What Malagasy Gold Says about COVID Commodity Disruptions https://edgeeffects.net/malagasy-gold/[2/26/2022 5:47:44 PM] ESSAYS How COVID is Reconfiguring Labor in Extractive Industries BY BRIAN IKAIKA KLEIN, STEPHANIE POSTAR, LAURA DEV, HILARY FAXON AND MATTHEW LIBASSI · PUBLISHED OCTOBER 14, 2021 · UPDATED NOVEMBER 24, 2021 This essay on Malagasy gold and extraction during the pandemic is the thirteenth piece in the 2020 Visions: Imagining (Post-) COVID Worlds series , which aims to reflect on the uneven impacts of the “pandemic year” and to consider new futures that might be made possible in its wake. Series editors: Weishun Lu, Juniper Lewis, Richelle Wilson, and Addie Hopes. Last December, customs authorities at Johannesburg’s airport found 73.5 kilograms of smuggled gold bars —worth roughly $4.5 million USD—in the suitcases of three passengers traveling by private plane from Madagascar to Dubai via South Africa. The incident sparked a diplomatic standoff, with the Malagasy government demanding both the extradition of the detained smugglers and the repatriation of the gold itself. A media circus ensued, during which it surfaced that Madagascar’s finance ministry used the exact same plane for official state business . While the phenomenon of gold leaving Madagascar in suitcases is not itself novel (the majority of gold mined on the island  About  Topics  Series  Podcast Pitch Us  Subscribe 