Archive sections: ‘From an Expat’
I came across an interesting dilemma last week concerning our site www.links.kg. The idea behind the site is to provide links to webpages which concern travel to Kyrgyzstan, in particular to travellers’ tales, where they give accounts of their visits to Kyrgyzstan and their impressions of the country and what it has to offer. We [...]
Yet another international survey has been released – this time by Freedom House. Their annual survey, “Freedom in the World” showed some progress for Kyrgyzstan, which managed to buck the general global trend which, according to Freedom House, indicates a “fall” in the level for the fifth year running. This five year trend is a [...]
This week we seem to have had the usual run of news stories. Follow up accounts about the events in Osh in June, with one report blaming Uzbek nationalists, who oppose Karimov’s regime there, for provoking incidents which led to the eruption of violence; about the “terrorist gang”, (who are now being referred to as [...]
January 13th is not only Stariy Noviy God, it also marks the anniversary of one of the strangest events I have encountered here in Kyrgyzstan. Back in 2003, before the two revolutions which we have experienced, the front pages of the local press carried stories and photographs of strange lights seen in the skies over [...]
One of the things I have met here in Kyrgyzstan that has always fascinated me is the fascination with celebrating almost any and every occasion possible. January 13th represents, perhaps, a classic example. It is a “holiday” known as Stariy Noviy God, (or “Old New Year”). It could the apparent contradiction in the name that [...]
In a postcard a few days ago I mentioned the fact that the Orthodox Cathedral of the Resurrection here in Bishkek has the tomb of St. Irakily – Kyrgyzstan’s only Saint. Actually, I was a bit unfair, because Kyrgyzstan may also be the final resting place of another Saint, with a much more grandiose claim [...]
In the middle of December I started to receive the usual collection of Christmas and New Year cards bearing greetings and best wishes for the approaching holiday and the coming year. This year, two of the early greetings I received were particularly interesting ones, not cards but sheets of A4 paper with photographs pasted onto [...]
This is quite a long postcard but I hope that, (especially given my background), you’ll bear with me. I have been asked some questions about the educational system here in Kyrgyzstan … so, here are some notes and some thoughts on the subject: . The first thing to say is that “Education is a highly [...]
I had fun on Twitter this morning. One organization had sent belated Christmas Greetings to everyone, apologizing that they were late. I replied saying that, on the contrary, it was just in time as today is Christmas Day – here in Kyrgyzstan. There were a couple of other tweeters who referred to “Three Kings Day”, [...]
When I was a boy growing up back in Malvern, we used to have a newspaper delivered to our home each morning: The Daily Mail.
