Archive: March, 2011
One confusing feature in Kyrgyzstan is that since independence there has been a tendency to change place names, especially from the older Russian version to new Kyrgyz names. In many cases the new name is a form of an even older Kyrgyz name – but not always. In a way, this is isn’t altogether surprising. [...]
In yesterday’s post about the National Anthem of Kyrgyzstan, I mentioned that current anthem which was introduced in 1992 replaced an early one, written in 1946, by Adbylas Maldibaev, which served as the anthem of the Khirghiz SSR, however, that was not 100% accurate. Although he was one of the composers, it was a collaborative [...]
In last week’s weekly postcard, (posted on Saturday), I mentioned that, “Perhaps the strangest new item of the week is that the parliament has established a working group to change the country’s Flag and National Anthem.” I wrote a postcard about the Kyrgyz flag earlier in the month, so let me now turn my attention to [...]
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 [...]
Faravahar (or Ferohar), is one of the primary symbols of Zoroastrianism, and is believed to be the depiction of a guardian spirit – called a Fravashi I mentioned yesterday that Norus is an ancient Zoroastrian festival. Zoroastrianism is a pre-Islam religion founded by the ancient Persian prophet Zoroaster (sometime in the second millennium BC – although there is some [...]
