December 21, 2006
Turkmenbashi croaks
Once upon a time there was a place called the Soviet Union, which was ruled by a series of evil dictators. Eventually they ended up with a not-so-evil dicator and after a few years the country fell apart. Some of the successor states, Russia and Ukraine for example, are somewhat familiar to Americans; others, like the stans of Central Asia, have remained much more obscure. These are to this day mostly run by evil dictators in the worst Soviet tradition; now the leader of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov has died, perhaps ending a bizarre cult of personality rivalling anything dreamt of by Kim Jong Il or Kinky Friedman.
Known as Turkmenbashi, or Father of all Turkmens, Niyazov was renowned for such peculiar acts as ordering citizens to get gold teeth extracted, outlawing opera and banning men from listening to car radios.
During a 21-year rule he turned his country into a hymn of praise to himself: kindergartens, towns, factories and a month of the year (January) were named Turkmenbashi. He erected a revolving gold statue of himself in the capital Ashgabat and giant billboards of the leader hung all over the country.
He often feigned embarrassment at the adulation. "I'm personally against seeing my pictures and statues in the streets - but it's what the people want," he once said.
But the pressure to worship the leader was relentless. Children in the gas-rich state were forced to learn his book of poetry, the Ruhnama, at school, and a copy of the book was sent into space for good measure.
Posted by mayor mcsleaze at December 21, 2006 03:30 PM
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