THE OPTIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS PAGE ARE ENGAGING ONLY THE AUTHOR. The Malagasy people seem to have lost the desire to resist standing up to defend their rights, even though they are being trampled on a daily basis. According to statistics, 92% of Malagasy lived below the poverty threshold but no one rose up. When social pressure is too much, the point of rupture is not far, and the accumulation of frustration and deprivation often results in bloody explosions. However, this can be avoided. Just put yourself to nonviolent civil resistance! Nowadays, the Malagasy people are tired of going down to the streets to claim their rights as citizens. Why make the strike if it is to have each time the same scenario: Teaser bombs, lost bullets and blood flowing, as was the case in 1972, 2002, or in 2009? Why manifesting because it is the politicians who benefit in the end? Today, people prefer to stay at home and rant about the social network instead of expressing their frustration in public and questioning their leaders. And yet, it is not the subjects of contestation which are wanting. Traffics of all kinds, corruption, bad governance, lack of accountability of elected officials, non-respect of laws, hamper development of the country. It is now essential that the Malagasy rediscover that power belongs to them and that they learn how to fight against injustice, without dilatory maneuvering of the politicians, and without violence. As Martin Luther King Jr pointed out, active nonviolence is not a method for cowards. On the contrary, it is a real resistance. It is the art of using non-violent power to achieve sociopolitical objectives, especially through symbolic protests. This practice was popularized from 1921 by exemplary personalities like Gandhi in India, by Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko in South Africa, or Martin Luther King Jr in his fight against segregation. The Malagasy also experimented with nonviolent civil resistance, for example through publications in satirical journals under colonization, but the practice gradually lost face to the rise of the military and police repression, but Also facing the weariness of the main concerned - the citizens. Contemporary movements such as Wake-up Madagascar are now trying to awaken citizens’ consciences and to revive non-violent civil resistance. Short-lived symbolic actions that do not create crowds and are therefore not illegal are regularly organized to denounce the fact of society that make jasper. Expose empty plates to say that the Malagasy are hungry, to walk in the streets of Antananarivo to demand the ratification of a charter on democracy or to make the dead on the place of independence in the city center of the capital to denounce the words which undermine the country are for example, part of the non-violent civil resistance. It is precisely to spread this philosophy on the desire for change through non-violent actions that many projects such as LIANA or Learning Initiative Aiming at Non Violent Action which was initiated by Wake Up Madagascar, Liberty 32 and the WYLD program Women and Youth’s League for Democracy with the support of the International Center for Non-Violent Conflict. Since the 70’s during the 1st Republic in Madagascar, Malagasy people have been manipulate and influenced by politicians who wants a place on government by force. This article is about about my own personal opinion. You can add a comment, give suggestions or critics 
Except…
@Michel , are you sure this is in the right place? You assigned it to a challenge called Onboarding (https://edgeryders.eu/en/onboarding), which appears to be about something unrelated.
Used to be these kinds of posts (not related to a project, just wishing to express an opinion) would go in the Agora. @Nadia can you help us figure out how to do this in the new data model?
Error from wet touchscreen
@Alberto you right, this is not on the right place. I recently meet some problems with my connection, my phone touchscreen was wet when I was publishing this and the phone was like infected and it was like randomly selected to this challenge. It was difficult for me to connect until now.
Boiling points
Hi @Michel.
That feeling of powerlessness in the face of politics is present in many people’s minds, no matter where they are in the world or the regime governing them… Unfortunately it’s hard to say what needs to happen to undo that. A lot of the times it is cumulative effects, at others it is a sudden outbreak.
I hear you. Myself, I was so suprised to see a quarter million people taking the streets in my country these weeks for something very concrete - the government passing an emergency ordinance in the middle of the night, “like thieves”, people would say. And right they are. In a democracy, this is non-violent protesting… and it kept growing gradually because people would suddenly see that joining forces can actually overturn things. And it did, but because a large enough number made that mental click.
So I suspect the best advice is to hang in there, and keep building.
Also, the world is watching now, more than ever. Solidarity has ever new ways of showing its face
Where is non-violent resistance appropriate?
It is a tricky question. I’ve seen it written that Gandhi, King and others relied partly on the background assumptions of the culture they lived in, for their non-violent approach to succeed. I would perhaps contrast that with the idea of non-violent protest under the Nazi regime 1940-45. A recipe for instant disappearance and death, along with anyone else who showed any signs of supporting the non-violent protest.
Non-violence as a way of life, however, I do believe is nearly always good. It’s just that open protest might not be the way to go. Instead, it might be being kind to one’s oppressors. Or treating them with empathy. Nonviolent Communication is a good set of principles in many settings. But people have to be human. What good is non-violence in face of a pack of hungry wolves or hyenas? And sometimes, people lose their humanity, behaving like animals. It can be very hard to call back people’s humanity, but perhaps always worth the effort?