Postcard from Bishkek

I have absolutely no idea where the phrase comes from … and it seems that I am not alone.  There are several references on line that suggest a link with the ancient Olympic Games … but no-one seems to be able to quote an origin for the catchphrase … I seem to remember Sherlock Holmes muttering something like “The Games afoot!” as he roused himself to confront Professor Moriarty or that woman, Irene Adler, but “Let the Games Begin” … ?

The games are indeed about to begin in Sochi … the Winter Olympics.  Well, we’ve had the opening ceremony and today competition get’s underway.

It used to amaze me how every four years we all turned into experts on skiing and ice skating, bobsleighing and, (thanks to the exploits of Eddie the Eagle – in Britain at least), the finer points of Ski jumping.

It’ll be interesting to see how much attention skiing gets here in Kyrgyzstan over the next three weeks.  Will there be a surge of interest?  Despite the mountains, snow and ice that we get here, as far as I understand it, the country will be represented by just one athlete in Sochi, the skier Dmitry Trelevsky.

For the record: Kyrgyzstan has been represented in each of the Winter Olympics since 1994 when Yevgeniya Roppel competed in the Biathlon.  In 1998 Aleksandr Tropnikov carried the country’s flag, also in the Biathlon. The games in 2002 saw two competitors: the skier Aleksandr Tropnikov and skijumper Dmitry Chvykov.  Ivan Borisov skied for his country in 2006 as did Dmitry Trelevski in 2010 and Trelevski was joined by our sole female competitor to date, Olga Reshetkova.  Unfortunately, so far, no-one has achieved a medal place …

Although we only have one competitor, he’s accompanied by a trainer – OK, I suppose that’s fair enough – and three chinovniki, (officials) … and then, to top it all President Atambaev was invited to attend the opening ceremony and flew off on what was billed as a “working visit” – one of 66 heads of state and world leaders, (or is it 55 – accounts vary  but all seem to agree it was a record number), together with an entourage, so there will be quite a few Kyrgyz representatives there.

Nothing was said in the mainstream press about the rumours that have, apparently, been flying around the internet that the leaders of the CIS countries were planning on using the occasion to issue a statement protesting about the foreign interventions currently happening in places like Ukraine and denouncing the Belavezha Accords, (which proclaimed the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States and declared that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist) – and reconstituting the reforming of the USSR based on the constitution and legislation of the Russian Federation.  Yes, I appreciate it was a hoax, (I wasn’t taken in like I was over the photos of the snow clad pyramids a few weeks ago), but it was quite elaborate.  There was even a draft text of the proclamation … which was quite an interesting read and I wish I had saved it.   Even though I don’t think that there’s any way that Atambaev and the others could agree to such a document … I admit that I shall be watching events in Sochi with slightly more interest than I would have otherwise.

 

Winter has certainly arrived here … the snows haven’t been that heavy, at least not here in Bishkek, but the temperatures have plummeted with one guy commenting on Facebook that “this not like Central Asia – it’s like Siberia”.

It’s been putting a great strain is on the energy systems as people turn on heaters to cope with the extreme low temperatures.  Although there has been talks that when all the new hydroelectric power stations come on line we should not only be self sufficient, we should be able to export considerable quantities of electricity … in the meantime we are running at full capacity with no reserve available to meet rising demand – and demand has been rising – especially in the peak hours 7-9 in the morning and 6-10 in the evening. It’s been announced that at these times people should refrain from using electricity for heating with the threat of being cut off if they do … fortunately, we are connected to the town’s central heating system which is quite effective and in the hotel we have out own boiler – so we are not as badly effected as some others are.

We have, however,  been effected in another way – by power cuts.  One day we suffered several outages one after the other … they were all quite short and so were probably the result of some “accident” – perhaps the result of the system being overloaded – which were quickly repaired.  Another day we saw a much longer outage … and there are now plans for a rolling programme of power cuts if energy consumption exceeds certain limits approaching the full capacity.

One of the news agencies reveled in a report of massive power outages in Brazil and ran a story with the headline: “It’s not only us who are having mass power cuts.”

The last time anything like this happened was back in 2010 … and we all know what that led to and how it ended up – but the situation then was quite different, the water levels in the reservoirs had been allowed to get dangerously low and there wasn’t enough to drive the turbines … everyone thought that the water had been sold off and the proceeds pocketed by certain individuals, (who are no longer in the country).  This time there is water – less than would be desirable in ideal circumstances, but nothing like the deficit of four years ago.  It’s simply a case of Kyrgyzstan, like everywhere else in the world, experiencing unusual weather patterns … which have knock on effects.

Another example of those effects are the higher than usual number of avalanches – some of them “controlled” by the Kyrgyz army firing artillery in order to prevent dangerous situations developing.  Other, however, have been purely natural and blocked roads … one avalanche took several lives, another blocked the main Bishkek-Osh highway and it took time to clear a single lane for traffic, whilst another cut a village off for several days.

At least the snow has been good for the Winter Sports … Bishkek and Karakol may not be Sochi, but there has been plenty of skiing – and quite a bit of positive coverage in the international media – for example here and here.

Skiing has been the subject of a lot of attention here in the last couple of years.  There is a fairly active lobbying group pushing for the creation of “clusters” – a sort of “Free Economic Zone” arrangement with various incentives designed to encourage the development of ski resorts – and it has managed to win the favour of several people in high positions – including that of former President Roza Otunbaeva. One of the major attractions it offers is a season of 5-7 months rather than just 6 weeks which is basically how long the high season lasts in the resorts around Lake Issyk Kul.

 

The long running “games” over the Kumtor gold mine might just be entering the final stages … but I, for one, am not holding my breath.

The good news is that the parliament, after much debate decide to approve the deal negotiated between the government and the Canadians … but it wasn’t without reservations and they have laid down a number of terms and conditions which they expect the deal to deliver.

There was quite a bit of pressure on them – they were told that didn’t have to actually ratify the agreement, as it wasn’t an international agreement; the delays in coming to a decision was costing the country dearly in lost revenues – but not as much as it would cost if they decided to renounce the agreement and ended up having to pay compensation, which was put in the the billions rather than the millions.

The document before them was a memorandum – in far greater detail than the one presented to them at the end of last year, but – at least, as far as I can tell – very similar … basically the same.  There were still calls for a referendum, but the majority seem to have agreed with the Prime Minister that a referendum is not the appropriate instrument for dealing with a commercial, economic issue.  There was also a call for the dismissal of the government from one party, for not protecting the interests of the country.  One deputy announced that if the deal was approved then he would resign his seat, and true to his word, he did so.

In the meantime, the population up in Issyk Kul was somewhat agitated, with the arrest of some of the leading protesters resulting in yet another roadblock …  with, in turn, led to another protest – against protests.  Oh, sometimes Kyrgyzstan is priceless!

The roadblock has kept going despite the inclement weather, the counter protest and several attempts to negotiate with the villagers – well, until Friday evening.

 

Earlier in the week, the President floated an idea that it was about time that the Government took “control” of religious affairs.  This followed a statement last week when he said that “we”, (meaning the Kyrgyz), “may be Muslims but we are also Kyrgyz and we should remember that”.  He commented on the “extreme” nature of some groups – a point echoed by the Security commission and some other public figures – and how some individuals and clerics seemed to interfere with the normal political process … I wonder if he had in mind the somewhat high profile politician who called for banning St. Valentine’s Day – well, at least in public schools.

I am not exactly sure what he meant by control, Kyrgyzstan’s constitution explicitly stating that it is a secular state; political parties are prohibited … and so on … however, the law on Religion and Religious Organizations does lay down a framework in which religious organizations have to operate … but I suspect that’s going to be revised … again.

A piece of bad news came in the week when the roof on a two storey mosque collapsed – resulting in 56 people injured.  I hope that the building inspectorate are going to be subject to greater control … as this is not the first time we’ve seen problems with structures collapsing.   When I consider how strict they were with us when we built the hotel I can’t understand how this situation could happen.

The press reports were short and lacked any details but it appears that when the acting Mufti was questioned about his fatwa against homosexuality, he apparently denied that he had called on the faithful to kill gays if they see them … saying that it was a “bad topic”, (in other words – “I don’t want to talk about it”), and reiterating that all the main religions of the book had prohibitions against same sex relationships.

The controversy led to a very interesting, and long, article in Slovo Kyrgyzstan – which is an official government newspaper, although the article was clearly personal.     It seemed to me to be a fair, clear and logically argued piece that said basically, “it’s none of our business” … but pointed to the problems where religion and state (not to mention personal lives and liberties) intersect.  Even though it was a good article, I am not sure that it will be sort of thing to help overcome the prejudice and emotions that the topic arouses.

I am not sure what the Mufti would make of the news that Kyrgyzstan has conducted its first sex change operation.  The patient was apparently a man from Uzbekistan who has visited Bishkek several times for counselling and treatment and underwent surgery last October.  Once again, as is so often here, the report was short and lacked any real detail … but I, for one, was amazed that such treatment might be available here.  It seems so out of keeping with the traditions and culture – and I am not talking just about traditional Kyrgyz culture … the LGBT and feminist groups are always presenting such negative case histories about the treatment received by women and members of the sexual minorities from all sorts of quarters.   I just hope that this news item doesn’t turn out to be another hoax.

There’s been quite a lot of economic news … According to the Economy Minister, for example, only five countries are really making investing in Kyrgyzstan at the moment: China, Canada, Great Britain, Russia and Kazakhstan.  China, Russia and Kazakhstan are not all that surprising … and the Canadian investment is probably represented largely by Kumtor, but Great Britain’s place on the list did come as a surprise.  There were figures for foreign (mainly going to China, Russia, Kazakhstan and Switzerland – who buy most of our Gold).

We seem to be doing well on inflation, which last year was just  6.6% – the consumer price index performed even better at just 4% – but I am not sure how many people would recognize that figure.

The country bis busy repaying debts – you may remember that was supposed to be one of the reasons why, it was claimed, the dollar rate of exchange was constantly climbing.

Mind you, the rate of tax collection is not so good – especially with respect to local taxes, and the Prime Minister has charged the local authorities to pull their act together.  There are also proposals from the Finance Ministry to increase the charges for the patents where entrepreneurs pay a one-off fee and are released from the need to keep accounts.  Apparently these haven’t been increased for several years and the Ministry claim that it’s time for them to be adjusted.  The proposals, however, are suggesting hikes of between 200 and 500% and, you can imagine, people are not too happy about that.

The trouble is that the government do need to raise money if they are to fulfill their obligations, yet alone all the things that the population want them to do or that will help bring the country well and truly into the twenty first century … like the introduction of digital broadcasting or monitoring for gentically modified food products.  There were several stories during the week when it was claimed that projects hadn’t been implemented because of a lack of funds.

Still, I am not certain that such dramatic rises are conducive to persuading people that it really is a necessary step.  The fact that civil servants have seen rises in salaries, (the average salary in the country now stands at 11080 som a month – about USD230), and pensions are going up, (by 200 som – or about USD4 – a month), is not going to help.  It’s true that the official minimum subsistence level is quite low, at about 4500 som a month, but very few people can live on that.

Perhaps the blot on the landscape was the news that for every job in the country there are 14 job seekers … but the regional variations represented in those statistics are quite staggering, with almost 600 people chasing every job in the Naryn region.  Yes, that’s not a typing error – it really was six hundred.

 

As the Manas Transit Base starts its wind down, before it’s final closure, the news that Russia is not only going to provide the government with additional military hardware but was also looking to beef up its presence at the airbase in Kant led to some interesting sideswipes about consistency from at least one analyst.

 

The new mayor of Bishkek has been receiving advice about a thorny problem … the maintenance of the city’s parks.  Bishkek was once known as the Greenest City on Earth, but that has seemed a little jaded in recent years with parkland beiing allocated for building projects and trees cut down … with others facing threat of disease and natural pests.  Experts have warned that not one park has escaped shrinkage and we could soon be in a position where we have precious few trees left in the city.

Perhaps the strangest story of the week, however, was the one which looked at the number of fences that have sprung up around the city.  When I first came to Bishkek back in the mid 1990′s there were very few fences … you could, for example, walk right up to the doors of the White House … but then it was considered necessary to erect a fence for security reasons … the same fence that was the scene of the 201o protest and which the deputy climbed over in order to “get to his place of work” in October 2012.  It’s understandable, the author said, that people want to feel secure at home and so apartment blocks have fenced off the surrounding land and put gates across their driveways.   … but why did the city council feel that it was necessary to put a fence around the fountain in Panfilov Park … ?

 

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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:

• Have an adventure - adventure can be defined in many different ways and Kyrgyzstan offers great potential for Adventure Tourism – 02/02/14
• Places named after people - Kyrgyzstan seems to have a habit of renaming places in honour of famous sons and daughters – 03/02/14
• Cholponbek Bazarbaev - for many years the face of Kyrgyz ballet – 04/02/14
• Corruption – Not exclusively a Kyrgyz problem - following a report about the breathtaking widespread corruption in Europe, it became clear that is not an exclusively Kyrgyz problem – 05/02/14
• Talas - The homeland of Manas, the legendary hero of the Kyrgyz – 06/02/14
• Alexei Pavlovich Fedchenko – Explorer - the short life of one of the Russian explorer who helped to open up Central Asia to the outside world – 07/02/14

It is possible to follow me on Facebook, (where we also have specific pages for Celestial Mountains, the Silk Road Lodge, The Celestial Mountains Guesthouse in Naryn  and also links.kg, Kyrgyz Diary and Kyrgyzstan Visitki … and not forgetting ianbek), and also on twitter, (@Bishkekpostcard and @celestialMTC ).

Tags: In_the_News, Life_in_Kyrgyzstan, Weekly_Postcards