Day of the African Union in London

In England, the celebration of May 25th, the day of the African Union, took place in London in the hotel Selfridges. Madagascar was represented by Mrs Chargé d'Affaires a.i the Dr. Iary Ravaoarimanana and his co-workers. During this event Mister David Blatt, Director of support of the Forum for the partnership with Africa as well as the Professor Firmino Mucavele, "Chief Executive" of the NEPAD coming from South Africa, were invited to pronounce speeches after the official opening of the day was made by the doyen of the UA, the Ambassador of Cameroon, Mister Mbei.

The speeches were essentially centred on the means to be adopted to accelerate the development of Africa. Indeed, according to the made projections, the full development will be reached only at about the year 2165 while at present it is millions of African that have no access to the drinking water, go hungry and, obviously, cannot wait 165 years to see an improvement of their conditions of life. So, the representative of the NEPAD insisted on the fact that to accelerate the development the African countries had to, first of all, unify to be able to share their experiences and their knowledge. And in a second time they could formulate a project which would be subjected to the Landlords, by means of the NEPAD, this last one so playing the role of an effective tool during any negotiation. From his part Mister David Blatt clarified that the help, according to the Conference of Gleanegle, could be centred on the following three points of which the African countries have to take advantage: the Energy, the Education and the infectious diseases.

Besides this event was also marked by cultural activities, representing the part the most expected from the program, in which took part two countries: Rwanda and Madagascar.

Young Malagasy, living in London, made enthusiastically demonstrations of traditional dances which were appreciated by the spectators and they received congratulations especially from the doyen of the African Union, but our young people especially demonstrated that our legendary… smile was not only a legend.