- TASHKENT - It's fascinating
these days flicking back and forth from BBC to DeutscheWelle: BBC features
a polite interview with Richard Perle full of saber-rattling rhetoric,
while DW talks with a child psychologist explaining how traumatic it is
for children to see the war, with touching scenes of German children worrying
about children in Baghdad; there are words of wisdom from the BBC 'specialist'
on Iraq, blood dripping from his teeth, vs a DW profile of a professional
peace organizer in Stuttgardt. I couldn't stomach CNN long ago, so I didn't
even notice that they were kicked out for being a mouthpiece for the US
administration. Uzbek TV scarcely mentions the war, and only in glowing
terms that would make Fox itself blush. Thank God for the German mouthpiece,
however full of marbles!
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- Great Minds Think Alike
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- A light bulb flashed upstairs when I read online that
Lieutenant General Jay Garner, who has close ties with the Jewish Institute
for National Security Affairs, will head the reconstruction of postwar
Iraq, and Marc Grossman, US under-secretary of state said that one of the
first decisions of a new Iraqi government would be to recognize the state
of Israel.
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- The pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Eureka! That
is precisely what the US has accomplished here in Uzbekistan, the US's
new "strategic ally" in Central Asia, as its President Karimov
loves to qualify it. Israel is one of its closest (though increasingly
discreet - I wonder why?) allies. (A touching detail - Uzbekistan and Israel
are the only countries that support the US embargo on Cuba each year at
the UN.) Americans with even a whiff of 'businessman' about them automatically
get 3-year visas. Exchange programs for Uzbek teens to live with American
families, missionaries and Peace Corps volunteers - all help to spread
a homey gloss over it all. A kind of 'home away from home'.
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- And all this without a shot being fired. Keeping that
in mind (no small difference), Uzbekistan is the future for a free Iraq,
I suddenly realized with a shudder.
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- Uzbekistan, nominally a Muslim country, is run by ex-Communist
Party functionary President Islam Karimov, much as it was run in Soviet
days, only minus the progressive foreign policy and solid if skin-of-the-teeth
social welfare policies that gave the Soviet Union its raison d'etre, and
which everyone here remembers with great nostalgia. As in the gloomiest
of stagnation days, the media is tightly controlled and any whiff of opposition
is ruthlessly stamped out. As in Soviet days, even moderately devout Muslims
are persecuted, though in much greater numbers now (according to Human
Rights Watch 5000+ are in jail).
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- Of course, there is much more corruption now and many,
many more police. And American 'goods' and pop culture everywhere. Most
people now live in what can only be called poverty. But they are hard-working
and there are lots and lots of goodies in the raw material field to export.
A tasty little morsel for the US. A nice legacy from the moribund Soviet
Union.
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- As for Uzbek-Israeli relations, they are so on the up-and-up,
UzAir announced plans to start a direct flight Tashkent-Tel Aviv (can you
think of a more obscure air route?). Israeli products, from Dead Sea beauty
lotions to cheese (?) are prominently on display. Who says Israel doesn't
have Muslim friends?
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- One of the main reasons for this love fest from the Uzbek
side is that many Bukharan Jews emigrated to Israel and America and now
encourage and facilitate close business ties with Uzbekistan. Rumour has
it that one of the main Uzbek mafia groups is based in Israel. Who said
the Jewish diaspora is passe? Come to think of it, maybe the K could give
Bush, Sharon etal some good advice as they formulate their plans for Iraq
(have you ever seen a more grise eminence than Sharon?) on how to keep
the lid on an oppressed Muslim nation.
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- The US Embassy makes token efforts from time to time
about more democracy and freedom of speech, etc., but, hey, what is the
sound of one hand clapping? Meanwhile, these days, the K is making good
use of Bush's preoccupation with more obstreperous Muslims in the 'I' country
to clamp down on an already brain-dead media here. The Uzbek assistant
foreign minister gathered newspaper editors together recently to make sure
they were solidly behind the official pro-war line, which he announced
when his friend the Slovak prez Schuster visited last week. (It must be
nice to have so many good friends.) No cozying up to Russia on this one.
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- Of course NO ONE actually supports the war here except
the 'K', but of course that's all that matters in a US-client 'new democracy'.
Take note, Egyptians, Jordanians, Saudis, Syrians, oh yes, and Iraqis.
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- And Fools Seldom Differ
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- I've just thought of a good advertising copy to attract
US citizens to Uzbekistan (tourism is a tad sluggish these days) - "Come
and see your future! We have perfected your democracy, which your Peace
Corps volunteers, missionaries and businessmen have kindly helped us install.
It's called neofascism. One leader - one vote! Liberty and the pursuit
of happiness for the K and his friends!"
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- Who says Uzbekistan is underdeveloped? The US is the
underdeveloped one on the political front! But then, once its economy is
militarized to death, political progress will no doubt soon follow. The
present rush to stifle all civil liberties is already making up for lost
time.
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- To get serious for a moment, this whole scenario is very
frightening. Uzbekistan is the 'powerhouse' of Central Asia (read classroom
bully). Of course all the world's bullies will be delighted to footnote
the Bush doctrine in future when they decide to preempt supposed terrorists
across their borders, and the K will be no exception. There have been dozens
of deaths and injuries from Uzbek landmines on the as yet undelimited borders
with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, 'planted' by Uzbekistan to deter 'terrorists'
without even informing its neighbors. Visions of a greater Turkestan anyone?
Or will Uzbekistan slip quietly back into its role as world backwater,
just another tin-pot US-sponsored dictatorship, mind you a very conveniently
placed one geopolitically, with the biggest military base in Central Asia
in US hands?
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- Back to surreality, on the art scene, at the Museum of
Modern Art, the present exhibition is 'Rodeo' a celebration of the American
ritual torture and killing of cattle, complete with video performances
and a creche with straw and cowboy hats (I'm NOT making this up). Meanwhile,
the K keeps building pyramids, which for some reason require high walls
or spiked fences, immediately start falling apart, and worst of all, occupy
former laid-back overgrown Soviet parks and dilapidated buildings, all
the wonderful things that gave that certain frisson to Soviet reality.
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- That's all for now. As you can see, all is well in this
best of all possible worlds.
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- Now back to the future.
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- Simon Jones is a western NGO rep who has worked in Uzbekistan
recently.
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