Haven’t posted in a while because I took a trip to Mongolia last week. Of course nothing casts a pall on travel plans like political protest that ends with the burning of the leading political party’s building and sacking of the nearby Culture Palace. Assured by my friend in Ulaan Baatar and by various Mongolian blogs that the protests were a one-time deal and that the streets were safe I went ahead and got on the plane anyway.
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Thanks to Registan.net for pointing me to this article on problems with US AID funding for Central Asia:

Aid for almost every country in the former Soviet Union will be falling in 2008, under the current foreign affairs budget released by the US State Department. Much of the planned US assistance will go toward helping independent-minded states in the region resist Russian efforts to reassert its dominance in the Caspian Basin and elsewhere. Even so, some Washington experts lament the drop-off in aid, and describe the dwindling budgets in recent years as “monuments to weak analysis, inter-agency pettiness, and trite bureaucratic formuli.”

Overall, the budget for the Freedom Support Act, which provides aid to former Soviet states, is $346 million for fiscal year 2009, which actually starts on October 1, 2008. That is down from $396 million in fiscal 2008, and $452 million the year before that.

It’s interesting to note because one of the sponsors of the Freedom Support Act was John McCain, who will likely be the Republican nominee for President. So perhaps the Central Asia crowd should be cheering for McCain who has paid some attention to the region. On the other hand, Barak Obama is widely believed to be more of an internationalist and perceived to have sympathy for Muslim countries, having been raised in Indonesia. Perhaps he will be more willing to dole out aid to developing countries and to sympathize with the common rhetoric of Western democracy balanced with Asian values that is rife throughout this region. Hilary Clinton, on the other hand, seems to have a more shameful link to the region via ex-President Clinton who seems happy to do business deals here to help out his buddies and lend credence to regional leaders by talking to them.

I’d be interested in what you readers think. Which US Presidential candidate is best for Central Asia?

Struan Stevenson, a Scottish Conservative Member of the European Union has spent a lot of his career trying to bring public attention to the tragedies surrounding Semipalatinsk. During the Soviet period, the “Polygon” an area near this city was the testing-ground for nuclear weapons. As a result, the population still suffers from cancer, birth defects and other serious health issues. Recently, his book Crying Forever was released in Almaty. It is an excellent, if extremely disturbing read about the issue. The pictures certainly lay to rest any doubts about the severity of exposure to radiation.

In 2004, his essay of the same name won the Power of Purpose award, and you can download that essay here.

Amazon.com lists the book as unavailable, but hopefully you can find a copy near you.

On Sept. 22nd, Mongol, the historical epic about Chinghis Khan (Genghis Khan) opened in Astana. The film has been anticipated since Sergei Bodrov began filming it right after the release of Nomad. Bodrov is well-known as the director of Nomad, as well as co-writer on Schizo and East-West, among his other extensive producing, directing and writing credits.

Mongol is an impressionistic film covering Chinghis Khan’s earlier years. It is not a plot-driven adventure film nor is it a historical epic that tells the story of how the poor fatherless slave Temuzhin became Chinghis Khan, ruling over one of the largest empires in the world. The film does show battles and portray the young Temuzhin as a great and brave warrior. It also shows that even at a young age, he had innovative thoughts about rewarding loyalty and banning the cruelties of slavery and arbitrary tyranny that tended to rule the steppes. Lip service is paid to the way that Chingis Khan organized his empire and his army and instilled a sense of responsibility to others.

However at the heart of this film is Chinghis Khan’s own psychic life. In one scene, the young Temuzhin escapes from slavery and runs to a religious shrine. While he is praying to Tengri, the sky god, a wolf is shown walking above him, looking down upon him. Then we see the boy running across the snowy steppes only to fall through an icy river. In the next scene, about 15 years have passed and we have no idea how he survived. The film is not as concerned with plot as with giving a mood to the audience.

Central to the film are the relationship he had with two people: His first wife, Borte and his blood-brother Jamuke. In reality, it is believed that these two people in fact had a huge influence on him. So we see how Chinghis Khan risks everything to rescue his wife, taken as a slave by the Kerekeidi. Later we see his wife rescue him from slavery at an even greater price. While the film does play fast and loose with the facts, it leaves you with the impression that for all his tyranny and bloodthirstiness, Chinghis Khan was a man very in love with his wife.

We also see how Jamuke helps him become a great leader and eventually his greatest rival. Again, while the relationship is historically accurate, most of the events depicted are fictional or changed slightly. Again, plot is not always the central concern of the film as it sometimes seems that the characters suddenly change their minds for no reason other than to set up the next scene. However the relationship is what comes through. That here are two men who love each other and yet are drawn to conflict. It is probably no coincidence that the actor who plays Jamuke, the Chinese star Honglei Sun, puts in the best performance in the film. Borte, played by the unknown Mongol college student Khulan Chuluun, puts in the second best.

Unfortunately, Tadanobu Asano who is one of the most popular actors in Japan, apparently, portrays Chinghis Khan with little emotion. Except for a few moments with his wife, Chinghis Khan spends the film stone-faced, almost a victim of fate, doing whatever is presented to him. He doesn’t particularly grab the audience’s attention especially when playing next to Jamuke and there doesn’t seem to be much reflection going on in his head, particularly during an entirely fictional scene in which Chinghis Khan is imprisoned in the city of Tangut.

If you are looking for a historically accurate telling of Temuzhin’s life, this is not the film for you. If you are looking for an epic like Braveheart or Nomad with lots of battles and witty words of bravery, don’t bother with this film. But the film is well worth your time, bringing a mood to the life of the great Asian emperor and portraying a human side in the person of two people who influenced the young Khan.

Another review can be found here and much thanks to News from the Caravan for that link and for reminding me to review this flick.

I also wanted to note that one of the most interesting reactions to this film I heard was from a Kazakh friend of mine who said that it was a pity that the film only showed the early years when Chinghis Khan was fighting other Mongols, and it would have been good to show him fighting more foreigners in case people got the impression that Mongols were hateful to each other.

NR2.ru is holding a contest to vote for the sexiest CIS President. At the moment, Putin (Russia) and Edward Kokoyty (South Ossetia–and his presence in the list tells you this is a Russian survey!) are neck-in-neck. Nazarbayev, whose birthday is in 2 days (and I will post on what’s been going on in Astana for the 6 days of Astana Day and his birthday, I swear) has only 0.9% of the votes, putting him last except for Rakhmon (Tajikistan) and Karimov (Uzbekistan).

Vote here. pictures are also provided. Results are here though they are constantly updating.

This really shows the tragedy of the last election in Ukraine, where Yushenko was poisoned, because without that incident, I think he’d be first, no questions. He still gets my vote, though I see why Putin and Kokoyty are leading. A bit surprised that Kocharin isn’t making a better showing. Note that Aliyev (Azerbajian) is trying to get a leg up by sending in a photo holding a rose (Sly dog!).

Paul Theroux, the prolific and noted travel writer, probably most famous in this region for his book on traveling the Trans-Siberian railroad, has written an article for the New Yorker on Turkmenistan and the cult of personality, Letter from Turkmenistan and given an interview with RFE/RL in Turkmenistan.

Interesting reading, particularly the end of the interview:

So you can’t criticize Niyazov too much. You have to see that he’s part of a tendency. That’s a tendency. And the people who criticize him have also to look at places like the George Bush Airport and say, “Well, what’s the story with that?” Or in his lifetime, [former U.S. President] Ronald Reagan — there was Reagan airport and Reagan this and Reagan that and the Reagan Library. They were also named after him. So I’m against that. And I also think that that’s also part of, maybe not a cult of personality, but that’s an obsession with personality. You should name it after dead people, people who are dead, and people who are really great — writers, thinkers, scientists — not politicians.

Bush-bashi anyone?

President Vladimir Putin was in Kazakhstan yesterday and he and President Nazarbayev will be traveling to Turkmenistan this week together. Two issues are on the agenda. First, Russia will be assisting Kazakhstan in enriching uranium for its nuclear energy power center. The two countries will be setting up a joint-uranium enrichment center. It looks like Kazakhstan will provide the uranium and Russia will provide the enrichment center at Angarsk (under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Commission), and that the goal is to sell the uranium to other countries. Russia had previously offered to enrich uranium for Iran as part of a compromise to allow Iran to continue its nuclear energy program. While the offer fell through, the fact that Russia’s offer was accepted by the US and other nations means that Russia is generally trusted in the area of enrichment, so it seems like this might be a good move for Kazakhstan, to let experienced Russian scientists handle enrichment, while hopefully at the same time, building their own capacity slowly: by learning how to do it from the Russians and by sending their students to the US and other leading nuclear engineering countries. Nothing too controversial here.

The second purpose of the visit may ruffle some feathers in Washington and elsewhere however. Hint: It involves oil (more…)

A journalist with the Kazakh language service of RFE/RL was arrested in Almaty on the 15th of December and appears to be being held in detention without charges. From a question answered by the Office of the Spokesmen of the US State Department:

Azamat Zhetpisbayev, a correspondent for the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Kazakhstan affiliate Radio Azzatyk, was arrested December 15 by Almaty financial police, who declined to specify the reason for the arrest. He is being held in a temporary detention facility. There is no indication that the arrest is connected with Zhetpisbayev’s employment at Radio Azzatyk. We will continue to follow this case closely.

Although he was arrested by the financial police, Zhetpisbayev is known for being an active youth opposition figure in Kazakhstan and Central Asia as a whole (more…)

Nazarbayev, currently in China, sent a telegram to the acting President, reading in part:

Saparmurat Atayevich was an outstaning leader of the Turkmen people, a politican with foresight, constantly working hard for the good of his homeland. He played a key role in creating and strengthening the independent state of Turkmenistan, and developing the economic potential of the nation. translation mine

Dariga Nazarbayev was also asked her opinion and last night on Khabar said:

We don’t know the facts. We don’t know if there are people in Turkmenistan who were unhappy with his rule. It may be so, but we don’t have those facts. We do know that he was a strong (hard) ruler, and I think that was a good point. I mean that he was strict with government officials, not strict with the people. That I admire.” translation and errors due to bad memory mine

So at least the higher officials are endorsing his rule and his tactics without reservation. In contrast, the US statement, as linked to by Sean Roberts, is much more diplomatic, saying basically that the US is ready to work with the new leader and wishes all the best to the Turkmen people.

Meanwhile, Khabar also quoted Turkmen residents of Kazakhstan as saying that Niyazov did everything for the good of the people. It was a bit frightening to hear one woman sit and just describe what she saw on Turkmen TV: “For half the day they played beautiful music, then they showed the flag in black border and his portrait.” That was the entirety of her commentary.

EDIT: Turkmenistan.neweurasia.net has some less complimentary words from a depuat of the Kazakhstan Parliament.

As Serik Abdrakhmanov, chairman of the committee on international affairs, defence and security in the Kazakh Majlis said: “This is perhaps the time to wish our brother nation of Turkmenistan peace and tranquillity, and let those that yesterday grovelled before the Rukhnama think more about the people and help them find the path to stable and peaceful path with the help of the countries natural wealth.”

The post also has some great background information on the acting president

Usually I keep my focus on Kazakhstan, but this is a big one. The President-for-life, Saparmurat Niyazov, died Wednesday night of heart failure at age 66. As is well-known, he was an authoritarian leader given to fulfilling whims and crushing dissent. Although there were rumors that his heart was weak, his health was considered top-secret. Thus it isn’t clear if there was a contigency plan or what now follows. Opposition parties are illegal and he goes through Ministers and high officials like flatbread–every failure is accompanied by the sacking of a government official who is then blacklisted. As had been noted, there is no one left to succeed him. Having stripped the educational system, and included study of his “great book” the Rukhnama, a history of the Turkmen people interespersed with sayings and poetry, as a major part of any curriculum, the problem of finding competent successors will last for generations.

There also issues such as what will happen to all the Turkmen gas, and contracts with foreign companies to extract that gas, or foriegn nations to issue that gas. The lessons of dictatorship are all too clear now. Once you give a man too much power, you give the post too much power for anyone to step into.
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