Postcard from Bishkek

In Britain we have had a King who was beatified as a saint but only one who has been granted the appellation, “Great”, although he was never actually the King of England – yet alone Britain … neither of which actually existed as a political entity at that time.  He was, however, the first to style himself “King of the Anglo-Saxons” and in his lifetime he became the dominant ruler in England.

Details of his life are described in a work by the 10th century Welsh scholar and bishop Asser and as a result we know a fair bit about him, for example – that he was born in the Royal Palace at Wantage in Oxfordshire in 849, (although not the actual date), and that he died on 26th October, 899; that he gained his title by successfully defending his kingdom against the Vikings who attempted to conquer it and Asser’s account paints a picture of a learned and merciful man who encouraged education and improved his kingdom’s legal system and military structure.

Unfortunately we don’t know how he died – but it was probably the result of an illness, perhaps Crohn’s disease or even haemorrhoids.

He was buried in Winchester Cathedral, and his tomb was moved when the new Minster was built, (which may have been built in order to house it), and later to Hyde Abbey at the beginning of the twelfth century.  Following the dissolution of the the Monasteries in the Reformation, the grave was preserved but later destroyed when a prison was built on the site in 1788.  Since then some bones have been discovered that are thought may have been those of the king, but they have yet to be analysed to see what they can tell us.

Whilst Alfred was busy burning cakes, starting a navy, strengthening the church and having the bible translated into English, encouraging learning, reforming the legal system, maintaining a wide range of foreign relations, (including corresponding with the Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Caliph of Baghdad and – possibly – sending a delegation to India), rebuilding London and defending his time kingdom from the Vikings, the Kyrgyz Khanate had, basically, had its day and was in a state of decline, and the tribes were about to start the process of migrating from Yenesie in Siberia to the Tenir Too mountains to the West; the land in Central Asia that we now know of as Kyrgyzstan.

Alfred lived through difficult and turbulent times and sometimes it feels that that we are going through similar times.

The Kumtor situation is taking yet further twists and turns.  The parliament have put on the pressure by voting against adopting the Memorandum if Understanding negotiated between the government and the Canadian company operating the mine – only two MPs voted in favour of it. Now, that sounds pretty convincing.

That’s not quite the end of the story, however, as they also passed a resolution recommending the government to continue the talks seeking to raise the stake in the new company from 50% to 67% (I suppose there is some “logic” in that as it amounts to a two thirds stake, but as it is less than the 70% being demanded by the protesters … I presume there will still be some opposition to it).

There’s also been some movement on the calls to “bring to justice” those involved in structuring the earlier.  Two former ministers have been arrested.

Kumtor is not the only foreign mining company facing problems  … another mine, this time at the other end of the country, in Batken, has been targeted by protesters .

The effect of the continuing problems has had considerable effects on the share price of Centerra which took another plunge after the vote – losing the country 93 million dollars from its portfolio.  But that’s not all.  It seems that in the first nine months of the year, coupled with a fall in the price of gold, the tax raised from mining operations has fallen by more than half, causing problems for the state budget.

Oddly enough, something else seems to have fallen by half – the amount of direct foreign investment in the country since 2008.  The reasons for this according to one analyst boil down to “the local society and poor protection of private property”, both of which were raised by businessmen and lobbyists in a press conference … where they claimed that the institution of private property is under threat … and has been since 2005 … urging the government to address the issues of public order,  and help create conditions that will help business to prosper and provide more workplaces.

Another foreign company is also facing renewed criticism: Reemtsma, the tobacco company.  The Chairman of the Tax authority has claimed that the company has not fulfilled its obligations under the investment agreement … particularly building a tobacco processing company in the south of the country to process Kyrgyz grown tobacco.  This is not the first time that Reemtsma has faced such criticism.

Some of those lobbyists may soon find it more difficult to work – especially if they work for non-government organizations (NGOs) that receive funding from donor agencies.  The draft amendments to the Criminal Code aimed at protecting “state secrets from criminal attacks”, (which are based on the “foreign agents law” recently adopted in Russia – where it has caused problems), have been approved by a parliamentary committee.   Non profit organizations and NGOs will need to provide the authorities with additional reports – including information about their finances.  Under the draft proposals the authorities can request and documents, to carry our checks and without a court order suspend the work of the organizations and also prohibit foreign organizations to fund certain associations.

Whilst on the subject of the economy … it seems that the country’s balance of trade is still taking a turn for the worse … the negative balance of payments has increased by 18% over the first nine months of the year when compared to last year.  Whilst the value of exports has remained stable – well that’s good news – the value of imports has increased – and that definitely isn’t.

Turning to another issue that has been occupying a lot of attention – the future of the US Transit Base at Manas airport – it is now clear that the Americans are [planning to transfer its operations to Romania … although there is still speculation about whether there will be some form of accommodation, (perhaps with the connivance of another country).  If, however, it does withdraw then the country will loose considerable sums, (USD30 million according to the Deputy Minister of Finance), in the form of taxes, fees  … and so forth), which will have to be recovered from other sources.

That concentrates only on the losses to the budget, however, and doesn’t take into account the employment of individuals providing goods and services who will lose.

In the debate over the Customs Union, Russia has announced that it is going to introduce a new simplified system for processing Kyrgyz exports, and the government has issued a list of exports for which it is going to seek concessions for- but perhaps the most interesting news was that the Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan has said that they see no advantages to joining.

At least the amount of remittances from Kyrgyz working abroad are up –  by over 13% in the first eight months of the year.  Most of that money has come from Russia and with the atmosphere and moves against migrant workers from Ventral Aia, including the deportation of a thousand workers, does not bode well for the future.  Not only will there be a loss of “income”, but there’s the question of what they will do once they come.

Despite of this, there is hope for better times ahead … there is one expert who feels that the mining industry can flourish, and be something like three times as strong as it is at present … mind you, that presumably implies that all these issues will be sorted out.

 

If King Alfred had trouble with Vikings crossing the seas, (which was effectively England’s border), then the borders of Kyrgyzstan have also proved to be a little porous.  The day after the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of security said that the situation on the Uzbek border was stable … a group of Tajik soldiers crossed over into the Batken oblast – reportedly about 100 soldiers entered half a kilometer into Kyrgyz territory around some oil wells.  Apparently Kyrgyzstan has issued a protest note … demanding that the troops be withdrawn.

Another interest of Alfred’s was eductaion … and that’s been in the news again.  A booklet on sex education, produced with support from GIZ, aroused controversy earlier as it was seen as being opposed to traditional Kyrgyz culture.  For same reason the controversy has been resurrected, with one MP apparently  suggesting that the copies should be burned.

It was also reported that of the 26000 disabled children in Kyrgyzstan, and only some 25% have access to education.  This makes the HealthProm project, which receives funding from the Big Lottery Fund in the UK is going to make an important contribution to helping them.  I just hope that the Foreign Agents law won’t make their work more difficult.

They are not the only children in “difficult” circumstances – over other 8000 children have been identified  as such, most of them “without parental care” but others “in conflict with the law”, almost two thousand “working children” and, somewhat surprisingly, only about 30 “street children”.  Almost 100 were identified as victims of domestic violence or sexual abuse.

Some of those without parental care have been placed by the social services with adoptive or foster parents – but the system here tends to try and place the children with their natural families … grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc., so I can’t wondering if that doesn’t mask the real figures.

I am not sure to what extend it could be said that Alfred’s kingdom was multi-ethnic … after all, he had Vikings, Saxons and other groups in the country … but probably not as much as today’s Kyrgyzstan.  When I first came here, I was told that there were over 80 different nationalities represented in the population … however only about 30 get reported separately in the census results.  However, this week it was reported that now Kyrgyz society consists of over 100 nationalities.  (I wonder if that includes the English? – i.e. people like me, and if so, are we counted separately from the Scots and Welsh?)  Anyway, the largest single group is … the Kyrgyz, with 73.3% of the population, followed by the Uzbeks, – at 14.3% - who have overtaken the Russian – at just 6.7%.

 

On other matters, Bishkek has been hosting a Global Summit  on protecting the Snow Leopard.  It’s estimated that there are only about 3-4000 of these big cats left and the number in Kyrgyzstan has reportedly declined dramatically.  Whereas, it was estimated that we had some 1250 a few years ago, the current population is thought to be as low as about 250.  Five of them live in a special reserve created by the German environmental group NABU … I wonder how the proposed Foreign Agents law will affect their work.

At the summit, plans were announced for the creation of a new cross border Park to try and help preservation efforts, to be called Khan Tengri park.

To further the campaign the decision was taken to name next year as the Year of the Snow Leopard, and October  23rd.

 

There has been more news … the house of the first mayor of Terentiev is currently in ruins and plans have been announced to have it renovated and turned into a museum … there have been several announcements of expecting bad weather, especially in the mountain regions … the heating systems will be turned on early … new breathalyzers have been acquired for the traffic police and penalties for drunk driving are to be strengthened … and so on.

Today, the fourth Saturday in October, is Make a Difference Day in the US.

For the record: The day was created in 1992 by the magazine USA Weekend as a Community Action day which is meant to be a celebration of “neighbors helping neighbors”, when millions of volunteers from around the world unite in a common mission: to improve the lives of others.

Alfred certainly made a difference in 10th century England  … but there’s a lot of work left to do here to make a difference in modern day Kyrgyzstan in the 21st century.

 

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Postcard from Bishkek: the weekly postcard that I send out as an email also gets posted on the website ianbek.kg each week – and there are other postcards which don’t get sent out.  This week, for example, there has been the following postcards:

Tags: In_the_News, Weekly_Postcards