In the capital of Turkmenistan stands an enormous statue of a book. Every evening at 8PM, the statue swings open and a recently deceased dictator's magnum opus, the Ruhnama, is broadcast throughout the square while a video from within the statue shows his image. Four years after the death of Turkmenbashi, the state continues to portray his book as a sacred text and has coerced foreign business partners to translate it into 22 languages. A team of Finnish filmmakers snuck into Turkmenistan to discover the continued presence of the Ruhnama. (YouTube, 10 parts, part 5 has no audio)
posted by shii on Apr 25, 2010 - 15 comments

DearLeaderFilter: We had Turkmenbashi and his enlightened laws , we heard Karl Rove cry of appreciation when watching the fantastic propaganda of the most precious dear leader Kim Jong Il and elder people will remember a 2 meters tall black dictator Idi Amin Dada as one of the weirdest and most paranoid. But did you know about Mswati III of Swaziland, the second of 210 sons of the elderly King Sobhuza II ? Every year he gets to check out 40000 bare breasted, machete wielding maidens and eventually pick a new wife.
posted by elpapacito on Sep 2, 2007 - 26 comments

The President plans yet another silly boondoggle and introduces faith-based driver education. What President are we talking about? Why, Saparmyrat Niyazov, the president-for-life of Turkmenistan. Or, as he likes to be called, "Turkmenbashi"--the "leader of all Turkmen".

He's got a lot of spiritual ideas and 24/7 TV coverage. Hey--he's against gold teeth and circuses. If it weren't for his dismal human rights record, I might vote for him myself. Sometimes I have to remind myself that there are, in fact, much worse choices than the ones I have for November.
posted by Sidhedevil on Aug 27, 2004 - 13 comments