Kashgar: manufacturing history

IMPORTANT NOTE – in the many years since writing this piece my understanding of the situation in the region has evolved somewhat.  Although I stand by the basic issue of the destruction of history here, I hope to resolve the issues with a future visit to the region but until then I am content to leave this here to receive any constructive comments I arrived late in Kashgar, about ten years late, to find two thousand years of history bulldozed…

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Where’s the Islam Mr Karimov?

A typical lunchtime scene in Uzbekistan: a humble cafe, four men sit round a cheaply laminated table, in front of them a full bottle of vodka and some small, dainty, chipped bowls, commonly used for drinking tea. The first round is poured out and the earnest work of drinking begins. By the hour mark things descend into slumps, slurs, blurs and increasingly vague gesturing, the jolly affirmation of male bonding familiar to many of us from other cultures. But, this…

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