Archive sections: ‘From an Expat’
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 [...]
Twitter is officially five years old. The first tweet was sent out on 21st March, 2006. The idea apparently grew out of SMS (Short message service) codes that people were sending each other on their mobile phones, and it is sometimes described as the internet SMS. Subscribers are able to send short messages, no more [...]
I came across an interesting article on one of the local news websites the other day. It was a Op-Ed comment on the current state of a particular aspect life in the capital city, the Bishkek. The city received the name in February 1991. Before that it has been called Frunze after the Revolutionary General [...]
This last week has been a week of special days and anniversaries. Although they were not holidays, (they come next week), some of them helped to focus my attention on a number of issues.
