MAD-agascar

In what is to most people an extremely bizarre turn of events, the President of Madagascar, the wee island off the Eastern coast of Africa, succumbed to the Mayor of Antananarivo (try saying that ten times really fast) who a couple months ago announced that he was the head of a new government in the country, held a rally with only a couple hundred people in attendance, and essentially began an extremely random coup d'etat... considering the country is democratic.

According to the New York Times, the Mayor (now President) Andry Rajoelina, is a former DJ and is actually too young to be the president in terms of constitutionality.

Now, really... this is a guy who became the mayor of the capital city in this country two years ago, decided he didn't like the democratically elected president, who actually was elected twice (in 2001 and 2006), called him a dictator and jabbed at him enough times that the president actually stepped down and let some dude take over.

Can you imagine the possibilities?? What if I got a tank and rolled into the City Hall parking lot right now and announced that I was the new... whatever. I would be taken to a mental hospital, most likely. But, this is America, of course, no coups allowed. But what about in more unstable countries like those in Eastern Europe and South America.

What if this became a world-wide trend and people all over the place started overthrowing their governments simply because they weren't perfect?

On one hand, you know, cool. Why shouldn't people demand everything they want from their governments? And certainly the only way to change things is to get involved yourself, right? It sounds like a decent plan. But, on the other hand, wtf? What Rajoelina did was essentially an act of anarchy, not democracy. Personally, I think the whole thing was an incredible over-reaction because of a personal vendetta against the sitting president. I mean, come on! Rajoelina was the black horse mayoral candidate when he was elected, so why not just run in the next presidential election? And by all means, organize rallies and ride on tanks if you think that's going to make your point, but isn't just announcing that you're the new president kind of out of whack?

It is. It's crazy. And somewhat amazing, considering he got away with it.

Honestly, I guess this former President Ravalomanana (again, try to say that ten times) sort of deserved what he got, though. He must've been a pussy anyway to step down and hand his country over to a guy with a megaphone.