Great advice should be disregarded (sometimes)
One of the first advice I got when I immigrated to Canada was never to talk much about politics and religion. I have lived in Canada for more than half of my life and I feel I have been almost fully "Canadianized" - so I usually avoid politics and religion. But if there are some overwhelming topics from our trip to Mongolia and beyond, it is politics and religion. So, let us not worry about some silly old advice and plunge right into these topics.
Politics
We drove through Europe, Baltics, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Turkey. Since I have a relatively good grasp of Russian and English I was able to talk to a good number of people in the Central Asia and get their opinion about Russia, United States and China. Now, one should realize that semi-dictatorial country with a strong propaganda (as some of these countries are) can bend the thinking of their citizens; sometimes even way too much. Also, I am taking the risk if extrapolating from a few discussions with a few people to the whole population - but, hey, our politicians and some popular statisticians do so all the time.
Nevertheless, it seems to me that the US is generally not liked much and it is perceived as a warring nation in the Central Asia. As one of the people noted "we do not want Americans here .. wherever they come there is a war". Of course, a person may wear a University of California t-shirt, drink Coke, listen to the US pop singer and blame the US for all the ills of the region as well as only a human being is capable of holding two mutually exclusive ideas in his/her head at the same time and live happily ever after . Also, the influence of the local and Russian propaganda is clearly discernible as I run into all sorts of ridiculous claims such as that the US invaded Ukraine and the Russia came to save it, etc. Makes you think about the "success" of the US foreign policy; or the US propaganda...
On the other hand, Russia and Putin are perceived generally positively, mainly by the older people. I have discussed Putin's appeal previously, so I will not expand on it other than to say that many of the Central Asian men work in Russia, making 2 - 3 times as much as they would make in their own country and a lot of households watch the Russia's Chanel 1 broadcast (quite heavy on propaganda). Also many of the old people yearn for the idealized times of their youth, forgetting all the bad of the past, but remembering the idealized good old times of a predictable society. The change seems to be often too hard to bear.
China is a different issue. Some of the people fear the great proximity of the big colossus that was not always friendly to the small nations in the past. But many others praise the Chinese for building roads in the region without realizing how much Chinese goods is being trucked through these roads and how much they stifle the local production. Yet, as opposed to Russia that ruled the Central Asia for over a century, China, mainly modern China, is not well known or understood and the opinions about it range from admiration to fear and rejection.
Religion
The main religion of the region is, of course, Islam. It is growing rapidly here and it is also radicalizing a bit. However, to believe that the Islam in every one of these countries is the same or even similar is silly. It ranges from extremely laissez-faire Islam of alcohol soaked post-Soviet Muslims (with strange mixture of communist ideas interwoven into their newly acquired religious ideas) that basically allows everybody to live as he/she wants to live, to strict religious fundamentalists imposing their religious views on others.
As the more fundamentalist imams are gaining slowly power the women are being pushed into invisibility. (Why this is not a feminist issue in the West is beyond me). However, saying this, I have to also say that never, not even for a second, I felt any danger from any religious person. Of course, some of them will try to persuade you about the superiority of Islam over any other religion, but don't all the religions do the same? However, I am a man, and in many of these countries it is way better to be born as a man than as a woman.
Although I still think that the believers in Islam are very generous and non-aggressive people in general, there are some parts of Quran that might be misused. And, frankly, sometimes they are - witness the plight of many women in the region. But more than anything else I have fully realized the "oneness" of Islam. The non-avoidable part of Islam is the inseparability of sacred a profane. As opposed to the Western countries with their separation between religion and other aspects of life, nothing like it exists in Islam. The religion form a part of every aspect of life and one cannot separate these two - one just "lives in" Islam. What the consequences of this inseparability will be for the rest of the world I cannot fathom. Such inseparability was a new paradigm for me and I am not sure I will ever fully grasp the impact of it.
Of course, after all, I can always accept the answer to the ultimate question of Life, the Universe and Everything. Perhaps it really is "Forty Two" as The Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy told us a while ago? :)
Trabi
I think I have skimped a lot on the Trabi's breakdowns previously. Perhaps, I did not want to describe the regularly occurring normality of it all. So, for your reading pleasure, here is a short list of Trabi's breakdowns (and I know I missed a lot of them):
- bumper disintegrated and broke off the chassis,
- everything in the gasoline system plugged (tank, line, carburetor, etc) - many times,
- cooling ventilator broken,
- gas boiling in the gas line from heat of the engine (thus stopping the gas flow),
- disintegrated ignition,
- non-functioning spark plugs,
- broken steering rod connector,
- main brake cylinder fading more and more,
- no break lights,
- bend rear leaf spring,
- broken bolts holding the rear control arms to the car body - many times,
- broken exhaust gaskets,
- disintegrated exhaust system,
- plugged main exhaust chamber,
- broken transmission,
- overheating ignition coils,
- perhaps every bolt on car in need of constant tightening, etc...
But, hey, this car took us almost 25,000 km through the roads that sometimes reminded us more of the WW2 dive bombed trenches than the actual roads.
The one thing that never broke was the car computer - because there is none. That was also one of the reasons we selected Trabi - you do not have to plug the car into a huge diagnostic machine to find out that you did not tighten the gasoline tank cap enough. You just look and say: "Oh, shit, the rear arm bolt is broken again..." Of course, there was a lot of the "what the hell is broken now" or, "how the fuck do we get across this river", but that was all part of the fun. Fun of going to Mongolia and beyond with the worst car ever made.
One of the first advice I got when I immigrated to Canada was never to talk much about politics and religion. I have lived in Canada for more than half of my life and I feel I have been almost fully "Canadianized" - so I usually avoid politics and religion. But if there are some overwhelming topics from our trip to Mongolia and beyond, it is politics and religion. So, let us not worry about some silly old advice and plunge right into these topics.
Politics
We drove through Europe, Baltics, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Turkey. Since I have a relatively good grasp of Russian and English I was able to talk to a good number of people in the Central Asia and get their opinion about Russia, United States and China. Now, one should realize that semi-dictatorial country with a strong propaganda (as some of these countries are) can bend the thinking of their citizens; sometimes even way too much. Also, I am taking the risk if extrapolating from a few discussions with a few people to the whole population - but, hey, our politicians and some popular statisticians do so all the time.
Nevertheless, it seems to me that the US is generally not liked much and it is perceived as a warring nation in the Central Asia. As one of the people noted "we do not want Americans here .. wherever they come there is a war". Of course, a person may wear a University of California t-shirt, drink Coke, listen to the US pop singer and blame the US for all the ills of the region as well as only a human being is capable of holding two mutually exclusive ideas in his/her head at the same time and live happily ever after . Also, the influence of the local and Russian propaganda is clearly discernible as I run into all sorts of ridiculous claims such as that the US invaded Ukraine and the Russia came to save it, etc. Makes you think about the "success" of the US foreign policy; or the US propaganda...
On the other hand, Russia and Putin are perceived generally positively, mainly by the older people. I have discussed Putin's appeal previously, so I will not expand on it other than to say that many of the Central Asian men work in Russia, making 2 - 3 times as much as they would make in their own country and a lot of households watch the Russia's Chanel 1 broadcast (quite heavy on propaganda). Also many of the old people yearn for the idealized times of their youth, forgetting all the bad of the past, but remembering the idealized good old times of a predictable society. The change seems to be often too hard to bear.
China is a different issue. Some of the people fear the great proximity of the big colossus that was not always friendly to the small nations in the past. But many others praise the Chinese for building roads in the region without realizing how much Chinese goods is being trucked through these roads and how much they stifle the local production. Yet, as opposed to Russia that ruled the Central Asia for over a century, China, mainly modern China, is not well known or understood and the opinions about it range from admiration to fear and rejection.
Religion
The main religion of the region is, of course, Islam. It is growing rapidly here and it is also radicalizing a bit. However, to believe that the Islam in every one of these countries is the same or even similar is silly. It ranges from extremely laissez-faire Islam of alcohol soaked post-Soviet Muslims (with strange mixture of communist ideas interwoven into their newly acquired religious ideas) that basically allows everybody to live as he/she wants to live, to strict religious fundamentalists imposing their religious views on others.
As the more fundamentalist imams are gaining slowly power the women are being pushed into invisibility. (Why this is not a feminist issue in the West is beyond me). However, saying this, I have to also say that never, not even for a second, I felt any danger from any religious person. Of course, some of them will try to persuade you about the superiority of Islam over any other religion, but don't all the religions do the same? However, I am a man, and in many of these countries it is way better to be born as a man than as a woman.
Although I still think that the believers in Islam are very generous and non-aggressive people in general, there are some parts of Quran that might be misused. And, frankly, sometimes they are - witness the plight of many women in the region. But more than anything else I have fully realized the "oneness" of Islam. The non-avoidable part of Islam is the inseparability of sacred a profane. As opposed to the Western countries with their separation between religion and other aspects of life, nothing like it exists in Islam. The religion form a part of every aspect of life and one cannot separate these two - one just "lives in" Islam. What the consequences of this inseparability will be for the rest of the world I cannot fathom. Such inseparability was a new paradigm for me and I am not sure I will ever fully grasp the impact of it.
Of course, after all, I can always accept the answer to the ultimate question of Life, the Universe and Everything. Perhaps it really is "Forty Two" as The Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy told us a while ago? :)
Trabi
I think I have skimped a lot on the Trabi's breakdowns previously. Perhaps, I did not want to describe the regularly occurring normality of it all. So, for your reading pleasure, here is a short list of Trabi's breakdowns (and I know I missed a lot of them):
- bumper disintegrated and broke off the chassis,
- everything in the gasoline system plugged (tank, line, carburetor, etc) - many times,
- cooling ventilator broken,
- gas boiling in the gas line from heat of the engine (thus stopping the gas flow),
- disintegrated ignition,
- non-functioning spark plugs,
- broken steering rod connector,
- main brake cylinder fading more and more,
- no break lights,
- bend rear leaf spring,
- broken bolts holding the rear control arms to the car body - many times,
- broken exhaust gaskets,
- disintegrated exhaust system,
- plugged main exhaust chamber,
- broken transmission,
- overheating ignition coils,
- perhaps every bolt on car in need of constant tightening, etc...
But, hey, this car took us almost 25,000 km through the roads that sometimes reminded us more of the WW2 dive bombed trenches than the actual roads.
The one thing that never broke was the car computer - because there is none. That was also one of the reasons we selected Trabi - you do not have to plug the car into a huge diagnostic machine to find out that you did not tighten the gasoline tank cap enough. You just look and say: "Oh, shit, the rear arm bolt is broken again..." Of course, there was a lot of the "what the hell is broken now" or, "how the fuck do we get across this river", but that was all part of the fun. Fun of going to Mongolia and beyond with the worst car ever made.