The door swings open on a closed country

Perhaps few of my readers know or care about Turkmenistan, which went directly from Soviet rule to one-man personality cult. I know little about the place myself but it lifts my heart when a country where everyone has for years danced attendance on some conceited maniac gets a chance to deal with real challenges. Al-Jazeera tells us that the new president is restoring a year of education cut by the old guy, and wants more Internet cafes outside the capital. Good start.