Modern-day madman

Found this link at the Mysanthropist - it's to an article in the UK Observer about Turkmenistan and its ruling psychopath, Saparmurat Niyazov. bq. "On 27 October the people of Turkmenistan - a gas-rich, desert-dominated central Asian country - will be celebrating 13 years of independence from the former Soviet Union. There will be feasts and military parades in the gleaming capital, Ashgabat. But, like the Soviet-era buildings behind the marble facades, the fabric of society is crumbling under the rule of the man they will be praising: Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmenbashi the Great, Turkmenistan's 'President for Life'... bq. ...As well as renaming January, Niyazov has renamed April after his mother, May after his father and September after his 'divinely inspired' masterwork, the Rukhnama. This 'book of the soul' dominates the life of his subjects. Written between 1997 and 2001, it fills bookstores across the country and has been made the cornerstone of an otherwise ravaged educational establishment. 'On a par with the Bible and the Koran, it is to be used as a Spiritual Guide,' writes Niyazov in the introduction, 'to remove the complexities and anguishes from day to day living.' There are regular pageants staged in sports stadiums depicting scenes from this opus, centring on the moral purity of his mother and father. And every morning at factories and schools the citizens sing the national anthem, which refers to Turkmenistan as 'The great creation of Turkmenbashi'... Just the place I would want to do business with... The Observer article is fairly long and goes into detail about some of Niyazov's more egregious decisions. One of these is an ecological disaster waiting to happen - specifically, the construction of the Golden Age Lake. bq. At an estimated cost of $6.5bn, it is expected by many scientists to reduce the scarce and vital water supplies of the desert nation through drainage and evaporation. Experts say the best expenditure of funds would be to dredge and re-line the Karakum canal which makes life possible for a large proportion of the Turkmen population. A senior Western official in Ashgabat, who refused to be named, believes Turkmenistan is at a crossroads. 'What it does in the next 50 years will determine what it will be like in the next 10,000 years. It will either be a country that can sustain a population of up to 8or 10 million forever, or it will go back to being a desert with a few watering holes. If it doesn't invest its hydrocarbon profits in the water infrastructure we will be bringing food aid in 50 years' time. Sad really...