[quote="*jr"]I would say the island nation of Madagascar. I was there few years ago working with NGO group, and I tell you the place is smashing….warm weather 365 days of the year, and there is an oar smell of Somalia and Zanzibar altogether in one, but much, much more developed in terms of infrastructure. As well, it’s a place where your retirement money could go far, very far.[/quote]
^^^
what infrastructure in madagascar are you talking about?
Poverty Profile. Madagascar is among the poorest countries in the world. Poverty has increased and deepened substantially over the last two and a half decades, with real per capita income having decreased by 40 percent between 1971 and 1991. The poverty assessment estimates that 70 percent of the population can be defined as being poor and 59 percent as being extremely poor. Almost 80 percent of the rural population are poor compared with almost 50 percent of the urban population. Two-thirds (66 percent) of the rural population are extremely poor compared with just above a third (35 percent) of the urban population. As a result, 86 percent of the poor and 88 percent of the extremely poor live in rural areas. Poverty is also deeper in rural areas than in urban areas. Farmers (especially smallholders) are the poorest group in the country. They also have the highest poverty gap and severity index of all socioeconomic groups. However, according to many statistics, there do not appear to be significant differences between men and women in terms of poverty and living standards.
Non-monetary indicators of poverty are also very important for understanding poverty in Madagascar. For example, poor and extremely poor households have higher dependency ratios than do non-poor households. Fifty-six percent of poor and 67 percent of extremely poor youngsters aged seven to 20 years old do not attend school and are probably entering the labor force earlier than their non-poor counterparts. Ninety-three out of 1,000 Malagasy children die before reaching their first birthday, and infant mortality is much higher in rural areas. The poor do not consume sufficient calories, and the quality of the food that they consume is of poor nutritional value. Children in poor households generally have higher rates of malnutrition than those in non-poor households. For drinking water, the poor and the extremely poor are more likely to have to rely exclusively on sources such as lakes, ponds, and rivers that can be easily contaminated sources than the non-poor, more of whom have access to wells, public taps, and indoor plumbing.
http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/dg/povert ... enDocumentOver three-quarters of Madagascar’s 17 million inhabitants live in rural areas. Seventy-two percent of Malagasy people live on less than $1 per day.
Lack of infrastructure
According to CIA figures, Madagascar has 49,827 km of roads, of which just 5,780 km are paved. These figures are probably optimistic; many of Madagascar's "paved roads" are in terrible shape, filled with potholes and or wide enough for only a single vehicle. Cyclones and other weather conditions often wipe out roads and bridges making travel even more difficult.
http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0522-rhett_butler.html
