Postcard from Bishkek

I was talking with someone the other day and the topic of conversation turned to the differences between trying to do business here and in the west. For example, the  tendency here for things to happen “at the drop of the hat” … and at very fast pace.  Even of something like an event or […]

I was late to a meeting the other day … that’s nothing unusual – after all, this is Kyrgyzstan where people seem to have a different sense of time.  Still. it made me feel a little uncomfortable, especially as I know how annoying I find it when people turn up late and so I usually […]

The other day we had a visit at the hotel from some officials who seemed to be convinced that there was “something wrong”. It’s not the first time we’ve had such a visit – so we went into “automatic mode” and asked – “where are your papers?”.  They fished out their ID-cards and so that […]

A few years ago I was asked to be a visiting speaker at a class in the American University of Central Asia, (AUCA). The class was part of a course on Business Studies and was titled Business Ethics. At first I was reluctant to agree, because I thought they’ll want to hear about bribery and corruption […]

The other day I had the occasion to write a letter of complaint … the following is a slightly redacted version of it.  I think that it speaks for itself … so I won’t spend time “setting the scene” except to say that those people who know me well, will vouch for the fact that […]

Today, the fourth Thursday in October, is a another one of those special days: Paper Free Day. It’s the fourth time that AIIM (the Association for Information and Image Management – a global, non-profit organization that provides independent research, education and certification programs for people that they term “information professionals”), have organized such a day. It’s […]

I’ve said it before … and, no doubt, I will say it again, and again: “Every day is a special day for somebody.” It may be their birthday or an anniversary, … or it may be a public holiday or a religious festival, … or it may be a specially designated day which is intended […]

We had an inquiry the other day from a client who wanted a single room in one of the hotels.  They had stayed with us before pm a previous visit to Kyrgyzstan and were about to pay a return visit and wrote to ask about availability and if we could give him our “best price”. […]

Today marks the anniversary of the first transmission of the cult science fiction series Star Trek on BBC TV, back in 1969. The series had been proposed by Gene Roddenberry as early as 1964 and a pilot programme filmed in 1965.  It finally went on the air in the states in September 1966 and although […]

Transparency International, (TI), is famous for its annual survey, the Corruption Perceptions Index, (CPI), which measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption in 176 countries and territories around the world. A couple of days ago I was sent a link to their latest report – the result of a different survey called the Global Corruption […]