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Wednesday, May 20, 2020

The other day Blogger stats showed a flurry of hits had come from Turkmenistan.

That caused a wonder, WHY?

Briefly, while only in the most oblique way suggesting cause and effect at play for Turkmen having a care over any posting here at Crabgrass, there is a natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to China, you can research it, with fossil fuel and gas in particular being a major export and segment of the economy. I had posted about Pottinger and Trump's keeping him after the Flynn exit, and the term "Wuhan virus."

With national wealth at stake, good vibes out of China must be a major Turkmen policy aim since a major economic trade they enjoy is focused on pumping gas to China. Goods and services in return.

Pipeline routing? Through Afghanistan.

It seems if the Taliban have waited us out in that Afghan adventure, as seems the case, China can protect its own interests, including pipeline routing - when you've a New Silk Road initiative going, (a part at a time), that paralleling the pipeline might happen. In routing road or pipeline, level terrain - as level as you can get - is best. And a transit fee tax can always be negotiated with whoever is in control along the length of the road/pipeline in question.

As to "Wuhan virus," that is fair usage, e.g., Marlburg virus - naming convention being to look where the first case was uncovered by a definitive diagnosis within a human population.

As to "Whuan virus," global pandemic and such, there is this. Even a direct Wikipedia page.

The closing caveat, parallelism of phenomena does not prove cause and effect. It shades expectation probabilities. An old saying about not biting the hand that feeds you got to be cliche because of general aptness.

The Economist.

CBS. NPR. Compare, here. English language Trukmen reporting.

Tourism.