Obscure References

Question: Which political leader said this about his own country?

"Uneducated people are easier to govern."

Answer: Saparmurat Niyazov, former president-for-life (read "dictator") of Turkmenistan (that's a country north of Iran, or south of Kazakhstan for those of you who learned geography from Borat), who was not known for his originality, although this was probably a rare moment of straightforwardness on his part.

My research assistant is probably the only person who knows where I read that quote, but the beauty (sadness) of it is its general applicability. (Come on, admit it, you were thinking of an American politician.)

Said research assistant and I are working on an encyclopedia entry about Turkmenistan for a new series called Crime and Punishment around the World. I'm co-editing the Americas volume of the series, but I also wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to learn about yet another obscure country for the sake of my own research interests. This one's turning out to be quite interesting.