Well the verdict is partially in. Our friend who was unfortunately related to the minister of oil and gas who was fired, is now officially on the outs. He lost his job. No one else is allowed to hire him. He was told he has 10 days to vacate the apartment he owns. No one else is allowed to rent to him. I asked why he doesn't flee the country--they have Russian passports. I was told that they'd stop them at the borders. They're not allowed to leave. I'm not sure what purpose that serves the government, since even if they put up a big stink in Russia, we'd never hear about it anyways. So they are asking any families they know to come and buy things from them; furniture, decorative things, anything they have at home.
At school their eldest daughter has been harrassed by her own teachers. The minister had been accused of having a hidden chest of "gold things" and one million dollars buried in his garden. (What kind of idiot would bury a million dollars in his garden. . . ) Her teachers ask her where the money is. They call her by the 'clan', or family name and tell her that she should be ashamed. Where will this family go? They can't leave the country, but they can't work or live.
This isn't the first time this has happened here. Internal exile is common. I wish there was somthing I could do. That seems to be the theme here. I can't actually help anyone with their real problems. With the fact that in the last corruption index I checked, Turkmenistan was 130-something out of 145. America was 19. The only countries with more corruption were Haiti, Camaroon, and a few other places with recent war. We have no wars, just corruption.
(In 2005 we've made it to third from the end in corruption. Chad and Bangladesh are lower.)
1 comment:
Post a Comment