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Departed: The Rat

2008-12-08T02:04:00.009-05:00

As remakes go, The Departed is one of the better uber-Hollywood productions produced in recent years. With Leonardo DiCaprio Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, and Alec Baldwin it's hard to to dislike the story if only for the glut of star power. The out-sized Hollywood personalities notwithstanding, The Departed was an excellent police film if only due to William Monahan's brilliant adaptation of the original Hong Kong film, 無間道 (Infernal Affairs). Mohahan's academy award winning screenplay brought the film out of Hong Kong and adopted it fittingly into the gritty neighborhoods of South Boston and based loosely on the exploits of Whitey Bulger and the Winter Hill Gang.

In an event, my favorite seen follows, where in Costello (Nicholson) privately questions Costigan (DiCaprio) in a semi-drunken and more than a little insane exchange in which its very clear Costello's suspicions are directed towards Costigan, and Costigan could easily lose his life simply on that basis. What I find particularly dramatic about the scene is the effect to which Costigan knows his life is very much in peril and there is a complex interplay of dialog and mutual deception. And at the crucial moment, the split second in which he must look Costello in the eye and make a direct denial, the very moment where any weakness would reveal the truth in his eyes, Constigan juts his chin forward, stares squarely at Costell and issues his denial to full effect. However, in spite of Costigan's survivalist pleas, it is clear that Costello is unconvinced. Convinced enough to spare Costigan for the moment, but unconvinced.

Below is the trailer for the original film,. Admittedly, I have yet to see, but my Chinese friends give it high marks.

無間道 (Infernal Affairs) Trailer (English Subtitles)

CCTV Footage of the Mumbai Bombings, "Truth Serum" for the "Baby Faced" Terrorist, and Eyewitness Accounts

2008-12-04T12:05:00.013-05:00

Not a lot to see here from the CCTV footage, but what appears to be an inconclusive shoot-out and a number Mumbaikars looking appropriately confused, frightened, and running for their lives. Nonetheless, it gives you an inkling of how some experienced it.

Further the Times Online reports that the police intend to use a "truth serum" on the so-called "baby-faced" terrorist.

Police interrogators in Mumbai told The Times that they are poised to settle the matter of Kasab's nationality through the use of "narcoanalysis" – a controversial technique, banned in most democracies, where the subject is injected with a truth serum.

The method was widely used by Western intelligence agencies during the Cold War, before it emerged that the drugs used – typically the barbiturate sodium pentothal – may induce hallucinations, delusions and psychotic manifestations.

Mumbai police said that their evidence of a Pakistan link includes hand grenades manufactured in the city of Rawalpindi, in Pakistan, and satellite phone calls traced back to the country.

Deven Bharti, a deputy police commissioner in Mumbai and one of the interrogators, told The Times that Kasab had shown no remorse for his part in a terror attack that had killed nearly 200 people.

"He is a 24-year-old boy with the eyes of a killer," Mr Bharti said.

"Nobody should doubt: he is a highly-trained murderer. He has told us he came to Mumbai from Pakistan to cause maximum casualties."

For a more descriptive and immediate reaction to the bombings, here are a few eyewitness accounts.

Eyewitness Account 1

Eyewitness Account 2

Based upon my reading of this attack, the nutshell calculus seems to be to increase tensions between India and Pakistan, and thus, draw away some of Pakistan and the US's joint ability to deal with the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on the Afghan border.

At this point, its clear that the attack was planned and executed from Pakistan, by Pakistanis, and almost certainly with some element of state support. However, with such a disaggregated state as Pakistan, to call it a Pakistani affair is a gross generalization. Even so, while it was certainly not directly perpetrated by the Pakistani state apparatus, it seems likely that it grew from the actions of factions that at least indirectly have some state affiliation or funding.

Whether or not India, Pakistan, and the United States are capable of coordinating to deal with this problem is the next question.

Current TV: Chinatown, Africa

2008-12-03T12:56:00.006-05:00

What are the 1.5 million Chinese in Africa up to? What is the meaning of China's deepening involvement on the African continent?

Current TV's Maria van Zeller provides some clues to the immediate as well as the complex and long-term ramifications of the spread of the Chinese diaspora, industry, and state in Africa.

Are the Chinese to fulfill Thomas Barnett's so-called "SysAdmin" role, or will the Chinese economically dominate the continent as they have throughout other parts of the developing world, incurring resentment of neo-colonials as in places such as Malaysia and Indonesia? Are the "SysAdmin" and neo-colonial one and the same, or is there some measure of mutual exclusion?

There are far more questions than answers, but this piece provides a few clues.

In "Chinatown, Africa", Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to Angola to investigate China's rapidly growing presence in Africa. While many welcome China's investment, others see reason for concern. Chinatown, Africa is revealing look at a growing superpower's adventures abroad.

Rebecca MacKinnon: China's Censorship 2.0 - How companies censor bloggers

2008-12-01T09:47:00.017-05:00

Rebecca MacKinnon of the University of Hong Kong's Journalism and Media Studies Centre, has posted the following presentation on the methods of censorship employed by the Great Fire Wall of China (GFW, 金盾工程, jīndùn gōngchéng, or "Golden Shield") implications for the public and activists. The main points from her presentation are summarized below.

Select the "Full Screen" option for best viewing.

In my presentation I offer several conclusions to be drawn from what was a very experimental and relatively small-scale project:
Internet filtering (“the great firewall”) is only one part of Chinese Internet censorship.
Domestic web censorship is not centralized at all.
Domestic web censorship is outsourced by government to the private sector.
Domestic web censorship is inconsistent - if you can't post successfully in one place, it's usually possible to post your content somewhere else, at least for at least a while.
The system of “managing” user-generated web content in China appears to follow a similar logic and approach as the system for controlling professional news media.
When I write my paper those will be elaborated upon. I also identified a number of implications for researching Chinese censorship "inside the great firewall:"
Need larger-scale studies of domestic web censorship (including chat rooms, social networking sites, instant-messaging, mobile services)
Unlike automated ?ltering tests, these tests require manual testing and constant analysis by Chinese speakers with contextual knowledge - it is tedious work requiring attention to detail.
Need surveys of web service company employees.
Need surveys of users and bloggers about their experiences.
The findings also have implications for activists:
Circumvention is important but it's not the solution to the whole censorship problem.
Need to educate bloggers and netizens about strategies for successfully disseminating information online about politically sensitive subjects
Need to do more to foster a global “user rights” movement demanding greater transparency and accountability by Internet companies on privacy and free expression. The Global Network Initiative is a good start in this regard but we need much more.
There is also a set of more global questions:
Where else in the world is this kind of political censorship by web service companies of user- generated content happening? (Companies in the West already censor for child porn, copyright violations and sometimes hate speech.)
Will the “Chinese model” - in which governments demand censorship by web companies - spread globally?
What issues in this vein should the advocacy community be preparing for?
What further research needs to be done to better understand global trends?

Arms and Oil Cooperation with Russia; China Launches a "Socialist Satellite" for Venezuela

2008-11-29T12:45:00.004-05:00

Russia Today: Energy and arms dominate Russia-Venezuela talks

Reuters: Venezuela Launches Its First Communication Satellite

CCTV: China launches Venezuela's 1st satellite

Raul Castro sings in Chinese for Chinese delegation

2008-11-28T08:30:00.001-05:00

He is in fact singing the commie Chinese classic, "The East is Red" (东方红, or Dōngfāng Hóng)

The Mumbai Bombings and Global Politics

2008-11-28T04:55:00.021-05:00

Here's a scattershot analysis of the Mumbai bombings and the geopolitical ramifications.

From Stratfor: "A massive and well-organized attack by militants in Mumbai, India, has left nearly 100 people dead so far, promises to cut deeply into India’s foreign investment prospects and threatens to rock India’s government. As India responds to the attack, its relationship with Pakistan will be front and center, and the potential for a destabilization of relations between the two geopolitical rivals is high." (Read India: The Need to React)

Afshin Rattansi's interview with CIA veteran Bill Christison: "Here Afshin Rattansi talks to Bill Christison, for nearly 30 years, the CIA's principal advisor on South Asia issues. Also, the significance of visits by President Medvedev and General Secretay Hu Jintao to Caracas and Havana."

Indian PM Manmohan Singh: Mumbai attackers based from outside of India

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says the perpetrators of coordinated attacks on the financial capital Mumbai were likely based outside the country.

Mr. Singh addressed the nation Thursday, a day after heavily armed men attacked 10 sites in the city, killing about 100 people and wounding about 300. Without specifying another nation, he said he will tell "neighbors" that the use of their territory for launching terrorist attacks will not be tolerated.

As Mr. Singh was speaking, Indian security forces were moving through two luxury hotels - The Taj Mahal Palace and the Oberoi-Trident - in an attempt to free hostages and find remaining gunmen. Gunfire and explosions were heard from the hotels, and another fire broke out at the Taj after an earlier blaze caused serious damage to the historic building.

Police were also trying to resolve a standoff at a building belonging to a Jewish group.

Wednesday night, groups of assailants with machine guns and grenades attacked several locations popular with foreigners and business people, including hotels and train stations.

Witnesses said gunmen were looking for U.S. and British citizens.

CNN: Commandos raid Mumbai hotels

Russia Today: Indian commandos storm hotels in Mumbai

BBC: Indian Commandos Storm Jewish Center to Free Hostages

The BBC does not currently allow embedding, so you must click here to view this content.

Russia and China Exploit American Weakness and Folly

Further to Bill Christison's comments on the presence of Russia and China in the Venezuela and Cuba and its implication of American weakness in its "near abroad," here are a few videos covering Hu and Medvedev in both Cuba and Venezuela. Both are encroaching on the United States' traditional sphere of influence by taking advantage of US weakness due to the GWOT, the Iraq War, Bush's impotence, the loss of American financial leadership, and a host of other issues, and one assumes that China and Russia's intentions range from selfish to malevolent. However, after years of mismanagement of national resources, misguided and wasteful policies, an absurd embargo of Cuba, and neglect of South America and the Caribbean, these geopolitical shifts should surprise no one. Even so, the pity of it is that none of this was inevitable.

Hu Jintao in Cuba

Hugo Chavez in Beijing (in Spanish)

Dimitri Medvedev In Cuba

Dimitri Medvedev Venezuela

Russian Military Exercises in Venezuela

And so it seems Russia is helping Venezuela become a nuclear power: Russia-Venezuela nuclear accord. If I were a gambling man, I would put my money on the likelihood that nuclear proliferation is now occurring world-wide at a frightening clip.

NASA: The One That Got Away

2008-11-28T04:30:00.004-05:00

This video is remarkable from the perspective of watching someone literal lose something into the (essentially) infinite vacuum of space. It's a bit like dropping your watch off a boat deck and watching it swiftly disappear beneath the murky water, and you can only watch helplessly, without any possibility of ever recovering it. However, this case is worse both from the perspective of the impossibility of recovery and the transparency view of the bag's descent -- it will be in plain view until it is too distant or burns up in the atmosphere.

Additionally, I find it particularly remarkable in that such highly trained people as astronauts could make such a typically "stupid human" error while performing in space. Of course, every human on earth can empathize (have you ever left something on the hood of your car?), but its embarrassing for NASA and I imagine that other countries' space programs probably would have censored this footage.

As a final thought: why wasn't there a fail-safe in keeping the bags secured to each other and secured to the astronaut? It seems losing something like this would have been an obvious hazard that engineers would have anticipated.

Steve Coll: The Bin Ladens

2008-11-20T11:20:00.006-05:00

Here is a fascinating interview with President and CEO of the New America Foundation and former Washington Post managing editor, Steve Coll on his new book, The Bin Ladens.

Aside from Osama bin Laden's personal history as a sort of peripheral figure within the bin Laden family and only one of Mohammed bin Laden's 54 children, the Coll's discussion of the book traces the social, psychological and financial development of the family and its role in the Middle East.

The charisma that seems to run in the family spans the entire spectrum from the liberal society man and apparently rock'n'rolling "cool guy," Salem bin Laden (who, like his father and family patriarch, Mohammed died in a plane crash), to the utlra-radical and world's most wanted man Osama. Evidently, among numerous viewpoints within the large family, the two men saw very different futures for the family and how to use its massive wealth, and when Salem died in 1988, Osama descended further down the path of radical Jihadism.

Interestingly, according to Coll, Mohammed bin Laden married Osama's mother (a Syrian) when she was just about 15 years old, and she was one among Mohammed bin Laden's approximate 22 marriages.

The BIGGEST Picture

2008-11-20T10:30:00.011-05:00

Forgive me for using the term, but this is "mind-blowing" in the purest sense. From TED Talks: "At Serious Play 2008, astrophysicist George Smoot shows stunning new images from deep-space surveys, and prods us to ponder how the cosmos -- with its giant webs of dark matter and mysterious gaping voids -- got built this way."

This talk presents astonishing concepts and imagery. For example, according to Dr. Smoot, there are an estimated 100 billion galaxies in the universe. Now, wrapping your brain around the concept of a number as large as a 100 billion is by no means an intuitive process, much less such a figure representing objects as vast as galaxies. By way of comparison, Dr. Smoot estimates that our galaxy alone has about 100 billion stars.

So how does this relate to you? Well, in conjunction with geologic time it represents part of the body of facts that reinforces the idea that you are basically nothing, but then, 100 billion galaxies is also presumably nothing relative to something proportionally larger, so don't feel bad!

Anyway, watch! It's fascinating.

The Big Big Picture: Jeffrey Sachs on climate change as an economic constraint

2008-10-31T23:07:00.002-05:00

Inside Games: What The Beijing Olympics Is Really About

2008-07-21T04:27:00.011-05:00

Lately, the Olympics has started to remind us of the kind of conversation wherein someone is prepared to reveal a secret, but the key details are not forthcoming. Rather, the speaker dances around the facts, dropping a hint here and there at a carefully measured pace, meanwhile we sit silently, captivated and spellbound awaiting the payoff when the whole truth is finally revealed to us. So we will wait another 19 days for the start of Games of the XXIX Olympiad.

Long before the Olympic flame was ignited at the Hera Temple of Ancient Olympia amid a pompous gathering of international dignitaries, it was clear that Beijing's Olympics is about far more than mere athletics, contrary to its public statements. In reality, the modern Olympics is both symbolically and materially a political event; simply stated, it is a competition among nations. Although this is ideally intended to be limited to the sports arena, in reality there are no such firewalls in politics and as past boycotts have shown, the games can and will be exploited as a bargaining chip in international poltics. Moreover, insofar as each team represents its nation, the performance of the national teams is, in a very public way, a projection of national power. As Mao Zhi Xiong, professor of sports psychology at Beijing Sports University recently stated, "If you win a lot of medals, then it shows you have advanced as a country. It means the economy is growing, that living standards are improving and that there is better technology."

Naturally, Beijing's propagandists were well aware of this from the start, and from the moment a 14-meter Olympic countdown clock was planted in Tian'anmen Square in 2004, the public awareness campaign and promotion of the Olympic games has been relentless in every sphere of Chinese public life. There has been constant television and print coverage of the lead-in to the games, in all of China there is barely a spare placard that does not bear some reference to the Olympics, and sponsorships have been sold for everything from wrist-watches to soft-drinks to big oil to credit card services, with the omnipresent five Fuwa serving as a constant reminder of this Olympic games with "Chinese characteristics." Domestically, the Olympics has been a tool of manipulation, pride, and profit, and with an extraordinarily long build-up to the games the public has been strung along with a sense of anticipation as if they are preparing to witness the rapture.

In terms of infrastructure, the 2008 Beijing games will be unique in the scale of its production and the transformation it has imposed upon its host city. The Chinese have spared no expense in building the world's grandest sporting arenas, irreversibly altering the face of the capital city, leveling ancient neighborhoods to add the shiny "modern" luster of blocky high-rises over old Beijing, and displacing an estimated 1.5 million people in the process. While it is commonly quoted that the 17-days of the games will cost approximately $40 billion -- this in a country where the cost of manual labor is written-off as "immaterial" -- with the additional suspension of factory operations, the diversion of water via a 309km pipeline from neighboring Hebei province (itself water-poor), the stockpiling of fuel to ensure against power-shortages, the security costs, not to mention any intangibles (loss of work, destruction of historical heritage, trauma inflicted on displaced individuals), we are leery of the offical estimate and suspect the final tab will be far higher. And obviously, where there is a great deal of money being spent, there is a great deal of money being made. The question is, "by whom?" Certainly not these 1.5 million displaced persons.

Similarly, the security precautions have been extraordinary. Recently, the Canwest News Service quoted Interpol chief Robert Nobel's warning, "We must be prepared for the possibility that al-Qaida or some other terrorist group will attempt to launch a deadly terrorist attack at these Olympics." Ergo, the Chinese have responded hammer and tongs to all threats -- both real and perceived, and the laundry list of precautions seems endless. Paraphrasing from Canwest:

There are two-kilometer long traffic lines due to security inspection of cars entering Beijing
Hundreds of checkpoints on every road leading into the capital from Hebei
Soon to be implemented security checkpoints on major downtown streets
100,000 PLA soldiers who protect the capital and Olympic venues (by way of comparison, the US has about 130,000 troops in Iraq)
100,000 ordinary and paramilitary police
60,000 civilian volunteers -- mostly aging members of the Communist-era Neighborhood Committees - who will be their eyes and ears around the city for the Games
Surface-to-air missile outside the Bird's Nest and Water Cube
Security checks simply to enter the new Beijing Capital Airport in addition to checks inside the airport
Bomb-sniffing dogs and baggage inspectors on the subways
A computer system linked to Interpol's database of more than 14 million stolen and missing passports
265,000 closed-circuit security cameras mounted in the various host cities
Tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies have an RFID chip that stores a picture, the holder's name, address, passport number, telephone and e-mail
Bus and train travelers must present identification
Mailing packages to Beijing or any of the other five Olympic venues requires both identification and inspection
The cost of securing the games is estimated at $50 million

There have also been first-hand accounts of random automobile inspections within the city, systmatic PSB visits to foreigners in their hotel rooms, and security personnel patrolling the streets of Beijing with black, mushroom-shaped devices that are evidently used to detect invisible danger signs, such as EMFs or chemical traces. Moreover, such is the state of secrecy that it was recently reported by CNN that the 17,000 employees who will participate in the opening ceremonies have taken an oath of silence, breaking which can result in imprisonment.

Such an iteration of precautions is a bit dizzying, but first and foremost, these measures serve to protect the 10,700 athletes, more than 80 heads of state or government, and hundreds of thousands of spectators at the 37 Olympic venues held in 7 different host cities (Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Qingdao, Shenyang, Tianjin, and Qinhuangdao). However, the bottom line for China, its irreducible self-interest is very simply a successful Olympic Games.

Okay, so this is obviously an extremely serious event to Beijing, but what is meant by a "successful games?" We can gain some insight into this by way of the inexorable promotion of the games, and the fact that Olympics has evidently taken-on new dimensions within the minds of the average Chinese citizen. In it's simplest incarnation, it is the positive representation of China that matters most to the Han Majority, who are in our humble opinion among the world's most zealous in practice of cultural pride. Therefore, the pictures that will be broadcast in China will offer the imagery of material wealth, modernity, sophistication, and most importantly the success, unity ("One World, One Dream, One China"), and power of China and the Chinese people. It is the moment when China will attempt to stand tall in the world and "retake" its position among world powers, and thereby shed the "century of humiliation" that has been scorched into the minds of Chinese via experience or public education. And on the symbolic level, perhaps the holy grail for many Chinese is the opportunity to "defeat America" on the field, which is likely and more than mere medals, is viewed as a harbinger of things to come.

Meanwhile, internationally, the unveiling of the games has thus far been ugly with large-scale demonstrations and arrests in various locations around the world, which according to the Pew Global Attitudes Project diminished China's standing in world public opinion. However, the international viewing audience for the 2008 Summer games is still estimated to be approximately 4 billion, the largest in history and these viewers are also very much part of Beijing's calculus in the imagery produced for its Olympic narrative.

To viewers who have not spent significant time in China, in spite of constant media attention, the country is shrouded in mystery and misconceptions (we would also argue that the same applies to many that live within its borders). Effectively, this makes the international viewership a very impressionable audience, upon which the same eye-popping showmanship and images of competence, cultural richness, human performance, and power will create a defining image of China in the minds of many viewers. It is, frankly, a moment for China to show-off in a manner choreographed with all of the exaggerated precision and punch of a kung fu flick. Thereby, it serves as a projection of Chinese "soft-power," enhancing the stature of the China's government, corporations, culture, and people in the eyes of the world. To be sure, this not a trivial feat; however, Beijing also understands that the extraordinary exposure that China will gain through the Olympics is a double-edged sword.

Of course, it was long known that the games would be used by activists to squeeze a highly insular government. And subsequently, the melee surrounding the longest-ever torch relay did yield negative publicity for China; likewise, an Olympic disaster such as a catastrophic terrorist attack, riots or mass arrests, disruption of the ceremonies, suicide protests or attempts at self-immolation could have an effect directly opposite Beijing's intended projection. A violent, chaos-ridden Olympics fraught with protests and heavy-handed responses from China's enormous army of security personnel could impress upon the world the image of an exploitative, authoritarian state, controlled under the coercion of brute force and arms to serve the interests of its elite. Such events would make Beijing's attempts at a glittering Olympics seem a hollow gesture and merely an exercise intended to manipulate the world public. Needless to say, people don't like to feel deceived or manipulated, and the damage posed by such a scenario is also nontrivial. Not only would it be bad for China's image, but it would also create the impression that China is a less stable place than its "game-face" indicates, which would create the perception of political risk. In short, it would be bad for business.

Obviously, for the greater good, a successful Olympics is in the immediate interest of the majority of the world and for those situated in the "Sinosphere," particularly the Chinese, and most specifically, the Chinese elite. Given the extraordinary security precautions and "preemptive measures," we would be surprised to see anything greater than a few hundred arrests, and for a mere 17-day event, it would seem that the more frightening scenarios are on the low-end of the probability spectrum.

Thus, in our view, the great drama of this Olympics is between those trying to present a brilliant, gilded image of China and those trying expose the ugly face of oppression, exploitation, and all matters some prefer be swept under the rug. In fact, the reality lies somewhere in between, and we believe it would probably best for China and the greater good if the world can glimpse that reality, so as to better understand the nation, its people, and its inevitable impact.

Movements In The North Korea-China Relationship

2008-07-06T10:53:00.014-05:00

Will North Korea dump China?

"China still has a problem – what will Pyongyang do after the nuclear issue is resolved? Will it shake hands with Washington and dump China?

The apprehensions were noticed in the Chinese official media recently. This was followed by Vice-President Xi Jinping's two-day visit to Pyongyang (June 18-20) when he discussed the issue including with Kim Jong-Il. This was Xi's first visit overseas after taking over as Vice President, and demonstrated the importance China paid to its relationship with North Korea. It was taken in the right spirit by all concerned.

It is well known that North Korea had been, for long, trying to work out a direct diplomatic relationship with the US, excluding Japan, South Korea, and China. This was strongly opposed by the concerned nations, and Washington agreed. But lately there appears to be some indications that the US may be accelerating the process towards resolution of the issue and improve direct relations with Pyongyang. The recent US official and congressional visits to the country is an indicator."

CFR: The China-North Korea Relationship

Beijing may find ways to cause North Korea discomfort, but Hayes describes China as "patient" and foresees Beijing undertaking long-term training of North Koreans in China to help stabilize the country. "The Chinese are thinking one hundred years ahead," he says. "China will conduct inside-out transformation of North Korea over the next twenty years." Andrei Lankov, associate professor at Kookmin University in Seoul, writes in Foreign Affairs that China is tiring of pouring aid into the inefficient North Korean economy. "The Chinese government is promoting its own style of reform in Pyongyang: economic liberalization with limited, incremental political change," he writes. But he acknowledges that China, so far, has failed and "North Korea's leaders are in no hurry to introduce any reforms."

Kim Il Sung’s Remarks Released

“Kim Il Sung said he was against the armed uprising but given the influence of Mao Zedong at that time, he was not able to ignore China’s pressure,” said Professor Kim. “Scholars have failed to pinpoint why North Korea’s provocation in South Korea, which was rare until 1965, increased dramatically from 33 in 1966, 195 in 1967, and 574 in 1968, but the remarks have helped us guess the reason.”

An Exercise In Soft Power: What The Beijing Olympics Really Mean To China

2008-07-04T13:01:00.037-05:00

Within China, images of the coming 2008 Olympic Summer Games in Beijing have been absolutely pervasive for several years. Since 2004, when a 14-meter countdown-clock was planted in Tian'anmen Square to date, the presence, image and promotion of the Beijing Games has grown through every part of Chinese public life. In Shanghai, replicas of the Olympic torch serve as lamp-posts lining major boulevards, the five bobble headed "friendlies" greet you on virtually every spare public placard, a plethora of commemorative items are sold in gift shops, sponsorships have been sold for every conceivable product, and events are staged to lardmark even seemingly insignificant occasions.

To the average Chinese citizen, the Olympics has been billed as far more than sport, but is recognized as China's so-called "national coming-out party" and viewed as an immensely important event, signifying China's rise, prestige in the world, and perhaps a means of shedding the national sense of "humiliation" that is common in Chinese public discourse and education. In economic terms, the cost of the 17-day event has been frequently estimated around US$40 billion, which probably does not account for the disruptions in economic activity (temporarily shutting-down factories, power plants, limiting traffic to improve air quality, air-quality monitoring, etc.) or the elaborate and occassionally comical security efforts to ensure the games are secure from "anti-China" elements. No chances are being taken and no expense is being spared to ensure the success of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad.

This why I was recently baffled by the second paragraph of April Rabkin's otherwise righteous New York Times editorial piece China's Inside Game wherein she claims,

"What the (International Olympic Committee) and the rest of the world don’t realize is how little China cares what they think. Here in Beijing, the Olympic Games are primarily for domestic consumption, justifying the government’s new global power to its own people."

and then concludes the article in somewhat contradictory terms by reiterating Beijing's claim to the largest-ever viewing audience in language that suggests that international opinion is part of the the so-called "mandate of heaven."

"This August a few world leaders may boycott the opening ceremony. But the Games will go forward and be televised to what China will most likely declare is the largest worldwide audience ever. The Chinese government will have pulled off a modern Olympics — as close to a mandate from heaven as could be imagined by any dynasty of any era."

As an aside — in regard to the size of the audience, I suspect that Beijing's estimate is quite correct as more people have (Chinese-made) televisions, satellite and internet connections than ever before, and with about 20% of the world's eyeballs — heavily primed ones at that — on their turf, one wonders how many Chinese TV channels will be dedicated to the Olympics. Given that all channels were allocated to coverage of the recent earthquake in Sichuan Province, presumably a good number of the 40 or so standard television channels will carry the games.

While the Chinese audience has been preparing for the games for years, the rest of the world will also be watching with great interest, and the Chinese government and its sophisticated propagandists are keenly aware of this. In fact, Beijing estimates that the games will have about 4 billion viewers worldwide, the broadcast rights to which were sold for around US$1.7 billion. Additionally, foreign attendance in the various cities with Olympic venues is large enough that the Chinese government broadcasting public service messages on proper proper etiquette (which is a serious problem in China) and verse taxi drivers and other public service personel in basic spoken English.

The truth is that China does care a great deal about what impressions foreigners gain from the Olympics, and it is eager to ensure that they receive the proper messages. This point of view was positively asserted in an interview with Susan Shirk (author of the recently acclaimed book China: Fragile Superpower: How China's Internal Politics Could Derail Its Peaceful Rise) at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:

"You know, China wants to believe that it can rise peacefully, China's leaders want to believe they can rise peacefully, without provoking a conflict with the United States. But if, every time they do something they feel that they are the target of criticism, it breeds all sorts of suspicions that the United States, and Americans, will never accept China as a legitimate player in the world. Let us remember, the United States Congress had votes to deny the Olympics to China when it was competing for the 1994 Olympics because of its human rights record, and it did not get those Olympics. So getting the nod to host the 2008 Olympics was huge for China as a kind of respect and legitimacy. You know, China is more concerned about its international reputation than any country I can think of in the world, because of this kind of insecurity." (emphasis added)

So in August, with roughly 4 billion viewers tuning their sets to the games, the images and stories that are broadcast are very much part of Beijing's calculus in creating a successful games. For as it stands, outsiders still know very little of China, and without first-hand experience, one's preconceived notions are inevitably way-off, as anyone who has spent time there will tell you.

Thus, in China, under of government so deeply concerned with image, information, and ultimately mind-control, the large foreign audience presents a highly impressionable target, which it will attempt to bedazzle with it's futuristic venues, material wealth, technical prowess, organizational competence, and human performance. These narratives will be artfully presented through the media to project the power of Chinese state, the richness of Chinese culture, and the greatness of its people, ideas which Beijing hopes will take root in the minds of the viewership. In effect, it is to be the most broad-based propaganda effort in world history, and more directly, an attempt to plant the "official version of China" into as many minds as possible. It is, in a nutshell, a great psychological power play, an exercise in "soft power."

Of course, this is not to deny the realities of the progress that has taken place in China since its opening to the world about 30 years ago. However, it does expose the extraordinary disingenuousness of China's insistence that the game not be politicized. Although it is technically a sporting competition, the Olympics is also a contest among nations, which is inherently political. What events other than direct armed conflict could inspire greater mass nationalism than head-to-head competition between national teams? Of course, China is very much aware of this, and is making every effort to take advantage of the opportunity, which it hopes will translate into greater power and prestige for it's government, corporations, and citizens, while it tries to keep a lid on any elements that undermine this ambition. The public presentation of these 17-days are in fact the great drama of the 2008 Summer Olympics: the competing agendas of the official version, versus attempts by various disaffected, dispossessed and oppressed groups to disrupt the games and claim attention, and the reality of China, which lies somewhere in between.

Through the course of the Olympic torch-relay, the public display has been something of a PR disaster for China, as protest groups were effective in gaining attention or at least tarnishing China's image, as the recent Pew Global Attitudes Project reveals:

"Overall the current survey, which was conducted at a time when China was coming under harsh criticism for its crackdown on political dissent in Tibet, once again finds favorable ratings of China slipping in many countries. Positive views fell significantly in nine of 21 countries in which polls were taken in 2007, as well as in the current survey. Opinions of China tumbled the most in France (47% to 28%) and in Japan (29% to 14%). Favorable ratings of China are highest in Nigeria, Pakistan, Tanzania and Russia"

Inevitably, the unfolding those 17-days in August will be historic. Some businesses will reap a windfall from the games, as many have already in the build-up to the events. During the games, China will have the world's attention and an unprecedented opportunity to shine, and in all likelihood, after years of intensive development, China's teams will win the overall medal count. However, the way in which the Beijing Olympics is presented to world and the public perceptions and attitudes that it creates will determine the longer-term ramifications for China, and therein lie the real stakes.

Fire Dancing On Ko Chang, Thailand

2008-05-28T06:01:00.004-05:00

Uzbekistan: Shades of oppression

2007-11-25T08:19:00.001-05:00

Of the places that I've visited, Georgia is positively the most open, democratic, and capitalist, followed only by Kyrgyzstan in distant second. Georgia is the most tourist and business-friendly place I've been, where (at least in Tbilisi), the police are not intimidating, and there is some measure of free expression. Sure the protests of early November were violently and probably inappropriately broken-up, but they simply could not have occurred in any other place in this region -- certainly not some of the more extreme expressions of public dissatisfaction, such as decrying the president by shouting "Misha!" and saluting sig heil. Elsewhere, I have been told that even lesser criticisms would result in beating, fines, job-loss, and/or prison. And when it comes to oppression, topping the list, there's no place like Uzbekistan! While I must admit that Turkmenistan was a very close second, since the passing of Turkmenbashi, by all appearances it seems things are improving there.

Uzbekistan's situation as only one of two doubly-landlocked countries in the world (the other is Liechtenstein), bespeaks it's isolation and the oppressive system that binds the country. And while Uzbekistan's police have been reformed in recent years and they no longer seem to shake-down tourists, they were swarming on every corner of the cities that I visited, checking documents on the street, stopping vehicles at checkpoints that appear every 10 km or so on major highways, and one can only imagine how invasive the police presence must be in the daily lives of the nearly 28 million Uzbekistani nationals. For instance, according to people I've spoken to, it is extremely difficult to start a business there, as the state bureaucracy tends to arbitrarily tax and regulate small businesses to death. The oppressive police force is, in effect, a parasitic organ of the state that feeds off of living cultural and economic activity only to perpetuate its own existence and that of the ruling party. "Stalin would have probably been jealous if he’d found out that there are people in this world even better than him at frightening people," testified Uzbek asylum-seeker Mukhammadsolykh Abutov from Russia.

According to Transparency International 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index, "which ranks countries in terms of the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians," Uzbekistan ranks at the very bottom, rated at 175 of 179 countries and is exceeded only by Haiti, Iraq, Myanmar (Burma), and Somalia. When a group college students in Tashkent -- some recently graduated and unemployed -- were asked how to get rich in Uzbekistan, they immediately replied "drugs, gambling and prostitution." And according to two reports written by the former British Ambassador Craig Murray on Uzbekistani billionaire Alisher Usmanov, those students are exactly right. According to one of the reports,

When Usmanov negotiated a major oil and gas deal with Uzbekistan on behalf of Gazprom, the Russian state-owned company, $88m was paid in cash to Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of the Uzbeki president. Murray has since repeated that allegation in his book, Murder in Samarkand, an account of his time as the ambassador to Uzbekistan.

So if we can learn anything at all from this, we can be certain that it is good to live at the largess of an autocracy. However, for an ordinary Uzbekistani, it would seem that life's aspirations are much more modest with very few avenues of opportunity. Naturally, any discussion relating to politics is extremely dangerous for the average Uzbekistani, and although it is not impossible to find people who "will talk," the average person seems frightened and oppressed. While ethnic Uzbeks (comprising about 80% of the population) are markedly warm, kind, family-oriented people, ordinary life in Uzbekistan seems a dull shade of gray, with little evidence of any living culture, intellectualism, arts, or creativity. Rather, the Uzbekistani people seem frightened and in some sense, dumbed-down, as if they are the end product of a society which has long hammered-down "the nail that sticks out." And it is not uncommon to find Uzbeks -- particularly young men -- staring off into infinity with a stupefied, wall-eyed, bovine stare that seems to signify something like spiritual defeat.

One assumes that this descends from the governing system, which instead of facilitating growth and progress, appears designed to make life impossible. Everything -- from the poor banking system, the absurdly denominated currency (time spent "counting money" is a significant activity in virtually every transaction), poorly maintained highways, the routine police checks everywhere, the internet crawls where it exists, censorship is pervasive, the food shops are pitifully understocked in some places, economic opportunity is extremely limited, and the dense, inevitable bureaucracy overhangs virtually every part of public life -- whether by necessity or design, all of this serves to make daily life more difficult and the disempowers the people.

Likewise, religious activities are severely curbed, and religious oppression in this Sunni Muslim nation again serves to prevent and viable opposition or organization. Religious organizations, parties, and radicalism is perhaps the force the Uzbekistani government fears most, and all mosques and madrasahs are sanctioned and monitored by the state. This religious oppression culminated in April of 2005 at the infamous Anijon Massacre, when as many as 5,000 ordinary citizens were slaughtered by Uzbekistani security forces in the town of Andijon in the Fergana Valley. In an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, an obviously terrified Mukhammadsolykh Abutov writes,

[The] people shot at on the square in Andijon were not terrorists or extremists. And we don’t even have such an organization! All of those accused of being involved in extremist organizations are there because of trumped up charges from the security service. It’s a pretext for repression, for crushing dissent among the people! Those who are in prison – thousands and thousands of people were not terrorists, and couldn’t have been! Our people are simply unhappy with the leaders of the republic. The disgruntlement is of a social nature, nothing else. The people are poor and hungry!

Academic Justifies Slaughter of Unarmed Demonstrators

Is this any surprise from a government that has reportedly boiled people alive in oil and has (appropriately, perhaps) adopted Amir Timur (Tamerlane) as their national symbol? While history has no shortage of butchers, Timur distinguished himself in the realm of genocide, killing an estimated 17 million in the course of his military campaigns, and after the conquest of Baghdad in 1401, 22 pyramids were constructed outside of the city from the severed heads of 90,000 people.

Here are some videos that further explicates the darker side of Uzbekistan through the fascinating story of former British Ambassador Craig Murray.

Warning: These videos contain extremely graphic content.

Life and Death under Karimov (Part I)

Life and Death under Karimov (Part II)

Life and Death under Karimov (Part III)

A voyeur in Tbilisi

2007-11-22T05:41:00.002-05:00

Walking in front of Parliament in Tbilisi, there were scores of policemen and an escorted motorcade carrying the leaders of Azerbaijan and Turkey who were in town for a regional summit. However, what was really catching was this young woman's Fall fashion statement: black woolen leggings, miniskirt and cherry-red belt. A Venus-Pan hybrid, might you say?

The leggings are suggestive of a certain untamed bestiality with proximate pagan undertones, while the miniskirt attracts attention for obvious reasons, and exposes a lot of bare flesh that cuts a sharp contrast to the dense hair of the leggings below. This contrast is made all the more shocking by the fact that normally, human body hair tends to lessen at the extremities of the hands and feet, and we are thus drawn to the counter-intuitive inverted order of this outfit. At the same time, the woman's hair color neatly matches the leggings, thus creating a sort of lateral symmetry between her head and feet.

The bright red belt is useful in drawing attention to the waistline, providing a visual highlight which serves to accentuate the relatively exaggerated biomechanics of the female pelvic girdle. Generally speaking and ignoring considerations of flexibility and muscle tension, broader hips tend to create a larger range of motion with each step, as the distance between the axis (the hip above the planted foot) and the moving outer hip (the hip above the stepping foot) is greater, and thus, broader hips cause the outer hip to pivot across a larger arc with each step.

Moreover, broader hips cause the outer hip to drop a greater distance downward when the supporting foot is lifted for stepping and all of the body's weight is transferred to the planted foot. In this motion, the outer hip dips downward as the body weight is transferred from the stepping foot to the planted foot, and the depth of this drop will be greater for broader hips due to the higher leverage exerted on the pivot point. Conversely, the upward motion of the outer hip will be greater in completing the stepping cycle, rising again as the stepping foot is replanted and the stepping leg straightened to support the body as the opposite foot is then lifted for the next step. Furthermore, a greater hip-to-waist ratio tends to amplify the apparent pivot-and-drop motion of walking, as a smaller waist and broader hips allow the hips to protrude a greater distance from the midsection, making this motion more observable. Of course, all of this is completely obvious to anyone who looks the red belt shown above.

The leggings are called "untebi," and I am told that they are not uncommon in this region. While, I clearly found this interesting enough to clandestinely snap this photo like some dirty old pervert and then write-it-up, I would posit that any woman who is dressed like this is in all likelihood not shy and probably would appreciate the attention of a stranger taking her photo. But why bother asking?

Travel Bums

2007-11-20T13:39:00.000-05:00

Is "bum" a derogatory term? Perhaps it would be more dignified to refer to them as "global nomads," "earth wanderers", or "lazy fucking hippies," but I think that "bum" most apt in describing a fairly small but growing number of people around the world who have left their homes, jobs, and schools for extended travel and exploration. To be fair, there are many different classifications of travel bums, and for some the term is well deserved. While others simply harbor and insatiable curiosity for adventure and learning about peoples, languages, cultures, histories, geography, cities, customs, etc. and who generally thrive on the challenge of it all. Many others (as one astute bum once pointed out to me) seem to be of the eternal misfit variety -- people with problems of a personal nature -- social, emotional, family -- which compels them to wonder constantly in places where there are always distractions from the self and relationships are rarely permanent. You will know them by their terrible personalities and poor hygiene. And still, others fall into this category by profession. They the the NGO employees, Peace Core volunteers, tour guides, and scholars who work and study in the nether reaches of the globe, attempting to shed light in some of the world's darker regions, although their motivations may not be entirely different from what drives amateurs.

I will be profiling some of these in the coming weeks, and I will reserve my more acerbic observations for people I plan to never meet again...ever. So if you're reading this, and you find yourself profiled but not insulted, I am probably whitewashing it, you dingy tosser!

A puff piece on Tashkent

2007-11-20T08:00:00.000-05:00

I arrived at the Tashkent airport after a two-hour flight with Uzbekistan Airways from Bishkek prepared for the infamous checks by Uzbekistani* customs agents. The checks were rumored to be invasive, extortionate, and immigration plus customs could mean up to three hours waiting under the drab fluorescent lights of the receiving area. While there was a good measure of chaos and idiocy at the airport, I passed through the entire process with no baggage check and in under an hour.

When you arrive at the airport, you are herded into a line which leads to three processing stalls, which in theory accommodate six immigration agents. However, on my arrival only two agents were working. There was also a sign overhanging one line that suggested express processing, with the phrase "Business Class" printed in English only. Of course, any pretenses of civility were completely ignored and the line became a manifold of piglets, pushing and shoving their way through. I met one Russian pharmacologist rolled her eyes as a man butted to the front of the line and passed immediately without presenting documents after catching the guards attention. "That's his friend," she explained.

The rest was relatively easy, compared to both the accounts given in various travel guides and in comparison to stories I heard from fellow travelers. However, generally speaking, Travel Guides such as the Lonely Planet are a good starting point, but their information is usually at least one or two years old by the time of publishing.

At the terminal exit, I was met my two local men approached me offering a taxi ride. Defensively, I tried to lose them as I've had my visits hijacked by pushy drivers in the past, but they simply would not go away. They demanded $20 for a ride to my hotel. "This is normal price," the fat boss insisted. I counter-offered $5, which they refused. I then told them that I would call my hotel, and started off towards the telephones, with the men still following me. Then I heard the smaller man call, "Mister, mister, please! Okay, five dollars!" I felt sorry for him.

He then drove me to the hotel, his wiry, clench fist pumping the stick-shift of his aging, white Lada. He offered me a cigarette and asked where I was from and how long I would stay in Tashkent. And on arrival at my hotel, he insisted on giving me his mobile number in hopes that I would bring him more business during my stay in Tashkent and flashed a broken-tooth smile as he watched me go.

Gulnara's Bed and Breakfast was one of the few guest houses, hostels, or hotels that has been memorable on this trip. A large, traditional Uzbek house, with high gate that opens to a quiet courtyard lined with persimmon trees, branched hanging heavy with fruit. Run by Gulnara, a 60-ish Uzbek woman, who seems learn the names of each guest and speaks warmly in broken English, which usually trails into Russian after a few words. A grandmotherly woman, when asked about the persimmons, Gulnara invited me to take all I liked, and then she walked me over to the best of them, a particularly ripe, sweet fruit. In addition to being popular with the guests, by all appearances, she does a cracking business, which includes nightly "traditional Uzbek" feasts, which literally draws French pensioners (who account for 97% of Uzbekistan's GNP) by the bus-load -- with tables in the courtyard or dining room large enough to accommodate about 30 guests.

I remained in Tashkent for only three nights, as I was anxious to leave for Nukus, Moynaq, and the remains of the Aral Sea, and I spent the majority of my time their chasing my visas for Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.

* Note: "Uzbekistani" refers to the nationality of Uzbekistan, while "Uzbek" refers to the Uzbek ethnicity.

Georgia: Back to Christiandom and hot action...almost

2007-11-18T14:27:00.001-05:00

My arrival from Baku was preceded by political protests that culminated in the use of truncheons, tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons by Georgian police, shutdown opposition media, and declared a state of emergen cy to stamp-out the protests. While the protests were ostensibly a demand for economic reforms, early elections and the ouster of US ally President Mikhail Saakashvili, the Georgian government claims that they were instigated by Russia, and the Georgian Foreign Ministry expelled several members of the Russian Embassy's staff, declaring them persona non grata on grounds of stirring social unrest and forced the early withdrawal of Russian troops from Batumi.

In response, the Russian Foreign Ministry expelled three Georgian diplomats, citing Georgia's "unfriendly actions." Following the incident, Saakashvili replaced the Prime Minister and advanced Georgia's national elections to January 5, but the violent crackdown, which apparently left hundreds injured, damaged Saakashvili's domestic support and international standing, and hurt the former Soviet Republic's bid to join NATO.

It was a pity that I arrived in Tbilisi via Baku just one day after the state of emergency had been lifted, and now, there is no noticeable evidence that anything out of the ordinary happened here. I was in Turkmenistan when the protests began, and facing the isolation of a travel-imposed news blackout, it was announced to me by our tour guide, a huge Russian and a nine-year veteran of the Soviet Army. He attempted to present the news off-handedly but his excitement was evident, "You know, I was watching the news today, and they are having a revolution in Georgia. They're protesting because of the bad economy. The president there, Saakashvili, he's crazy." When our guide was pressed for 'why crazy,' he remarked, "He is severing Georgia's relationship with Russia, which has been more than 100 years." Of course, in Turkmenistan, all of the western media was blocked and while the block wasn't entirely comprehensive, being in a country that collects passports at internet cafés and is rumored to log the passwords of users, I didn't probe the story too deeply. After the November 7 crackdown, our guide again commented, "Saakashvili has proven that he is nothing but another bloody Kavkaz autocrat!"

Here in Tbilisi, I have casually spoken about it with some locals who are unhappy with what happened, and suggest that the US is responsible for exerting too much influence in Georgia's affairs and thus partly responsible for Saakashvili's heavy hand. Of course, there is an element of petropolitics at play here, as Georgia is a key link in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which among other things is designed to free Europe from the choke-hold of dependence on Russian energy resources. Given Russia's history of abusing its status as an energy supplier (see here, here, and here) as a blunt tool of geopolitics, it is obviously desirable for Europe to have other options and resist Russia's bullying tactics. As Robert Amsterdam writes, "the increased state control over natural resources is inspiring men like Putin and Chavez to reject and denounce the open nature of the global economic structure and seek to build a 'new architecture' that cherishes rent seeking and opacity, and at least tolerates corruption and autocracy."

Signed by the government of Azerbaijan with a consortium of 10 western oil companies (AIOC) in 1994 and christened as the "Deal of the Century", the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline was initially intended to deliver oil (and eventually gas) to Europe from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil field via Baku and Tbilisi, terminating in the Mediterranean Turkish port of Ceyhan, thus obviating Russia. Of course, Russia does not like the BTC pipeline or Georgia's alignment with the West, which promises possible accession to NATO and the EU. Russia has responded to Georgia's westward shift by attempting to derail the BTC project and instigating unrest in Georgia that included peeling away the provinces South Ossetia and Abkhazia. There is also an argument that the pipeline provided partial impetus for the second Chechen war, allowing Russia to maintain active troops at the border of its southern neighbor, while Chechen rebels were known to hideout in the Pankisi Gorge, across Georgia's northern border.

In any event, that's the backgrounder on the hot action I just missed, and now, I am trying to figure out something to do that does not include touring religious buildings.

Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline image is courtesy of WikiMedia Commons.

Trabant Trek hobbles through Bishkek

2007-10-31T12:00:00.000-05:00

Back in Bishkek, I settled into the Nomad's Home Guesthouse which is reasonably well-managed and comfortable, if not overcrowded. Since my last visit, the guest house had received some wily invaders from Tajikistan -- that infamous group of ne'er-do-wells, the Trabant Trek clan. Actually, that's the professional face of the project, and the soft underbelly and dirty laundry is located here on Dan Murdoch's blog.

The Trabant Trek (TT) group is attempting to travel 15,000 miles from Germany to Cambodia in three Soviet-era plastic cars, Trabants or "Trabbies" as they are affectionately known. Their purpose: to raise $300,000 for charity and have fun traveling. At last notice, they were approximately 50% of the way through their travels and had achieved about 3% of the their fundraising goal. But like the plucky little cars that they drive, the TT folks are not going to give up until they are impounded or melted-down to make lawn furniture. Actually, they were arrested in Turkmenistan and held for two days in an abandoned parking lot for overstaying their visas, while a tribunal convened to decide their fate. Long story short, they were let off with a small fine.

In any event, when I met-up with the TT group, it seemed they were on their last legs. The group that I met was really only a fraction of the team, and in fact, two of the TT'ers had departed for home and the cars and other members of their party (including the mechanic and founder) were still broken-down in Tajikistan and out of communication for several days. However, it seems that since I left Bishkek, the group has been reunited and will ultimately somehow find their way to Cambodia.

Cold storage in Arslanbob

2007-10-30T12:00:00.000-05:00

It's amazing how much more inviting places ending in "bob" sound than those ending in "bad." For example, it almost seems by design that Pakistan named its capital in such a way that makes it sound foreboding and breaks down into "Islam-a-bad." What if it were transliterated as "Islamabob?" Doesn't that sound more amicable? Or better still, "Islamaawesome" or "Islamalanewlexus" or "Islamapillowmint" or "Islamabuyonegetonefree"... All friendlier-sounding transliterations and less like teenage posturing.

That said, from Osh, I traveled north to the village of Arslanbob, which is a bit like Kyrgyzstan's answer to Sesame Street. It's a simple, quaint ethnic Uzbek village located in the valley beneath towering mountain peaks from which flow numerous streams, waterfalls and bubbling springs. According to the local Community Based Tourism (CBT) Director, Ibrahim, the village was founded in 677 AD. There, I spent four nights at the home a local family (who shall remain nameless), who were invariably warm and hospitable to me, and who in the end, gave me a nasty spell of food poisoning. Their house was comfortable enough, if not subfreezing at night. The cold I resisted with a selections from their store of extremely heavy quilts (probably about 20 kg apiece; presumably cotton-stuffed).

That aside, Arlsanbob is an idyllic location. There are ample places for hiking and trekking, two pristine lakes, a sprawling walnut forest, mountains, waterfalls, and skiing during the winter. The locals are friendly, accustomed to foreigners, and unlikely give you "stink-eye" as one Peace Core worker described the suspicious askance to which locals of this region are prone. Like children in remote areas everywhere, the kids in Arslanbob love to have their pictures taken, and groups of kids leaving school often stop tourists to request pictures. Because it has been part of CBT for seven years, there is also a fair bit of English spoken around Arslanbob, and the thirteen year-old daughter of my host family spoke reasonably good English. On giving me a tour of their small farm, she pointed to a flock of geese, and for her upcoming fourteenth birthday, her father would slaughter the fattest one, she said, as she sliced the air with a stiffened hand.

Leaving Arslanbob and in a bit of a hurry to return to Bishkek, I shared a taxi with an Israeli couple who took three hours to collect their bags and negotiate a price for their taxi. "We have a lot of problems with tourists from Israel," Ibrahim apologized. But by this time, I was too distracted to care what the Israelis were doing as I slipped into a feverish nausea, which made an agony of the first 4 hours of our 10 hour trip and caused me to purge myself of yesterday's laghman while the others had dinner.

On arrival in Bishkek at 3 AM, the guesthouse attendant met us at the door, and said that there were two beds available in the house and some others in the much colder yurt. Knowing I was quite ill, "Sorry!" the Israeli woman snapped, claiming the beds for herself. But this claim was quickly rejected by the guesthouse owner as she remembered that rooms were freshly painted.

Two days in Osh

2007-10-29T12:00:00.000-05:00

From the look of it, you wouldn't know that Osh is more than 3,000 years old. Like most places in Central Asia, the most recent marks were left by the Soviets, and Lenin's statue with his arm extended pointing the way to a future that no longer exists, still overlooks the downtown. Osh is a predominantly Uzbek city in Kyrgyzstan and in recent years was the sight of ethnic violence between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks that left more than 1,000 dead.

The Fergana Valley has long been the population center, ethnic mixing ground and hotbed of Islam and intellectualism in the region. Today, existing outside the grasp of the forcibly secularized Uzbek police state, Osh is a deeply muslim city and the main mosque was only about a block away from the stinking Osh Guesthouse, where the attendant, Kabuljon awakes early every morning for prayer and keeps a screensaver on the guesthouse computer that reads, "Allahhu Akbar!" or "God is great!"

Adjacent to the mosque, there is an internet cafe, which independently censors the New York Times using its software firewall. The administrator, who spoke passable English took the initiative to discuss "politics" with me. He complained that people in the West believe that Muslims are "ignorant," but it is not necessarily Muslim ignorance but the conflict of Muslim beliefs with oppressive modern constructs that are the problem. For example, he told me that his sister had intended to attend university, but was prevented from doing so do to the rule against wearing her hijab on campus. He was a predictable fundamentalist, who expressed his belief that everything written in the Koran is true now and for all times.

He also explained his belief in morality and its immutability over time. "Can you understand?" he asked rhetorically to punctuate his every idea. I responded that I believe that religious "morality" is simply a code that was written to keep society in tact given the circumstances at the time of its writing, and that with new circumstances, such rules can be relaxed. "Then, you are an atheist!" he shot back. He also expressed his disbelief that George W. Bush remains POTUS, to which I had neither an answer nor objection.

The Road to Osh

2007-10-28T01:29:00.000-05:00

I arrived in Bishkek during a fairly severe cold snap, which meant that my plan to travel to Issyk Kul had to be shelved. According to some Israelis I met, the lake itself wasn't terribly interesting, and because it is located about 800m above Bishkek, it was too cold for trekking. Actually, I had made a hasty agreement to join a chain-smoking Swiss ethnographer to Issyk Kul and hang around the surrounding villages, visit the Polygon, and camp-out in the Soviet era bungalows that line the shore, but I went to town to get cash and when I returned before her planned 10 AM departure time, she was gone. Actually, that was not the first time I had such an informal and infirm alliance disintegrate in midcourse. Undeterred, I made another hasty agreement to join a chain-smoking Aussie to the southern city of Osh in the Fergana Valley.

I new before I joined that my new traveling companion would pose a challenge in backseat diplomacy, having dealt with him for three days at the guesthouse. A self-described "slob" and a feral snorer, he was 55 year-old former accountant, pearl diver, and speed dealer who was missing his left thumb, a good chink out one of his upper incisors and various intangibles including decency, modesty and a sense of moderation. But otherwise, he was a decent chap, having retired to Thailand several years before, his hobbies included traveling, talking incessantly, scuba diving, drinking, fist-fighting, and whoring, which he would discuss with the same air of nonchalance which most men might discuss golf -- and in mixed company. Later one smart Hungarian woman bristled, "He just doesn't understand that some men don't go to prostitutes!"

Shortly into our trip and with about ten hours ahead, I decided to lay down the law. Through the unbroken current of tales and spittle flowing in my direction, I made a simple well-planned request which was delicately phrased and somewhat lengthly. It began with "Look, you are an interesting guy" and ended with "so with the greatest of respect, I'd just like some quiet time." And that was that. He was house-broken.

Of course, having made the travel arrangements only at the last minute, my traveling companion had negotiated a price for the taxi of 1500 Som (about $40), which is far too much and at least twice what the Russian man sitting in the front seat paid. Feeling ripped-off, I took great liberties in requesting stops on the way to Osh and took a few minutes for picutures at every scenic spot. In fact, the new road from Bishkek to Osh includes three passes that tower above 3000 meters, dramatic peaks, craggy canyons, and pitilless cliffs. Our driver made a point to test the asphalt, driving the the car hard and the tires screeching impatiently at every turn.

After descending again into the low country and somewhere just on the eastern tip of Toktogul Reservoir, I asked the drive to stop at the edge of a field that tilted downward toward the reservoir, which sparkled topaz beneath the great blue dome that seems to envelope this region. From our vantage point, the water didn't appear very far from the road and I stumbled down the embankment into a sun-drenched field of drying corn stalks and sunflowers with the water just beyond the field and mountains rising from the far bank. Continuing down the incline of the open field towards the water, I passed by a group of farmhands collecting stalks, presumably for fuel, and one of them walked over to me for an exchange that neither of us understood.

Soon realizing that the bank of the reservoir was considerably further than it appeared from the road, I quickened my pace, and passed throught a patch of tall browning plants from which I collected sticky burs all over my clothing and tangled through my shoe laces. At the clearing, the water appeared at some distance before me and a small trailer standing somewhere near the midpoint between. So decrepit was the trailer, I believed it abandoned, but as I approached, it there appeared below it a covey of turkeys and then a small face appeared in the window then disappeared.

Drawing closer, a man wearing a high-topped Kyrgyz felt hat and a boy came from the trailer and approached me. I met them, we exchanged a few words, I snapped a picture and tried to mime my growing sense of urgency to return to the car waiting for me at the roadside. About 20 minutes into this excurision, I hurried towards the water, snapped some more pictures and then started the long uphill trek back to the road.

Again, as I approached the trailer, the man and boy appeared followed by a woman who carried a bowl of sweetened yogurt and a loaf of flat bread. They invited me into their home to eat, and all considerations of hygeine aside, I did my best to convey my regret that I must leave. I broke a piece of bread, dipped it in the yogurt and ate it quickly. I then awkwardly attempted to give them a few Som, but they refused. As I put my money away, a five Som note fell to the ground and the old man picked it up and handed it to the little boy. Bidding me fairwell, the old man reached out ot give me a hug and attempted to kiss my cheek, but small as he was, it only landed on my neck. I took another picture, bid them farewell, and then jogged uphill to the car.

The driver and passengers were visibly annoyed at my 45 minute departure, and as I exhaustedly plodded up the roadside the big Russian barked, "Time!"

The great recapitulation from Samarkand!

2007-10-27T07:48:00.001-05:00

If my blog was a child, the government would probably prosecute me for neglect. The unfortunate thing about owning a blog is that, unlike a child, you can't really compensate for a lack of quality time by showering it with expensive gifts or giving it a shot of whiskey when it cries. Anyway, my blog and I are going to span time right here and now.