Postcard from Bishkek

The city authorities have been quite busy running raids of different sorts.

They have been walking the streets and inspecting properties for all sorts of infringements of this or that regulation … writing reports, taking photographs, issuing notices, imposing fines and taking direct action to remove the offending items.

Recently, for example, there has been a crackdown on advertising hoardings and so forth … checking not only that they advertiser has the necessary permissions and that they don’t break any of the rules – for example over size and position, construction, lighting and language.

To be fair, although it seems a bit odd that business are not allowed to put up even posters on the walls of their building, or on a roadside fence, without permission, most places around the world have such regulations and the adverts can be unsightly and change the nature and feel of a neighbourhood … so I can see the logic behind them.  What’s more, those that stand on the pavement, blocking the flow of traffic, can be a hazard.

A few years ago, up in Naryn we have a sign on the main road pointing the way to our guesthouse … the authorities turned up one day and took it down.  As far as I was concerned, it was without warning … to the best of my knowledge they hadn’t given us any warning but unilaterally decided, “That won’t do” and took action.  To be fair, they gave the sign back to us … and they said that it had to be illuminated.  We pointed out the fact that it was on a lamppost, underneath the light and so was illuminated … at least when there was electricity and the light was on … but apparently that wasn’t enough.  A new regulation decreed that it had to be a “lightbox” – that is illuminated from bulbs within.

The cynic in me thought, “someone local has a business making such signs and is going to be making a bomb out of this”, but it turns out that wasn’t the case.  We would have to order a lightbox to be  made in Bishkek and have it taken up to Naryn.

Last year there was a huge scandal over the hoardings displayed outside the Russian Drama Theater …  apparently, not only did they not have permission to drape huge placards on the walls of the the theater, they were entirely in Russian and, so they were told, the regulations required them to be in Kyrgyz as well – even though it was the Russian Drama Theater and all the performances would be in Russian.  The theater management, having received and apparently ignored an official warning, one day found that a crew of workmen had been sent in to dismantle the placards.

 

In the last few weeks there have been a number of other raids … one resulted gates that have been installed without permission being dismantled.  Another concentrated on carwashes, checking that they had the necessary facilities for water drainage, disposal of chemicals, dirt and so forth.  Another raid was targeted towards street front fast food outlets, where rubbish was strewn on the pavements all around the kiosks.

The new mayor of Bishkek has asked people to keep him posted of problems in the city which need to be addressed and has apparently been receiving photos sent in by citizens of things like road signs that need attention and the growing problem over litter – especially the state of the city’s rubbish bins – many of them sent in using the What’sApp application for social media.

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We’ve also had our own run in with the authorities.   This was over rubbish which had been accumulating in our yard … NOT our rubbish, I hasten to add, but for some reason we seemed to take the brunt of the controversy.

Let me put the whole thing into context.

Our yard serves two buildings … ours, a small building with five apartments and two offices, and a five storey apartment block which also contains a number of offices, shops and a dentist’s surgery, (although the shops and dental surgery have separate entrances directly off  the road).

For many years there has been little problem with rubbish … the bins where we are supposed to dispose of our household garbage are located a short walk away in the neighbouring yard and everyone duly trotted off with the buckets or plastic bags and threw the rubbish away properly.

Then, last year, a couple of the apartments in our building underwent remodelling and the building rubble piled up in the yard whilst this was going on … the builders clearing it away from time to time.  Unfortunately, someone seems to have thought, “Oh, we can put our garbage here” and added their plastic bags to the building rubble.  The builders duly kindly cleared that away along with their own rubbish.

Now the reconstruction is over and there is no more building rubble … but the plastic bags of household garbage kept on coming.  The pile grew … and grew.  On one occasion the DomCom for the other building arranged for it to be removed and put up notices saying “Don’t Litter – Fine 500 som“.  Unfortunately, that didn’t work and no sooner had the yard been cleared than more rubbish started to accumulate.

No-one was particularly happy about it, but no-one seemed to know to whom the garbage belonged … or, at least, if they knew they weren’t saying … presumably not wanting to start an argument.

One night, one of the boys was chatting with some friends in the yard and he saw someone from the other building placing their plastic bag on the pile … and he asked her not to do that but to take it to the bins in the neighbouring yard.  Now, I wasn’t there at the time, but he says that she not not only refused but “gave him a mouthful” of verbal abuse … I am pleased to say she seems to have moved – we haven’t seen her for some time.

Apart from being unsightly, there’s an obvious health risk … some stray dogs started to appear to rummage through the bags and scatter the contents far and wide … birds as pecked at the and we were keeping an eye open in case we saw any rats.  The cats might be effective deterrent for the birds and vermin – but they, understandably, tended to turn and run whenever the dogs appeared.

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Then, a couple of weeks ago two officials appeared in the office and asked bout the garbage.  I was in the hotel at the time, so I didn’t meet them until much later … although I am told that they were very polite – albeit very firm and saying that it was our responsibility to clear it away and failure to do so would involve a fine of anything between 5000 and 50,000 som, (USD100 to USD1000).

When I was told about the visit my first reaction was, “Why is it our responsibility?” … It is not our garbage in the first place, (surely, if they want to fine somebody it should be the person dumping the garbage); there is a municipal garbage removal service, (for which, incidentally, we pay  but I accept that there may be an additional fee for a special one-off collection); .. but also, I thought, surely it should be collective responsibility and not just be a burden on us.  (As far as I could ascertain, they hadn’t been to see other people in our building – but I have no idea and can’t say if they went to the other building).

In that initial meeting everything had been verbal … so I decided to wait and see what documentation they came with next time.

I did happen to be in the office the next time they came, and asked for an explanation for their decision.  They explained that under the regulations it was within 10 meters of our building so it was our responsibility.  To be honest, my first, (mischievous), thought on hearing this, was to go and move it two meters further away… however that wouldn’t solve the problem.

Because there was the threat of a fine, my accountant had called our lawyer and he asked he asked to hand the phone to them s that he could talk to them … and then is when it got “silly” – I suppose that’s not really the right word … but it’ll do.

I heard the one official tell my lawyer over the phone “… yes, there’s your neighbour’s rubbish … and your rubbish”.  My immediate reaction was to ask him to prove it … we employ a cleaner who every day collects our garbage and takes it to the bins …  and we don’t even use the same sort of plastic bags that were on the pile. It was at that point I was told … “There’s stuff in English on the pile” … as if no-one else could possibly have stuff in English.

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Again, everything was oral, so I asked for a written order (predpisaniye) so that we could challenge it. He duly sat down and wrote one out.  In theory, I am supposed to sign it to show at I have received it … but I refused as I felt that signing it might imply that I agreed with what it said.

It had four points … the first said that we had three days to clear the rubbish (but as the first day was almost over that effectively meant we had just two days t do it).  Another said that we had to conclude a contract with the relevant municipal body for garbage removal, (which was not problem because we already have one). The other two were general points about maintaining a clean yard, (which I still maintain is a collective responsibility which should not be placed on just one tenant).  There was nothing about a fine – unless we failed to comply with the order – nothing about 5,000 som nor about 50,000.

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So …  we sprang into action.  We contacted the municipal agency to arrange for the rubbish to be removed.  ”There’s a a separate fee to pay,” they said  No problem, we’ll pay it … I doubt if we’ll ever get it back from the other residents, but the job needs to be done – and we have the order.  ”It’s too late for today” they said, tomorrow.”  OK, no problem.

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But there was a problem.  The vehicle apparently developed a mechanical fault and there wasn’t an alternative.  ”Don’t worry,” they said, “we’ll be there by six o’clock.”  They didn’t make it.  ”We’ll be there tomorrow morning” they said when we telephoned to inquire what the problem was.  They didn’t make the Saturday morning either … and after several more phone calls I was told that they would be here “… by six”.  I wasn’t all that surprised when six o’clock came and went and they still hadn’t appeared.

I was, however surprised to get a phone call at twenty past seven … they were here!  Great! except that by now it as dark and I was worried that they wouldn’t be able to see anything.

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As it happens, they had some lights on the vehicle and worked quite hard shoveling away … although they had obviously been expecting a bin which would have been a lot easier … and quicker.

All the same by eight o’clock they had finished, departed and we closed the gate.

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If, however, I had thought that this would be the end of the story … I would have been mistaken.  Sunday morning, where the workmen had cleared a nice clean space stood … three bags of rubbish.

 

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Then a few days later … another two … unfortunately the security camera is too far away and couldn’t give a clear image of who it was that had deposited it.    

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Since then, I am pleased to say … it’s been clear.  

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