Product Description: At a year-end publishers’ party at the zenith of the roaring 1990s, the editor of a "laddie" men’s magazine asked his newest staff writer to pitch him the wildest, most over-the-top idea for an adventure travel piece that he could think of. "You name it, we’ll do it!," the editor promised. Remembering his childhood fascination with the Kazakh S.S.R. and its description in National Geographic as "the most remote place on earth," Ted Rall proposed a reckless headlong plunge into the belly of post-Soviet Central Asia. "I’ll drive the Silk Road from Beijing to Istanbul," Rall said, "via Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Turkey. I won’t do research. I’ll just show up and see what happens."
Five years after having been cut loose by the imploding Soviet Union the Central Asian republics—colloquially known as the Stans—were reeling from an identity crisis precipitated by economic collapse. Citizens of a great superpower woke up to find themselves in Third World anarchy. Closed societies were opening up for the first time. Guards at the Chinese-Kazakh border detained Rall for hours at one checkpoint after another; they still faxed Moscow for advice on how to handle him. They had never seen an American passport.
What began as a lark yielded a stunning series of revelations. Elderly people were starving to death in nations sitting atop the world’s largest untapped reserves of oil and natural gas. Looters were cavalierly ambling around in flatbed trucks loaded with disinterred nuclear missiles. Statues of and slogans by crazy dictators were springing up as quickly as their corrupt military policemen could rob a passing motorist. And on the main drag in the capital city of each of these profoundly dysfunctional societies, a gleaming American embassy whose staff was quietly calling the shots in a new campaign to de-Russify access to those staggering energy resources.
CIA agents, oilmen and prostitutes mixed uneasily and awkwardly in ad hoc British-style pubs where beers cost a dollar—a day’s pay and more than enough to keep out the locals. In an extreme case of the "oil curse," wealth was being pillaged by U.S.-backed autocrats while their subjects plunged into poverty. Meanwhile Taliban-trained Islamic radicals were waiting to fill the vacuum.
It was a volatile mix. But did anybody care?
Rall’s magazine account of his 1997 misadventures through Central Asia, "Silk Road to Ruin," was soon followed by a feature he launched on his Los Angeles radio talk show. "Stan Watch: Breaking News from Central Asia," was intended as a send-up of Americans’ disinterest in foreign affairs. Again, the joke turned serious. "Stan Watch"’s obscure news stories about the world’s most remote countries, which many Americans couldn’t even pronounce, became wildly popular. NPR and the BBC simulcast it. A 1999 assassination attempt on Uzbek president Islam Karimov became a subject of intense speculation. Americans, it turned out, were interested in the outside world. They just couldn’t read about it in their local newspaper.
Soon, no one knew more about Central Asia than Rall.
Transformed by what he saw being done in America's name and eager to sound the alarm, he became an expert. He returned to visit the region's most rural mountain villages. He brought two dozen ordinary Americans on the bus tour from hell. He went as a rogue independent and as a guest of the State Department. He returned to cover the American invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11, then went back again. Capitals moved, street names changed and the economic fortunes of entire nations turned on a dime from year to the next, but those changes merely reinforced Rall’s firm belief that Central Asia is the new Middle East: thrilling, terrifying, simultaneously hopeful and bleak, a battleground for proxy war and endless chaos. It is the ultimate tectonic, cultural and political collision zone. Far away from television cameras and Western reporters, Central Asia is poised to spawn some of the new century’s worst nightmares.
Great cartoons, unprecise and shallow background As a cartoonist Rall is great, making striking points, with a beautiful line, about the absurdities of Central Asian administrations, governments and societies. But the same exaggerations that fits the cartoon medium, does not work so well in the rest of the text. Rall exaggerates the geopolitical importance of this region in general. And he is definitely not a turcologist, two examples: "...Turkic peoples (in Central Asia) languages are considererd dialects of Turkish by some linguists, and distinct but closely related tongues of the Indo-European language group by others". Turkic peoples speak Turkic languages, and no linguist believe Turkic is an Indo-European language, it's either a separate group or part of the altaic language group. And this one: "Traditionally all Turkic peoples living west of the Amu Darya were called Turkmen. Now, however, these Oghuz Turks - who are genetically indistinguishable from actual Turks - are the only true Turkmen." What does this even mean! But as an easy read, entertaining introduction to the region, the book works.
FASCINATING!!
Ted Rall travels to Central Asia - Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. He traveled a few times by himself while he was doing a radio show in LA. Then he went on behalf of the U.S. state government to Turkmenistan and on his own to Afghanistan via Tajikistan to cover the 2001 Afghan invasion.
The book goes into the history, current political situation and culture of this region of the world which we do not know much about. We read about a world where there are military checkpoints, not much development, corruption and different cultures. We learn that Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have vast amounts of untapped oil reserves which the United States, Russia and China are all vying to get. Since 2001, the U.S. has also opened military bases in these countries.
He details environmental problems such as Kazakhstan is Russia's Nevada and Russia does nuclear testing there. He goes into Central Asia's versions of 9/11 and Tiananmen square. Also we learn about some customs and interesting games played by people in Central Asia. The book has some enlightening and funny comic strips in it. Rall has a genuine appreciation of the history and culture of these regions.
Rall's conclusion at the end is that when democratically elected leaders such as Askar Akayev from Kyrgyzstan are toppled by U.S. backed revolutions and dictators who bow to the U.S. are instilled; this will lead to a repeat of a 1979 Iranian style revolution in these countries. That is one conclusion, the other one is that countries are turning a blind eye to gross human rights violations like murders of political opponents or boiling dissidents while at the same time cozying up to dictators to gain favor and eventually access to oil. This will create resentment in the long term. He says if people in the United States don't care about these countries, that is fine, as long as we withdraw from the region completely. Another conclusion is that foreign aid is pouring into Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan since they have proven oil reserves. Meanwhile Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are borderline failed states. Rall states these countries are a "package deal" and if one or two countries remain volatile, it will affect neighboring countries. Silk Road to Ruin is a must read book to learn about this underreported part of the world.
Reveals American Contempt for Central Asians Ted Rall's book is worth reading, for a damning self-portrait of an "ugly American" version 2006--huckster, radio host, cartoonist, coldly cynical, thrill-seeking, slumming Ivy Leaguer, brimming with smug condescension and contempt for those he encounters on various tours through Central Asia over the past decade.
Rall waltzes through some of the most violent and tragic regions on earth apparently in search of laffs, thrills, and chills. He gets them. A form of 21st century slumming, adventure tourism is the theme, including a brief kidnapping by the Taliban. Yet lives of ordinary Central Asians apparently matter little--he boasts of paying thousands of dollars in bribes to bump Central Asians from reserved seats on an airplane in order to escape with his tour group from a potentially violent attack. Despite claiming that the Central Asians were in no danger (if so, why were they leaving, and why had they bought tickets?), his message is clear: "I'm number one."
Although Rall clearly has talent as a writer and cartoonist, as well as determination and guts, he apparently lacks human compassion for the people in the region he exploits in his business ventures.
Dictators and Diarrhea This book is a winner for both armchair travelers and those with a serious interest in international geopolitics. Intrepid journalist Ted Rall has become an expert on the obscure lands of Central Asia. This vast but little-covered area covers the five former Soviet republics known collectively as the "Stans," plus parts of Afghanistan and non-Chinese far-western China, all of which are strongly integrated in culture and history. Here Rall reports, with both journalistic insight and a brutally engaging writing style, about his extensive trips through the region. In an often rip-roaring read, we learn about the various horrors of traveling in Central Asia (the corruption and diarrhea there are both among the worst on Earth), while also gaining knowledge on the region's complex politics and infighting. Rall also provides enjoyable coverage of some of the region's offbeat personalities, locations, and culture - such as Turkmenistan's incompetent dictator Turkmenbashi, or a bizarre sport called buzkashi in which many meatheads die painfully for fun and glory.
Central Asia will soon be a world quagmire that will make the Middle East look like a hissy fit. Age-old ethnic tensions, corrupt dictators, irredentist meddling, and the hangover from Russian and Soviet brutalization will all soon combine with the worst of energy politics, as Central Asia's immense fossil fuel resources attract money and influence from power players. Ted Rall usefully clarifies what's really happening in Central Asia from the ground, and points out the geopolitical disaster that will occur if we merely view the region through the lenses of terrorism (i.e. everyone who disagrees with America is in league with Al Qaeda) or petropolitics (i.e. nations are given benefits or sanctions based merely on how much fossil fuel they can offer). Overall, this book is held back a bit by Rall's occasional tendencies toward hyperbole. His political points become repetitive as the book rumbles along, and the later chapters on energy and military matters get bogged down in simplistic conspiracy theories. Meanwhile, Rall's graphic novellas about his journeys add a great amount of fun to this book, but his regular four-panel political cartoons just aren't really that enlightening. Finally, the book is very richly illustrated, especially with candid photos of Central Asia's regular folks - but the maps are cramped and incomprehensible, which is a real problem if you like to see the precise locations of all the interesting places Rall talks about. [~doomsdayer520~] ]
Ted Rall is one smart cookie! Ted Rall is best known to me for his inciteful and incendiary cartoons. I had no idea he is also an intrepid traveller and perceptive and wildly funny observer of human behavior. What a great, funny,interesting and depressing book.
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