At one time the Aral Sea in Central Asia was the fourth-largest freshwater lake in the world. Almost as big as Ireland, it covered 26,300 square miles (68,000 km2) and appeared on maps of Asia just east of the Caspian Sea in what was then the USSR (or, if you prefer Cyrillic, the CCCP). If the Aral Sea were still there, today it would straddle the border between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Unfortunately, it isn't there any more.
It began shrinking around 1960, and its slow disappearance over the last half-century is illustrated in the following map:
Not much remains but the rusting hulls of ships atop the dry desert sands, many miles from towns that once bustled with activities related to the fishing industry .
Although I like to think I keep up with current events, I had no idea that this long decline had occurred. It was off my radar completely.
Did you know that the Aral Sea has a middle name?
Well, it does. It’s Stockra. I made it up just now so that I could mention a book written in 1990 by David Cannadine, The Decline and Fall of the British Aral Stockra Sea, you know, those people portrayed on Downton Abbey and their friends.
Well, I thought it was funny.
What happened to the Aral Sea is not due to global warming. But it was caused by humans when the government decided to divert the water from the rivers that fed the huge lake to irrigate the land for the growing of cotton. In the process, the Aral Sea has just about disappeared.
Today, on the eleventh anniversary of this blog (yes, friends, it began on September 28, 2007), it is my fervent hope that it will continue for a long time and not dry up like the Aral Sea. I have learned far more from you, dear readers, than you have learned from me during these eleven years, so I will bring this post to a close with a little something from Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I, the opening of a song that Deborah Kerr sang to the children of the king of Siam:
It's a very ancient saying
But a true and honest thought
That if you become a teacher (or blogger),
By your pupils (or readers) you'll be taught.
As a teacher/blogger I've been learning,
You'll forgive me if I boast,
But I've now become an expert
On the subject I like most:
Getting to know you.
At this point, all the children of the King of Siam say, 'Ahhhhhh'.
In this metaphor, sometimes I am Deborah Kerr (no snickering in the back) and you are the children of the king of Siam, and sometimes you are Deborah Kerr and I am the children of the king of Siam.
Now that I think about it, eleven years is a long time not to know from one day to the next whether you are Deborah Kerr or the children of the king of Siam.
But at least we haven't dried up and disappeared like the Aral Sea.
Not yet.
For extra credit, read "When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be" by John Keats and write a 500-word essay using personificaation to compare the poem to the Aral Sea.
A very happy (and many more of them) blogoversary to you.
ReplyDeleteSue, thank you very much!
DeleteI had never heard of this. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteAdrian, glad to be of assistance in your ongoing education! (It was news to me too.)
DeleteAhhhh. I get afraid of drying up too. but .... whenever I feel afraid, I hold my head *up high* and whistle a happy tune so no one will suspect I'm afraid.
ReplyDelete**changed to avoid a comment from YP
Kate, excellent change, motivation undersood.
DeleteTo paraphrase the old saying; 'The more things change, the more they stay the same.' You did a good job here Deb.
ReplyDeleteEmma, are you saying I have been Deborah Kerr for much longer than I realize? lol
DeleteHmm. I thought after the line "Getting to know you..." we were about to burst into yet another song! I was picturing a musical with all of us blogees having parts! I can only imagine what part I should have, lol...SO very happy to call you my friend, Mr. Bob. May our friendship last forever!
ReplyDeletePam, we did burst into yet another song, all of us, silently, in our heads, and also we danced around the room with Yul Brynner. You, I think, would have been the Number One wife who sang "Hello, Young Lovers"....
DeleteP.S. - you and I know that our friendship WILL last forever, just over in the glory land.
DeleteYour jokes are terrible!
ReplyDeleteI remember my mum watching The King and I on TV. I thought the king was terribly creepy.
Happy blogging anniversary, Robert. I hope your educational posts perplex me for a long time to come
kylie, my aim in life is to make terrible jokes. I was raised by a master. Thank you for the happy anniversary. It is not my goal to perplex you, but to entertain and enlighten simultaneously. Some days I do both, some days I do one but not the other, and some days I do neither. I've only been at this for eleven years, you know, so I'm still working on my act.
DeleteHappy Anniversary to you too, Bob. Sorry, I should have said that earlier!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kate! The message was in there subliminally. I read between the lines.
DeleteAs a young man I watched The King and I many times at our local cinema all in the same week or so that it was on. I think I rather liked Deborah Kerr. There have been a few programmes on our television about the Aral Sea over the last decade or so. So I was aware of it. As for the Aral Stockra Sea I have to say that they have, in my lifetime, become almost an irrelevance.
ReplyDeleteGraham, I think I knew all of the words to all of the songs in The King and I in my yute. I haven't tried to recall them lately so I really don't know. My favorite was "Hello, Young Lovers"....
DeleteI meant to say that we have been blogging an almost identical length of time. My first post was on 11 June 2007.
ReplyDeleteYes, we have! You began nearly four months before me, so I bow to your seniority. And harking back to your previous comment, the Aral Stockra Sea may become irrelevant to others, but they will never become irrelevant to themselves. Caricatures maybe, but never irrelevant.
DeletePerhaps the Blogworld Debating Society could debate the following:
Proposal: The Aral Stockra Sea are more to be pitied than censured.
Congratulation sir, an impressive achievement by any bloggers standard, I'm also impressed with the moving picture of the sea, it's quite hypnotic. Long may your tides flow rhymes x
ReplyDeleteStarshine, watching Deborah Kerr dance around the room with Yul Brynner is even more hypnotic. Thank you for mentioning my tides; they've been in short supply of late.
DeleteMy understanding is that by promoting the economy of some, the government wiped out the economy of others.
ReplyDeleteSnowbrush, that is my understanding also. It has been ever thus.
Delete