Turkmenistan's travails - redux

 

In September 2002 I penned an OPED bemoaning the unfortunate fact that the antics of 'Turkmenbashi' ("Head of all Turkmen," the then "Perpetual President of Turkmenistan," Sapamurat Niyazov) obscured the miserable lot of the ordinary folk of Turkmenistan...

I said: "... The total and utter ridiculousness of this situation makes an observer want to smile. But that is an unfortunate reaction. The buffoonery masks repression and misrule, under which the vast majority of Turkmenistan's citizens live a life of grinding poverty, while the country has vast reserves of natural gas and is the world's tenth largest producer of cotton. While the masses are hungry, Turkmenbashi spends money on grandiose projects (a 10 meter high gold-plated statue of Turkmenbashi atop a 72 meter tall tower surrounded by fountains, ornate palaces, Berzengi - a hotel and business center in the desert outside Ashkhabad that has 22 empty 5-star hotels built completely from imported materials), jails any opposition (some in psychiatric wards), has a tame and muzzled press, etc. As there are shortages of staples and hunger increases, Turkmenbashi has said, "Anyone who complains about going without sausage or bread for a day is not a Turkmen."

When he passed away in 2006 his Vice President, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, took over in his stead, and a May 2008 blog entry noted that he had rolled back a couple of Turkmenbashi's actions. However, as time passed it became clear that not much was changed, as reflected in this November 2009 blog update entry.

We are now mid-way through 2019 and apparently not much has improved, see: Crazy-Ass President Of Turkmenistan Proves He's Not Dead By Doing Donuts Around 'Gateway To Hell.' 

Also view the video on YouTube: Watan Habarlary 04.08.2019

Random pictures - here be dragons

"The fantasy of California as an island earthly paradise can be traced back to a 1510 book, Las Sergas de Esplandian which describes a land of Amazonian women without a single man. The women were of course beautiful, had weapons made of gold and tamed wild beasts..."

Source: The phantom atlas: Islands, seas and countries on the map that don’t really exist

Random pictures - mystery manuscript

 

 

Source: The Voynich Manuscript

"Named for Polish book dealer Wilfrid Voynich, who acquired it in 1912, the Voynich manuscript is a mystery that has remained unsolved for centuries. 

The manuscript is a 6x9-inch codex of bound calfskin vellum, which has been carbon-dated to the early decades of the 15th century, and is believed to have come from northern Italy. It holds approximately 240 pages, some which fold out, though it is believed that some pages are missing.

The content of the manuscript is truly baffling, though. It is written in a completely unknown script, and illuminated throughout with illustrations of seemingly fantastical plants. Estimates of how many individual characters compose the script vary from 15 to 40. 

Many amateur and professional cryptographers, including Allied codebreakers from both World Wars, have spent years trying to decipher the text, with little success.."

Visit the link for the story and more pictures!

Random charts - divided

 

Source: Half in U.S. Continue to Say Gov't Is an Immediate Threat

Random chart - terrorism?

Source: Is Your Child a Terrorist? U.S. Government Questionnaire Rates Families at Risk for Extremism

Looks familiar?

 

Source: Hitler in disguise: US intelligence images of how Hitler could have disguised himself, 1944

 

Random pictures - anime plus

 Picture Credit

 Picture credit

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Crimean Attorney-General Natalia Poklonskaya has gone viral... "... Poklonskaya’s fans from all over the world call her “Prosecutie” and even invented a name for themselves – “Nataliaites.” (source)

Crimean AG becomes anime sensation

Know Your Meme - Natalia Poklonskaya (gallery)

Crimea's attorney-general captures hearts of Japanese fans

Crimean Attorney-General Natalia Poklonskaya wins heart of Japanese anime fans, goes viral

The government in Kiev issued a warrant for her arrest, with predictable results:

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Not exactly sure what this says about people/culture...

Random picture - Assassin bug

Source: Engrossingly Gross Photos of Spiders and Insects Eating Each Other

Partial picture of an assassin bug, go to the source for the full picture and many others... From the article:

"... Assassin bugs (Acanthaspis sp.) decorate themselves with the corpses of their consumed prey. There are several reasons for this behavior, none of which really measure up to the totality of this monstrosity. First, the corpses form a protective "meat shield." Second, the corpses provide olfactory camouflage..."

Random picture

Source: Lee Myung-bak as Rat? North Korean propaganda posters attacking South Korean President Lee Myung-bak

Great quotes

"I also am reminded of others who have risen from the ashes. The city of Atlanta is the Phoenix city. The people of Haiti, likewise, will rise from the problems created by last year's earthquake and emerge stronger and better than before. That I know is Mr. Duvalier's deep wish and something that he knows in his heart."

- Bob Barr, ex-Congressman (R-GA), who accompanied Jean-Claude Duvalier to Haiti. CNN reported that Mr. Duvalier, also known as "Baby Doc", "... returned to Haiti in hopes of recovering millions frozen in Swiss bank accounts and channeling them through a U.S. intermediary to help rebuild his troubled homeland. In the past, Duvalier has attempted to personally claim the $5.7 million in a bank account belonging to a family foundation. But attorney Ed Marger said the highly controversial and polarizing former leader now wants to use the money to help Haiti, devastated a year ago by a massive earthquake...."

No doubt, Bob Barr is also guided by the same spirit of altruism, and is doing the travel on his own dime with no thoughts of collecting any fees!

Random chart/picture

Chart source: Snakes take flight "... Most flying or gliding animals rely on a symmetrical pair of wing-like structures to generate lift, the force that opposes gravity and keeps the flier aloft. But `flying' tree snakes have no wings or any other obvious structures that might help them fly, explains Jake Socha, a biologist at Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois. Little was known about these enigmatic creatures until Socha, then a graduate student at the University of Chicago, set out for Singapore in search of the elusive paradise tree snake ..."

DOD tries to uncover secret of flying snakes

Brief update...

The May 1st, 2008 blog entry 'January is back' noted that "at the end of April 2008 the current President of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, announced that his country would return to using the Gregorian calendar. He abolished the bizarre calendar introduced by the previous leader, Saparmurat Niyazov, (a.k.a Turkmenbashi, or the Head of All Turkmen), Turkmenbashi had renamed January after himself on the official Turkmen calendar, and had named other months after his parents, etc" and reprinted the September 2002 OPED27 on Turkmenbashi...

It looked like perhaps Berdymukhammedov might be about to undo the extreme cult of personality that had been built up by Niyazov. However, all indications are that this is not the case. Turkmenistan: Stranger in a very strange land reports on a recent trip to the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, and that all the trappings of Saparmurat Turkmenbashi's wonder still remain, with monuments now being added for the quasi-unpronounceable Berdymukhammedov! Same story in this article: Turkmenbashi II? Asian country's slide from one personality cult to another.

Science and side effects...

Photo credit: Radio Sai

The above is an old picture of the Parsi towers of silence in Bombay (now Mumbai), India. You can tell it's an old photo by the number of vultures... Living there in the '70's and '80's you could always see a very large number of vultures riding the thermals. However, during the '90's the vulture population declined by over 95%. Scientist and ornithologists looking into this found that the cause of this die-off was the drug diclofenac.

The science:

Cheap diclofenac was widely used across the Indian subcontinent as a pain reliever for livestock. If the livestock died and were eaten by vultures (which was very likely, as vultures were the main "cleaners" of carrion) the diclofenac then caused renal failure in the vultures, leading to their deaths.

The side effects:

• Without the vultures to clean up, the carcasses of dead animals are left to rot, and the population of wild dogs has skyrocketed. "... A research programme led by Anil Markandya of the University of Bath, UK, has calculated that the decline of vultures made way for at least 5.5 million extra feral dogs in India between 1992 and 2006. During this period, these extra dogs would have been responsible for at least 38.5 million bites. National surveys show that in India 123 people die of rabies per 100,000 dog bites, suggesting that a minimum of 47,300 people may have died as a result of the vulture die-off. Taking account of the cost of treating bite victims and dealing with the extra deaths, the researchers calculate that the use of Diclofenac has indirectly cost India an unforeseen 34 BILLION US Dollars in extra health costs ..."
  
• Additionally, this has played havoc with the way Parsis dispose of their dead. "...The Zoroastrian system for disposal of dead bodies is ... based on the principle that the elements, fire, water, and earth must never be defiled and be maintained pure. It is thus enjoined that after death, the body of the person must be disposed of in such a manner as not to defile the elements or to injure the living. Large voracious birds like vultures would eat the flesh and sinews, leaving only the skeleton. The bones remained exposed for a year until they became quite dry. They were then buried as “bone meal manure” in fields; no tombs were permitted on the spot. The distinguishing features of the system are: Speedy disposal of the fleshy parts. It takes about 25 minutes for the birds to finish the corpse, It is economical in the sense that disposal by birds costs nothing and is free, It has the element of charity in offering food to hungry birds, and it displays the ideal of equality. The remains of the rich and the poor lie side by side... In keeping with this ancient custom, the Parsis of India erected enclosures known as Towers of Silence, within which the bodies of the dead are disposed of in accordance with stipulated procedures. In the Towers, vultures come and eat the flesh ..." The dying off of the vultures has seriously disrupted this custom, and other scientific methods are being tried to maintain the custom e.g. using solar reflectors to speed decomposition, using ozone-generators to fight the smell, etc. Plans are also afoot to breed vultures in captivity for this purpose.

Bottom line: an unexpected side effect, and another example of the "tragedy of the commons" and externalities/spillover costs...

Looking glass

Theater of the Absurd: Sworn Enemies

Extract: "... The 14 prisoners were brought in handcuffed. The few journalists present were ordered not to take pictures until the cuffs were removed. Behind each of the men sat a "guarantor" for a "bond" they would sign. "It's not an oath on the Koran," Frank explained. "It's on their honor. A guarantor is a mentor, just like in the US when an individual runs into trouble with the law and somebody steps up to mentor them. The reconciliation committee wants to see these 14 men do well." The Iraqis seemed slightly amused.

"We want to make this a special event," Frank said, asking the restless men to quiet down. "Thank you for being patient, but this is for you." Prisoners and guarantors got up pair by pair to sign each bond. An Iraqi lieutenant colonel played his part. "The government is in control now," he scolded, "not like before. There is a state and there is law." He urged them to join the army or the police. Frank was uncertain what to call the prisoners, since "detainees" was no longer accurate. "We will now ask each individual to stand," he said. "Raise your right hand. Guarantors, put your left hand on the shoulder of the individual."

The men began: "I acknowledge that recent signings of the Reconciliation Agreement have ushered in an era of peace and partnership between Shia, Sunni, Kurdish, Christian, the Jaysh al Mahdi, Iraqi Security Forces, and American Forces. Based on a review of my arrest record, Iraqi Government and Coalition Force leaders have agreed that my immediate release would be beneficial to the reconciliation process. I pledge to not commit any violations of the Reconciliation Agreement's 12 points, violate Iraqi Law, or attack Coalition Forces." The men were not told what the 12 points were. "As a proud Iraqi citizen living in Northwest Rashid"—a geographic designation that Iraqis do not use—"I will become a contributing member of the community in the historic effort to rebuild this proud nation." The guarantors swore that they were "bound by honor" to notify American or Iraqi authorities if the "individual" violated the oath.

Then Frank spoke. "The coalition would like to welcome all the members of the free Jihad community," he said. "The area of Jihad has been changed a lot. Violence has been reduced tremendously, and this reconciliation is proof." He did not explain with whom the freed men were reconciling. "With your release from detention, we expect that you will become part of the reconciliation, and we look forward to working with you and the guarantor, the person behind you. All the citizens of Baghdad are watching Jihad now," he added, even though the only Iraqi journalist present was a lone freelance cameraman..."

Read the rest at the link above.....

And reprinted from a Nov 13th, 2007 observation, 'Through the looking glass' about Iraqi civilian detainees/prisoners:

• "Task Force 134 Detainee Operations... work daily to reunite detainees with their families during the holy month of Ramadan. As part of their release process detainees go through a reintegration and education program to help them succeed in Iraq today..." The "up tempo release schedule" has been releasing more than 50 detainees a day.
• "... the Combined Review and Release Board (CRRB), which is an administrative review held for every detainee within six months of their arrival and periodically throughout detention. The board is comprised of Iraqi government officials and senior Coalition Force officers .... If the board determines that a detainee poses an imperative threat to security and stability here, the detainee is notified of the reasons in writing, and the case set for another review within six months. In addition to the CRRB, a separate board reviews each detainee case after 18 months of detention. The Joint Detention Review Committee (JDRC), comprised of Iraqi government officials and senior Coalition Force officers, is unique in that the presumption is in favor of release. Should further detention be recommended, the detainee as well as the detainee’s family are provided notice of the decision...."
• Per Task Force 134 commander Major General Doug Stone "we had a mother so overjoyed she fainted." Detainees offered release, he added, became "just over-ecstatic that they get to make a choice" of which gate to use to depart.
• "The Coalition Forces and the Government of Iraq have been working together to develop new education, medical and judicial programs to ensure preparation of detainees for release and reintegration into society..."
• This past week over 500 detainees were released in a mass ceremony. While seated on rows of white chairs awaiting a speech from Nouri al-maliki, in the background a band struck up and started playing... The Battle Hymn of the Republic!

Freedom Journal Iraq
Release Ceremony for Almost 500 Detainees Overseen by Iraqi PM
Government of Iraq, MNF-I launch joint venture to expand detainee reintegration programs