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 or work colleagues, but not all of them.  There have been several famous, or infamous, examples of elaborate hoaxes played on the public which were staged by supposedly serious media outlets.  I’ll mention just two early ones that I particularly remember.

Back in 1957, the flagship current affairs programme on the BBC was called Panorama and it was presented by Richard Dimbleby, a portly character whose rich deep voice was usually tuned to tacking important topics of the day or delivering the commentary on some momentous or royal event.  His presence carried a particular gravitas, so when he presented an April Fool’s report which included a film clip showing agricultural workers climbing ladders to “harvest” the limp spaghetti from off the branches of the “spaghetti trees”.  Dimbleby’s commentary which accompanied the film told about the “spaghetti harvest” in Switzerland and the eradication of a dreaded pest, the “spaghetti weevil”.  It was taken as a serious item by many viewers, so much so, that the BBC received calls asking how to cultivate their own Spaghetti trees.  (For the record, spaghetti doesn’t grow on trees but is a form of pasta made from flour and water sometimes mixed with other ingredients such as eggs and vegetable oils and extracts.  The report was filmed far from Switzerland, just outside London, in St. Albans.)

Twenty years later, in 1977, the British newspaper, The Guardian, printed a seven page special supplement about a tiny Island nation called San Serrife, in the Indian Ocean, supposedly commemorating the tenth anniversary of its independence.  It contained an elaborate description of the country, (location and description of the landscape, government, population, transport, culture and sport), interviews and even advertisements from major companies.  The supplement was littered with puns and in-jokes, many of which played to the “intelligentsia” which goes to make up much of the newspapers readership.  Even so, supplement was taken seriously with a surprising number of people later admitting how they went scurrying to their atlases to see if they could find the islands that made up the tiny state.

Although I said that I remember these two, at the time of the Panorama programme, I would have been just four years old, so I suspect that my memory dates back to watching a later discussion on the ethics of journalists presenting such joke items.  How could we take them seriously and believe what they told us when they played such practical jokes on us?

A good question.

There is some doubt about whether the Mercury Theater’s notorious production of a play directed by Orson Welles based on The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, in October 1938, was a deliberate hoax intended to create an impression of alien invasion, or if it was legitimate drama.  There is no doubt, however, that it was taken seriously by many of the listeners who heard it, (just as many seriously accepted the veracity of the April Fool’s hoaxes staged by Panorama and The Guardian).

We have a temptation to accept anything we see in the media as fact, and to treat it as “gospel”, rather than question it.

A news report often contains comment, and we should remember this.  Even where it purports to be simply a factual account of events, it is will simply recount events as seen and experienced by the reporter at a given time and place.  Another reporter, in a different place and at another time, might well see things differently.

For example, the first reports of the Markale mortar bombardment in 1994, (during the siege of Sarajevo in the Bosnian War), claimed that the mortar shell that landed in the market place killing 68 people and wounding 144 others, was fired from Bosnian government positions.  Later analysis, however, suggested that it wasn’t possible to determine where it had come from, and later the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia concluded that the offending shell had, in fact, been fired by Serb forces.

Recent reports that the Pentagon has acquired software allowing it to create “phoney accounts” on social media sites and post tweets and status updates that appear to come from eye witnesses to events half way across the world in order to help shape opinion and even manipulate reaction and shape future events, has made our reliance on the media for accurate and reliable information even more tenuous.  We shouldn’t surrender ourselves, our powers of logic and reasoning, our judgment, to the person making the first report on something that we happen to come across.

A healthy dose of skepticism is called for when scanning the media, whether it is: a story about spaghetti trees, strange places we have never heard of, alien invasions, luxury ocean going yachts being built in Kyrgyzstan’s Shipyards (more about that, perhaps, another time), outrages in far away places, results of supposedly scientific research (such as Blue Monday – the unhappiest day of the year), the best location for Santa to start his annual journey bearing gifts to the children of the world, hotel reviews on social media, tweets posted online purporting to report events in trouble hotspots, statistics and survey results  … in short, we should question everything we see in the press, the media, or on line … even on a personal  blog like this

… and especially on April 1st.

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For the record:

It is not certain where, when or how “April Fools’ Day” originated.  Amongst the various theories are:

• it referred to someone who planted their crops too early …  In many pre-Christian cultures May Day, (May 1st), was celebrated as the first day of summer, and the start of the spring planting season.  The term “April Fool” may well have been used to refer to someone who their crops before this date.
• it referred to someone who refused to accept the new calendar and insisted on using the old one – for example:
  • someone who refused to accept the Gregorian Calendar and continued using the Julian calendar, or
  • someone who refused to accept the decision of King Charles IX of France who changed the first day of the year from April 1st to January 1st,
• it was related to the story of the biblical flood and  Noah’s Ark – in the account in the book of Genesis, Noah sent a raven and two doves from the Ark to find evidence that the waters had receded.  The first, the raven never returned and the first dove, released a week later, returned exhausted as the waters had not yet receded.  Tradition has it that it was released on the first day of the Hebrew month that corresponds with April.
• there is a possible reference to April Fools’ Day in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, in the Nun’s Priest’s tale, which tells a tale of two fools, (Chanticleer and the fox), which took place on March 32nd.

My favourite April Fools’ hoax is the annual washing of the lions ceremony which takes place in the Tower of London every year.

In some countries, (such as: the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa), the jokes are only allowed until noon and someone who plays a trick after then is considered the “April Fool”, but elsewhere, (such as in Ireland, France, and America), the jokes can be played any time of the day.

In Kyrgyzstan:

There is no long tradition of playing jokes on April Fools’ Day, but as with so many other aspect of the modern “global village”, an idea based in one culture is often adopted by another – and it is common to find people, (especially amongst the younger generation) playing “April Fool” jokes on one another.

Some discotheques and restaurants organize special evenings to mark the date.

Back in January, “Siberian air gripped Britain” as unusual High Pressure systems massed over the Atlantic from November 2009 onwards, blocking the customary Westerly winds that would normally bring mild weather to Western Europe.  The result was that they were replaced by Easterly winds which brought with them uncharacteristically harsh weather conditions that are normally associated with the more remote regions of the Russian Federation.

Well, it seems as if the same is happening now.

The chaos brought on by severe weather conditions seems to have brought whole sections of the country, and other parts of Northern Europe, to a standstill.  I particularly liked the satellite picture featured in the Daily Telegraph which seems to show the snow in all its glory: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/uknews/8176958/Brrritain-snow-causes-travel-chaos-in-the-UK-as-the-cold-snap-continues.html

The internet is a wonderful instrument for helping people to keep in touch and up to date about what is happening with their far flung friends and relatives around the world.  I see comments on Facebook and Twitter, for example, from people such as: “No point getting out of bed, we’re snowed in, no school and no way of getting out of the village”.  On the other hand, one person wrote ”beautiful morning; clear sky and mild wind”, but as he’s in Japan I suppose he’s got an excuse, but I am not sure about the person asked “is everyone happy now that there’s a tiiiiiny bit of snow?”.  Do I sense a touch of sarcasm?

There was certainly some sarcasm in the “cable” released on Wikileaks from the American ambassador in  Bishkek about a lunch hosted by the British embassy for Prince Andrew in 2008, where he had the chance to meet with some ex-pat businessmen to get a feel for the business climate here in Kyrgyzstan.  I am not sure that sarcasm is the right word, but the cable seemed to dripping with irony, mockery, derision, scorn, disdain and cynicism – and in my thesaurus those are all listed as synonyms for sarcasm.  For anyone who escaped the furore over the leak of official documents, this cable was one of two authored by the Ambassador about meetings that she had attended that you can find on the Wikileaks site.  In this particular one she described some of the Prince’s apparently “off the cuff” remarks, the obsequious attitude of “his mother’s subjects”, an “expletive deleted” and some harsh words about the French as well as some choice comments about investigations into corruption.  As far as I am aware, although there has been some considerable comment in the press on the affair, he has managed to keep a fairly low profile following the revelations.  I took a particular interest in this cable because, as it happens, as May Boyce used to say “… I was there!”  In fact, I happened to be sitting next to the Ambassador during the meal.  A few people, (including a journalist from a British broadsheet), have asked for my reactions to the leak.  I wouldn’t say, as some people apparently have, that it represents a conversation that never happened, as it does tally in certain respects with what I remember of the event.  It also includes things that passed me by completely.  (Remember she was writing her account almost immediately after it occurred, whereas I am having to rely on recollections of something that took place two years ago.)  One thing that did strike me about her account, however, was that it seemed to reveal more about her and her attitudes than it did about the Prince, or any of the other participants.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this controversy, at least to me, was to compare the different angles that were picked up and emphasized by the reporters for different papers.  One British newspaper, for example, seemed to accept everything in the cable as if it was “gospel” and was full of indignation – as one tweet put it, “The scary part is that media presents foregone conclusions as facts, be it in KG or UK or US.” – but maybe that is because the Prince apparently criticized reporters from that paper.  On the other hand, another chose to concentrate on the Prince’s “sense of humour” and how she had “totally missed the point”.  The New York Times gave the Prince what I thought was perhaps the most sympathetic treatment.

All that, of course, is “old news”.  Two years have passed since Prince Andrew’s visit and the situation here in Kyrgyzstan has changed somewhat – at least in certain respects.

During the election, there were those who said that nothing would change: that politicians are only interested in furthering their own interests; that election promises are easily given in order to gain votes – and just as easily reneged on once actually in office (and the recent experience of British students at the hands of the Liberal Democrats would seem to support this point of view); that tribal instincts are too inbred into the national persona … and so on.  Indeed, there are comments from various sources that suggest this is a fairly widely held point of view … and that there might be something in that.

There are, however, signs that things have changed.

We thought that we finally had a new government – well, it wasn’t to be.  We had a coalition agreement uniting three parties and the Parliament met to formalize the arrangement.  There was a lot of argument but when it came to the vote to appoint the Toroga, (the speaker), Omurbek Tekebayev, the only candidate for the post, needed to muster a majority of 61 votes to be confirmed in office and, as the coalition are supposed to have 67 members, (out of the total of 120), the result should have been a foregone conclusion.  In the end, however, he managed to gather just 58 votes – with 59 votes cast against him – and so he wasn’t elected.  It’s true that some people weren’t present for the vote, from both sides – but obviously more from the coalition, or else there were defections.  Oddly enough, it looks as if some of those were members of his own party that either abstained or voted against him, but who know – it was, after all, a secret vote.

Who would have predicted such a turn of events in the Kyrgyzstan of a few years ago?  Mind you, it’s how Akaev came to power in the first place – the compromise candidate to break a deadlock.

Hilary Clinton commented during her visit, following the OSCE summit in Astana, praising the “incredible resilience of the Kyrgyz people on the way to democracy”: “you don’t often see commitment to constitutional reform and democratic elections” after events like April’s revolution.  The trouble is, I am not sure there is commitment to constitutional reform – two of the five parties in elected parliament, and the one that only just missed out, are opposed to the concept of a “parliamentary democracy” for Kyrgyzstan and even campaigned on a platform of a return to a Presidential Executive.

Anyway, the debate in the parliament was, apparently, quite heated – with swearing and, according to one news report at least, almost breaking out into a fight.  But, on the other hand, as one commentator put it: “The only good thing is that all this bickering is confined to the JK building. I hope it will stay that way for many, many years to come.”

As a result of all the maneuvering, Almazbek Atanbaev, the designated leader of the coalition, has asked Roza Otunbaeva to pass the mandate for forming a coalition to someone else.  The irony is that she already announced that if he were to fail then she would ask Ata Meken to take up the task … which is led by none other than Omurbek Tekebaev.  How he is going to be able to arrange a coalition given these events is anyone’s guess.  She’s been having consultations and the leaders have been holding “conversations”.  One of the party leaders emerged from the meeting with the President and told the assembled press corps, “She asked for suggestions and I told her it was her job”, (to be fair those are my words – not his, but that seems to be basically what he said according to the press report … He did, however express some sympathy for her situation saying, “This is uneasy task for her” – and those are his words as reported in the press).  Another party leader’s comment on his discussions with one of his counterparts was, “I was just sitting and having coffee.”   Whoever’s given the job at the President’s Ala Archa residence today, has got a difficult task ahead of him, and if he fails, (which is not impossible), then according to the constitution all is not lost because the president, herself, can try to appoint a coalition.  If even she can’t do it, then it’s back to the hustings – more elections and more political uncertainty for Kyrgyzstan.

The other “big news” this week has been a bomb explosion outside the Sports Palace where the trial of those accused of the deaths during the events of April 7th was being held.  Last week I mentioned the breaking news that nine “terrorists” had been apprehended who were planning a number of outrages throughout the country.  Well, some more have been caught, and some killed in a shootout in Osh.  The bomb on Tuesday seems to have been one of those planned outrages, (although there are different possible scenarios), and has put everyone on their toes looking for suspicious people and packages.

Funnily enough, I was at the AGM of the International Business Council, (IBC), in the Hyatt on Monday, (the day before the explosion), and was talking to one of the other long standing ex-pats based here in Bishkek –he’s an American and has been here a few months longer than I have and we were exchanging observations about how things have changed in that time and the latest developments – and we discussed that very topic.  I was reelected to the management board of the IBC for another two year term, so that’s another thing that hasn’t changed, but, on the other hand there are some new members and so new blood and, hopefully, we will have some new ideas and vitality.

On a more personal note, I’ve made some changes to ianbek.kg – I’m still in the process of transferring all the old postcards, (not just the weekly “newsletter”), but there is a link to where we’ve archived the old site so they are still available.

Another change is that the kids have gone back to school – well, almost.  I still can’t get used to the long summer holidays they enjoy over here: three months.  Well, school started as usual on September 1st, and the first half term went more or less according to plan.  A couple of days before they were due to resume, however, there was a phone call to say that the school would remain closed after the half-term holiday because there was a problem with the heating system.  After an extra two weeks they got the call to say that classes would begin again this week … but the problems have persisted and they’ve been sent home again.

In a way, it seemed odd because last weekend when I went up to Naryn, (reputedly the coldest city in Kyrgyzstan where a temperature of minus 40 has been recorded in the past), the weather was fine.  During the day, when the sun was shining, it was actually quite warm, although the night was distinctly chilly.  There was some snow on the Dolon Pass, (at 3025m asl), and some small patches on the ground in Naryn itself. I managed to catch a chill, but Kyrgyz cognac and an early night saw to that, and on Monday I was full of beans and back behind my desk as usual.  However, we are promised two days of snow with temperatures falling well below zero.  The snow duly arrived on the arrived on the appointed day, yesterday, and the temperature is currently -13C … so I feel for what my fellow Brits are experiencing back home at the moment.

Andrei is worried that schools may close again because of bomb threats – there has been a telephone warning to one school already following Tuesday’s explosion, but it seems that the weather is going to prove to be a greater disruption than any terrorist threat.

And Finally … on a totally different note, you may be aware that I am a fan of “trivia”.  As I result I was very sorry to miss the first of the Quiz Evenings being organized by one of my colleagues on the IBC board … I was in a meeting that overran, which is, unfortunately, quite a common occurrence here.  Anyway, during the week I came across an interesting trivia question, and I posed it over dinner last night when the quiz master from the next round was present,  It’s part of a competition organized by the Travel magazine Wanderlust, and has stumped a lot of people – and stumped me: Can you name five countries whose name begins and ends with the same letter – but excluding the letter A, (Albania, Algeria, America – I presume that counts, Andorra, Angola… that’s five already, without Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia and Austria …and yes, I did get most of those without looking them up!) and Tibet?  (That’s presumably to stop repercussions from the People’s Republic of China – they get upset when people start calling Tibet a country!)  Anyway, there are a couple of other stipulations: the names must be in English – so Eire doesn’t count … sorry, John – and they have to be real names, not imaginary ones.  Apparently, there are six that fit the bill, but you only have to find five … I confess that, up until last night, I could only get three – and I wasn’t too happy with any of them – for example, one is Czech Republic … but round the dinner table our collective efforts found another two.  I am still trying to work out what the sixth might possibly be.

Although I am interested in History, my knowledge of the subject is fairly limited and episodic.  At school, although we spent about six weeks looking at the opening of the American West, (and the only thing I remember about that is having to write an essay about the Louisiana Purchase – I have no idea what I wrote), this was very much the exception and virtually all of our lessons were really about British history – and by British, I mean the history of England.  What’s more we basically stopped at the Glorious Revolution of 1668, (otherwise known as the Bloodless Revolution), when King James II was overthrown in favour of of William and Mary

James I of England, (and Sixth of Scotland), came within the period but, to be honest, I was never really keen on him – he always struck me as a somewhat dour person.  It came as a surprise, however, when I recently discovered that it is thought that he originated the phrase, “No news is good news“, back in 1616.  (What he actually wrote – although the spelling was different – was “No news is better than evil news“.  Something closer to the modern phrase appeared in James Howell’s ‘Familiar Letters’ sometime around 1645:  ‘I am of the Italians mind that said ‘no news, good news‘.”)

I am not sure why he wrote it, what the circumstances were that led to this historic epithet, but there is an anecdote that he was particularly annoyed with the court jester who loved to make puns, so much so that the king, in disgust, ordered him hanged. But one of the king’s ministers prevailed on him to grant the joker a reprieve.  Upon learning about this, the joker immediately said, “Well, no noose is good noose.” So the king decided to hang him anyway.

The situation we are in at the moment feels like a case of: “no news” … the Election Commission is still busy verifying the returns from the polling stations and has yet to announce the results of the election almost three weeks after it took place.

To be fair, it’s not really a case of “no news” – there has been some snippets of news dribbling out from various sources, official and unofficial.  Rather it’s been a case of “no results”.

The Election Commission have identified a number of problems with the protocols – mainly to do with the “additional lists” of voters who weren’t on the original electoral roll but were supposed to provide proof of their residence of the district in order to be allowed to vote – and they are blaming the fact that they have to deal with these for the delay.  The results from several polling stations abroad have also been declared invalid.  They hope to have definitive results ready by the end of the week – but weren’t making any promises – as they are still considering the multitude of complaints received after the election.   At the time of writing this, however, there was still no sign of an official announcement.  Maybe it will come over the weekend.

The Parliament is supposed to gather and begin its work at the start of next week.

Even if it were a case of “no news”, I’m not sure that means it is a case of “good news” in that it hasn’t helped ease tensions.  The Financial Times put it like this: “Kyrgyzstan was braced for more unrest …”

One of the parties is talking about suing the Chairman of the commission and several have been planning to hold protest meetings.  I say “planning” because although some have been held, other have been cancelled.  Those that have taken place have been quiet and peaceful – well, compared to what we’ve witnessed in recent times – possibly because there have been lots of police in evidence.  All the police on on “High Alert” according to one announcement – and I spoke to the uchiskovic – the local “beat officer” – who said that he hadn’t had a day off for some time and had, in fact, spent over a month down in the South.

Some of the rallies have been in support of Kamchibek Tashiev, the leader of Ata Jurt whose home was attacked over the weekend – and who apparently injured in the incident.  What has really upset the applecart is that during the melee his security people managed to wrestle some weapons from the assailants, and an identity card from a senior officer in the State Security Service – the SNB, (who are still often referred to by their former name: the KGB).  The security services claim that they had been conducting anti-drugs raids in the area and one spilled over into this incident.  At the moment it is all as “clear as mud”.

(Incidentally, it has been announced that the security services have recently dismissed some 50 employees for a variety of infringements or offences.)

Since the beginning of the year we’ve seen over 200 rallies and pickets – that’s almost one a day.  The residents of Bishkek in particular are expressing complaints about the number and frequency of meetings and rallies.

Adding to the tensions and uncertainties is the fact that several cases have been sent to court involving members of the Bakiev entourage concerning economic crimes.  One of the banks closely associated with the Bakiev family has filed for bankruptcy with losses of over four and a half billion som (about one hundred million dollars – it is claimed that the family managed to withdraw over two hundred million dollars from the bank back in April).  The cases against some of the people accused of being involved in inciting various riots continue and Bakiev has been accused of being behind the killing of six protesters in the Aksu incident back in 2002, when he was Prime Minister.

Despite all of this, the authorities are making comments that they don’t expect any “disruptions”.  Hmmm – no comment.

There has been some news elsewhere, but it hasn’t been particularly good – especially when it comes to surveys.

I mentioned last week that that Kyrgyzstan had apparently occupied the bottom place, (along with Cambodia), in an international survey into Budget Transparency, and this seems to have ruffled a few feathers here in Bishkek.  So much so that on Tuesday there was a Press Conference when a spokesman for the Ministry of Finance apparently stated that “Statements that Kyrgyzstan ranks one of the last places according to the budget transparency index are incorrect and biased …”.  Now I wasn’t at the press conference, but the news reports did go on to point out that Kyrgyzstan had improved its ratings score, almost doubling it from a mere 8 to 15; that Kyrgyzstan has only just started to cooperate with the organization that operates the survey; that it is one of only to Central Asian countries that participated in the survey and that the Ministry of Finance has done much in the recent past to address the issue of Budgetary Transparency.  Now, that all may be true, but I wasn’t sure how it justified the conclusion that the “statements that Kyrgyzstan ranks one of the last places according to the budget transparency index are incorrect and biased”, so I went and had a look – and I think, even if he overstated his case, (I don’t know – I wasn’t there), he may have had a point.

Then, during the week, Transparency International issued it’s annual “Corruption Perceptions Index” in which Kyrgyzstan scored a mere 2 out of 10 – indicating a high level of corruption – and occupied the 164th place, out of 178 countries, (together with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea and Venezuela).  This is almost the same as in previous years and shows that little seems to have changed over the years.  The report commented that: “With such level and volumes of corruption, Kyrgyzstan cannot progress, can make neither economic, nor scientific, nor technological, nor social breakthrough. Corruption, remaining as it is now, will continue eating up the resources that could be invested in the future of the country.“  It also said: “This year has become a year of a serious test for Kyrgyzstan. The country is at the transitional stage, and everybody perceives the complicacy of the task before Kyrgyzstan, when the counteraction to corruption in the country should be not one of the regular reforms, but a real war for the present and the future, … society has already made its choice. Now it is highly important that the Kyrgyz state institutions, certain officials, law enforcement bodies, judges and prosecutors realize whose side they are on: on the side of Kyrgyzstan or on the side of their personal interests.”

Last year Kyrgyzstan amazed practically everyone when it emerged in the World Bank’s “Doing Business” Survey as one of the best countries in terms of making improvements in the business environment, catapulting itself from way down the rankings into the top 50 countries.  It’s probably the only time Kyrgyzstan has done really well in such an international survey.  At the time, I remember, I wasn’t that impressed.   It is true that several initiatives had been undertaken with a view to improving the country’s position in the ratings – but I wasn’t sure how important it really was or what difference these initiatives would make in reality.  as There are many such surveys and at roughly the same time as this impressive result was being announced we were told that Kyrgyzstan had still performed badly in the Competitiveness Index.  I was taken aback, therefore, when I was told by a friend in the mining industry a few months later, that potential investors were interested in the results.  He’ll be a bit disappointed this week, however, as one particular piece of news that emerged during the week was an announcement that the problems the country has been experiencing is discouraging potential investors from investing in the mining industry.  How surprising!

Despite that, however, there are some encouraging signs concerning, in particular: a large cable factory; in the railway from Kashgar in China through Kyrgyzstan into Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and developments in the mobile telephone market.  President Otunbaeva has met with investors representing various groups -  notably the Japanese and given assurances that the government are doing their utmost to ensure stability for investors … whilst other members of the government have been speaking of “grand plans” to develop Kyrgyzstan’s export capabilities and talking of road construction projects.  We’ll see.

Perhaps the highlight of my week came on Tuesday.  It was the regular, monthly, open meeting of the International Business Council, (IBC).  I can’t say that I was particularly looking towards this particular meeting as I didn’t think that the subject was particularly inspiring: “Kyrgyzstan and the Customs Union”.   As it turned out, however, I felt that it was one of the best public meetings that we have had for some time.  At first I had been dismayed to see so many speakers listed on the agenda but, as it turned out, this wasn’t a problem.  The initial speeches were short(ish), to the point and surprisingly detailed.  The main speakers were well prepared – too well prepared for they had far too much material to present in the time available and the chairman had to interrupt two of the speakers and ask them to cut their presentations short.  In a way, I was reminded about the debate in Britain back in the 1960′s and 70′s about whether we should give up our “little islander” ways and join the Common Market – as we then called what is now the European Community.  Apart from the language difference, (Russian as opposed from English), I felt that I could have just emerged from Dr. Who’s Tardis into a rally for the referendum.

The results of that particular plebiscite were finalized and published within a matter of days.  We didn’t spend three weeks waiting for news of the final, definitive, official result.

As I said, I am not sure that in this case – “no news” really does mean “good news”.  I tend to side with that dour Scot who found himself on the English throne back in 1603 – “no news is better than evil news”.   Let’s hope and trust that when the news is finally announced, that it will eventually be “good news”.

As I have said before, I enjoy “Trivial Pursuits” – not just the game itself, but simply gathering useless but gathering interesting and unusual facts.

For example – Do you know:

• who won the first ever Gold Medal in the modern Olympic Games in 1896?, (for the record it was: James Connolly of the United States in the Triple Jump), and
• who won the first ever Gold Medal in the Winter Olympics Games in 1924?, (for the record it was Charles Jewtraw of the United States in the 500m speed skate) … and how about
• who won the first Gold Medal at the first Youth Olympic Games in 2010?, (for the record it was Yuka Sato from Japan in the Triathlon event).

No, that last one is not a trick question … this year saw the first ever Youth Olympic Games, (YOG), being held in Singapore between 14th and 26th August.

This is a new venture of the International Olympic Committee, (IOC), and joins the catalogue of Olympic events such as the Summer Olympic Games, the Winter Olympic Games and the Paraplegic Olympics, (although, for the record, the Special Olympics are run by a separate body and an historic agreement with the IOC in 1988 recognizes and gives special rights and privileges to the Paralympics).  Just as with the “regular” Olympic Games, it is planned to hold the event every four years with an equivalent “Winter Games” two years later.   The idea for such an event, designed for athletes between the ages of 14 and 18, was first suggested in 2001 by the then President of the IOC, Jacques Rogge – and in 2007 the idea was officially adopted.

Singapore was selected to be the host city for the inaugural event, and Nanjing will host the next Games.  Innsbruck was selected to host the fist Winter Games in 2012.

Over three and a half thousand young athletes will be contesting 184 different in 26 different sports, but there are some differences from the adult games.  For example, in cycling, the YOG will feature mountain bike and BMX events but not road and track events.

So, why am I writing about “Another Olympic Games”?

As it happens, one of the over two hundred national teams comes from Kyrgyzstan, and they quickly managed to notch up a remarkable success.

The Kyrgyz team consists of just eight athletes: Shadybek Sulaimanov and Urmatbek Aamatov in Greco-Roman Wrestling (both 17 years old and competing in the 50kg and 58kg classes respectively); the boxer Islomzhan Dalibaev (18 years old, competing in the Welterweight, “up to 69kg”, class); Iliaz Baktybekov in the Modern Pentathlon (17 years old); swimmers Dmitry Alexandrov and Catherine Lysenko, (17 and 15 years old respectively and both competing in the 200m breaststroke event); Bolotbek Toktogonov in Judo (15 years old, competing in the 100kg class) and rower Ruslan Moltaev (15 years old and competing in the Canoe Kayak 200m event).  They are accompanied by their coaches and the head of the State committee for Physical Culture and Sport and the President of the Kyrgyz National Olympic Committee.

The Greco-Roman wrestling events took place on the first day of competition, Sunday and provided some of the fifteen Gold Medals to be won on Day One.  The fact the press conference after the event was held in Russian indicated the domination of the CIS countries, (former republics of the USSR) in this sport.   Aamatov won all his bouts in his class, walking away with the Gold Medal and Sulaimanov , although losing his opening bout he went on to win the remainder, taking third place and the Bronze Medal in his class.  Their success meant that on Monday morning, Kyrgyzstan held joint sixth place in the medal table along with neighbouring Kazakhstan.

Congratulations obviously go to all those who “made the grade” and participated in the event, and especially to the medal winners.

Their successes compare well to Kyrgyzstan’s record in the main Olympic Games. Since the first time that Kyrgyzstan competed in the modern Olympic Games, in the Winter Games in Lillehammer in 1994, Kyrgyz athletes have one three medals: Aidyn Smagulov took Bronze in the 60kg class for Judo in the Sydney Games of 2000 and Ruslan Turmenbaev won Bronze and Kanat Begaliev won Silver in the Greco-Roman Wrestling competition in the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.

Oh, and one more Olympic related Trivial Pursuits question: What nationality was the person who first carried the Kyrgyz Flag into an Olympic arena? It might seem that the answer is obvious, but if you are tempted to say “Kyrgyz, you would be wrong.  It is an interesting fact that, unfortunately, when it came to the 1994 Winter games in Lillehammer, Norway, the Kyrgyz “team”, (there was only one Kyrgyz athlete – the Biathlete, Yevgeniya Roppel), and she did not arrive in time for the opening ceremony and so the flag was carried into an Olympic Area for the first time by a foreigner – the Norwegian translator, Torkel Engeness.

For the record:

The National Olympic Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic was established in 1991 – soon after Independence  – and was recognized by the IOC in 1993.

The first Kyrgyz team to compete at the Olympic Games took part in the 1994 Winter Games at Lillehammer in Norway, and the first appearance in the summer games was in 1996 in Atlanta.

Before independence, Kyrgyz athletes competed as part of the team of the Soviet Union, and the first ever gold medal won by a Kyrgyz athlete was for weightlifting in 1980.  Kanybek Osmonaliev not only won gold in his class, he was also three times world champion (in 1978, 1979 and 1981).

In the 1992 games – both Summer and Winter Olympics – Kyrgyzstan had been a member of the Unified team which represented 12 of the former Soviet Republics – and used the Olympic emblem in place of a national flag.  Kyrgyzstan contributed athletes only to the Summer Games – where the Unified team finished first in medal table at the Barcelona Games.

Since 1996 Kyrgyzstan has been represented as a separate country at each of the Summer Games – and also at the 2006 Winter Games.

Athletes from Kyrgyzstan have competed in Athletics, Boxing, Cycling, Judo, Swimming and the Modern Pentathalon in the Summer Games – and also in Alpine Skiing in the Winter Games.  Kyrgyzstan’s first medal success came in Judo in the Sydney Games of 2000, when Aidyn Smagulov took Bronze in the 60kg class.  Further success came in the 2008 Beijing Games when Ruslan Turmenbaev won Bronze and Kanat Begaliev won Silver in the Greco-Roman Wrestling competition.  (Begaliev had been tipped as a potential Gold medal winner.)

• What’s the longest word in the English language?
• James Joyce’s spelling for the word “fish” as “ghoti” …
• What word rhymes with “orange”?
• Which European capital sounds like multiplying?
• What is the longest word in English which doesn’t contain a vowel?
• What is the longest word in the English language with the letters in alphabetical order?

Following a postcard when I mentioned ISIHAC, (I’m sorry I haven’t a clue – “the antidote to panel games”, which relies heavily on puns – almost as much as on innuendo), one of our staff came and asked me what it was all about. I played her a few excerpts from one episode which were riddled with puns and she left even more confused than ever, muttering something about the inexplicable nature of English humour under her breath. In reply I pointed out that there were a lot of jokes in Russian that I didn’t understand … and many of those are also based on puns.

A pun is a play on words which is often based on different meanings of a word, or similar sounding words. They are usually meant to be humourous but are, often, so excruciatingly awful that some people have claimed that a pun is the “lowest form of wit” … unless, that is, it happens to be one you have uttered.

Actually, I personally think that this is a much more appropriate “definition” for the word “sarcasm” and a better explanation of a “pun” is: “a form of wit to which wise men stoop and fools aspire”. A “bad”, or excruciatingly awful, pun (uttered by “a fool”), is one which elicits a groan of embarrassment whereas a “good” one, (coined by a “wise man”) involves a knowledge and clever usage of the vagaries of the language.

A little later, another member of staff posed an interesting linguistic question: “which word in the English has the most meanings?”

The question took me by surprise … and although I racked my brain, I had to admit defeat, eat humble pie and confess that I couldn’t get the right answer. I even Googled the question and came up with the answer “set” which apparently has over fifty different meanings, but that was obviously wrong as it is well short of the 179 claimed for this particular word. To my chagrin, (Svetlana, our Tour Manager), got it straight away … well, she is a linguist.

Now, both English and Russian are very rich languages, each with their own grammatical formats and rules.

For example, when I first came here, I was asked to explain the English verb “to be”. Some Russian language textbooks claim that there is no equivalent in Russian, but that’s exactly true … there are the verbs “yest” and “beet” which mean “to be”, but they aren’t used in the same way as in English … try thinking about it: I am …, you/we/they are … he/she/it is … When it comes to the past and future tenses, then the verb “beet” does have the forms “bill” and “budet” which are sometimes used as the equivalent of “was” and “were” and of “will” and “shall”.

I confess … I gave up after a few simple examples.

Both English and Russian “borrow” words from other languages. I remember, for example, when I started learning Russian, I would ask my teacher, “What is the Russian word for “xxxx”?” and quite often the reply was the same or, very similar such as “storm” and “shtorm”, “calendar” and “kalendar” or “deficit” and “defitzit”, or would have a slightly different ending: “xxxx-iy” …

There aren’t that many Russian words that have been imported into general use in English, although everyone understands the word “Tsar” and, of course, “vodka”. People are surprised to learn that the word “Bistro” may be derived from the Russian word “beestra” which means “quickly,” and was supposedly picked up during the occupation of Paris in 1815 after the defeat of Napoleon, when Cossacks were supposed to have demanded that food be delivered to their tables “beestra”.

Both English and Russian are “living” languages which adapt and evolve to the ever changing world. The example I also use to demonstrate this is “vulgar” which, apparently, in Elizabethan times simply meant “common”. So referring to someone as “vulgar” simply meant that they were one of the “common people”, an ordinary person, one of “the masses”, one of the “general public”. Think of “the House of Commons” as opposed to the “House of Lords”. In England we might talk about “the man on the Clapham omnibus”, in America they might use the phrase “an ordinary Joe”. Over the course of time, however, the concept of “vulgar” became associated with the less savoury aspects of behaviour of the “common” people. Nowadays, the word “vulgar” has lost its original meaning and whereas someone might take pride in being described as “a common man” they would be offended being described as “a vulgar man”.

Not all words lose their former meanings when adopting a new one, and so the possibility for several possible interpretations exist.

Both English and Russian have words which have several meanings, and the only way to tell which meaning is meant in a particular sentence is to know the context. For example, in Russian, the word “dom” can mean either “house”, (a building), or “home”, (a place where you live – for however a short period of time, such as a hotel room).

Andrei, (one of the Baseball Kids), often comes and asks me what a word or phrase in English means. He picks the words/phrases up from songs he plays on his mp3 player. To be honest, sometimes his pronunciation or accent makes it difficult for me to work out exactly what it is that he is actually asking me. On other occasions I have difficulty because the words/phrases are idioms, or slang, or are from derived from songs, basically poetry set to music, and as such are not exactly examples of good English … something like “bruvva” or “Unbreak my heart”. On other occasions however, I have to ask for a context … because there are several possible interpretations or explanations. Take for example the word, “cool” – is it referring to temperature or is it a value judgment … ?

Having been forced to eat humble pie and admit defeat, I got my own back in the end … I asked: “Which word in Russian has the most meanings? … and in Kyrgyz?”

So far, no-one has been able to give me an answer.

For the record:

• The longest word in the English language?: “Smiles” … because there is a mile between the first and last letters … OK, that’s worth a groan.
  • “ghoti” = fish?

gh … as in “Enough”
o … as in “women”
ti … as in “emotion”

• Which word rhymes with “orange”?: Don’t spend too much time on this one … because, apparently, there isn’t one … although I am always tempted by “hinge” and “flange”. I suppose it depends on the accent.
• The European Capital that sounds like multiplying?: Dublin … OK … another groan!
• The longest words in English which doesn’t contain a vowel?: Rhythm … this is a bit of a cheat because the letter “y” can be either a vowel or a consonant … the linguists tell me that it is all to do with if the throat of mouth is “closed” when uttering the sound.
• The longest word in English with the letters in alphabetical order?: Almost.
• The answer to the question about the English word with the most meanings is, apparently, “run” … see http://rwdaily.runnersworld.com/2010/07/the-most-meaningful-word.html which notes that:
  • “According to the big fat Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary, the word “run” has 179 meanings. That’s way more than “take” (124 meanings), “break” (122), “turn” (122), “go” (98), “play” (94), and every other word.”
  • There are also a wide variety of puns and examples of different uses of the word.

I shouldn’t have been that surprised, because it happens quite a lot and I should be getting used to it.  The locals enjoy a good celebration and seem to seek almost any opportunity to have one.

So, I asked, “What holiday?”  I thought the answer might have been that is was “Roditelskiy Dehn”, “Parent’s Day”, the ninth day after Easter, (the Tuesday in the week after Easter), when people go to the cemetery to visit the graves of their deceased parents and relatives.  However, that is an Orthodox tradition, and although Sultan is Kyrgyz, he belongs to a Baptist Church and I wasn’t sure if they keep the same tradition.  The answer I got, however, was something totally different, and caught me off guard.  It was:  “Cosmonaut’s Day”.

That took the mystery of the occasion.  After almost fifteen years in Kyrgyzstan, I have experienced several Cosmonaut Days, and I had simple forgotten the date this year amidst the upheavals of the last week or so.  (See: A sense of deja vu – 7th April 2010).

Actually, in Kyrgyzstan, the day is not really marked in any special way, although people do sometimes refer to it in greeting each other, as Sultan did, and people may drink a toast at dinner in honour of the cosmonauts.  As I said, any excuse for a celebration is eagerly embraced.

Cosmonaut’s Day was a holiday, (but not “a red-letter day”, not a public holiday), which was celebrated in the Soviet Union on April 12 to commemorate the first manned earth orbit.

On April 12th, 1961,the spacecraft Vostok 1, (“East 1″), was launched from Baikonor spacedrome in Kazakhstan with the 27 year old, Senior Lieutenant Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin on board and into the history books.

In fact, although the spacecraft carried enough supplies for ten days, in case the retro rockets failed to fire and the spacecraft had to relay on a natural decay of its orbit, the flight actually lasted just 108 minutes and completed just one orbit of the earth.  In that orbit, however, it reached an altitude of just over 200 miles and so earned for Gagarin his place in history as the first man in space.

There are some “conspiracy theories” which suggest that he wasn’t the first cosmonaut that the Soviet’s had sent into space, but that he was the first to return.  There is no concrete evidence to support such theories.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the flight was without it’s controversies.  There are two in particular that are worth noting.

First, under the rules at the time, to be considered a successful space flight, the astronaut was supposed to land in his craft.  The Soviet scientists, apparently, were not certain about many aspects of the proposed flight, including whether the pilot could survive a landing, and so Gagarin actually ejected from the craft before the landing, about 25km south west of the city of Engels.  Gagarin actually landed some 10 minutes after the capsule.  The Soviets insisted that he had landed with the craft in order to comply with the rules claim the record as the first manned orbit of the earth, and the truth was reveled only years later.  This shouldn’t take away, however, Gagarin’s place in history as the first man to fly in space.

Secondly, Gagarin is reputed to have said during his flight: “I don’t see any God up here.”  This phrase does not appear in the transcript of the flight communications.  The origin of the phrase is sometimes traced back to a speech made by Soviet leader Nikita Kruschev at a Communist Party rally where at one point he said: “Gagarin flew into space, but didn’t see any God there”.  Gagarin was, apparently, baptised into the Orthodox Church as a child in keeping with the tradition of the times.

The flight was a great success for the Soviet space programme, marking another first over their Cold War rivals, the Americans, and was proclaimed around the world.  Gagarin became a hero and lionised everywhere he went.  His one regret, according to some accounts, was that he was considered so valuable a person that hid flying activities were extremely restricted and he was never even considered for a repeat flight.

It was decided to commemorate the event annually by making the day of the flight’s anniversary a holiday, which was established by a government decree on April 9th, 1962.

Cosmonaut’s Day is still marked in many of the former Soviet countries – especially in Russia where celebrations are centered on the city of Korolyov, (formerly Kaliningrad) and Gagarin’s tomb in Red Square, in Moscow.

The school hall would be crowded out as people amassed around their tables in teams of eight or ten.

On the table would be:

• a list of the ten or so rounds, with titles like: The London Underground; Broadway Musicals; Who am I?; Famous Battles;
• sheets on which we would have to write the answers for the ten or so rounds, and also
• the questions for the Marathon round: write the names of the countries of South and Central America on a map; identify some “dingbats”; or a selection of flags of the world … and that sort of thing.
• a large playing card – the team’s Joker, which they could use to double their score on any round of their choice.  The titles of some of the rounds were quite cryptic, and so you had to be very careful in choosing exactly when to play your joker … what looked like an obvious choice might cost many points.

The Master of Ceremonies would take the microphone and carefully read out the questions for each round … usually twice, but occasionally he would be forced to read one question over and over again … because people were too busy arguing over a previous answer and didn’t hear the next question.  Or maybe the sound system would play up, with feedback screeches … and for some reason the sound system always seemed to play up when it came to the Music round and no-one could hear the snatch of music being played.

Sometimes, passions rose and tempers flew … but it was generally a good natured event – and all in a good cause, raising money to help the school buy some of the little luxuries not provided for in the ordinary school budget.  The biggest arguments seemed to come when someone disputed an answer … For example: in answer to the question “Which city is known as “The Windy City”?” … then someone from America will almost certainly answer Chicago, but to someone from New Zealand, Wellington would be obvious answer … ), or when a question was complicated and there were half points awarded.  Sometimes, half a point could make a difference between coming first or second.

Ten rounds of ten questions, with twenty five more points available from the Marathon, and the bonus from using the Joker, meant that something like 135 points were available for a perfect score.  I don’t remember anyone ever achieving a perfect score … but sometimes a team got pretty close.  Teams of both parents and pupils would enjoy beating the staff tables.

Usually, the rounds were marked immediately and points awarded …  and a large scoreboard updated so that everyone could keep tabs on their position.  As the evening wore on the competition between certain tables would grow more intense, and some teams, deciding that they weren’t doing that well, decided to relax and have fun offering “humourous” alternative answers.

On the table there would also be place settings … and during an interval when you could concentrate on the Marathon round, a meal would be served … there would be tea, coffee and Cola, but as there was no license for selling alcohol most people brought with them wine or beer to drink with the meal, and that all helped to make the evening flow.

Quiz evenings became quite popular and some pubs organized events in the middle of the week on what would, otherwise, have been quiet nights.  Competition would be quite fierce and people were known to ‘cheat’ by ‘phoning a friend’ to get an answer, or using their blackberry to ‘google’ a question.

When I came here and began working with a number of organizations, like KATO, (the Kyrgyz Association of Tour Operators), I tried to interest them in similar events … I found them fun and most people in Britain seemed to enjoy them … but I was met with a distinct lack of interest.  I suppose it was just one of those ‘cultural differences’ that emerge from time to time.

Anyway, a week ago I met a friend in a local bar and was surprised to see an advert for an upcoming event being held in aid of the Alpine Fund … a Quiz Evening.

The Alpine Fund is a small, locally based, non-profit, non-governmental, secular organization that uses the incredible mountain resources of Kyrgyzstan to help the country’s most vulnerable youth challenge themselves for future success.

Their programs offer  a chance to children and young adults from orphanages and the street to escape the confines of their daily surroundings and meet challengesin a mountain environment, (through hikes, climbs, education programs,  individual mentoring, and college scholarships)..

The fund was founded in the year 2000, by the American climber, Garth Willis, employs a couple of local staff, but also a number of interns and volunteers from around the world who help in their programs.

For more information, see: http://www.alpinefund.org/

I was a bit anxious at first, because the ex-pat community here is fairly mixed: Americans and Australians outnumbering the Brits and I didn’t fancy rounds on topics like the history of baseball, but I needn’t have worried.  Most of the rounds were mixed general knowledge – a geography question, one on current affairs, another on world history and the like.  There was one round on Central Asia and another on Mountains, (well it was all in aid the Alpine Fund!), and, of course, there was the ubiquitous Music Round … I gave up trying to identify the base player performing during a particular piece.

It was a fairly raucous evening, but very enjoyable … and I look forward to the next one …

One day last week I was surprised to see the following entry:

Can you name the countries that are the most common answers on …
Mattomic: Nov 3rd, 2009 at 08:09 GMT, 11 points. Poor Kyrgyzstan. … batmann: Nov 3rd, 2009 at 08:42 GMT, 1 point. lol for some reason i forgot france and kept trying kyrgyzstan for #1 …
Trivia Games at Sporcle – http://www.sporcle.com/

As I have said elsewhere, I am a great fan of “trivia”, so, I clicked on the link and went to see what it was all about.

It seems that the site, www.sporcle.com,  has over 2000 games or quizzes … and their logo carries the subtitle: “mentally stimulating diversions”.  This particular quiz is in the “just for fun” section.  Other sections include Geography, History, Language, Literature, Movies, Music, Religion, Science, Sports and Television.

Each page poses a question and users have to type answers into a box and correct answers are then displayed in a grid underneath.  There is a time limit, so it is a race against the clock.

Some of the questions ask for a the members of a list such as “Can you name all the US States” (in ten minutes), but others require the player to match the answer to specific questions on a theme, such as “Can you name the only U.S. president who fits each clue?“, such as The only president who… “never lived in the White House” or “spoke English as a second language“.

The question on this particular page was “Can you name the countries that are the most common answers on Sporcle quizzes requesting country names?“, and there were 28 countries to guess in five minutes.  I had a go and it proved not to be as easy as it looked.

Incidentally, (and I hope this doesn’t spoil the game for anyone who wants to try it), Kyrgyzstan was not one of the answers.  I felt a little cheated …  although at the bottom of the page there is a link to see what comments people have added about the quiz and one of them, (from someone calling themselves recklessness), said: “What, no Kyrgyzstan? It seemed to be in every geography quiz I took…“.  Another comment suggested that it should have been a “bonus” answer … and sure enough, it was added with the comment: “Kyrgyzstan – Fun to spell, but that’s it“, which brought the riposte: “Poor Kyrgyzstan” that was quoted in the Google alert.

Apparently, however, Kyrgyzstan does come up in these quizzes quite often as Pariah said: “As soon as I saw the title of this quiz i knew the top comment would be something to do with Kyrgyzstan…“.  Batmann, also quoted in the Alert, commented that: “lol for some reason i forgot france and kept trying kyrgyzstan for #1“, and mister_pianoman moaned:”As soon as I finally learned to spell Kyrgyzstan on the first try, the last 3 or 4 new geography quizzes I’ve played haven’t had it as an answer“.  I wasn’t the only person to type in Kyrgyzstan as my first guess, as aoibhgreinemm: admitted: “I am not ashamed to admit that Kyrgyzstan was my first guess, now that sporcle has taught me to spell it “, (which left me wondering: where do these names come from … and … why would he be ashamed?)

On the page there was a list of some other quizzes, and I went and had a look at one or two and in the process I came across this one: Can you name the most commonly used words in the English language?

There were a hundred words to guess within a twelve minute time limit … and I thought that this should be easy … however, once again, it proved not to be as easy as it looked.  One hundred words in twelve minutes – that’s just seven seconds a word.  To my chagrin I only scored 53 … well, at least it was over half.

I was quite impressed with the idea and so I wrote a quick message to some of the people in my address book that I thought might enjoy having a go at it:

If you have a spare 15 minutes … can I suggest you give this a go … to my embarrassment, I scored a mere 53 …
http://www.sporcle.com/games/common_english_words.php

The first response I received in my email the next morning was from an Australian ex-pat here in Bishkek who said simply: “60!  But I struggled.”  … to which I replied “Malodetz!”, which is Russian for “Well done!”, and that in turn elicited the following rebuke: “Malodetz except that I have done nothing so far today except play games on that site!”

Amongst the other responses I received were:

• I’m a simple person who only uses simple words – but I still only got 57
• Only slightly better: 59. A good way to spend 12 minutes!
• I managed 62 out of 100.

The only person who has owned up to scoring less than me was one of my staff … but only just less than me, with a score of 52 … but I was quite impressed with that because her mother tongue is Russian, not English, and the test is really about more than just vocabulary, (although, to be fair, she is a linguist).

In fact it was another non-native English speaker that has managed to get the highest score to date: “yes! 64! still, many of these were taken automatically while I was typing a longer word… “, (for the record, she’s German).

Apparently users can create their own quizzes on the site.  I haven’t tried this, but I thought it might be fun to create some about Kyrgyzstan.  Some of the possible questions that come to mind are:

• Can you name the twenty tallest mountains in Kyrgyzstan?
• Can you name the famous persons?, for example:
  • the Kyrgyz Astronaut
  • the Queen of the Alai
• Can you name the largest nationalities represented in the population Kyrgyzstan?

However, although the registered users of sporcle seem to know about Kyrgyzstan, I don’t know how popular the quizzes would be, or how many questions they would be able to get right.

Be warned, if you do decide to have a go at the quiz that several people have told me that they found the site to quite addictive …

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