Satellite dishes, chimneys, balconies removed lest visiting dignitaries be ‘offended’

Lookin’ good there, Uzbekistan!

“With a major international summit approaching, authorities in Uzbekistan’s capital have taken to dismantling satellite dishes and tinted windows along a main city thoroughfare.

“The Shanghai Cooperation Organization heads of state summit scheduled for June 23-24 has sparked a frenzy of tidying up in Tashkent.

“Over the past weekend, brigades of city employees went up and down Prospekt Kosmonavtov, exhorting local residents to take down balcony awnings, chimney stovepipes, satellites dishes or anything else that might offend the view of visiting dignitaries. In some cases, the city workers did the work themselves.

“Prospekt Kosmonavtov, or Kosmonavtlar Prospekti to use its Uzbek name, is otherwise known as the ‘presidential road’ and links President Islam Karimov’s city residence, Oqsaroy, to his country residence on the outskirts of the city.”

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/78991

(Can’t have stuff clogging the view of the president’s highway, now.)