Archive sections: ‘From an Expat’
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 [...]
About two weeks ago, I wrote a postcard about ski orienteering, and the Kyrgyz team attending the sport’s World Championships in Sweden. In the recent Asian Games in Almaty, they did much better, the men’s relay team taking 4th place. Unfortunately, the team didn’t do so well, in Sweden but they did manage to gain [...]
These days, news travels far and wide. This fact was brought home to me last week by a letter which arrived addressed to the hotel. There was no addressee on the envelope, just two UK stamps, an “air mail” sticker, and a printed label displaying the hotel address, (with Bishkek misspelt). Inside were three small [...]
Well, I am back from my monthly trip to Naryn where we have a guesthouse. I enjoy my regular trips up there. They get me out of the office, into the fresh air and I see a bit of the countryside. It is interesting to see how the scenery changes with the passage of the [...]
When is a joke not a joke? April Fools’ Day, (or All Fools’ Day), is not a holiday but as in many other countries around the world is celebrated on April 1st by people playing hoaxes or practical jokes on one another. Most of them are small scale, private jokes, played on immediate family, friends [...]
It has been announced that the week from from March 28 to April 1 will be Wikipedia Week here in Kyrgyzstan. It is an initiative by the Soros Foundation – Kyrgyzstan, (SFK), which is an international, non-government, private foundation that was set up by the Open Society Institute in 1993, headed by George Soros, the financier and philanthropist. It is [...]
Yesterday, Saturday 26th March, 2011, marked a sad day in that it sees the demise of the BBC Russian service. The BBC has a long history of broadcasting to the world. It’s the world’s largest international broadcaster, transmitting in 32 different languages around the world, Russian being one of them. According to the BBC Charter, [...]
Saturday sees the annual Varsity Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge Universities. The race was first staged in 1829 but has only been an annual event since 1856, (with two breaks for the two World Wars, although during the second world War there were four “unofficial” races). The “light blues” of Cambridge have won 80 [...]
As well as being the Day of the People’s Revolution, yesterday was also marked in Kyrgyzstan as World Tuberculosis Day. Ever since 1982, March 24th has been designated as a day dedicated to build public awareness about the global epidemic of tuberculosis, (TB), and efforts to eliminate the disease, although the World Health Organization, (WHO), that are [...]
Back in 2005, Kyrgyzstan experienced the first of its recent revolutions. On March 24th, several weeks of protests culminated in a demonstration outside the Government House, (the White House), and President Askar Akaev feld, driving out of the back entrance of the compound as the masses gathered in front of the building. The crowds were [...]
