Government, of the person, by the person, for the person...

Today I saw someone else's post somewhere, blaming the Kyrgyz government's improper handling of the ethnic violence there on the "nomadic and uneducated" nature of the governing officials' backgrounds. He's got it all wrong.

The historical dysfunction of several FSU governments has nothing to do with the mode of living nor the education of their satraps, and everything to do with them being old enough to remember, and to maybe even have experienced the benefits accruing from their status in the old communist regime. And now, having donned the fashionable mantle of "democracy", they find themselves in a position to accept largess from the West (read Uncle Sam) in the form of money thrown indiscriminately at every problem. Money that, in the main, adds to their personal wealth and so exacerbates the problem. When this generation of dinosaurs dies out and the younger Kyrgyz people are no longer willing to accept the corruption it will disappear, regardless of America's intervention.

BTW, I spent years in Kyrgyzstan, finally obliged to escape across the Kazahk border to avoid being the victim of government sanctioned extortion. I know wherefrom I speak.

Let me introduce myself (in part)

Call me Rich. The URL I've chosen contains the transliterated Russian word for enough (simply because everything appropriate I could think of in English has already been taken). "Enough" seems appropriate to my purpose; to rise in my offerings to the ideal of "sufficient" without descending into "superfluous". Call me on it if I fail.

You may note my habit of frequent parenthesizing. I'm aware of it, it suits my mode of expression, and I intend to continue the usage. Call it a (sort of) transcribed speech impediment if you wish.

I'm 81, a small, skinny, bright, pacific, and curious man living alone but for my dearest Tess, a 5.5 year old Bluetick Coonhound who came to me from the local animal shelter to adopt me, and has on occasion kept me alive. I tend toward the liberal, both politically and socially. I am not religious in the conventional sense, that is to say I reject the fantasy of a benevolent god, in who's image I am supposedly formed. Which is also to say I'm a humanist, and an existentialist. I am a pensioner, formerly involved in manufacturing engineering, quality assurance, and management to feed my body, and in volunteering in service to others to feed my soul.

It's my intention here to relate vignettes of my own odyssey, my take on the issues of the day, and personal experiences as they may occur. I value good faith interchange, and I earnestly solicit honest questions or comments about my offerings. That is, please no comments disguised as questions. Those of you who are products of human evolution will take my meaning.