Afghanistan and Central Asia

In previous Casual Fridays, we looked at yurts, a kind of nomadic architecture, and the great Islamic architecture in Khiva and other Central Asian heritage sites.  I want to turn to some of the newest Central Asian architecture. 

I picked Astana because the capital of Kazakhstan moved here from Almaty in 1997-1998. Therefore it has been developed for governmental purposes: and Kazakhstan has had sufficient budget to infuse their architecture with the stuff of national aspirations, dreams, and a burgeoning national identity.  The best of the work seems to take into account both nomadic and Islamic shapes in a new way.  The city has a master plan for development.  After commissioning a design tender worldwide,  picked the presentation made by Kisho Kurokawa, a Japanese architect of repute.  According to the World Almanac site, the design motifs for the Astana plan were “symbiosis,” “metabolic city,” and “abstract symbolism.” It is widely believed that President Nazarbaev provides the guiding hand in ensuring that this project continues according to the plan.

I well remember the brouhaha about Brasilia, Brazil’s created capital city.  At first, it was a bureaucratic nightmare as state institutions had to move all at once to a new locus of control back in the 1970’s.  Architectural commentary at the time talked about how stark and unliveable it was, but the plantings were all new, and people unaccustomed to its style.  Now it is justly considered beautiful.    

But never mind Brazil: let’s go to Astana.  This is the newest: the Khan Shatyry Entertainment Centre–and isn’t it amazing?  According to its architects, Foster and Partners: 

The Khan Shatyry Entertainment Centre in Astana will become a dramatic civic focal point for the capital of Kazakhstan. The soaring structure, at the northern end of the new city axis, rises from a 200m elliptical base to form the highest peak on the skyline of Astana.  Co-architects: Linea Tusavul Architecture, Gultekin Architecture.  The building will also be an engineering as well as artistic masterwork, with specialized construction polymers, and who knows what else.

Then there is the award-winning Tetrahedron.  Architectural Week says: the Tetrahedron in Astana, Kazakhstan, was designed by Tabanlioglu Architecture & Consulting. The metal facades change color according to the time of day and season.  Inside Tetrahedron is a social and cultural center with conference facilities, a museum, library, university, retail outlets, restaurant, and cafes.
Image: Tabanlioglu Architecture and Consulting. 

There is more about this at Wired New York, including cut-away diagrams.  And Hugh Pearman has some great interior shots which help one envision the project’s heroic scale.

The landmark Baiterek tower:  Baiterek means ‘high poplar’ and the round shape is supposed to be the egg of a legendary bird, the Samruk.  The tower is 97 meters high to commemorate Astana’s 1997 inauguration as Kazakhstan’s capital.     

Photos: Taipei Times; Theodora.com; Foster & Partners; Architectural Week; World Almanac newsletter.

Makes me want to take a vacation, yes?
 

“If anyone, no matter who, were given the opportunity of choosing from amongst all the nations in the world the set of beliefs which he thought best, he would inevitably, after careful consideration of their relative merits, choose that of his own country. Everyone without exception believes his own native customs, and the religion he was brought up in, to be the best; and that being so, it is unlikely that anyone but a madman would mock at such things.”  –Herodotus.

Original meaning of idiot: a person who did not extend himself to his community and its relationships. . . as, in, going only by the id. .  

Well, to finish out a week of SCO backgrounders, I just want to include an uh,  informative video of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. It seems that this video shows citizens of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea that President Kim Jong Il is also a participant in Shanghai Cooperation Organization events and meetings. 

You will notice that the DPRK came up–say, never–in this previous week’s list of participants.  That is because, as far as I know, the DPRK is still the object of secuirity concern to SCO hard-hitters China and Russia, rather than an ally in SCO security cooperation.

In this ultimately plotless, half-minute video, we see the leaders of Russia, China, Belarus, and the DPRK against a backdrop of flags in lush color.

In my continuing quest to make reality more closely match the expert opinion and political directive, (or, perhaps more properly, vice versa) I offer some aphorisms by La Rochefoucald that might make us laugh but also help us question the motives of those with the most high-minded intentions.  A little about Francois, duc de la Rochefoucald (1613–1680): though a trenchant observer of the corridors of power, he was easily misled by the ladies, and took up aphorisms as consolation.  They are almost all brilliant cynicisms.  Must have been some kind of women, yes?  Wow, those were the days.

It’s not that I’m against high-minded aspirations, you know: just, they go over so much better when those that espouse them understand their own motives.  So here’s a few:

242.  We often irritate others when we think we could not possibly do so.

231.  To try to be wise all on one’s own is sheer folly.

187.  The word virtue is as useful to self-interest as the vices.

151.  It is more difficult to avoid being ruled than to rule others.

123. If we never flattered ourselves we should get very little pleasure indeed.

The best La Rochefoucald Maxim is the one you discover for yourself: I have an old Penguin edition of the the Maxims, which you can no doubt purchase.  You can also find his quotes on many Internet quote sites.

Here is my favorite, and quite self-revealing, no doubt: but it always makes me laugh out loud.

169.  We are held to our duty by laziness and timidity, but often our virtue gets the credit.

Have a great weekend, everybody, forswearing duty in favor of courage! 

I would love to hear from others who can share apt quotes, particularly of Central Asian sages, statesmen, and slaves to the ladies.  Please add at will!

Photos: BBC; Gallica

I was so sad to hear that the Kazakhstan-sponsored cyclists at the Tour de France, Team Astana, dropped out of the race.  The team was led by Kazakhstani cyclist Alexander Vinokourov, was hit with charges of steroid abuse. 

(This picture is not of Mr. Vinokourov, but Mr. Bazaev). 

It looks as if the team’s investors (or perhaps the Tour?) have taken the organization’s Web site down (www.team-astana.eu).  I did find a Team Astana Fan Page, however.  I certainly hope Team A sticks around:  first of all, I believe I want to purchase a couple of jerseys.  Second, (and far more relevant here) the team is just one of the dominos to fall in this popular summer event.  It’s a bad year for the race, certainly: but it will not always be so.

According to the New York Times:

This year’s Tour has lost at least two teams, the winners of four stages and the overall leader. But organizers have so far said the event would not be canceled. Doing so, said Patrice Clerc, the president of the company that organizes the Tour, would mean victory for the riders who violate the rules.

Besides Team Astana, based out of Switzerland, the French-sponsored Codifis team, have both dropped out, under much the same circumstances: their front-runner, Italian Christien Moureni, also tested positive for steroid use.  The event’s overall leader was Rabobank’s Rasmussen, who has been de-wheeled for skipping blood tests. 

And it certainly looks like the A-Team followed all the rules: they had already suspended the very-competitive Matthias Kessler of Germany, on June 27th.

Win a Race, Wreck Your Life:
Now you know I was going to get to the public health aspects of steroid use.  Here is a message from Dr. Volkow at the (U.S.) National Institute on Drug Abuse:

Anabolic steroids, which are synthetic versions of the primary male sex hormone testosterone, can be injected, taken orally, or used transdermally. These drugs are Controlled Substances that can be prescribed to treat conditions such as body wasting in patients with AIDS, and other diseases that occur when the body produces abnormally low amounts of testosterone. However, the doses prescribed to treat these medical conditions are 10 to 100 times lower than the doses that are abused for performance enhancement.

. . . .while anabolic steroids can enhance certain types of performance or appearance, they are dangerous drugs, and when used inappropriately, they can cause a host of severe, long-lasting, and often irreversible negative health consequences. These drugs can stunt the height of growing adolescents, masculinize women, and alter sex characteristics of men. Anabolic steroids can lead to premature heart attacks, strokes, liver tumors, kidney failure and serious psychiatric problems. In addition, because steroids are often injected, users risk contracting or transmitting HIV or hepatitis.

Unfortunately, we seem to be going through an athletic version of the Cold War Arms Race when it comes to performance-enhancement chemistry.  Ah, brinkmanship.  That’s what we do when we want to waste some money and mortgage our futures.

In the meantime: next year: Always Team Astana!!!

Further reading:
Alexander Vinokourov’s Web site
NYT: After positive test, team quits Tour de France
Tour de France Web site–the English language version
Steroid Abuse Poster–That Explains it All and is not from a Preachy Government Agency

President Berdymukhamedov announced that USD one billion will be invested in a vacation resort on the Caspian, in the city of Turkmenbashi.  It will contain sixty hotels, a stadium, restaurants, sports facilities, and shopping centers.

This idea first surfaced in May of this year, and developed further after a meeting between Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.  At the time, I wondered who would come on shaky airlines as far as the Caspian, but I failed to take into account the many who might visit from more local venues: oilfield and diplomatic personnel from all over stationed near the Caspian; vacationers from Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tehran, and Georgia.  So I am inclined to think that this might be a great idea. 

Investing in Tourism
According to the UN’s International Labor Organization, the hotel, catering, and tourism industry is a service industry, with several different components.  Hotel business allows for employment in many service capacities, from hotel cleaning service personnel to expert chefs and savvy conciergerie.  Tourism businesses, such as tour operators, package vacation itineraries and can market to many different kinds of people or employment sectors.  Last of all, local communities can develop tourist markets for goods such as souvenirs and crafts on up to high art, incidentals such as band-aids or venues such as tea shops that appeal to the excursionist.  They can also develop services such as: Caspian fishing expeditions, cooking classes, or dance classes, spas, etc, etc.

Developing a sector of the economy from scratch does require significant governmental input.  However, the scope of building here seems to suggest an overabundance of large-scale facilities, which may not pay for themselves early on, with a dearth of planning for the smaller-scale enterprises that create new business: a little bit of overbuilding? A lot of overplanning?

Also, in this most recent incarnation, the customer base is supposed to be Turkmenistan’s citizens, that they have “comfortable conditions for Turkmen people on vacation.”   This may signal that Turkmen citizens will have access to this closed resort community, (which of course they should have).  It could also be a reassurance that Turkmenistan’s investment is for the Turkmen people.  But I think the latter could be accomplished by announcing the following:

1. a permitting regime for safety and health, unconstrained by draconian bribes, fees, and corruption;

2. ample provision for shopping venues and small eateries, including plumbing facilities and safe water; port facilities for Caspian tour guides and roads for land tours.  All this allows small businesses to take hold by providing decent infrastructure.

It doesn’t have to be perfect to bring prosperity, but the more it adheres to this standard, the better for business.  I lived for ten years in a city with a large tourist sector of the economy (New Orleans).  The City spent a lot of time and money developing convention business (which fills the hotels and is paid for by room taxes) and promoting the city’s ethos and convenience.  They also enabled that convenience, by funding large infrastructure for events such as music or sports (good idea for the stadium, by the way).  The rest of the attraction comes from small and medium enterprises: theme parks, museums, and those small and intimate restaurant “discoveries”.  Some of the latter, like the Acme Oyster Bar (how I miss it), was patronized by both city and vacation folk–those were the ones that repeat travellers wanted.  So, just as an armchair consultant, I would recommend a combination of state initiative and home-grown local business, myself.

Be careful what you wish for!
Yeah, and tourists get sunburned, and walk in front of cars, staring at the local marvels, so you need clinics; they’re always out of film and sometimes out of patience.  Abdulgamid has a humorous post over at neweurasia.net about tourism in his state.  The first is about Paul Theroux’s recent article on Turkmenistan and it is hilarious–it will also give a local perspective which I cannot give–so in answer to the great laughs I had, where he commented on cranky (but famous) travellers, I include the following, U.S. grown-joke:

A waiter brings the customer the steak he ordered with his thumb over the meat.
“Are you crazy?” yelled the customer, “with your hand on my steak?”
“What” answers the waiter, “You want it to fall on the floor again?”

 Best of luck with the Turkmenbashi Entertainment Resort and Tourist Complex; and I hope to someday visit and sit down at the Green Tea Emporium for brief respite in the afternoon; after which, I would like to attend the Annual International Plov festival, where Central Asian cooks of note get together to compete on the best Plov in Central Asia, and people like me buy bowls of award-winning food and buy postcards, hats, and–more film and sunscreen.

Further reading:
RFE/RL interview with Paul Theroux
Another, shorter post by Abdulgamid on Joshua Kucera’s trip through Turkmenistan
The International Labour Organization of the United Nations has a web site on the World Tourism Industry; here are some of their Proceedings & Publications
More waiter jokes

Photos: HawaiiAloha.com; Duane Hanson, Tourists II: at Kunsthaus Zurich; Questier.com; GreenTeaBenefit.com

There be dragons–or at least, living legends: swimming around in Scotland’s Loch Ness and, as reported this week, in Lake Kanasi in Xinjiang Province.  This definitely proves a theory that the initial uh, foundation for the species is somewhere in the vicinity of the, mmm, Barents Sea, but migrated south during the Ice Age–just ahead of those pesky glaciers.

Just look: and unless you understand Chinese, you don’t need your sound:

Which is something indeed to think about, especially if you are contemplating a visit to Xinjiang and plan to take any boating excursions. 

The last Loch Ness monster sighting turned out to be a partially-besieged parade float that drifted downriver on its way to Wales.

Not wishing to be left behind–and wanting a monster of its very own–an expedition of U.S. species-hunters last week took off to find the Big Foot, sometimes called “Sasquatch.”  Unfortunately it took 35 years for North America to definitively prove that the last filmed sighting of the B.F. was a gigantopithecus advocate cavorting around in a gorilla suit.

I think it would be more in the spirit of competition to have a Lake Huron Monster.  But I guess it’s a little tougher to migrate from the Barents Sea to Ontario / Michigan, so we won’t expect a sighting anytime soon.

Just kidding. 

Have a nice weekend, everybody.

I’ve been reading through poems lately, and found this one about Afghanistan.  It was written by reporter Eliza Griswold, who has been a reporter in Afghanistan, Africa, and Guantanamo.  She has a book out: Wideawake Field (2007), published by Farrar Straus & Giroux.

Buying Rations in Kabul

The Uzbek boys on Chicken Street
have never had enough to eat.
They stock from shelf to shining shelf
these G.I. meals, which boil themselves
in added water (bottled, please).
In twenty minutes, processed cheese
on jambalaya, followed by
a peanut-butter jamboree.

                              The boys, polite,
advise on which we might prefer–
beef teriyaki, turkey blight–
and thank us twice for bringing peace
as, meals in hand, we leave the store.
Of course they know that any peace
that must be kept by force
contains another name.  It’s war.

A couple more of her poems are available here.  I’m sure this one was published in The New Yorker, but I don’t have a publication date handy.

Photos: Xploreoffshore; Indymedia

Poem Copyright 2007 by Eliza Griswold

Well, I didn’t post as much last week as I normally do, and that’s because I went to New York to talk to the Foreign Policy Association’s Teacher Training Institute about Central Asia.  What a great group of teachers!  We are used to thinking that politics is something that happens on the world stage, but anyone who has stood up in front of a class knows quite a bit about group behavior, yes?

Anyway, in two day’s time these teachers from around the nation presented, listened to presentations, and then formed lesson plans in international affairs using all eight Great Decisions materials and topics–from one minute to the next.

I was thrilled by the interest in Central Asia in particular and international relations in general.  Primary school educators in art and social studies devised plans that brought cultural art and artifacts to younger students and contrasted the life of children across the world.  Middle and high-school teachers planned lessons that would have students confront not just Central Asian culture but their own.  Issues of prejudice, gender relations, security and energy, human rights, rule of law, and other issues were tackled head-on in lesson plans devised on the spot. 

We can look forward to future leaders coming from the work of these leading teachers–and, a far more sophisticated diplomacy-literate audience graduating from their classrooms.  And for me, to be around such a committed group was inspiring. 

You can collect stamps from all over the world, of course, so why not the stamps of Central Asia?  It’s a great way to discover aspects of national culture.  First, there are national symbols: flags, Great Seals, and historic heroes.  There are the nation’s significant crops, native animals, and national leaders. 

Another thing to note: sometimes stamps are issued for the collector’s market, which is one reason why Kyrgyzstan issued Superman stamps.

Here is a  one celebration of ethnicity, and one celebration of capability, from Kazakhstan:

Architecture of the Capital of Kyrgyzstan:

and a bilingual collector’s page of Kyrgyzstan’s heroes:

Tajikistan sometimes features notable Islamic scholars such as Abu Ali al-Husain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina (known to the West since Medieval times as Avicenna).

I was surprised that Turkmenistan had so much variety:  frankly I expected all of the stamps to be Turkmenbashi stamps.

And I searched in vain for a Gulnara stamp.  That’s okay though.

Photos: Kazakhstan, Answers.com, Cira.colostate.edu; Kyrgyzstan, stamps.elcat.kg; Turkmenistan,  Tajikistan, jeff560.tripod; Uzbekistan, Pomexport.com .

Thanks to all the stamp collectors who scanned these collectibles into the Internet.