Adonis Diaries

Valleys can be scary places; the richer the valley the scarier: everyone wants a piece of it.  There is this valley called Fergana shared by the States of Kirghistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan.  There are two rivers, Kar Daria and Naryn, taking sources in Kyrgyzstan (the State that witnessed political and social turmoil lately and where over 80,000 took refuge in Uzbekistan and then returned:  They surely have seen conditions of refugees on cables and knew better to return home quickly and not linger a day more.)  Yes, many people of Uzbekistan origin were massacred in the two cities of Jalalabad and Och.  The two rivers join in Fergana Valley and generate the famous Syr-Daria River that flow in Kazakhstan and ends in the Aral Sea.

Cotton is the main produce in that rich valley. Go figure, as if they can eat cotton at a time when every drop of “unsalt” water counts.  I distinguish between unsalted water a potable water;  there are no potable water anymore: Dogs are dying drinking water. As if the people in that region care for cotton when wearing bear coat is considered light dress.  States with lands by major rivers (or not that major) want to grow cotton; they don’t mind be the new slaves, hand picking cotton as during the US Confederate States period while cotton growers in the US are subsidized by the government in this so-called Global Fair Trade Agreement or Act.

There are three dams on the Naryn, two of them are under construction and the neighboring States are worried about “water politics ” when the US, Russia, and China decide to fight it out in Central Asia.  Russia decided not to intervene militarily in Kyrgyzstan because it was suspicious that soldiers from the neighboring States might decide not to vacate the areas by the two river sources on ground of “sovereign interests.”  Actually, there were many mercenaries from Uzbekistan infiltrating in Kyrgyzstan before the latest flap.  Any destabilization in these sensitive regions will confront the three superpowers.  The US and Russia have already military bases in Kyrgyzstan; the Ouigour region in China (that witnessed heavy social turmoil last year) is bordering Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.  The two major routes for the opium grown in Afghanistan cross Kyrgyzstan; another strategic product that neighboring States want to get its monopoly.

Geography is as basic in geopolitics and humanities departments as math is to sciences. Egypt grows cotton and many African States bordering the Niger River.  Gamal Abdel Nasser was forced to side with the Soviet Union because it financed the Aswan Dam.  The US government was ready to finance this dam but cotton grower’s lobbyists pressured the government to desist.  If these cotton growers knew that the US government would subsidize intensive agro-businesses then, they would have let the US finance all kinds of dams anywhere on earth: they would sit tight and receive subsidies.

Slavery is still strong and expanding.  There are millions of slaves in so-called independent States growing cotton and hand picking cotton.  There is this cloud and it may rain anywhere it wishes; the wealth is reverted to the vaults of the superpower nations; a small portion of that wealth is redistributed as loans and grants to keeping slaves surviving and producing.