-- May 18, 2002 --

Hello everyone,

As Americans, or more broadly as Westerners, our vision of the world is often surprisingly narrow and the much-vaunted superiority of our knowledge is sometimes questionable. Two examples:

One recent morning as I did my sit-ups, I watched a BBC interviewer question the prime minister of Thailand about press freedom and political power. Several questions pointedly asked about Thailand's attempt earlier this year to expel two Western reporters for writing about a dispute between the prime minister and the revered king, as well as about the government's efforts to muzzle the local media. In part, the prime minister replied that he rarely reads newspapers - nor does he need to -- since he's a newsmaker and knows what's happening. As for political power, why would he need to restructure the government as critics fear, the prime minister said. After all, he won by a landslide and is the most popular prime minister in the history of the freest country in the world.

The night before, I attended a U.S. Embassy-sponsored discussion about sustainable development and livable cities featuring Jonathan Weiss, a former EPA official and ex-Gore environmental advisor. Weiss now heads George Washington University's Center on Sustainable and Regional Growth. Weiss talked mostly about United States experiences with urban sprawl and "smart growth," with mass transit and reuse of brownfields (abandoned industrial sites). His point was that society can successfully pursue growth that simultaneously encourages environmental protection, economic growth and social equity.

That may be true back home but how realistic is such thinking for most of the world, in countries where abysmal rural opportunities impel millions of people to head -- in hope or desperation - to cities where there is no housing, no employment, no education and no embracing social community? To talk about regional planning and similar concepts in these places is grounded more in fantasy than realities -- yet the environmental, health and societal issues are far more pressing and affect far more people than a zoning dispute over a condo development or superstore in a Lansing suburb.

That type of reality gap is evident every day here in Tashkent. For example, after Weiss's presentation, we and three other Americans ate dinner at a Georgian (as in the Caucasus, not the U.S. South) restaurant. We paid (overpaid, really) 1,500 sum, a bit over $1 for the unofficial taxi to the restaurant. Dinner was about 42,000 sum (roughly $30, or $5 each) for 6, including beer, wine, tip and live entertainment - with so much food we couldn't finish it all.

The amount we spent for one meal approximately equals the average monthly wage in Uzbekistan, according to statistics I've read.

And I regularly see adults and children scavenging in the Dumpsters outside my apartment building.

I'm not saying we shouldn't continue to address problems such as sprawl and uncontrolled growth at home. What I am saying is that we - the Americans, the Westerners, the outsiders - can't decide or dictate how other nations address those problems, although how they're solved or not solved does affect us at home. At best, we can assist and advise and empathize and adjust. At worst, we can shut our eyes and feel superior.

#

Speaking of reality, I spent two afternoons leading workshops on press relations (who is the press, identifying audiences, effective press releases and handling media interviews) for two dozen representatives from local nongovernmental organizations in Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. These are smart, dedicated men and women, underpaid, often underappreciated, doing pioneering work in conservation education, energy, water resources management, democracy-building and other fields.

My workshops were part of a five-day training session run by the US Agency for International Development's Natural Resource Management Project that operates in a number of parts of the former Soviet Union.

After I finished, one participant asked to talk to me in the hallway. How, she wondered, can an NGO reach the press and gain coverage of a controversial position or project when the press is totally controlled or owned by the government? Should the people of an NGO run the risk to themselves and their organization and antagonize the government by going to the international press such as BBC or to independent news Web sites? Beyond Western media theories of an aggressive free press and aside from platitudes such as "things will get better in the next few years," there was little concrete advice I could give that she hadn't already thought of.

As I said, these people are smart - and they're also realists who understand the existing limitations of the systems they must operate under. They're not quitters. I greatly admire their courage, their stamina and their commitment.

#

"Foreign correspondents criticize us for not accepting certain Western styles of accepting laws," Narzulla Jurayev, who chairs the Oliy Majlis Committee on Science, Education, Culture and Sports, told my students and me. "However, each country has its own customs, and laws should serve the people of that country. We'd like to demonstrate there is an Uzbek model for accepting laws in all spheres." Some people, he continued "look for reasons to criticize us but we are building our country ourselves. We have chosen the way of respecting the human being despite religious and ethnic differences."

The setting was his office in Oliy Majlis, the glistening parliament building that few Uzbeks have seen up close, let alone from inside. With the help of my vice-rector, who is also an elected deputy, we cracked that barrier.

We were escorted into the marble-floored, high-ceilinged lobby along a red carpet. The modernistic architectural theme is moderated by the paintings that line the walls and reflect traditional Uzbek styles and themes.

Our host Jurayev is a political scientist and cultural advisor to the president. He was a newspaper journalist and author of more than 20 books in a previous life. He gave us what was, in effect, a civics lesson on the structure and organization of Oliy Majlis, as well as plans now underway to make it a two-house rather than unicameral entity. (As arcane and theoretical as that type of change may seem, you'll be pleased to know that a referendum on the issue passed with more than 90 percent of the vote in January, at the same time voters by an equally huge margin magnanimously voted to extend the president's term by another two years. No pregnant chads here leaving everyone in doubt.)

We also learned that bills always pass unanimously, proving that it's hard to disagree with a great idea. There's undoubtedly a lesson there for our own Congress.

On entering the building, we were told no photos are allowed. But where's a will, there's a way, so I asked Jurayev to pose at the podium of the magnificent domed chamber where the delegates meet. Several students then posed at the podium and cajoled me into doing the same. (The power trip would have been greater if all 250 delegates had been in their seats.) At the end of the tour, we set up for group photos in the lobby. When a guard tried to intervene, Jurayev (who also would be in the pictures) came to our defense.

Someday - soon, I hope - the people of Uzbekistan will not only get to take pictures where their government operates but to see how things work.

Eric

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