[TheForge] Re: Passing on

[Mike Spencer]

Forget Iraq, Andy.  It's where everybody is looking.  It's a big deal
and everybody is watching.  Everybody is shooting everybody else. Pits.

Uzbekistan.  The US is in Karschi but not officially There.  Germany
is in Termes but Just Watching the Afghan Border, Thanks.  The
national Big Cheese is putting down Islamists but is arresting and
trying them, not just shooting them down.  Some Islamists are bombing
things but in a rather desultory manner. So?  So.

Be a spy, collect your $BIGNUM per diem from the CIA, The
Bundessicherheitdienst, CSIS or other similar agency.  But make your
entry as a blacksmith.  Blacksmiths are in good repute in Unzbekistan.
Uzbek smiths have a long history as armorers:

    Uzbek officials hope that a burgeoning revival of ancient
    handicrafts in Samarkand and Bukhara, both of which have teeming
    open air markets, will help fuel the tourism trade.

    Sayfullo Ikramov is a sixth generation master blacksmith, whose
    shop is found on a dusty backstreet of Bukhara's Old Town. He
    boasts that his great, great grandfather made swords and weapons
    for Timur, the ruthless warrior and patron of the arts who
    fashioned a glittering Islamic capital in Samarkand in 1370.

    Mr. Ikramov says that in Soviet times, craftsmen were not allowed
    to make these swords or knives. But now, he says, those
    restrictions are over, and the trade is making a successful
    comeback.

             http://quickstart.clari.net/voa/art/hb/0F565427-88E7-46F9-8391E48D34990734.html

    One blacksmith is a national hero:

             http://www.planetware.com/photos/UZB/UZB003.HTM

There's a Museum of Blacksmith's Art in Bukhara.  The Uzbeks seem to
be quite proud of the history of smithing in their neck of the
woods.

And if you can combine smithing with some useful hardware- or
hydrology-hacking that will contribute to a solution to the clean
water problem in the Ferghana Valley, you'll practically have a new
career.

FWIW. YMMV. DTTAHK. etc. etc.

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Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^

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