(my artsy photo from Iskanderkul... pirated Photoshop: $3.50)We'll have to wait on the Mochon update. He's been slinking around lately and hasn't been into posing for me.
Had a great talk with Bakhtior-aka yesterday. He showed me the family's wedding albums. Aparently he was serving in East Germany from 1976-78, years he describes as formative and good. "two years is not two weeks," he said. He said that Russians there were amazed with his language skills and that his battalion was a literal Soviet UN. There were Tajiks, Ukrainians, Caucasians, and Russians. He described the time with love in his eyes, and had created a homemmade album with bubble-lettering saying things like, "my memories from Germany" and with postcards from East Berlin. It was, well, cute.
While he was serving in Germany his mom wrote him a letter saying that she had selected a local girl for a bride. She sent a letter with Said-opa's photo. He had never spoken to her because she was three years younger, but had seen her once or twice in school.
When he got home to Dushanbe he met her, literally for the first time, on the front steps of ZAGS (the Soviet marriage "office"), where they registered their marriage, under the chaperoneship of her sister. They were not allowed alone together until after the wedding, a month later!
They're celebrating 30 years together this fall. Here's to arranged marriages! They seem to work. We spoke of her great cooking, and how hard working, and intelligent she is. They certainly don't share a lot of affection, but they seem to respect each other a great deal.
On a different note, Bakhtior-aka and I always seem to get stuck on politics. I tend to say thing like, "[Uzbekistan president] Islam Karimov is one of the world's cruelest presidents." And he'll reply with a, "Karimov is a strong leader, not like [Tajik president] Rahmon." All politics are relative, it seems to me. In Uzbekistan last summer people spoke wistfully of Kazakhstan, which was "20-25 years" ahead of Uzbekistan courtesy of its oil wealth and booming economy. In Tajikistan, people like Bakhtior talk of their Uzbek neighbors the same way, due to Tajikistan's civil war and general lack of natural resources or local industry. Furthermore, he thinks Rahmon - a former kolkhoz director - is simply a moron. He can't understand how he could let bread prices spiral out of control as they've done this year (something out of his control in my opinion). NOr can he comprehend how gas and electricity can be so spotty, especially in winter. Meanwhile, Rahmon's compatriots from Kulob province have "all moved to Dushanbe illegally and are building all of the nice homes you see." He speaks wistfully of the days when Russians and Jews lived in Dushanbe. (he bought his home from a Jewish man in 1990, a sign of quality and prestige that he's proud of) Nobody respects Rahmon, he says, because Rahmon provides nothing. His government is corrupt (our car was pulled over by the cops for being "dirty" and made to pay a "fine" and to get it washed on site) and it can't seem to attract foreign investors.
Meanwhile, he watches Uzbek TV, which is a much higher quality operation than Tajik. He says that even when programs are unscripted (when would that be, ahem?) Uzbek faces are all smiling, in new factories with new equipment, but on Tajik TV no one smiles. Yes, life seems to be better in Uzbekistan.
And it's hard to argue with this thinking. He's fifty. He's lived in East Berlin. He's lived through the collapse of the USSR and his own country's collapse into civil war. He might just know a thing or two about what type of government is feasible in central Asia, quips about Tajiks' lack of education notwithstanding. And while I can't defend Andijon, or kicking out the Peace Corps, or murdered journalists in Uzbekistan, I might have to agree with Bakhtior that when you're stuck with Rahmon, Karimov seems like a bright light of hope.
With authoritarian sympathies,
Charles
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