i tested the poorest island country in the world and this happened

this is the fourth largest island country in the world I visited here expecting to see some of the rarest wildlife that can be found anywhere else in the world beautiful beaches and the famous baobab tree but instead I saw a harsh reality and travel restrictions that changed the direction of this video Madagascar is considered as the poorest country in the world I'm known to showcase luxury destinations and tourism in Africa but I couldn't turn a deaf ear to the reality I faced in this country over 70% of the entire population earn less than $2 per day doing hard labor its GDP per capita is lower than countries that have recently gone through hyper inflation like Zimbabwe and even the war torn Somalia and Yemen with some of the highest levels of wealth inequality I have seen from this drone shot you can clearly tell the rich and poor side separated by a tiny fence and as I travel through the country I notice is a common thing here this is an unfiltered story of the people living in this country at the end of this video you would understand why this is the poorest island country in the world you would see how the locals struggle to make ends meet and experience why tourism which was once a flourishing sector is collapsing and yes I found King Julian I like to move it move it I like to move it welcome to Madagascar once again ladies and gentlemen in preparation for landing as a country considered to be poor I saw a private jet at the airport and wondered who owns it after asking around I was informed it belongs to Madagascar's wealthiest man Ylias Akbaraly worth north of $700 million visiting this country I knew communication would be a challenge as English is not spoken here they speak Malagasy and French but I was lucky to find a friendly local guide who understand a bit of English hey Steven welcome to Madagascar thank you man oh yeah hello guys my name is Dolly and I'm here from Madagascar Antananarivo surprisingly he learnt English from watching YouTube videos official currency is Ariary but euros is widely accepted all of this is $150 I converted seems like a lot of money to fit in my wallet I know one USD is between 4,400 to 4,800 Ariary all I saw at the airport was pictures of baobab trees all they're selling me is baobab all through baobab baobab baobab Madagascar is known for these trees they look very cute but sadly I couldn't visit and you would find out why much later in this video what's your name Ryan where are you from here in Madagascar I'm from Antananarivo Antananarivo Antananarivo yeah is it safe in Tana safe no Tana is not safe not safe yes but you're gonna ensure my safety you're gonna ensure I'm safe since I'm in your car okay Steven so welcome to Madagascar thank you man we are happy to see you I'm happy to see you as well most of the name of the city are very long very hard to pronounce so for example about Antananarivo it is made up of two words Antanana and Arivo Antanana means village or city okay and arivo means the figure thousands so if you combine it together it means the city of thousands this is the only sky scraper that we have here in Madagascar in Antananarivo this one just in front of us alright how tall is it more than 30 30 floors yeah nice the first thing I noticed there are lots of beggars which exist in major African cities and even my country but the ones here seem to be a bit persistent running and chasing after me for several kilometers even aggressively knocking on the car window coming out of the airport I was really hungry and stopped by KFC there are only 2 K F C in the whole city in the whole country the whole country yes here in the island K F C is seen as luxury and an expensive restaurant you can tell why it's empty because people can't afford it are you excited about the K F C of course I'm hungry so what we're eating now is uh luxury meal yeah I would say that for a lunch it's kind of a little bit expensive when you go to KFC it's like a trend like people love taking pictures because you're in KFC making stories like an opportunity because before we've never had it in the country KFC is seen like luxury like if you go to Italy KFC exactly it's luxury it's luxury if you're wondering why I'm holding the camera this way is cause we're trying to shoot and the security came out like we can't shoot here city of Tana has only one 3 star hotel which is the Radisson Blue but because I wanted to interact with the locals and get the locals experience I paid for an apartment and later found out it is one of the most expensive apartment in the entire country most times when I go to some other cities you go to Airbnb you try to get the cheapest but here I was trying to get the most expensive apartment for $50 a night it is pretty cheap right it is a two bedroom penthouse sitting high up in the hills surrounded with extreme level of poverty we do get views so let me show you guys the views that I'm getting out of this it's not a very great view to be very honest this is what it looks like but it's very interesting actually the city of Antananarivo is sitting on top of a hill like just like Kigali I'm gonna compare this to any apartment in the world you'll be paying like some good two fifty three hundred dollars a day for it but here it's like super cheap the views and so good the night is just beautiful it lights up the whole area what my guy was actually telling me so there's the hill and the valley so people that stay on the hill are the richer people cause then you get to get views so the people without so much money here will stay on the valley I'm wondering how much a penthouse like this would cost so I can buy it I'm gonna call the owner of the apartment right now hi Steven hello somebody wants to buy this apartment how much is it for a unit like this here in this side of Antananarivo I think 2 thousand hundred 200 200 200,000 thousand okay so but this your unit right now do you is it yours do you wanna sell it or it's my uh mom's apartment so I can ask her okay if she interested to to sell to sell it oh okay $200,000 for a penthouse isn't bad at all but to be honest if I place a bid for $150,000 I think she would take it I was eager to engage with the local people to understand how life here is for them just outside of my apartment I saw this lady washing lots of clothes with her hands and I was very curious this is a place uh a public place people close by bring clothes for her to wash exactly and she charges them money to do it how much does she charge and how how does it work 200 Ariary per per club for the day she can make when the price is really good it's 10,000 reason why she choose this place because you know you see this building this is a public uh a sink a pipe to get the water oh okay there is a pipe here yeah there is a pipe here and that's the reason why you see a lot of columns of oh okay yellow gallons here in the Malagasy home the majority of people they don't have a pipe of a sink inside the house most homes they go to the public areas like this to collect water she insisted I should visit her home to meet her family Salama Salama sir oh he's saying like uh please guys make yourself comfortable this is your husband how long have they been married for eight years eight years yes sir so what work do you do uh the job of the woman is to do the laundry yeah and the job of the man is carrying the water and this is their house exactly so this is like the living room this is like the living room and the bedroom okay so where do the kids sleep so they sleep all together there how many kids they got three kids it's impossible all of them can sleep here it's too small for them so what is that your kitchen they are breeding chickens but that's a that's a cooking gas can you ask them if the government of Madagascar is able to help their situation they said they've never had any support they are just doing their best to survive life is very tough and it shows it shows the evidence like their life their the the life what happens here yeah it's hard how many percent of people in Madagascar live like that I would say like between 60 to 80% the majority but there is some people even like worse than worse than that just outside I noticed this guy carrying something heavy on his head so ask him what's uh what work is he doing right now carrying this thing he's a garbage man so he's collecting all the trash from the house surrounding here and then put it to the to the big trash bin yeah yeah so how much did they pay him to do a job like this cost him 2,000 2000 how much in USD it's like maybe half dollars he's explaining that thanks guys for this interview because it's showing what what our life is uh we're just driving past somewhere and the kids they're having their shower in this is not even a river it looks like a gutter and the kids are having their shower here which can be very dangerous for them this is the the only available water that they can have to shower it's free and it's it's many so it's abundant so good for them on the flip side there are some wealthy people that live in luxury Madagascar has one of the highest levels of wealth inequality in the world while a small elite enjoys luxury the vast majority live in extreme poverty here in Tana you can visibly see the income disparity the rich live close to the poor and from this drone shot you can tell the rich side and the poor side I told my guide to take me to the richest neighborhood and he brought me here I would say like it is the Beverly Hills of Madagascar this is one of the first choice for the rich people to live first because of the quietness of the place so it is well organized the CEOs the foreigners the businessman the business owner yeah yeah live actually I mean you can tell by the kind of cars like the kind of cars we see here is a different yeah yeah you know as much as it's considered one of the poorest islands in the world yeah you still get to find people living like kings here the price of the home range is up to 3 billion Ariary yeah and the rent is between like uh 5 to 15 million per month so who can afford that kind of money you must be like working for the big international NGO just a few inch away you would find slums with no running water electricity and bad sanitation housing thousands of struggling families the materials gotten to build most of these mansions are gotten from guys like this so now they're taking the the sands to to load it on the car on the truck they using the sands in order for construction it's a food they sell to get here all of those uh big big dealers we see this is where they buy sand from exactly how much do they get get paid for it one person 10,000 Arary per trip oh man it's really hard it's really sad to see people like they're working really hard but they're they're paid so small it happens in Madagascar but it happens everywhere in the world can you ask them if they really love this job they are doing so they're saying um the job it's not that they really love it but they don't have a choice this is really like the only way they can make a living to get paid so they have to do it so all the sand would go in there they're gonna bring the sand and put it here and then they will package the sand into this uh little bags on there put in the truck and then the truck takes it to the construction site this is so common here on the island people crushing stones to make gravels for construction there are quite a no number of people like just sitting on the road and just cracking up some stone so they are turning these huge rocks into like gravel stones so what is happening is they're gonna turn these chunks of stones into like a gravels and I want to guess it's for construction how much does she get paid to do to do this kind of work the way it works is like a she's just working on it hmm and after if there's someone interested to buy oh then she's going to sell it to them oh so she's not paid now to do the job she's doing it by herself they buy the big rock from the people bringing it here correct and then they just go ahead to break it into tiny gravels exactly and then they wait for a buyer exactly so all those heaps of gravels on there is waiting for a buyer waiting for a buyer like this quantity now yes how much is this quantity worth 10,000 Ariary oh but when someone hire her to fill it yeah it cost a 3,000 and how long will it take her to break this little bricks into that big one big one yes one per day so they would spend at least a day breaking these things exactly to make that so they can sell it for 10,000 Ariary exactly $2 plus for a whole day's job that is some intense labour very intense during the month we can make like 100,000 I tried breaking the rocks and I couldn't make it to the second rock almost I just feel like I can injure myself so I'm scared she told me it is a really difficult and risky job because if her fingers get smashed by the hammer she wouldn't be able to treat herself in the hospital because her pay is too little poor people mostly do the hard labor different kind of small task that could could be pay them like half dollars or dollars something like that I found this fisherman casting his nets against this brown like water it doesn't look like a river it looks like an erosion so I was quite concerned like how much fish they can actually possibly get or first of all is there even fish here how much does he make with this kind of business here mostly they're making like between 6,000 to 10,000 in a day life is hard it's difficult because uh they are trying to make small business but sometimes it doesn't work little small agriculture here he's explaining to us right now that the climate change affects so much the livelihood of people natural disaster like cyclones disturb this island making it hard for farmers and fishermen like him to fend for his family a tropical cyclone that swept across the island of Madagascar this week killed at least 18 people and displaced thousands more according to the country's disaster management office is this a taxi hello hello yes man this car is Jesus Christ there are several ways to move around and for one cent I can either ride this local bus this is what they look like but I found this vintage car commonly used as taxis I was told by the driver it could be up to 80 years old wow I guess everything here needs a tutorial eh wow it looks nice haha the dashboard looks messy like there is no technology here everything is manual interesting like this car is like it's very old yeah we are having the the car uh mainly the public transport as taxi that we're using here in Antananarivo which is very very old we're asking the owner and the driver that he's saying that this can be more than 80 years old now 80 years old yeah oh my there is no brand new of this car anymore yeah but we're just like over there oh that's nice haha that is nice like if they are well taken care they can reach up to 30 million Ariary 30 million Ariary yes oh wow it has a sunroof this is the this is the sunroof nice can you ask them why do they choose this for public transportation one big reason for people to use this first because the strength it's very strong car and the second is the the it's very economy like a it doesn't fuel it doesn't consume a lot of fuel it cost me one dollar five cents for a trip of about 7 km which is ridiculously cheap does this vehicle ever break down does it break down at all sometimes it breaks down but mostly it's very strong so he said the normally if the market is good and if there's so much competition uh we they can make roughly between uh let's say 50 to 60 thousand per day while in traffic some wristwatch seller tried to sell me a Rolex for $22 from hundred to 40 to 25 I think it will get to a point where it's gonna be free or I did not need anyone to tell me they are fake wrist watches hey my friend what is what is this what is this thing this is a popular street food here Koba Koba Koba okay so uh today we are having here the famous Koba so this is uh what it looks like and it's actually very famous to Madagascar people so everybody here eats it it's like it's like a culture this is their food the main ingredient that we use is uh peanuts rice flour and sugar and sugar yes can uh reach up to 1 meters the length and to prepare this it takes 20 minutes and to cook it to be ready to eat it takes about two days the whole one Koba it cost 150,000 Ariary it looks very scary when you look at it actually looks like it looks like cake inside but then the outside looks like I don't know their hygiene is really poor so I couldn't eat much just to taste a little okay not bad actually it tastes like a peanut butter a little bit of banana taste on there why do the Madagascar people like this oh man this is part of the culture when you taste it you really sense the spirit of the Malagasy welcome to Madagascar the Koba oh man he's explaining that he's been doing this for 15 years now 15 years yeah he's uh providing for his family based upon this business in a day he he make 15,000 a year while touring this country I kept wondering why is Madagascar this poor because it's a country with so many opportunities to create an immense amount of wealth in 1998 the largest sapphire deposit in the entire world was discovered in Madagascar not to mention the billions of dollars worth of gold Colbert titanium and vanilla being exported however I learnt all the profit leaves the island due to corruption but it is not just natural resources Madagascar has the potential to become home to the largest amount of biodiversity of any place on earth with stunning wildlife beaches mountains and rivers it is not like this island is located in the middle of nowhere in fact it sits among one of the most important trade routes in the world with all of these advantages why isn't Madagascar fantastically rich many people say that Madagascar is a poorest country something like that we suppose not to be remain in the poverty the problem is for us the people always think about the food the the the stomach you know yeah that's a problem the the main problem we complain about the food always food always food always so the government can do anything else except the food so everything around surroundings for example the tourism blocked the road the road the path any path blocked everything is because always thinking about food how to eat yeah that's that's main problem you know that's my point of view we need to change the mindset yeah of course there is a correction to find out I was told of an island called Nosy Be popular among rich locals and tourists and I wanted to visit there to find out how well involved the locals are in the tourism business I'm going to another city called Nosy Be which I was advised not to drive there because it's too days of bad road so now we must go book a flight the roads in Madagascar are death traps I was warned by my guide to stay far away from traveling by road but on the other hand the local flights are very expensive the most expensive flight that I have ever paid for a local flight like going from one city to another about 400 and something euros many top tourist destination like Tsingy de Bemaraha, are almost inaccessible due to poor roads broken bridges and unsafe ferry crossing it's hard for people to move from one place to another place because of the road condition and it takes too much time the journey from the capital city to Morondava where I was going to see the the famous baobab trees is about 600 km but it's going to take me two to three days due to the bad roads I'm only here for six days and I don't think I'm going to go through such stress if you search for roads within Madagascar on YouTube you're going to find this this is the reality Only 11% of Madagascar's road are paved making travel on roads slow and difficult so now I'm in a very tight spot the flights are very expensive and the roads are very bad so yo so I'm asking myself how are the local people able to travel from one city to another I had no other option than to pay the overpriced plane ticket my flight was for two PM but departed by eight PM at night after several delays to worsen it my bag did not arrive with no sleeping that night so we flew on the plane and they didn't put our bags on the plane they don't even know when we're gonna get the bags everybody that you see right here is here to ask questions like why this is incredible yo you guys are never going to see me here again never after speaking to someone who lives here it's like it happens all the time cancel your flight without informing you er Madagascar is the only airline that operates here they don't have a competition so they kind of like acting anyway they like they're not even sure the bag is gonna come tomorrow so and my flight out of this island is in three days time so it's a very huge possibility that I might not be able to fly with my bag out of the country I have never seen something like this before never tourism should be able to make this country rich just like their neighbouring uh island of Seychelles and Mauritius generally I feel the the government is making minimal investment in promoting the country as a tourist destination I arrived at my four star resort in Nosy Be owned by an Asian hotel chain and I later realized the locals aren't involved so much in tourism the resort tries as much as possible to keep my money spent within the resort they are going to organize my transportation my excursion and they had an all inclusive system which means you don't need to leave the resort to have breakfast lunch and dinner and I was told this is a way to ensure tourists don't see the harsh reality of the locals outside of the resort so this is where I'm staying nice resort and if I turn the camera this way you find local people here most resort here on there and then just beside you're gonna have like the local people trying to sell you things like this right here actually very beautiful art but most of the time the hotel would never let you see these things sorry to say but they don't want you to see the poverty they just want to sell you the luxury side the hotel the resort right I want you guys to look up this mountain now the super rich people they live up the mountain you can see the drone shot wealthy people love to exclude themselves and just stay up up up the mountain now this architecture looks very sophisticated but trust me to go outside to meet the local people so I told the the guy taking me around he should take me to like a typical place where the local people here live in Nosy Be considered a rich island right so now I'm with a group of family I'm just gonna speak to them and ask them uh how life here is like for them and the reality of living here Salama Salam so she's saying like life is really tough and really hard because little community is making the living from the stone oh that's what they make the living yeah mostly so most of these people they don't work in resort they break stones into gravels that would be used for the construction of these resorts that we see uh they're saying uh about the tourism sometimes it's bring benefits and uh they're saying sometimes they're coming here to make a visit to see the lifestyle and the locals to give some gifts and tips with that kind of job how much do they make every month they can make like hundred thousand Ariary but if it doesn't work for one month or two months there is nothing and how many kids does he have or how many wives does he have and he's the father of the home hmm and the mother they have like a five children like eight grandkids what are they about to prepare what are they making to eat here so there is rice and fish uh as you can see you can feel the situation of this family it's quite a little bit sad they're making so hard to to live for the day so ask him is this uh their room is this where they stay yeah so how many people how many people sleep in here six people sleep in here six kids on the ground and the parents on the on the bed it's actually crazy man to see like the living situation of the local people here just one room sleeping how many people 10 uh one room is like uh 6 6 minimum 6 people and he doesn't even benefit directly from tourism I mean just tips and stuff okay bye everyone bye haha *local meaning of sunscreen* she puts uh the the stuff on her face in order to protect protect her face from the sun and this is like a local sunscreen for the for the woman here in the village local sunscreen here in Madagascar tourism should be able to make this country rich just like the neighbouring island of Seychelles and Mauritius in Madagascar we have many snake we have a 95 species of snakes on the stem there it is chameleon from east coast of Madagascar the main colour is green orange little bit but they can change the colour depend their emotion if you look this chameleon it is very amazing chameleon if you touch them for example they change the colour hmm and then you see the eyes of them is very special one eye forth one eye back hmm you know for us Malagasy we think this animal has kind of spirit can destroy us in our life hmm that's why one eye forth one eye back it's mean they can know your future and your past ha ha ha ha with a spirit or soul right here is uh the the lemur they can be only found here in Madagascar so if you probably see lemurs anywhere else in the world they were taken from Madagascar like in the popular movie I like to move move it move it I like to move it move it I like to move it this is my first encounter with lemurs they are really cute they have many species and are all colorful and unique in their own ways lemurs rely heavily on scent to communicate more so than other primates marking their territories and even identifying individuals by smell lemurs play key roles in Madagascar forests by dispersing seeds which help trees and plants regenerate without them entire ecosystem would suffer I wanted to even explore other places in the south and the north and the east but I really couldn't because of the infrastructure if I'm gonna be very honest it has been really hard for me in this country and I want to guess this is gonna be the same for the other tourists that want to visit this island to explore something else I learnt that might be keeping this country poor is political instability since gaining independence from France in 1960 Madagascar has experienced at least four coups and several disputed election resulting in international sanctions and a decline in foreign investment worsening poverty on the island country poverty like they say is not a disability but a current situation that can be fixed with good governance and determination thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next episode

2025-04-30 05:09

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