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The primary time I got here to Dallas it jogged my memory of Beijing. It was a skyline brimming with distinct new structure, a metropolis filled with tall buildings brightly lit at night time, and a metropolis entangled with twisting overpasses and thoroughfares dense with site visitors, very very similar to the Chinese language capital. Now having lived right here for a number of years, I’ve been struck by the intriguing similarities Dallas shares with one other a part of the world — Uzbekistan and its capital, Tashkent.
I spent most of Might touring greater than 2,000 miles across the Central Asian nation, touring historical websites, visiting distinctive museums, and exploring vibrant bazaars. I noticed a tradition that’s each distinct and noteworthy, and loved probably the most scrumptious and recent sorts of meats and produce I’ve ever tasted, every little thing from Texas-style cuts of beef on skewers to marble-shaped strawberries and aromatic white mulberries.
The landlocked nation is without doubt one of the lesser identified spots on earth for vacationers, international to most Individuals as one of many elusive “-stans”. Amongst its southern neighbors is Afghanistan, identified to most of us by way of our longest battle. But the social and cultural environment of Uzbekistan is strikingly totally different from the pictures of an embattled land removed from our personal lives midway world wide. Uzbekistan has grow to be a flexible nation, experiencing nice financial strides and making enormous advances in infrastructure and concrete improvement. Lately, the nation has oriented its tourism towards the traditional Silk Street, which has lengthy been a part of its identification.
In stunning methods, Uzbekistan shares a number of similarities with North Texas — a local weather practically equivalent to Dallas, dry and scorching with impetuous however rare rain; long-term makes an attempt at water management and drought mitigation; busy highways clogged with site visitors and pissed off drivers attempting to push ahead; proud shows of nationwide identification, together with the common displaying of flags; a state which has grow to be identified for its regional independence and financial progress, whereas additionally being a magnet for capitalist funding and enterprise; and a hub of social and political exercise which will appear contrasting and misunderstood, however actually not with out vitality and objective. Inside all of this, there’s an exploding development market — luxurious high-rises and midrange new builds dominate the expansive metropolis area, very similar to the limitless acreage of single-family houses which have been swelling DFW’s suburbs lately.
The environmental parallels between Texas and Uzbekistan are most obvious within the relationship to water, the way it has been managed, harnessed and irrigated. In climates the place temperatures soar into the triple digits, each locations have required deep interventions and inventive options. Uzbekistan is residence to the Aral Sea — a as soon as thriving business fishing zone, which has grow to be one of many best environmental disasters of the twentieth century, as practically 90% of the inland sea has dried up because the Sixties resulting from irrigation mismanagement and different components. Nonetheless at the moment, there’s an impending water disaster in Central Asia. And in North Texas, we solely have to look north to see our greatest efforts in coping with water points, by adapting new reservoirs close to the town of Bonham and Bois d’Arc Lake, the place inhabitants progress calls for adaptability and extra water.
Tashkent is most like Dallas in its expansive area, progress and attraction to buyers and new residents in search of financial alternatives. Downtown is a bustling area of social and enterprise exercise. And maybe most exceptional are each the Soviet-era subways, that are terribly stunning and environment friendly, and the high-speed rail that connects a number of of the most important cities to the west of Tashkent. The Afrosiyob line boasts a pace of roughly 155 miles per hour between main hubs and is a clean prepare trip that provides a light-weight meal and scorching black tea included within the ticket, which solely runs about $8.60, a fraction of what the few U.S. high-speed rails cost. In Texas, we’re nonetheless years away from setting up the proposed traces between main cities.
Like Texas, Uzbekistan possesses a proud sense of its historical past — and but is aware of a previous that has factors of rivalry with the current. There’s an initiative to develop museums about repression and injustice all through the nation, with such memorials in Tashkent and Andijan already. Most cities have a sq. devoted to these misplaced in battle and battle punctuated by the identical statue of a mourning mom. In Texas, the Alamo stands its personal floor at the moment as a flashpoint of telling historical past.
Many societies should carry out a balancing act of tradition, between the ancestral and trendy. The streets of Tashkent are full of individuals sporting each conventional gown and modern apparel or promoting melons on one nook and iPhones on the following. These contrasts make one notice that whereas our world is certainly fairly various, we’re nonetheless very a lot human beings with drive, objective, and a want for neighborhood, whether or not we’re right here in Dallas or on the opposite facet of the world.
Anthony J. Elia is director of Bridwell Library and affiliate dean for Particular Collections and Tutorial Publishing at SMU. He wrote this for The Dallas Morning Information.
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