As part of an ongoing series, Ray Nayler blogs about life in Central Asia.
We arrived in Murgab after hours in the the Niva 4×4 winding, on a road much better than we had expected, across the Pamir Plateau. the Pamirs are not at all what I had expected: these are not the jagged, stupefying peaks of the Hindu Kush or the Fan. With Murgab at an elevation of 3630 meters, 4,500 to 5,000 meter peaks in the background are not much more impressive than Mission Peak, the glorified hill that shadowed my childhood in Fremont, California.
It would be spurious, however, to draw much of a comparison between those two environments: yesterday’s journey wound us past yurts dotted on summer pasture land, with hares bounding along the sturdy, high-altitude grasses like a pelt upon the ground, grazing yaks and fat, tawny gophers gazing at us curiously as we went by. We went over a winding pass and waited for the guard at the checkpoint to finish defecating in a trench behind the building and come register our passports. A stray, ginger dog that had learned the trick to staying fat kept us entertained by wagging her tail and looking sad-eyed at every arriving motorist sad-eyed until they gave her scraps.
Read more…
|
| posted by: ray nayler
Mental Floss (via CNN) is running a little story on unique ways that health educators are encouraging safer sex in parts of the world where condom use isn’t particularly high. The author has an unfortunate tendency to make astoundingly broad generalizations (“In India, people stigmatize condoms and refuse to wear them because they believe only prostitutes must use prophylactics”), but the topic is intriguing indeed. Among her findings:
- Indian “Condom, Condom” ring tones to the tune of the Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann.”
- Coffee-scented condoms in Ethiopia (which the author claims “bolster national identity” — the academic in me is cringing), corn-scented condoms in China, and (seriously?!) durian-scented condoms in Indonesia.
- Spray-on latex in Germany. Supposedly it ‘fits’ perfectly, but takes a little ‘long’ to dry.
Link…
|
| posted by: deborah jones
Saying driving in Uganda is an adventure is a bit of an understatement, but if Uganda’s ethics and integrity minister Nsaba Buturo gets his way, the road’s in Kampala might be getting safer in the near future. His solution: ban miniskirts. Now you may be asking: what’s the correlation between miniskirts and car accidents? Let me paint a picture for you: you are driving down the street and you spot some svelte booty curbside, sure paying attention to where you are going is important, but like I said, it’s really primo tush. In fact it’s so mesmerizing that you end up wrapping your matatu around an acacia tree. Let’s hear what the good minster has to say about the issue:
“What’s wrong with a miniskirt? You can cause an accident because some of our people are weak mentally,” he said.
Wearing a miniskirt should be regarded as “indecent”, which would be punishable under Ugandan law, Mr Buturo said.
And he railed against the dangers facing those inadvertently distracted by short skirts.
“If you find a naked person you begin to concentrate on the make-up of that person and yet you are driving,” he said.
“These days you hardly know who is a mother from a daughter, they are all naked.”
Link…
|
| posted by: neil schwartz
Reuters has a cool article about the clash between traditional Maasai warrior culture and modern Kenyan values and how some Maasai men, in the search of riches or romance, are flocking to the big city to pursue lines of work (like hairdressing) considered very taboo by their culture.
Maasai warriors are not allowed to touch a woman’s head: it is regarded as demeaning in the patriarchal culture. Moran who become hairdressers risk a curse from the elders, or could even be expelled from the community.
“If my father finds out what I am doing he will be very mad at me or even chase me from home,” said Lalasho, who comes from Loitoktok, near Mount Kilimanjaro on the border with Tanzania.
“But I have to eat, that’s why I broke my taboo since city life is very expensive,” he said.
Link…
|
| posted by: neil schwartz
After a second real estate feud in as many years, Astroland amusement park, a Coney Island institution appears to be closing its gates for good (although NY’s Major has intervened today on the park owner’s behalf). If the park does close, while a beloved piece of old New York will be lost, the famous Cyclone rollercoaster, a National Historic Landmark, will be preserved.
And so, thousands of visitors poured into Astroland for what appeared to be the last time, pushing toddlers in strollers and aged relatives in wheelchairs, and taking a final look at a park that may have seen better days, but was still widely adored. Many people reminisced about their childhood days spent at Astroland, and shook their heads in disbelief that yet another vestige of old New York would be lost.
The shuttering of the park would erase another attraction from the Coney Island Boardwalk, which has fallen a long way from its glory days, when it was home to attractions like Luna Park and the Steeplechase.
But part of what made Astroland unique was its accessibility, said Charles Denson, a Coney Island historian and author of the book “Coney Island Lost and Found.” Rather than being an expensive, glossy and distant amusement park, Astroland was a place that was reachable by subway, a place where a visitor could shoot a water gun at a clown’s mouth and win a prize, or venture on kitschy rides with names like Dante’s Inferno and Break Dance that, while arguably seedy, were still loads of fun.
Link…
[1]
|
| posted by: neil schwartz
The New York Times is running a really interesting feature on the influence of Western popular culture on young Palestinians under Hamas rule in Gaza City.
Amer Kihail, 32, a slender man with an elastic, hangdog face, runs the store, called New Sound. Do Gazans living under Hamas buy much Western music or many Western movies? Mr. Kihail looked baffled, and maybe even a little annoyed, by the question.
“Of course,” he said.
Ruled by Hamas, penned in by Israel, grappling with daily shortages of food and supplies, Gazans need an escape. Culture turns out to be not just an afterthought but, many say, essential to surviving here. Especially for young Gazans, what’s on satellite television and the Internet, on tapes and compact discs, is a window to the world beyond the armored checkpoints, and a link to Arab society elsewhere and, crucially, to the West
Link…
|
| posted by: neil schwartz
As part of its Capital of Culture celebrations, Liverpool’s streets are being stalked by a beautiful and mesmerizing 50-foot mechanical spider. You really need to see this
BBC’s video to appreciate the coolness of La Princesse (the spider).
Several children tried to hide, but one enquired if he might be able to take the spider home. “I wouldn’t want that in my house,” declared his mum.
“You wouldn’t get it in our house,” said her husband.
“It’s like something out of Doctor Who,” said another, as first more legs and then, slowly, a vast body emerged and a 50ft high spider started walking down the road, waving its great legs over the heads of the crowd.
Link…
|
| posted by: neil schwartz
Ever wonder about that scythe-carrying skeleton featured in Mexican day of the dead imagery? Turns out she is Santa Muerte, who while linked by the Catholic Church to black magic and Satanism has a devoted following by Mexico's poor. Nat Geo has an interesting feature on the folk saint.
Link...
|
| posted by: neil schwartz
The Times Online has an article about the phenomena of professional seduction in Japan. Apparently women in dysfunctional marriages will pay agencies that employ beautiful women to seduce their husbands, with the hope that they will fall in love and leave them.
Kyoko, of course, is not the girl’s real name. She did not meet Mr A by chance and does not work for a design company, as he thinks. She is an agent paid to seduce him. She regularly texts the team from her mobile and has a couple of GPS devices in case they lose her. Shimizu is her bodyguard and will move in if there are problems. And the whole operation is paid for by Mr A’s wife, who gets an amply illustrated report every time an encounter takes place. The aim is to have Mr A fall so completely for Kyoko that he wants to marry her and asks for a divorce. Failing that, his wife will have a sizable dossier with evidence of infidelity to confront him with.
In Japan, if you have the money you can sort out virtually any problem in your love life. If you want to get rid of an unwanted spouse, retrieve a straying one, get back with an ex or even get together with someone you’ve seen but don’t yet know, there are companies that will help you, using all the technology and expertise in human psychology at their disposal. Not so long ago Japanese wives put up with any amount of infidelity and abuse. A divorced woman was shunned and unlikely to marry again. But these days “people want to be happy”, says Tomiya. The result has been an enormous increase in divorces and in companies such as GNC.
Link…
|
| posted by: neil schwartz
In parts of the world where potable driving water isn’t something that can be taken for granted, Mafia-like organizations are bribing, colluding, embezzling, among other things in an effort to force the poor to pay premiums for access to clean, drinkable water. Nat Geo is currently featuring an article on water corruption around the world, and notes that even parts of the developed world are not immune to the practice.
In Honduras, for example, residents who either cannot afford connections to centralized water systems or live in places where water is not easily accessible pay 40 percent more for informal water supplies…In Bangladesh and Ecuador, mafia-like groups often collude with public water officials to prevent access to cheap water services.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) estimates that countries such as El Salvador, Jamaica, and Nicaragua spend more than 10 percent of their income on water services, in part due to corruption. In comparison, those in developed nations such as the United States pay approximately 3 percent.
Link…
|
| posted by: neil schwartz
As part of an ongoing series, Ray Nayler blogs about life in Central Asia.
How does one drive in a country with no rules? Or more specifically—how does one drive in a country where there are rules, but all of those rules are so undermined by corruption that the final result is chaos? On the main street of Dushanbe, Rudaki, it is not uncommon to see three or four traffic police clustered every twenty meters, their light blue shirts bulged over contented bellies, their orange plastic batons (they light up at night like blunt little light sabers) dangling from their thick wrists. They stand just beyond crosswalks and just after traffic lights, hoping that someone will break a law or that a foreigner will pass by and they can pull him over and try to convince him that he has broken a law. A friend of mine was once pulled over and told that it was illegal to wear his seatbelt inside the city. I was pulled over and informed that I had not let a nonexistent pedestrian cross the street. There is little to guide you (until recently, there were no lane markings on the 6-lane boulevard) and what signage there is is unclear. And all along the main street, hundreds of traffic cops are waiting. They pull you over, salute, and start explaining to you what you have done wrong. Then they threaten to take away your license. Or, they suggest with an oily little gleam in their eyes, you can pay a little something . . .
I don’t pay. I’ve paid enough to obtain the 5 completely useless documents necessary to drive here, in defiance of all international treaties, and I don’t feel like supporting their families. I say “sure, I’ll pay. Let me just call my embassy.” “Sure, I’ll pay. Let me get your name and badge number so I can just let my people know.”
There’s a joke that I heard over lunch once:
“What’s the difference between a cow and a traffic cop?”
“The cow goes from the road to the fields to eat. The traffic cop comes from the fields to the road to eat.”
Meanwhile, anyone with connections ignores all traffic laws. Illicitly purchased Porsche
SUVs and Black Mercedes Coupes ram through the red lights without a glance, and the traffic cops turn their heads.
Off of the main street, the story is entirely different: the roads, neglected for decades and destroyed by tanks during the nearly decade-long civil war here in the 90’s, are a lumpen mess and becoming increasingly impassable with every year of neglect. Recently, Chinese companies have begun to rebuild some of the key roads, such as the one leading north across the Fan Mountains to Khujand—but where the roads are repaved and smooth, they have become increasingly lethal. People here will perform acts unthinkable in the US—acts we don’t even regulate against, like passing someone while they are passing someone else on a 2-lane road – or just flashing their lights while passing and heading straight into oncoming traffic. Villagers step without looking out into the roads, unused to the new, high speeds at which cars can travel.
And between the Chinese and the Tajiks, tempers flare, as road closures happen unannounced along the only intercity arteries in the country. There have been fights and even killings. The Tajiks accuse the Chinese of eating all the frogs and turtles in the rivers. The Chinese (and rightfully so) accuse the Tajiks of disregarding their personal safety. many roadworkers have been killed by incompetent or careless drivers.
No surprise in a country where a driver’s license can be purchased, and they are sometimes given to teenagers as a surprise birthday present.
So as I pilot my little Russian Niva 4WD my passengers often ask me: “How do you drive here?”
I reply the only way I can:
“Very carefully.”
|
| posted by: ray nayler
Travel Writer Stephanie Plentl goes to a covenant-turned-retreat in Hérépian, Languedoc in the south of France, to learn that Frenchwomen aren’t born chic, it’s an acquired skill.
Link…
|
| posted by: neil schwartz
As part of an ongoing series, Ray Nayler blogs about life in Central Asia.
Every Wednesday and Friday in Tajikistan, weather permitting, the Aga Khan foundation flies a helicopter from Dushanbe to the remote city of Khorog, in the Pamir mountains at an elevation of 2200 meters (7,200 feet) above sea level. If space allows, and you happen to work for an
NGO here in Tajikistan, and have some business in the autonomous region of Gorno-Badakshan, you can sometimes get a ride. Gorno-Badakshan is the home of the Pamiri peoples, Ismail Muslims whose native languages are a series of obscure Eastern Iranian offshoots with fewer that 100,00 native speakers, Anya and I were lucky enough last Friday to benefit from the Aga Khan’s largesse, and hitched a ride on the helicopter to Khorog, where we planned to conduct recruiting for one of our programs as well as a re-entry seminar for our
FLEX alumni, high school students freshly returned from the United States, in this remote corner of Tajikistan.
To use the phrase hitched a ride makes it sound as if it was easy, but there were, as always in Tajikistan, a number of bureaucratic hurdles to jump through, from getting permission for entry to the Gorno-Badakshan Autonomous Region to getting space on the helicopter itself. But all of the bureaucratic hassles melt away as the sleek Bell lifts from the Dushanbe runway and the ragged patchwork of agriculture at the edges of the capitol, the rusty bones of industry and scrapyards, give way to crenellated hills and wide, drying river beds with ribbons of water veining through them, reflecting the sun like mirrored glass. The helicopter banks gracefully southeast as the passengers, ears muffled in protective headphones against the engines’ roar, settle in to some of the most spectacular scenery the world has to offer.
As we move further from the capitol, the mountains grow drier, more violently twisted from the flatlands below, and more imposing. Knife-ridges of rock lay exposed to the eroding wind, and layers of sediment hardened to granite lay tilted to the sky by tectonics. From far off, it appears as if the loose earth is running down the mountains like water. Soon we are flying not over but through the mountains, with grey sentinels rising around us and white flashes of snow that grow, over time, to glaciers grinding their way down the mountainsides and, as we hover over Afghanistan, sawblade ridges of stone outside our windows. Below, the Pyandzh River winds its course, and villages nestle up to, splashes and streaks of cultivated green in the arid, twisting scene.
Read more…
|
| posted by: ray nayler
Emo culture. You know, the usually privileged urban/suburban teens who wear eye makeup, and whine incessantly about their abilities to feel sadness, the depth of which you will never be able to understand. In proposed Russian legislation (that I wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to were it to be introduced in the United States) a ban is being called for on it. Russian authorities cite the negative influence it has on the youth of Russia who are apparently already facing a ‘spiritual and ethical crisis.’
Among other measures, the proposed legislation apparently calls for heavy regulation of emo web sites and for banning young people dressed like emos from entering schools and government buildings.
According to the bill, The “negative ideology” of emo culture may push young people toward depression and social withdrawal, and the movement carries a significant risk of suicide, especially for young girls.”
The [Moscow] Times says “The bill also outlines what it calls a ‘spiritual and ethical crisis’ facing Russian youth, including the high rate of alcohol abuse, teen abortions and ‘negative youth movements.’
Link…
|
| posted by: neil schwartz
National Geographic has an interesting video on the eating of bats in Northeastern Thailand. Supposedly it helps with virility.
Link...
[1]
|
| posted by: neil schwartz
Previous Stories
All contents copyright ©2005 Pology
Magazine. Unauthorized use of any content is strictly
prohibited.
