i haven't been posting on central asia for a little while now. i stopped partly because others were doing a better job than i could and partly because i know i am obsessed with uzbekistan and wondered how long my mostly non-uzbek obsessed readers would put up with it. so here's today's compromise--i'm gonna post about central asia but not uzbekistan. (am i clever or what?)
anyway, via the argus, it appears that turkmenbashi, your one-stop shop for an endless stream of crazy megalomaniac stories, is sick of all the jokes that he is a crazy dictator. and so he's ordered people to stop putting up all those portraits of him. of course, all the portraits are coming right down. that will show them!
however, turkmenbashi is not totally dumping the personality cult. he is allowing the turkmen people to keep that "colossal statue in gold in front of the presidential palace." and the article about the portraits coming down doesn't mention whether january can be january again.
in a related story don't miss the first glorious turkmenbashi short non-factual writing contest! a chance to win a free copy of the ruhnama doesn't come every day!
