Maroon Town trip to Turkmenistan

[guitarristaeluli]

mmm very nice paved roads

greetings from MEXICO

[GUNSIMON0077]

turkmenistan is nase country clan and historic . bat ingland and amerika tuv mahc homles papal slipinde sterat end meny bic selinde body

[pyragy]

see the Ashgabat today end tomorrow, it is totally different. this is an old video.

[turkmeno4ka]

nice video,nice to see Ashgabad:)

guys first time in turkmenistan of course everything is funny for them

[deuangerman]

I received this as one of those joke emails but it should be a T shirt slogan - "Be Nice to America, or we will bring democracy to your country" !!

[JackSparrowDepp]

Naive dumbasses. What is democracy? Bush wanted to bring democracy to Iraq, instead he brought death. You have no idea what democracy is. And you call ypurself educated. Oh my God.

[isbanyol]

very bad

[junge1984]

i read an article about a turkmen girl here in hawaii who's an exchange student. i was baffled to read it since my understanding is that niyazov kept a tight lid on his people. interesting place indeed. hope things change for the better.

[alcotrop]

can you please link me to that article? that girl was my classmate

[crazypianistik]

Furthermore, dissent is forbidden. if anybody is found speaking about the president (again, this was summer 2006, perhaps things have changed), they are taken to prison with horrible conditions as well as all of their immediate families. to make it worse, at any point, the turkmen "house destroyers" could come to your home with bulldozers and order you out and destroy your home to make way for a new road. its/was terrible there, i hope things have gotten better but somehow i doubt it.

[crazypianistik]

hello, although i may not be from turkmenistan, i did spend a summer there with my family who is russian and was left there after the Soviet Union collapsed. SanFranCali, you are dillusional. The free water and gas can be turned off at any time, and yes, although there r low rents, the average pay is a 1.50$ per day. Also, 1/3 of pensioners do not recieve their pension because it was taken away by the gov. and the average pension is 45-50$!

[Tugso]

personally i don't see anything wrong here,roads ,streets look clean,people are working, everything seems in order,far better than in some neighbouring countries.

[0634maria]

From those comments which I here have seen the most fair it from SanFranCali. The good fellow

[0634maria]

Well for delirium idiots about the highest norm suicide.idiots write know open badly smelling mouth.у you a head does not work? Therefore probably you write such delirium????

[vnv]

It must be some lovely unknown reggae band who felt sorry for poor people in Turkmenistan. Sweet.

By the way, I wonder if the situation got any better since Türkmenbasy died in December?

[rentchart]

Its not reggae its ska

[turkmenyigidi]

How can you say that they are lovely? They are making fun of everything they see. There should be respect to people, their culture and their way of life. Yes, I'm from Turkmenistan, and there are many other turkmens posting in 3-4 languages including your language on youtube. Just search "turkmen" or "turkmenistan" and you are gonna find many of them.

[ecclefechan]

I think "lovely" is sarcasm. But anyway, I'd hardly say they're making fun of everything. It's more than they're simply amazed by the bizarreness of the place.

[turkmeno4ka]

think the same

it is like for white people to visit first time africa:)

[mcperson26]

woah, people sweeping the road!? sounds like north korea. it's so creepy, it's like a desert ghost country! is it as depressing as it looks?

god, those scattered ridiculously elaborate structures make it even stranger!

haha, i bet those turkmens love to party...well, get majorly wasted at least...i guess it'd take their mind off the hell hole in which they live =)

wicked performance

[SanFranCali]

No offense, but u sound like them dumb ass Americans who talk up their ass without any research. Yeah, keep on beleiving everything u see in media. Its so saddening how people can be so damn ignorant and naive. Turkmenistan might not be the best country in the world, but it is definetly better than 80% of the countries. Citizens get free gas and water, everybody live in their own homes. Probably less than 1% rent. Please get urself educated before u talk!

[SanFranCali]

And we'r not at war with any damn country! We live a peaceful life

[mcperson26]

your name is sanfrancali, so i'm guessing you're a 'dumb ass American', notable one that is entitled to free speech, an education and an array of other rights and freedoms that are constantly and consistently denied to the people of turkmenistan. there is NO freedom there, life is totally regimented and that is probably part of the reason the country has one of the highest suicide rates in the world

[SanFranCali]

I might be here in US by i do not consider myself American. NO WAY! Free speech my butt! What free speech? u know how many people get denied of "free speech?" That suicide thing is new to me. ANyways, im not here to attack u, but ur offending my people without full knowledge of the country. U can say whatever u like after visiting the country. U'll actually see how amazing it really is. everything u hear is so biased in the media. Probably 10% truth to it.

[vnv]

I think "myperson26" does not have any doubts about Turkmenistan being a beautiful country and its people being great folks. It's just that those people must suffer a lot due to the dictatory their country has. Surely the media suggests many lies and exaggartions, but I have met people who had been there... and I believe them. Gas may be free, rents may be low - these things are all true, indeed - but this does not increase general living standards or offer freedom of speech.

[SanFranCali]

enjoy ur freedom of speech my friend.... but thanx for the reply, it was at least courtous =) No matter what, thats my country and i care a whole lot for it. I get to visit there every 3-4yrs but to me its a heaven on earth... i love the hospility i get from the every home that i visit. People are so down to earth and modest... Its an amazing experience for me... and i know u at least get that part... thanx

[vnv]

It would be interesting if somebody from Turkemistan could actually reflect to our thoughts (unfortunately foreigners are not allowed to register in turkmen chat rooms :(, so maybe here on youtube?).

[nenado00]

One should always try to be objective since we are trying to find the truth not trying to convince the others the way we believe. Yes, it is true that the freedom is restricted partly(not as much as they show on media)this, in my opinion should not allow you speak in an insulting manner about the people.U didnot achieve the country in whatever country u are living with your own abilities, u were just born there and the things turned that way.

[nenado00]

"the highest suicide rates in the world"  ???

i think u're confusing. pls look over your statistics knowledge.

[trupodur]

I spend in Turkmenia 3 years. First of all to understand the situation in this country please look closely at the highly descriptive last shot with a white-bearded man. If you think he's dressed to attract tourists you're wrong, it's really a typical local guy. Look into his eyes attentively and tell, does he cares about the democracy or not:)))

[trupodur]

BTW the same is true for SanFranCal et al non-American Americans who perceive the US as a cheap supermarket and don't care about what it stands for. For him freedom of speech is not a privilege but a burden as can bee seen from the utterly frustrated tonality of his posts. He would be happier without internet, it's obvious! A lot of people don't mind to live under dictatorship, accept it and you'll avoid grave errors of judgment

[alpbukhari]

I don't respect them. If i were them I would decline the invite by lunatic Turkmenbashy. It's a humiliation being grown up in democratic West and now playing for someone like Turkmenbashy.

[rentchart]

The democratic west ,their is no democracy in the west how many people protested against the iraq war.Didnt do any good though .Our press is censored and we no say just an ilusion of freedom of speech.

[vnv]

I don't think people have anything to do with Türkmenbasy. It is not their fault they had a dictator as a president. Thanks god he died.

[mcperson26]

he was a nasty piece of work but i don't think things are gonna get much better now he's dead. if anything, better the devil you know.

i think the only thing we can be sure about is that turkmenistan is many years away from becoming a democracy.

[none3000]

hrm..what about freedom in this country? is it nice playing for a regime controlled from lunatics?

[rentchart]

lot of respect for this band and what they done

[vnv]

It must be some lovely unknown reggae band who felt sorry for poor people in Turkmenistan. Sweet.

By the way, I wonder if the situation got any better since Türkmenbasy died in December?