Archive sections: ‘Life In Kyrgyzstan’
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 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 [...]
Who would have thought that what is normally a quiet week for news as the world celebrates and recovers, that so much would have happened …
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”, [...]
The other day I had to have a meeting over lunchtime. We decided that we would go out instead of sitting in the office which can be quite crowded and sometimes a little noisy, and where I can be interrupted by someone at the drop of a hat. It seemed a good opportunity to try [...]
One of the most difficult questions we get asked by clients is about tipping. Should they give a tip? And, if so, how much? Now, back in Britain, when I was growing up we never had a system of service charges imposed on the bill. In a restaurant, the price on the menu was what [...]
