Why do women wear the hijab (or don't)?

Fascinating declarations from women in seven countries.  They sincerely and insightfully explain why they do (or don't) wear the Muslim head scarf.

Darvaza flaming crater in Turkmenistan

In 1971, Soviet geologists found an underground cavern with natural gas.  To avoid a poisonous gas discharge, the crew decided to burn the gas.  It has not stopped burning since.

U.S. withdrawal from Iraq/Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan

Iraq/Kuwait border, 2010:

Afghanistan/Soviet border, 1989:

Todd Margaret IFC trailer starring David Cross

A sitcom starring David Cross (Tobias Funke) and Will Arnett (GOB Bluth)?  For the British market?  With jokes about Kazakhstan?  I'm in!

Clip of pilot here.

Restrepo movie trailer

I went into the theater today to see Agora, but I should have seen this documentary about our attempt to secure the Korangal Valley in Afghanistan instead.  Here is an article about our failed and futile efforts there.  All I have to say after watching this trailer is that we need to at least quintuple the resources we put into providing mental health care for our veterans.

Conquering Xinjiang

Peaceful subjugation of the Uyghurs through money (economic development) and suffocation (even more Han immigration).

Here is CCTV's take.  The anchor, I assume, is China's version of Anderson Cooper.

Skip to 2:11:

Chinese ready for July 5 Xinjiang Uyghur anniversary (plus Twitter feed)

These photos were all taken over the last few days.  Security forces have paid friendly visits to Uyghur men in Urumqi, where they were politely asked to stay home on July 5 and were kindly liberated of their knives.

Follow Melissa Chan of Al Jazeera on Twitter.  She just landed in Urumqi.  She was a great source last year during/after the rioting.  She's hit the ground running.

Update: Or, feel free to check back here often.  I've placed her Twitter feed on the top right hand side of my blog.  I'll leave it there for the next week or so.

Riot preparation in Urumqi and Oakland

In Urumqi, the government just installed 40,000 (!) high def video cameras all over the place (streets, alleys, kindergartens, buses, malls).  The one-year anniversary of the riots is July 5.

In Oakland, BART stations and local businesses are boarding up their storefronts.  My source tells me that once the Mehserle jury reaches its verdict, the L.A. court will give the City of Oakland two hours to prepare its cops and to allow city and county workers to go home, i.e. get the heck out of Dodge.  After two hours, the verdict will be announced to the public.  So if you see people leaving en masse from Oakland Civic Center, get out.  Stay safe everyone.

BART station

Xinjiang Uyghur riot one year anniversary

Next Monday, July 5, is the one year anniversary of the riots in Xinjiang.  What will happen?  I'll bet nothing.

Here is a shot from Kashgar this week.  The PLA truck sez "The happiness of the ethnic people is our desire."  Oo-kay.

Source.

Chinese government police military prepared ready for one year anniversary of Urumqi Xinjiang Uyghur riot of July 5

Do you think the Chinese government is ready?  You bet.  These photos were taken at an exercise in Urumqi on June 10.

Uzbek refugees fleeing Kyrgyzstan

Sad.

Joseph Stalin is to blame for the Kyrgyz-Uzbek violence

In order to control his large Soviet empire, Stalin used the divide-and-conquer policy on the Central Asian republics, especially those in and around the heavily populated Ferghana Valley.  He sprinkled enclaves all over the region.  There are:

• one Tajik enclave in Uzbekistan, 
• two Tajik enclaves in Kyrgyzstan,
• four Uzbek enclaves in Kyrgyzstan, and
• one Kyrgyz enclave in Uzbekistan.

In the weeks before the violence that is taking place now, Uzbeks living in Uzbek enclaves within Kyrgyzstan have been arguing with neighboring Kyrgyz about the use of disputed land for grazing.  The tensions escalated and now almost 200,000 ethnic Uzbeks have become either refugees in neighboring Uzbekistan or become internally displaced people.

No one wins, except ousted leader Bakiev.  He may not have instigated this, but he definitely has something to gain if this chaos leads to the collapse of the weak and perhaps incompetent interim government.  I think current leader Roza Otunbayeva is a good and honest (maybe too honest) person, but she is not the right person for Kyrgyzstan right now.  You do not want your leader to publicly say that a part of your country is out of control and you need a third party's military, i.e. Russia, to come and help.

What is more disconcerting than the Russian army coming in is what the potential reaction from Uzbekistan could be.  As the refugees settle in, stories of brutality and violence perpetrated by the Kyrgyz will be spread.  Uzbeks will want to avenge their brothers' suffering and take it out on the Kyrgyz population in Uzbekistan.  If nationalistic sentiments fan out of control, Uzbekistan may send troops over the border and use protection of ethnic Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan as a pretense for the invasion.  Of course, this Uzbek military scenario is very, very unlikely.  The possibility, nevertheless, is scary.

Here is a picture of Bakiev at a press conference in Minsk today, where he is living in exile.  Just look at that smile.  Bastard.

$1 trillion worth of minerals discovered in Afghanistan

To quote Homer Simpson: "To beer, the cause of, and solution to, all of our problems."

No good can come of this.

Article here.

More violence in Osh southern Kyrgyzstan

Tensions are high in Kyrgyzstan, and especially in the south, where ousted leader Bakiyev has the most support.  Today's rioting killed dozens.  Some are couching it in terms of violence between Kyrgyz and Uzbek gangs, but it's still murky.  The interim government is simply too weak to keep the country peaceful.

I don't think there's going to be an outright civil war, but it will definitely get worse before it gets better.  That is why the U.S. is keen to open up a "transit center" in Azerbaijan to move supplies and troops to/from Afghanistan.  Our transit center in Manas, Kyrgyzstan is perched too precariously.

Raw video from Radio Free Europe.

What the heck is Karakul Lake anyway?

Mother on left, her calf in the little gully in the middle, lake in the background.

You may have wondered why the url of this blog says "karakullake".  Well, when I started this thing years ago, I decided to name it after my favorite spot on Earth.  It's a pristine lake on the western tip of China near Kashgar.  It's a stone's throw away from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan.  The above picture was taken during my 2004 trip with a state-of-the-art 3 megapixel camera.  Fortunately, someone else with better picture taking skills (and a better camera) posted this.  Enjoy.

Nuclear fallout in Soviet Kazakhstan

I am reading Apples Are From Kazakhstan.  My plan was to post an entertaining Youtube video about golden eagles or the very artificial city of Astana.  But I came across this documentary put out by Al Jazeera instead.  It's about the 450 plus nuclear tests the Soviets performed in a small area in eastern Kazakhstan called the Polygon.  Be advised that some of the birth defects shown are very disturbing.  The bullshit comes from the Russians, who blame the cancer and disease on a lack of fruits and vegetables in the Kazakh diet.

Xinjiang finally back online

After more than 10 months, the Chinese government has finally "fully" restored internet service in Xinjiang.  Click here for thank-you-for-your-patriotism-and-cooperation letter from Ministry of Propaganda.  Click here to report harmful misuse of internet.  Thank you, comrade.

The nuclear option: The Soviet way to stop natural gas gushers

In 1972, the Soviets used a 15 kiloton nuclear device to stop an out of control natural gas gusher.  It was successful.  Similar detonations had also been used in Uzbekistan and Ukraine (5 total).  Wow, and I thought nuclear powered lighthouses were ingenious.

In the Footsteps of Marco Polo video

I just watched a 90 minute documentary on PBS.  It's about two Americans who retraced Marco Polo's journey in the early 1990s, right after the fall of the Soviet Union.  The production value is so-so but the story is amazing.  You can watch the entire documentary online.  My favorite parts include:

• World of Warlords (their meeting with a Northern Alliance warlord and being kidnapped by AK-47 brandishing Hazaras).
• Through the Wakhan Corridor.
• The Deserts of Western China (Kashgar and the Talkamakan).
• Mongolia and Tibet.

China donates military trucks and uniforms to Cambodia for returning Uyghurs

You may remember my post last year about Cambodia returning some 20 Uyghurs to the Chinese.  Well, the Chinese are returning the favor by giving Cambodia 257 trucks and 50,000 army uniforms.

That means each Uyghur is worth 12.85 Dongfeng trucks and 2,500 uniforms.  What a deal!