Impressions of Uzbekistan

        Impressions of Uzbekistan 

Read all the guidebooks you like, but when you travel to a new land, nothing prepares you for the feelings and impressions that spring up on arrival. So I find.

Landing at Tashkent airport in Uzbekistan at 2 or 3 am, I was expecting empty corridors and baggage areas. Passport control was admittedly swift: nothing more than a brusque stamp. Then we went through to the carousels: the place was crowded. Welcome to the Uzbek habit of all night travel. Baggage collected , I expected a customs interrogation (we had been warned about complicated forms to complete). But we walked right out, past nonchalant officials.

Melian Dialogues: Might Disposes of the Right

 

The Melian Dialogues: Might Disposes of the Right

Some 2,500 years ago war raged in Greece between the powerful states of Athens and Sparta. The many cities and islands of the mainland and the Aegean either took sides or remained neutral.

One such neutral island was Melos, south east of Athens, and very near to a string of its island allies, or subjects- the Delian League. The Athenians decided that it would be good strategic policy to tidy up this anomaly of a neutral among the aligned. Therefore they dispatched a military expedition with the remit: either bring Melos into our orbit, or destroy it.