Wonderful Place to Live

Bobo

“What do you think of your president?” I ask my last guide in Uzbekistan. “I’m not going to talk politics. You can ask me other questions.” “Do you have children?” “Yes, a boy and a girl.” “Do they watch TV?” “Yes.” “Do they use the internet?” “Yes.” “Are there websites that are blocked?” “I TOLD YOU I’M NOT GOING TO TALK POLITICS! THAT’S A POLITICAL QUESTION! NO MORE! DO YOU UNDERSTAND!” I give up. There’s no way I’m going to get an honest answer to what life is really like in Uzbekistan. To a person they report, “It’s a wonderful place to live. We have a good government, strong economy, and a president everyone loves.” Can you imagine someone saying this in the United States? I point out some issues that normally would be of concern: the low standard of living, the long lines of cars at the petro stations, when Uzbekistan is an exporter of oil, the fact that the highest denominated bill is 1,000 som with an exchange rate 2,800 som to $1 — imagine buying a car for $10,000 — you would need a trunk to carry the 28 million bills, and then there’s the 33% difference between official rate of exchange for the dollar and the black market rate. “But it doesn’t matter,” they say, “Bobo [grandfather] is an economic genius and because of him we have a strong economy.” For the umpteenth time I am having this conversation before leaving for India. As the young man in the hotel lobby talks about his admiration for Bobo, I decide to Google Islam Karimov, (President Uzbekistan). My worst suspicions are confirmed. Wikipedia paints a horrific picture of this dictator; e.g., “Parade magazine has selected Karimov as one of the world's worst dictators, citing his tactics of torture, media censorship, and fake elections.” I turn my computer over to the young man. “Have you read this?” He starts reading, slowly, occasionally grimacing and mumbling under his breath. It takes a while for him to finish. “We know this,” he whispers, “But we’re not allowed to talk about it — it’s illegal. It’s the way things are and we can’t do anything about it.”