Archive sections: ‘From an Expat’
The word of the week for this week seems to be “Transparency”. This is the result of two international reports that have been issued: The Open budget survey issued by the International Budget Partnership and the Corruption Perceptions Index issued by Transparency International. The word “Transparent” can have several meanings. The obvious one is that [...]
A week ago, I received an invitation to the regular monthly Open Meeting of the International Business Council, (IBC). Now, I get a lot of correspondence from IBC – after all, I serve on the Management Board, and have done so, (with two short interludes), ever since it’s inception in 2000. That might change this [...]
One of the interesting aspects of writing the “Postcards from Bishkek” is the feedback that I receive. Often people make a comment on one or other points that I have made – sometimes agreeing with me, sometimes taking issue with me. Sometimes, they ask for more information – such as “who is this person Roza [...]
One of the emails that I received this week thanked me for the weekly postcard that I send out giving a review of the weeks events here in Kyrgyzstan, but the writer admitted that they were rather confused as to to who was who and the positions taken by the various parties in our recent [...]
One morning in October 1987, I woke up at six o’clock as usual, had a bite of breakfast and got into my car to drive to school. As I emerged from the garage, I got a bit of a shock – there was absolute chaos everywhere I looked, high winds, branches of trees all over [...]
Jesse, Svetlana’s globetrotting friend from the States (who wiped the floor with me at ten-pin bowling), is on his way back home. Typically, he’s chosen a route which is far from direct – taking in nine more countries, (if you count the airport transfers), and visiting the Baltic States and Finland en route. He seems [...]
Zamira, who runs the tour department, got married on Saturday. After the official registration ceremony, the “molodyosh” – “young people” – went on the traditional walkabout to several different spots around the city, parks, war memorial, etc., to promenade and be seen. In the meantime the parents and other guests rushed to the restaurant where [...]
There is an old maxim in Real Estate … the only thing that really counts is “location, location, location”. It is such an overriding principle that in 2001 it was used for the title for a TV programme on Britain’s Channel 4. The mantra basically encapsulates the idea that identical homes can increase or decrease [...]
I am not particularly good at sports, although I am willing to try my hand at most. Apart from needing a certain level of skill, most, if not all, sports also require a certain amount of dedication and a level of fitness. It won’t come as a surprise, therefore, if I say that I am [...]
This was part of the initial draft for the page Nothing in life is simple. In the end, I decided to edit most of it out … but thought I would include as a “subpage” … just in case anyone is interested.
