October's cotton fair in Tashkent: undercover and out of sight

In past years, the Uzbek government has gone to a lot of trouble to advertise their main venue for marketing their ill-gotten cotton, but this year, I've noticed, they're keeping it pretty much on the down low. Which makes sense. The official news agency UzA has several cotton stories on the Uzbek language site, a couple of them on the Russian site, but none on the English or French pages.  Maybe they just haven't been translated yet.

Anyway, the fair is October 14-15 in Tashkent and I hear the Uzbeks were pretty stingy with visas to attend.  Any participants, of course, would learn about where the cotton is headed...facts the Uzbek government would like (but is not able) to keep hidden.

Press on the fair is a little hard to stomach, touting the high quality of Uzbek cotton, conveniently leaving out the part about being picked by little hands.  The self-delusion of the official press agency is almost sad, claiming as it does that the Cotton Fair will "lead to the future growth of  [Uzbekistan's] international authority." Maybe it could...if they would stop crushing their own future by sending children out to the cotton fields.