? It is a republic, a state in which the head of state is the president and it changes periodically through elections.

-Is there a separation of powers?Which constitutions/person is in charge of each of the powers? Yes there is. The executive power is carried by the president and the prime minister, the judicial power is carried by the supreme court and high constitutional court, and the legislative power is carried by the national assemblie of 160 members and the senate of 100 members.

-What are the main political parties of the country(socialist party, communist party, green party, republicans, democrats, etc.)? Describe briefly their ideas. There are a lot of political parties in Madagascar, but the most important ones are: AVANA party, which leader is Jean-Louis Robinson.

I love Madagascar or TIM, which leader is Marc Ravalomanana.

New Force for Madagascar or HVM, which leader is the actual president Hery Rajaonarimampianina.

Young Malagasies Determined or TGV, which leader is Andry Rajoelina.

-Was your country ever a colony? If so, when did it gain its independence? Yes it was. It was colonized by France in 1896. And it became totally independent in the 26 of June 1960. Madagascar doesn't have any colony.

__**POPULATION**__

-How many inhabitants does the country have? Madagascar have aproximately 25 million people. -> @http://countrymeters.info/en/Madagascar

-Population density: there are around 41 people per square kilometer.

-Birth rate: around 33 children per 1000 people, which is equal to around 4 children per woman.

Reasons: it is such a high birth rate because it is a developing country and the education is poor, so there is little knowledge about contraceptives and their use is low, also the people there still think that the woman is inferior so they just stay at home taking care of their children, also if they have lots of children, they can be sustained in the future…

-Death rate: 7 deaths per 1000 people approximately.

Reasons: it has that death rate because the life quality there is very low, as they haven’t got enough money, also the medicine sector is not as high developed as in other countries, the people there is very poor so they have few money for buying food, water… so they die because of hunger, illnesses…

-Natural growth: around 620.000 people, which is equal to 6200%.

Reasons: there is that natural growth because the birth rate is high and the death rate is not as high as the birth rate although it is high. So if we substract the number of deaths from the number of births we obtain that number, and then we calculate the %.

-How do migrations affect your country? In 2010 the emigrations registered were a 0.4% of the population and the immigrations were a 0.2% of it, so it was in significant. And finally in 2015 the migrations are of around -0.03 per 1000 people, which means that there is more people living the country than entering it. So due to the Madagascar leaders it is nice for a sustainable economy.

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 * __MIGRATIONS__**

-Number of immigrants. Where do they come from? Why? The last exact numbers recorded of immigrants were in 2010, 37.800 people entered the country, they came from France, India, china, the Comoros, Algeria, Pakistan, Mauritius, Germany, Italy and the USA.

-Number of emigrants. Where do they go? Why? The last exact number recorded of emigrants was in 2010 too, when 79.800 people left the country, they went to France, the Comoros, Canada, Belgium, the USA, Italy, Mauritius, Switzerland, The UK, and Germany. These people left because they were looking for a job and money, and a higher life quality.

-Legislation of the country connected to migrations. Since the country became independent, the government has been opposite migrations, and they have carried a really strict policy, and that's why there is such a low migration rate.

-Institutions in charge of migrations. The institutions in charge of migartions are the ones in charge also of the executive and legisltaive powers, the government and the senate and parliament. They decide the laws that the migrations must follow and they controll the number of people that leave and arrive at the country, they are really strict when someone enters their country.

-Problems connected to migrations. There are not noticeable problems, although there is more people leaving the country than entering it, this is good beacuse the resources are not enough for everyone, so although now the migrations are a little bit stagnant, the situation is stable.

__**GEOGRAPHY**__

-Where is the country? The country is in the continent Africa, in the south. media type="custom" key="28126143" width="310" height="310" align="right"

-What other nations border the country? Madagascar isnt sourrounded by any nations because it is an island.

-What kind of landscapes does the country have? Positive and negative things of it. Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world with 587.041 km2. It is also called the "red island" because of the red-like ground. Madagascar has a very varied landscape. In the north you can see the mountains with huge and beutifull forests and below them some volcanic zones with mountains with caves, underground rivers... In the west you can find steppe with lots of islands and bays in the north and very dry deserts in the south. And in the east coast you can find a humid and tropical land with rainforest and huge wildlife living there. The positive things are that they are a huge house for lots of species of animals and a great place for tourist to go and take photos or just visit it, so the economy grow. But the negative things are that due to the huge amount of trees, the big bussinesses and companies are cutting them for getting money and beacuse they provide a 80% of the energy of Madagascar and deforestation is happening, so the forest and their wildlife there are in danger.

-What kind of climate does it have? Pros and cons of the climate. Madagascar's climate is the subtropical one, although in its mountains it is much colder, there are two seasons, from November to April which is the hot and rainy season, and from May to October, the cold and dry season. The pros are that due to the change in the weather in the different seasons and the faborable that these weathers are for the crops, it benefits the agriculture. And the cons are that du to the climate changethat is taking place, the biodiversity is in danger because they must adapt, and not all the species are going to be able.

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__**ECONOMY**__

-What is the most common sector of employment in the country? The most common sector is the agriculture one, because of the huge crops of rice and other foods plant there, lot of people need to be working there.

-What is the unemployement rate of your country (by percentage)? The unempoyement rate of Madagascar is of around 3.6 %.

-What is the percentage of contribution of its sectors? Agriculture,livestock forestry & fishing contributes with a 26,9 %. Mining and quarrying with a 0.1% Manufacturing with a 16.1% Construction with a 5.3% Trade,hotel and restaurants with a 14.5% Transport,storage and communication with a 23.7% Finance, businesss services and real estate with a 1.5% Government services with a 5% and other services with a 5.3%

-Energy: production/consumption; exports/imports. Most of the enegy is produced by the forests there and the hydropower resources, and these resources have their limits so they have to be carefully spend. And the total energy consumed in a year is of 1.25 billion kWh per year, but it is not a problem beacuse Madagascar can provide itself with enough energy, because that number is not so muuch due to the fact that a lot of malagasy people dont have access to electricity. Madagascar exports lots of products, some of them are the coffe, vanilla, selfish and sugar through France, USA, Germany, and Japan. And it imports products such as petroleum, food, consumer goods... from France, Japan and Germany.


 * __DOMESTIC POLICY__**

-Which are the current issues that affect your country in domestic policy? The main issues at the moment are the economy, because due to the fast growing of the country, it has to be really controlled.

-Which are the main policies about healthcare? During the last years, the Madagascar policy has improved a lot, and now every one is supposed to have access to potable water and the worst illnesses are trade, although most of the people that live in rural areas have difficult access to it.

-Which are the main policies about eductaion? In Madagascar the law sais that everyone must atend school, and this is consider as important as any other sphere of life.

-Taxes and other revenues. Here they must pay taxes as in any other place, they pay them for corporate income tax, social security contributions, health insurance contributions, property tax, tax on interest, fuel tax, social security contributions on employee and value added tax.

-Debt: Nowadays the total national debt of Madagascar is of 9.300.000.000 $.


 * __FOREING POLICY__**

-Which are the main current issues that affect your country in foreign policy? The main issues are trading nowadays, beacuse the country is growing really fast and they must make relations with bussinesses for getting money and continue growing. So they must trade with their resources, such as the wood products, beacuse there are lots of forests.

-Which are the main conflicts that have affected your country? The conflicts that affected Madagascar years ago were the fight for minerals, they wanted to extract them and pay a lot of money, but Madagascar would have run out of that type of resources and a lot of people livd of that, so they started a conflict and finally the economy stayed stable thanks to it. Also the political crisis of 2009 where some people opposed the government and finally Andry Rajoelina was declared the president of the High Transitional Authority of Madagascar.

-Which are the main conflicts that affect your country? The main conflicts are the fight for resources such as minerals or just wood in exchange of money, beacuse if they give too much resources away, the people living there that depends on that resources wont survive, and that people is the majority of the population.

-Military Expenditures/spending on defense programs: Madagascar spends around 70.000.000 $ for military issues a year. In this budget is include the cost of the weapons, the security suits for soldiers, the soldiers salary...