This is a story that was told to a fellow Peace Corps about why Madagascar is poor and other countries are not. I cannot validate the truth of this story, I am simply the reporter. This is how the story goes:

A long long time ago God told all the people of the world to come to a meeting at 10am the next day where he would distribute all the skills and knowledge. Well the next morning all the peoples of the other nations came to the appointed place at the appointed time and were given skills and knowledge by God, but the Malagasy were late. They had to cook their rice and then they had to eat it and after they had eaten it they were very very full so they needed to take a nap. By the time their nap was over and they came to the meeting place it was late in the evening and everyone else had left. The Malagasy asked God for a skill but he had given them all away, and then they asked God for some Knowledge and he had given that all away as well. So because they were too late to receive any skills or knowledge the Malagasy remained poor forever.

This story may seem sad and unfortunate to someone who has never lived in Madagascar to a Peace Corps Volunteer it is a highly amusing story because the Malagasy are inevitably late for everything even the most important events in their lives and if you ask why it is inevitably because they had to cook and eat their rice. In every way rice is the center of life here in Madagascar and there is nothing that is going to change that.