Hope/Kill

Математика, Майкл Джексон, and happy English...








(Still) Tashkent, 7-12-2009

For those who wonder what Mathematics, Micheal Jackson and 'Happy English' have in common: the book stall at what I believe is the 'Yakka Chinor street' (nobody uses street names here as they change frequently). Now that I've been royally hanging about for the last one and a half week waiting for the Turkmen visa to come through (hope-hope-hope!), going to these street stalls is one of the things I do to kill time. I don't think many of the books on offer have much use to anyone, but the lot of them create an interesting mix: newspapers from more than a decade ago, equally outdated maths and happy English school books, a mount of ideology of 'Карл Маркс', Engels and the like, brand new 'Micheal Jackson: 1958-2009', 'The New Yorker' from 1986, and 'Word for orangutans' (as opposed to the '... for Dummies' books I have seen in book stores at home, where the dots can be anything ranging from cooking to relationships). The latter had W o r d on the cover with underneath it the long-armed ape and a red text balloon with something in cyrillic that I couldn't make out. I guess it said something like: "even a monkey understands Word with this book". So there's still hope in that sense.

Less so for our climate I'm afraid. After watching two weeks of France24, TV5Monde and BBC World I can't hear 'Copenhague'/'Copenhagen' anymore (lovely as the city is). It's strange how a continuous stream of information can kill a subject. Or maybe it's not 'information' as such, because there wasn't that much to cover apart from the worries that many of the chief negotiators have that the conference won't bring much more than a 'general framework' (this must be the most 'general' term they could negotiate). Let's talk but not commit ourselves to anything. The burden-sharing will have to be defined over the course of the next (few? hope-hope-hope) years. Someone told a reporter that climate change isn't very popular among the electorate as many voters are still dealing with the losses of the economic downturn.
As if.

No, it's more 'repetition' that kills. And the whole thing only started today. It would be nice to know how much energy was spend on two weeks of climate spin in the media. I mean, those hacked emails - called the 'climate emails' by some - of the University of East Anglia (I had to Google this uni to learn more about it, and I'm sure I'm not the only one)... What a waste. 'Copenhagen, Hopenhagen.' It somehow reminds me of the childish way to show disinterest by repeating a word with the first letter replaced by 'sm-'. Copenhagen/Smopenhagen. Or maybe Smokenhagen would be more appropriate after all the planes have landed. A French cartoonist had it right when he drew a choking Copenhagen from a bird's eye view with all the global leaders flying in.

Back to the book stall. After a long introduction by the vendor I decided to let him in on my handicap: "Anglijskij?" He then looked behind him and found an English passage in the photographic work on Samarkand (or Bukhara; I wouldn't know as I am wasting all my time in Tashkent waiting for the Turkmen in his glitzy white embassy to be nice... Yes, I am frustrated). Still planning to see the city with my own eyes I politely declined. He then handed me a 'Selected Works' of Marx and Engels (seventh print, 1986, by Progress Publishers in Moscow). It's a tad heavy (in weight as well as content), but I couldn't resist.

Wednesday I hope to have more news on when I can move again, 'cause...

I! ... WANT! ... TO! ... CYCLE!

OST East:
An album that I'm listening to a lot these days is 'Solid Air' by John Martyn. I enjoy all songs just as much (which is rare.. thanks for the music Pete!), but 'I don't want to know' to me relates to this entry: