Bill's Blog

I can see why “The Wager” is number one on the New York Times Best Seller list. What a story! I was surprised when it turned up in my Great Lakes Library Libby App as I am sure lots of library patrons wanted to read it.

I read David Grann’s “The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder” on a couple of travel days we had on our way to our summer holidays. He combines thorough research with writing like an adventure thriller. I couldn’t put it down and I highly recommend it. I love stories of people overcoming incredible hardships in nature. (This post contains SPOILERS, don’t read this post if you want to read the book.)

This non-fiction work tells the story of a British Navy contingent of 5 ships in 1740 that sets sail for an around-the-world trip to find and take a Spanish treasure ship. The British and Spanish governments were sort of at war as they were developing colonies in the New World. Some of their ships are lost at sea or shipwrecked while going around Cape Horn at the bottom of South America. One ship did complete the mission and bring home treasure. The story focuses on the sailors that were castaways on a cold, rocky island in the Straits of Magellan during a southern hemisphere winter and their struggle to get back to England. Once back, they faced British Naval justice as there were conflicting reports of mutiny and murder while the sailors were stranded.

1740 was almost 300 years ago and the technology was not there yet for ocean global travel. Imagine the following:

• Not knowing your longitude and only being able to figure out your latitude through looking at the stars. With my iPhone, today you can tell exactly where you are on the planet Earth with detailed maps. Because the earth rotates, each hour per day corresponds to 15 degrees of longitude.
• No weather forecasts. The ships were at the mercy of the weather and they often were caught in fierce winds, rain and rough seas.
• Having to rely only on the wind to propel you across the planet. The combustion and steam engines were not invented yet.
• A ship doctor that didn’t know about bacterial infections or Vitamin D deficiency.

I can’t believe Ferdinand Magellan circumnavigated the earth over 200 years before (1519) this expedition took place. These sailors were absolutely courageous and mad for going on these epic journies so long ago.

The old and rich businessmen and politicians of England at the time should be ashamed of themselves for sending young men to sea in these conditions. They were looking to enrich themselves by concocting this war against Spain (The War of Jenkin’s Ear). Sending ships at that time to sail to the Spanish colonies to hunt down a treasure-laden galleon ship was a suicide mission and not worth the loss of young lives. For example, the one ship that did accomplish the mission lost over 1,700 sailors of the 2,000 that started the trip. All throughout the book, sailors are dying of starvation, disease, hypothermia, and drowning. The incredible lack of sympathy for the death of navy sailors is astounding. “…sending their troops off on ill-conceived, poorly funded, bungle military adventures.” …”the war cost taxpayers 43 million pounds” It is never the politicians that get blamed or suffer the consequences, but the usually men, who have to follow orders and go off and do the government’s bidding. See Ukraine/Russia war.

My wife Nadia and I traveled to the tip of South America in the southern hemisphere summer of 1998-1999. We visited an island full of penguins in the Strait of Magallanes, although I can’t remember the name. It was the coldest I’ve ever been in my life. The rain and wind went right through my clothing and I remember shaking and my teeth chattering as we got off the boat to return to our hostel in Punta de Arenas, Chile. I can’t imagine what those sailors went through being stuck on Wager Island without food, shelter, or proper clothing in the southern hemisphere winter.

The book also highlighted the help of indigenous tribes, the Kawesqar, Yaghan, and Chono. It is tragic that they were wiped out. What a loss of knowledge of nature in an incredibly harsh and beautiful part of the world. “By the late 19th century, the Chono had been wiped out by contact with Europeans and by the early 20th century there were only a few dozen Kawesqar, who had settled at a hamlet about 100 miles south of the Golfo de Penas.” I would like to read more about these tribes. I remember spending an afternoon in a library in Punta De Arenas reading about the Patagonia indigenous people when I was down there.

• boatswain – a naval officer in charge of the crew and equipment

I was fascinated with how many nautical words and phrases these early sailors used that are still in use today.

• “toe the line” boys on a ship were forced to stand still for inspection with their toes on a deck seam
• “to pipe down” the boatswain’s whistle signaling for everyone to be quiet at night
• “piping hot” the boatswain call for meals
• “scuttlebutt” water cask sailors gossiped around while waiting for their rations; the modern-day water cooler
• “three sheets to the wind” when lines to a sail broke and the boat pitched drunkenly out of control
• “turn a blind eye” – Vice Admiral Nelson deliberately placed his telescope against his blind eye to ignore his superior’s signal flag to retreat

I like this description of what was needed in a captain. “command of temper, integrity of purpose, vigour of mind, and abnegation of self…” Another sailor quoted John Dryden’s poem, “Presence of mind, and courage in distress, Are more than armies to procure success.”

Shocking to learn about the 1945 “Minnesota Starvation Experiment”. 36 volunteers starved themselves over six months for scientists to study the impact both physical and mental on them.

On a final note, I went for a swim yesterday in the warm waters of the Mediterranean. I swam to a buoy that was probably 50 meters from shore. The waves coming from the deep waters were rolling through me. I was trying to put myself in those sailors’ shoes. Being on a rickety boat, miles from shore, with strong winds, huge waves, pouring rain, and cold water, wow! The sea is powerful and just getting a taste of it on a summer day off the coast of Sicily was enough for me.

For Father’s Day, the family took me out to сыроварння “Cheese Barn”. This is a Moscow-owned Italian restaurant that as the name proclaims, specializes in cheese. The food and ambiance were 10 of 10 and I highly recommend the restaurant. Every dish was delicious and we sampled the mushroom with truffle oil pizza, fish and grilled vegetables, ravioli, and green salad. It has a sophisticated but relaxed atmosphere and it is located in a park near the Bla Bla Bar in the city center.

I am getting a few last bike rides in before we travel on our summer holidays. Late yesterday afternoon I noticed police and paramedics alongside the Ankhor Canal. Divers were in the water with ropes to stabilize themselves against the strong currents. I think they were looking for someone who drowned and by the time I got back from my bike ride, they were much further down the canal by the dam. Many people swim in the cold, fast currents of the canal. It is hot and humid and I drank a lot of water on my ride. Winds picked up in the late afternoon causing lots of dust. There was a chance of rain and the temperature did cool, but no precipitation. Tashkent has a Mediterranean climate with hot, dry summers.

I ended my night playing soccer with my son’s team against the TIS maintenance/groundskeeper team. I am just happy to be able to run around and play team sports at age 56! I didn’t get hurt, although my toe towards the end of the game was starting to feel some pain, so I quit about 10 minutes before the end of the game. This morning it feels fine, so I think it was a good decision. I’ve learned to listen to my body to avoid injury because I don’t recover as fast as I used to from injury. Loved it!

Having a career in international education means you move every few years. This involves finding a different home and specifically a new bedroom every time we move. Homes sizes and styles vary greatly depending on the country and city. In Colombia, Australia, and Serbia we lived in apartments. In Japan, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Uzbekistan we lived in houses. It is a mind shift to go from say an American-sized home in Venezuela to a typical-sized home in Japan. “How is our stuff going to fit in here?”

I’ve learned that I will always want a King Size Bed. The most important thing is the width and the Standard or “Eastern” King of 76 inches is the best. The length does not concern me because at 68 inches in height, even the smallest bed, a “Twin” is suitable at 75 inches in length. When you are sleeping with a partner, it is best to be in the same bed (I don’t want to sleep in another room or a different bed in the same room) as some older couples get to. Both Nadia and I are not loud snorers so that is not a problem, it is a question of movement. I like bedrooms cooler however, and she likes it a bit warmer.

UPDATE: The Islamic Republic of Iran defeated Uzbekistan 1-0 in the finals on Tuesday evening.

I had a fantastic time with my son Oliver last night at the CAFA Nations Cup 2023 soccer game between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Oliver developed a passion for soccer through playing on his school’s team. Like any good dad, I want to support his interests and selfishly, spend time with him, so I got us tickets on iticket.uz. We bought the most expensive seats in the stadium ($18) and were situated at midfield about 5 rows up. Three of Oliver’s friends from his soccer team joined us.

The Central Asian Football Association consists of six teams as you can see in the table below. I put the nation’s population to get a sense of the strength of the football association. Iran is a large country that regularly qualifies for the World Cup and what Uzbekistan is striving to become. I was surprised to learn Kazakhstan (19 million) after independence chose to join UEFA instead of CAFA. I think they would be better suited to compete in the CAFA region.

Afghanistan	41.6 million population
Islamic Republic of Iran	87 million
Kyrgyzstan	6.8 million
Tajikistan	10.2 million
Turkmenistan	6.7 million
Uzbekistan	35 million

This is the inaugural CAFA Nations Cup which will be a biennial competition. Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan are the joint hosts. Uzbekistan hosts a lot of Asian competitions because it has stadium capacity, a growing economy, and a stable political climate. They invited Russia, Thailand, and Oman to participate with only Oman accepting. The seven teams are battling it out this month. With Uzbekistan’s convincing 5-1 thrashing of Tajikistan, they won Pool B and will play Iran on Tuesday night at Milliy Stadium.

Soccer games are awesome when there are goals and deadly boring for me when there are no goals. The teams didn’t disappoint last night. Tajikistan played defensively the entire game as they were outmatched talent-wise by the Uzbeks. They had a counter-attack that resulted in a foul and a free kick that resulted in a goal right before halftime. The Uzbeks turned it around in the second half scoring three goals from regular play and two penalty kicks. Their top player, Eldor Shomurodov, who currently plays for Serie B Italian club Spezio, scored a penalty kick and had a beautiful back pass assist for another goal.

Another star for Uzbekistan was not suited up for the game and sat directly behind us. Jaloliddin Masharipov plays with Christian Renaldo for the Saudi club Al Nassr. Kids were coming up to him the entire game to take selfies and shake his hand. The security guys escorted them over to meet the Uzbek soccer hero which was nice. He was patient and kind during the many interruptions to his game-viewing experience.

NYU professor and public intellectual Scot Galloway was saying the other day on his podcast that fathers sometimes need to get into what their children love instead of what they love. Soccer is a good one because I do like it and am happy Oliver loves the game. We are connecting more because I now follow the sport closely. It was so fun to spend the evening with him last night!

Nadia and I had a great time celebrating King Charles Birthday at the British Ambassador’s Residence on Thursday. Ambassador Tim Torlot is a good friend and he put on a spectacular party in the massive garden of the residence. Now that the pandemic is over I am getting to know more people in the international community of Tashkent. Tim’s posting is ending soon and Nadia and I will miss him. He is such a kind-hearted gentleman that is so interesting to listen to and be around. After the party, Aaron, Nadia, and I went out for sushi.

I drank a delicious Punk IPA from Brewdog Brewery. One of my Scottish colleagues invested in the Kickstarter campaign of the brewery when they began in Ellon, Scotland, near Abderdeen. The Punk IPA is described “Punk IPA is the beer that kick-started it. This light, golden classic has been subverted with new world hops to create an explosion of flavour. Bursts of caramel and tropical fruit with an all-out riot of grapefruit, pineapple and lychee, precede a spiky bitter finish.” It wasn’t too hoppy and was perfect for a hot summer night. I also had a refreshing Pimm’s, which is a classic, British summer “long drink”. Pimm’s is a “gin-based fruit cup” which is a type of liqueur.

This morning I went for a 35-kilometer bike ride in the northern part of the city. I came back through the area I call “Beijing” because of the long blocks of massive apartment complexes. It reminds me of the scale of construction of apartments we saw while traveling in China a few years ago.

I love playing tennis at the Olympic Tennis School. We have a Sunday morning group that often plays doubles tennis. It is a group of expatriates and in the photo above, there are players from Turkey, Ireland, Pakistan, UK, Australia, and Russia. Last Sunday was the last day of one of my friends, Steve Orr. He is moving on to a new post with the US State Department. We have regularly played over the past two years. We used to play with the US Ambassador and continued after he left. I’ve always enjoyed the competition and camaraderie. Nadia is starting to play again! Her back issues seem to be in the past and it is nice to see her on the courts again. She is such a good athlete!

Ocean and I visited a photograph exhibition in the Ilkhom Theatre entitled “Architecture of Historical Optimism” a project by artist Alexander Fedorov. Fedorov made 19 posters featuring buildings designed by Soviet architects from the 1960s to the 1980s. I am a big fan of Soviet modernism and the bold shapes and designs of building from the Soviet Union era. Many of iconic buildings were constructed after the 1966 earthquake that destroyed most of the city. The Soviet government at the time called for citizens from around the vast Soviet empire to come to Tashkent to rebuild the city into a Socialist Model of Modernism the “Shining Star of the East”. With Tashkent developing rapidly, some of the buildings have already been torn down as most do not have protection. I understand the sentiment of forgetting the domination of Russia over Uzbekistan, but for future generations, long removed from that time, the Soviet architecture is a part of the history of the city and something will be lost if some of them are not preserved. Hopefully, this exhibition will spur officials on to protect and promote that era of architecture for future generations of Tashkenters.

I am fascinated by the buildings featured in the exhibition and did some research into them.

• Experimental Home “Pearls” Architect Ophelia Aydinova’s 1985, 16-floor apartment block was built for veterans of World War II, honored workers, and neighbors who lost their homes in the building of the project. In between the 120 2-bedroom and 4-bedroom apartments, the architect put in common areas for children to play and residents to gather. I love the promotion of “third spaces” (not home, not work) to encourage people to connect and a club on the rooftop that used to have a swimming pool. The building today is in a state of decay with very few of the apartments occupied.
• Turkistan Palace of Arts This building stood partially completed for many years due to funding problems. Eventually, the first President of Uzbekistan, Karimov, got it completed in 1993, shortly after independence. Today it is a theater managed by the Ministry of Culture. It has a cool, Soviet-looking rocket launch site outdoor amphitheater.

I would like to finish this post with a video I shot of Ocean, Nadia, and me shopping last Saturday in Tashkent.

It was a special opportunity to participate in the varsity boys soccer game against faculty and staff. Oliver developed a passion for soccer this year, partly due to the FIFA video game and partly due to being part of the varsity soccer team this year. He is following the English Premier League and is rapidly improving. He is a natural striker and watching him play gives me great joy.

The coach, Simon Byrne, did an excellent job with the team this year and wanted to finish the school year with a final game for the seniors. We had a mix of talent, age, gender, and job position on our team. I played a bit in the second half on defense. The youth eventually overcame the experience and the students won 6 – 3.

The other big event this week was an electrical substation in our part of the city burned out, leaving big parts of the city without power for approximately 24 hours. With temperatures reaching over 100C, we needed to send the students home early yesterday for safety concerns. The fast pace of development of the city is straining the electrical grid of the city. The system has not been able to keep up with the population growth combined with an incredible amount of new construction. Our facilities manager has many contacts in the electrical company and was giving us updates on the efforts to fix the substation.

Like health, you don’t appreciate electricity until it is gone.

There is lot going on as May turns to June. With the end of the school year approaching, there are many events scheduled to conclude the year and say goodbye to departing friends. Last weekend, it started with the TIS graduation. It also put into perspective that Nadia and I have only one more year with our middle son Oliver. We will savor the moments with him! He attended the ceremony to celebrate his friends. Next year, it will be him.

On Saturday, Oliver and Ocean had the final sports tournament of the school year. Both really like volleyball. The school arranged a 4-team tournament with local schools. Both Oliver and Ocean’s teams won all three of their games. The games were competitive and they played well. I am not a huge fan of volleyball, but today’s kids like it a lot, and my children are enthusiastic about it. That makes me want to be enthusiastic about it as well. It is better than gaming and they get another experience of being part of a team.

I end this post with a visit I made to Sarikol mahalla library. It is almost adjacent to our school, near a large apartment complex. The mahalla lacks funds and one of our students is looking for a service project. She is thinking of finding more books, furniture and fixing the place. It could be a youth community center with our students providing English lessons, art, etc.

I always found Jeffrey Toobin’s law commentary on CNN engaging. He also chooses interesting topics for his books, for example, Patty Hearst, Monica Lewinsky, etc. When I listened to an interview with him about his new book, I immediately purchased it on Apple Books.

1990s American history and pop culture are a bit of a blank for me. I lived in Colombia and Bolivia from 1992 to 1999 and in the days before the Internet, I couldn’t follow events in America. I remembered seeing the image of the Oklahoma City federal building torn in half by a truck bomb and I remember McVeigh’s stern face on the perp walk, but not much else about the incident. Toobin covers the entire story from McVeigh’s childhood, to making the truck bomb and to the trial. He also connects McVeigh’s extreme right-wing, pro-guns, anti-government beliefs to today’s groups like the Proud Boys or Oath Keepers and the January 6 riot on the Capitol.

I think Toobin is right about McVeigh being a forerunner of today’s QAnon/Proud Boys/Trump base supporters. I grew up in rural Michigan and understand the Libertarian worldview. Toobin describes my home state, “Michigan is Detroit – attached to Idaho. The great mass of the state is rural, agricultural, and a hotbed of right-wing extremism.” My part of Michigan is too far north to be agricultural and the state has some of the most liberal laws in the land (legal marijuana, LGBTQ rights) and has always been a strong Democratic labor union state. So we are far from being Idaho, but his point is that there are lots of “red-state” areas outside of the cities and university towns. I didn’t know that McVeigh’s partner in the bombing, Terry Nichols, was from Lapeer County, in the “thumb” of Michigan. McVeigh was from a town outside of Buffalo, New York.

Toobin’s thesis is without the easy communication of today, McVeigh and extremists like him, were isolated back before the Internet. He was greatly influenced by radio commentator Rush Limbaugh and another radio voice in Arizona. McVeigh also read a book called The Turner Diaries which he quoted from often. McVeigh was convinced in his mind that he was like the patriots of the 18th century, fighting against the tyranny of an oppressive ruler. The FBI storming of the Waco Compound really angered him. All of this rage building inside of him resulted in the bombing.

The bombing was horrific with 163 people killed, 15 who were children at the day care center in the Murrah Building. The blast registered 6.0 on the Richter scale and was felt 55 miles away. It was one of the biggest mass killings in American history. McVeigh rightly got the death penalty and Nichols is serving life without the possibility of parole. Another friend of McVeigh, who was a key witness in the case, ended up with 10 years in prison as well.

I see a lot of young men with similar issues to Timothy McVeigh today. A generation ago, there were manufacturing jobs to provide men without a university education or a high level of skills with enough income to attract a wife and provide for a family. I think of my uneducated uncles from my adopted mother’s side of the family. My Uncle Dan worked in a warehouse, my Uncle Norman at a paper mill and they could afford really nice homes in the suburbs of Green Bay, Wisconsin. I am not sure if it is so easy today. McVeigh should have never left the military. He was a decorated soldier in the invasion of Kuwait. He failed to get into the Green Berets and that soured him on a military career. Instead, he left to a life of poverty and wandering. He earned a living through having a small table at gun shows and occasional retail or security guard jobs. What he needed was meaningful work, a woman who loved him, and hope for the future through children. The result was the tragic loss of life.

Below are some other thoughts from the book.

• American gun advocates are misguided if they think that gun ownership can defend them against the US government.
• McVeigh was a “white separatist” not a “white supremacist”. He hated immigration, the industrial decline of Buffalo, and women moving out of the traditional roles of housewife and mother.
• Newt Gingrich was one of the first politicians that started the tribalism movement that pervades politics today. He said some vile things, comparing Democrats to the Nazis and calling them sick, pathetic, anti-flag, traitors. This attitude does us no good.
• Toobin quotes psychiatrist James Gilligan, “One of the special characteristics that predispose men to commit murder, or other serious physical violence, is an unusually strong wish to be loved and taken care of, and unusually strong feelings of being inadequate and unloveable.”
• Toobin mentioned Elohim City, a small religious community of a few hundred people with white supremacist orientation 200 miles east of Oklahoma City. I can’t believe compounds like this still exist.
• Toobin refered to a study showing right-wing extremism was responsible for 76 percent of all extremist murders in the USA from 2009 to 2019. Islamic extremists 20% and Black nationalists 3%.

We are having an exciting weekend. Oliver and Ocean competed in the annual TIS track and field meet yesterday. The school rents Pakhtakor Stadium, which is an Olympic-level facility for the day. We invited the local schools for a one-off athletics meet. We are a small school and track and field is squeezed in at the end of the school year along with volleyball. It is nice that we have it however and the kids and Nadia and I enjoyed the day. The highlight was Nadia coaching Ocean to victory in the long jump. I ran in the 1,200-meter Parents “Fun” Run and finished fifth. Ocean won two other medals in a relay race and in the 200 meters. Oliver just missed out on medals in the 400 meters and the 4 x 100-meter relay race. It was a long day in the sun but I do love a track & field meet!

After the track meet, we went to the Winesday Cafe and Wineshop to celebrate the kids’ accomplishments. It is Nadia’s favorite place to go out in the city and an example of the rapid changes taking place in Tashkent and Uzbekistan. With a young population that is growing, and an opening of the economy to international investment, the future looks bright for the country.

I am a lucky man to have two such beautiful women in my life! Ocean is growing into an elegant, stunning woman and Nadia and I are so proud of her.

Late May and early June is the dinner and party season for international educators. There are a multitude of dinner parties, celebrations, ceremonies, etc. Last night we had two events, the most important being Oliver’s prom. He is in grade 11 and as you can see, he had a nice time with his friends. The kids prepped at our friend’s home while we were at another party. I did stop by later at the prom, which was held at the Golubie Kupola restaurant, a famous restaurant in Tashkent. The youthful energy and excitement is just nice to be around.

Nadia and I attended the US Embassy in Tashkent’s Independence Day Celebration. The ambassador chose to do it in May while the weather is still cool and many of the embassy employees depart during the summer and new people come in August. The event was held outside on the grounds and it was really enjoyable. There was a live band, carnival games, excellent craft beer on tap, food and lots of photo opps with John Deere tractors, marines, etc. I feel like I am an employee of the State Department sometimes as the head of school and appreciate the support and all of the kind people at the embassy.