Turkmenistan marks on Saturday the State Flag Day, the second most significant holiday in the national calendar after the Independence Day.

The flag of Turkmenistan was adopted on January 24, 2001. It features a green field with a vertical red stripe near the hoist side, containing five carpet guls (designs used in producing rugs) stacked above two crossed olive branches; a white waxing crescent moon, typical of Turkic symbolism, and five white five-pointed appear in the upper corner of the field just to the fly side of the red stripe. The green and red colors appear in this flag because they have been venerated historically by the Turkmen. The waxing crescent moon symbolizes the hope of the country for a shining future and the stars represent the five provinces of Turkmenistan. The five traditional carpet designs along the hoist represent the five major tribes or houses, and form motifs in the country's state emblem and flag.

“The flag is the guarantor of the state’s sovereignty,” Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said in his address to the nation. “The history of the Turkmen state flag, like the history of our nation, goes back thousands of years.”

Large-scale celebrations and cultural events are traditionally conducted throughout the country every year to mark this day. Timed to coincide with the holiday, the country’s biggest marketplace, the Altyn Asyr (Golden Age) with an area of 100 hectares has been opened in the vicinity of the capital city of Ashgabat.

It appears that a new candidate has made headlines across Central Asia and pretty much the rest of the printed world. Amantay Asilbek has tried to run for office already twice before, once in 1998 and for the second time in 2005. The infamous Asilbek has come at it again, this time starting his campaign on issues such as Afghanistan and nuclear energy, but how does one really make the headlines in the pretty much apathetic Kazakh world? Asilbek has decreed the women of Kazakhstan as lonely, unmarried, and numerous, which is troubling for him due to his own personal believe that men who spend majority of their time in the Kazakh air are fruitful up into their 80s. Mr. Asilbek has publicly stated that polygamy would be a solution to this problem, he even has considered this himself, unfortunately Mrs. Asilbek has not passed any of the candidates as worthy of second wife status.

The country has been experiencing a negative birth rate due to many Kazakh men going abroad to Russia and other countries of Asia for better chances of finding higher paying jobs. Many of these men do not come back, or many just find a wive from abroad and try to bring her back. Whatever the cause may be, the people of Kazakhstan have been experiencing a great depression in the marriage bed, the birth rate is toppling and unmarried women are rampant. Could Mr. Asilbek save this country? The only hurdle that he has now is to pass the grueling test of the Kazakh language, a qualifying prerequisite to run for office in Kazakhstan. Even if he passes the test, which 3 out of the 15 candidates have already failed, he still needs to collect at least 90,000 signatures to get his name on the ballot.

If anything, the idea of polygamy has been raised and practiced in many parts of the world. The bible speaks of it, the Koran talks a great deal about it, and we hear about it in the news constantly. It can only be considered natural for humans to want to multiply, especially when you have a nationalistic ideology to back up your multiplying efforts. What good is a sovereign nation when there is no work force or a tax paying populous to push the nation into a new era? Mr. Asilbek's addressed issues are legitimate, his solutions might be old world but still none the least practical and feasible. The only concern that needs to be addressed here is the issue of extremism and religious zealotry. One can predict that some fanatics will be born out of this system and there would be issues of human rights and personal rights being infringed on. But as history has shown us polygamy is only a temporary fix to a problem, the concept dies out when the scales have become balanced within the population.

After watching HBO's Big Love for the past four seasons I can soundly say that it is the men in polygamist marriages that get screwed mentally, not the women, power in numbers.

The new prime minster of Kyrgyzstan has sponsored a bill in parliament to officially name one the peaks in Kyrgyzstan after the not-so-great friend Vladimir Putin. The peak is a mere 4,446 meters, but still impressive considering Mt. Yeltsin is 1,000 meters shorter. But as we all know the great Lenin Peak located on Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border is still the highest and proudest of the natural phallic symbols of tyranny.

One can only speculate as to why this is occurring in Kyrgyzstan, considering the parliaments hard stance on the Russian language and the expansion of the State Language Committee. International observers are not only baffled by these choices but lead many to speculate on the strange diplomatic relations of the two countries. It is a custom for visiting dignitaries to bring presents of all kinds to their hosts, Kim Jung ll even has a museum dedicated to all the presents he has received in his life time. What is interesting about this story is the difference in the honoring of heroes between the east and the west. In the west they tend to wait years after someone has died to honor that persons achievements and legacy. Just now has the building began for the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in DC, 25 years after his death. Yet in many post-soviet countries we still see the glorification of living persons, the constant naming of streets, squares, statues, and even children has been a tradition carried over from the days of Stalin and Franz Ferdinand.

Time will only tell how many times Mt. Putin will change names, we have already seen the government in Azerbaijan grappling with the issue of what to do with the statue of Mubarak in Central Baku. Maybe some of these countries need to start handing out Visa gift cards to their hosts as opposed to Italian marble statues, and hell cards are cheaper and then its easier to break up a dwindling friendship you just need to click un-friend.

Key

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Kazakhstan (KAZ)	32	21	17	70
2	Japan (JPN)	13	24	17	54
3	South Korea (KOR)	13	12	13	38
4	China (CHN)	11	10	14	35
5	Mongolia (MGL)	0	1	4	5
6	Iran (IRI)	0	1	2	3
7	North Korea (PRK)	0	0	1	1
7	Kyrgyzstan (KGZ)	0	0	1	1
Total		69	69	69	207

Iran ----->Belarus ----> Tunisia ------> Egypt ----->Yemen -----> Jordan ------>Algeria ------> Russia ------->Azerbaijan? Tajikistan? Belarus again? We wait.

Analyst have started to predict that the two countries in Central Asia, which are considered to be the poorest and hardest hit by the world economic situation, will come to a point of revolt. Martin Sieff a news analyst of Central Asia Newswire has written that both countries seem to be in a different political corners. Both have been criticized for having authoritarian regimes, and more importantly centralized deteriorating economies. The governments have been highly criticized by international observers for having rapid corruption, lack of technical reform, and miss-allocation of resources. The Egypt revolution is an on-going event that will have an impact on Central Asia without any doubt. There are many factors that need to be watched closely in Central Asia such as the massive crack down on Islamic extremism and the government control of religion as a whole. It will be interesting to see the next couple of weeks unfold and how much of an influence it will have on the oppressed masses of Central Asia. Time will only tell.

       
 


Rank
Nation
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Total

 Kazakhstan (KAZ) 1st.
18
17
12
=47

 South Korea (KOR) 2nd.
10
6
8
=24

 Japan (JPN) 3rd.
8
15
11
=34

 China (CHN) 4th.
8
6
9
=23

 Iran (IRI) 5th.
0
0
2
=2

 Mongolia (MGL) 6th.
0
0
2
=2

Really weird, enjoy.

Could we see the Egyptian revolution cause a chain reaction in the Central Asian countries? The Jasmine Revolution of Tunisia has sparked a fire that has been blowing eastward for the past couple of months. What is really interesting is the stories coming out of Syria and Russia of protests that are very much similar to the Tunisian and Egyptian revolts. There are many factors that need to be disseminated when discussing the reasons and circumstances as to why a revolution is needed. We cannot lump all the states together and brush it with one giant western stroke, but what we can say it that these countries have had rulers that have occupied their ruling seats for over decades. The events in Egypt have brought the presidents of the Central Asian countries to a halt. They are now closely watching how the events will unfold and how other leaders of the world will react to the change of powers. The main countries in Central Asia that I am mostly talking about are Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan. The presidents of all three countries along with other Central Asian nations have had mini dictatorships which have been ruling the countries with iron fists for the past decade. So what does the future hold for these countries? could Nursulan Nazarbayev's recent refusal of a referendum be seen as a point taken due to current events? could we see the people of Central Asia mimicking the people of Egypt? Could these be the last years for the presidents of Central Asia?