POPULATION:
15 million
LITERACY RATE:
58%
SELF DEFENSE FORCES:
 EDF
LANGUAGES:
 French (official), Malagasy (official) 
ETHNIC GROUPS:
Malagasy
BORDERING COUNTRIES:
none 
MADAGASCAR - Madagascar is the 4th largest island in the world, and one of the poorest places on earth.  Every form of government has been tried here and failed.  After Madagascar gained its freedom it struggled with its independence till the government finally collapsed.  It was then they petitioned the EEC for help.  What they got instead was virtual EEC domination among the northern part of the island, and complete EEC controls over the water surrounding Madagascar.  The rest of the mainland has been virtually left on its own (with the exception of EDF military patrols policing the area as best they can, which is not very well at all), which actually doesn't seem to much hamper the natives, whose lifestyles have not changed much in the last 100 years.   They live off the land, and from fishing, and have a strong sense of family and community (although infertile women are considered less than human).  In the few es that attempted to bring themselves into the modern age crime is rampant, and the es themselves are decaying.  Still Madagascar is beautiful, and offers landscapes and terrain's so diverse they boggle the mind, jungles, deserts, mountains, plains, its all here.  The EEC see the island as their most important and strategic military base on the Indian ocean, and from here they can control the entire east african coast, as well as sending regular patrols among the Comoros Islands to search out pirates, smugglers and mercenaries.

(Written by Deric "D" Bernier)