Postcard from Bishkek

Under the Soviet regime, content of the “News” was strictly controlled – and almost anything that could be considered to be negative was duly censored.  As a result there was little known about episodes of social unrest and disorder within the Union, yet alone in the wider world beyond the country’s borders. In the mid […]

Some years ago, I wrote an article about Bishkek which began with the words: “Bishkek cannot claim to be one of the major cities of the world, like London, Paris or New York. It is, however, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan and does have a number of important and interesting buildings, monuments, parks, museums, galleries, […]

So, April 7th has come and gone.  An important date, an important anniversary, in the history of Kyrgyzstan.  I did think about writing a postcard yesterday to mark the anniversary but, instead, I chose to write on a neutral topic and see how the day developed. In the last few weeks, since before the 24th […]

Tuesday was the “Ides of March”. The Romans had a very strange calendar until Caesar decided to reform it in 46BC, (adding 46 extra days in order to bring it back into line with the seasons on which it was supposed to be based, and causing chaos and disruption throughout the Roman world).  His reforms, […]

Today has been a busy day. Before it had really go underway, I got a phone call from the hotel asking if I had heard, or felt, the explosion. “Uhhh, No – what explosion?”

Today has been a busy day. It began with a minor crisis – no internet.  It’s at times like this that I realize how reliant we have become on the internet for our everyday operations: especially for communications and news.  Anyway, having arrived in the office, as usual, at six, I was able to spend […]

Apart from being the tenth day of the tenth month in the tenth year of the century, an auspicious date in Chinese astrology, Sunday was a day of special significance here in Kyrgyzstan.  It was Election Day.

The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, (HIPC), operated by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, (IMF), was established in 1966 to offer debt relief and low interest loans to countries that qualified for the programme so that they could reduce their external debt to sustainable levels.  It was felt that no poor country […]

Doughs occupy an important place in Kyrgyz cuisine. The popular, ancient, ritual dish of boorsok is cut pieces of rolled dough deep fried in oil. They form a traditional table “decoration” and are produced in large quantities to be spread over the dastorkon (tablecloth) at every major celebration.

This postcard is based on part of an earlier one which was sent as an email describing the events of the week between May 15th and 21st.  It contains supplementary information which came to light afterwards. In an attempt to draw the sting from planned protests in Djalal Abad in mid-May, 2010, the authorities released […]