So, it seems Turkmenistan has a very very wacky ruler

[Barnabas]

- He calls himself "Perpetual Ruler"
- He has forbidden playback singing
- He forced his people to celebrate "Mother´s Day" on his mother´s birthday.
- He doesnt understand english, but just told his ministers that if they dont learn english in 6 months they all will be fired
- He has closed all the hospitals and libraries in the inner provinces, forcing the rural population to travel long hours to get medical assistance or just a book.
- He is spending 18 million dollars in building a Zoo in the Karabum desert, where temperature is often 40 degrees in the shadow, he wants to put penguins there.
- According to the government, he is a literary genius, kids learn at school how to read with a biography of him and his family, with a rather mythical tone.
- There is a statue made of gold of him in the capital, which rotates following the sun.

I translated this from spanish

http://www.clarin.com/diario/2005/12/18/elmundo/i-03501.htm

it was taken from Ansa, Moscow, so, it was not invented (after reading it the first time I thought it was a joke and that someone had hacked this story into the newspaper)

[Dinner]

Newly independent countries often get some wacky ****ers who grab absolute power and make some "interesting" policy choices. The early post colonial period in Africa was filled with such megalomania.

[Barnabas]

2 more bits

He calls himself Turkmenbashi " Father of all Turkmens"

and Turkmenistan ahs the third greatest gas reserves in the world.

[Odin]

This guy's got a screw loose. Almost as insane as Bush.

[Apocalypse]

- He calls himself "Perpetual Ruler"

Cool name

- He has forbidden playback singing

Not really crazy, just gets to some people

- He forced his people to celebrate "Mother´s Day" on his mother´s birthday.

Come on...it's a great mother's day present.

- He doesnt understand english, but just told his ministers that if they dont learn english in 6 months they all will be fired

If they all know it he won't have to

- He has closed all the hospitals and libraries in the inner provinces, forcing the rural population to travel long hours to get medical assistance or just a book.

Can be better for the economy

- He is spending 18 million dollars in building a Zoo in the Karabum desert, where temperature is often 40 degrees in the shadow, he wants to put penguins there.

Girls like penguins....there ya go

- According to the government, he is a literary genius, kids learn at school how to read with a biography of him and his family, with a rather mythical tone.

As long as it teaches them how to read it's cool

- There is a statue made of gold of him in the capital, which rotates following the sun.

That'd be awesome to have of you.


These aren't things a leader should necessarily do, but if you can get away with it, I don't see anything really stupid about it.

[Flip McWho]

Yeah he ain't wacky at all, just has a rather high opinion of himself.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

do they elect their crazies over there or not?

[OneFootInTheGrave]

http://newsfromrussia.com/world/2005/12/16/70026.html

"If you can't get around without a translator, then you can't be minister. You need to argue, decide, know. Therefore, if you want to study on your own, learn at home at nights so that you know the language," Niyazov said in comments on state-run television.

Niyazov, who speaks Russian and Turkmen but whose grasp of English was not immediately known, has banned all opposition and controls all branches of government and the media. Golden statues and busts of the president are scattered across the country, and his portrait is on every bank note and coin.

In Monday, he ordered construction of a university to be named after his book "Rukhnama," which is held as a sacred text in this ex-Soviet republic and is mandatory reading for every Turkmen at schools and workplaces.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Flip McWho
Yeah he ain't wacky at all, just has a rather high opinion of himself.

Seeings how the per capital income in turkmanistan is so low building giant motorized statues of himself doesn't seem like the best use for scarce government funds.

[Last Conformist]

@Apo: Would you take the same attitude to Kim Jong-Il?

[OneFootInTheGrave]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
@Apo: Would you take the same attitude to Kim Jong-Il?

Hey, Turkmenistan is an US ally, but NK is not.

[Apocalypse]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
@Apo: Would you take the same attitude to Kim Jong-Il?

I'm just commenting on those facts, nothing else.

[civman2000]

Didn't this guy also rename a month after himself or something?

[OneFootInTheGrave]

yes I think the month of January has his name at the moment.

[Datajack Franit]

This guy's got a screw loose. Almost as insane as Bush.

Then move there