Archive sections: ‘Living in Interesting Times’
The 1968 British entry for the Eurovision Song Contest was “Congratulations” sung by Harry Roger Webb, or Cliff Richard as he is better known. A popular song, it surprised everyone by being beaten into second place by the Spanish entry.
The closing moments of the 1966 World Cup final, between England and West Germany, gave us one of the most famous and memorable sporting quotations of all time: “They think it’s all over … It is now!”.
The week that has just passed has been like marking time in limbo as we await the referendum. When thinking of a theme for this week’s postcard I toyed with the idea of “Waiting for Godot” … the trouble is that in Beckett’s play, Godot never arrives. The government is intent that the Referendum should [...]
This week has been a real “roller coaster” of a week, full of ups and downs, twists and stomach churning turns. The worst was probably watching the news and reading accounts of the events down South as the week unfolded. Remember that I am based here in Bishkek, and so I don’t have any direct [...]
Today, I am not sure what to write … the events of the last few days, which you will have seen in your news programmes and newspapers, seems to have thrown the whole picture into turmoil once more. Up until Thursday night everything seemed to be settling down into a typical long hot summer. Working [...]
In a previous postcard I used the phrase, “No news is good news”. Well, this week has been an example of that … which means that Kyrgyzstan has settled back down to its usual “sleepy” self … and that this week’s postcard is, mercifully, shorter. That’s not to say that nothing has been happening … [...]
Following last week’s “massive missive” … which could hardly have fitted onto an ordinary “postcard”, I had hoped that this week’s contribution will be shorter, reflecting a more peaceful, if less “interesting”, period. Perhaps that was wishful thinking. Sorry.
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 [...]
My brother, Tony, once took up photography as a hobby and I remember how he equipped the bathroom with plastic trays and bottles of chemicals so that he could develop and print his own films. I was too young at the time to really appreciate all that was going on but I do remember the [...]
I appreciate that Kyrgyzstan is not on everyone’s radar … at least one my correspondents has pointed this out to me, what with the numerous other crisis points around the world. Natural disasters, man-made disasters, war situations and civil strife … indeed, it all seems a bit apocalyptic. But then, I’ve had that particular feeling [...]
