Postcard from Bishkek

Although I expect to see reports on American Football, Baseball, Basketball and Ice Hockey, I am often amazed as I watch the sports reports on CNN … by the graphic descriptions of the archetypal British with the typical American fixation with sporting statistics. 

Most Americans … no, most people outside Britain, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Sri Lank and South Africa (and quite a few people in those countries as well) … find Cricket incomprehensible.   It has the set pieces, the technicalities and special jargon … but lacks the speed of action … so beloved by sports fans.   

Actually, that relaxed pace is one of the attractions.  The commentators giving the “ball by ball” account of a match on radio have plenty of opportunity for chit chat, tea and cake … and there is plenty of time for “action replays” on the television, whilst those in the ground can relax and, hopefully, enjoy the sunshine.

Although most matches last a day (or less) others are spread over several days.  A Test Match, (an official international match between designated countries by the International Cricket Council), usually lasts five days, and … can easily end in a draw – which in Cricket doesn’t mean, as it would in other sports (equal scores by both sides – which has actually happened … twice in over 2000 matches: Australia versus both India and the West Indies), but effectively means “unfinished – time ran out with no result” … no-one wins and no-one looses. 

Today marks the anniversary of the  start of first ever Test Match between Australia and England in 1877 … although it wasn’t actually recognized as an official Test Match until later.  (… and it wasn’t the first international match – that was between the USA and Canada in 1844 – Now, that’ an ideal question for a Trivia quiz.)

For the record, after seven weeks traveling halfway round the world, the English team played two Test matches against Australia – loosing the first but winning the second, so the series was a tie – not a draw!

Also: a couple of weeks ago, Afghanistan achieved a remarkable feat by scoring their first victory against a “Test” side – Bangladesh … true, Bangladesh may be the weakest of the ICC Test countries but, perhaps more importantly, Afghanistan is one of the cricket playing countries not part of the former British Empire/Commonwealth …  sign of things to come?

In English, (English-English, that is … not American-English), the phrase “it’s just not cricket” is used to describe unsporting behaviour; something that is against the rules or “bad form”; unjust …or just plain wrong.  

 

Once again the events in Ukraine seem to have dominated here – in discussions if not in the press.  There have been reports about what’s going but they have been few and far between when I compare them to what I have seen on CNN or Western news websites.  The authorities have been pretty quiet although the Minisytry of Foreign Affairs did issue a statement criticizing Yanukovich and a statement that he issued last week … describing it as “inappropriate and inadequate”.  The authority of a President, it said,  derives from the people and events showed that he had lost the confidence of the Ukrainan people.  

To put it another way … what happened in Kiev “was just not cricket”. 

That’s seems to me a pretty damning conclusion – although there are similarities to what the Founding Fathers said when starting the American Revolution; what Cromwell argued when Charles I was put on trial and lost his head; what Parliament said when inviting Charles II to resume the throne and again when inviting William and Mary to  take the throne away from James II; what Lenin said when the Bolsheviks seized power in 1917 and not to mention the situation when Akaev and Bakiev were overthrown here in Bishkek.  Although there are differences, I think parallels can even be drawn with Moscow’s position about the people of Crimea being allowed to decide for themselves who is going to govern them … or Scotland for that matter.  

In the Western media there has been a lot of comment about the nervousness felt by different Central Asian leaders, about Russia’s intentions and the precedent for future interventions in the region.  There’s a lot made of the delicate negotiations over enlargement of the Customs Union; the economic dependency of many of the Central Asian economies on support from Russia – in the case of Kyrgyzstan in terms of aid, investment (especially in major infrastructure projects) and, of course, the role played by remittances sent back home from migrant workers employed in Russia.

On the other hand the main comment I have seen here is that the earlier “Silence” had probably been the right approach – that by issuing the statement Atambaev may have opened the floodgates to further dissension and challenges to his own authority from within rather than from an outside force.

… And, there is definitely opposition.

A lot of attention, for example, has been paid to the plans of the opposition to mount a protest on Monday (17th March) … with headlines like “Whats going to happen on Monday?”

There’s a certain amount of nervousness in the air as people remember that both the previous revolutions happened in Springtime – and the anniversary of the 2005 revolution, (24th March) is rapidly approaching … although the weather is still pretty changeable and not exactly conducive to mass rallies.

According to Vecherniye Bishkek (Evening Bishkek – the city’s main newspaper), every day they receive phone calls (in double figures) from concerned citizens about “suspicious people” acting in a “suspicious manner”.  When they asked a spokesman from the Ministry of Internal Affairs about this … he apparently tried to calm things down and, among other things, referred to the emergency “hot lines” that people could use to report such things to the police rather than calling to a newspaper.  The trouble is that when a reporter tried calling the hot lines – some weren’t working and others were simply answerphone playing a recorded message.

Now, that’s definitely “not cricket”!

The critics of Kumtor up in Issyk Kul have, however, decided to call off their protest actions … promising not to block roads any more and calling off a rally, promising not to do anything else that would be breaking the law.  That sounds promising – but the same day that was announced the villagers in another part of Kyrgyzstan announced their to protests surrounding another gold mine elsewhere in the country.

One of the “opponents” of the current administration, Melis Myrzakmatov – the former mayor of Osh recently unseated for appearing at an anti government rally who failed in his attempt to be re-elected, has been summoned for questioning about some corruption allegations.

Another of the opponents of the current regime who is currently serving a prison sentence was apparently taken from the prison colony where he was being held, beaten and, according to the press reports, disappeared.  His supporters have issued an appeal to the President, (as the guarantor of the constitution) to resolve the situation, sack the officials responsible for prison service who had allowed this to happen and they started a vigil which they say won’t end until their demands are met.

All of the opposition was supposed to lead to a vote of confidence (or “no confidence”) in the government – which was timetabled for next week.  Now, however, it’s been announced this will have to be postponed – a s next week’s sessions of the Jogorku Kenesh (the Parliament) have been cancelled so that the deputies can hold meetings with their electors.  It’s probably just as well – at one session last week, there were just ten deputies in attendance and the session had to be abandoned.

One of the panel of Deputy Speakers took the occasion to urge the deputies to take part in “subbotniks” – the tradition of voluntary unpaid work on social projects, (typically cleaning up a particular geographical area – a sort of “spring cleaning”).  I heard one person support the idea saying, somewhat cynically, that they would at least be starting to have an effect and make a difference.

Meanwhile, Ilya Lukas, (one of the popular activists who has been an outspoken critic of Putin, Russia and the Customs Union as well as an active supporter of the Maidan protesters in Kiev), claims that he came under “pressure” and was threatened after the youth movement Kalys decided to burn his portrait at an anti American rally, (where he was denounced for supporting gay rights, starting an organization though a page on facebook – and same sex marriage … which is debatable – he denies it), and as a result decided to leave for Kiev.

That didn’t stop Kalys from holding another rally, and they seem to gathering support, especially in regard to their “anti gay” agenda … calling for control or banning the non-government organizations that “promote” such issues and the condemning the US and Europe for pushing the subject onto the Kyrgyz people.  

Several deputies have expressed support for a move to introduce legislation similar to Russia’s “anti-gay propaganda” and one has pointed out that a petition supported by 10,000 signatures would be sufficient to initiate the legal process.  (The Parliament has also approved legislation to ban all forms of  adverts for “intimate services” as they are seen as not being in keeping with traditional culture.)  

Frankly, I hadn’t noticed that gay rights had been high on the agenda – until, that is, a delegation gave a submission to a United Nations Commission a couple of weeks ago - after which the anti-campaign kicked in and “promoted” it as an issue of importance.  My gut feeling is that to most people it is a non-issue … they may not be in favour of gay rights but there are other things that are deemed as more important.    

Another delegation, this time from the government has also been appearing before a United Nations Commission … but, although it touched on gay rights, it was quite wide ranging and covered a variety of topics – such as allegations of torture and prison conditions; journalists; bride kidnapping … for which it received some qualified praise for the “progress” being made … even if it is an example of traditional values and culture.   

 

There’s been another issue where the argument about it not being compatible with “traditional values” is that of gambling – as reflected in the “on-off” history of Casinos in the republic, (legal then banned, reinstated, regulated and restricted then banned once more).  Recently there have been moves to have the whole issue re-examined – perhaps creating special zones where Casinos will be allowed and strictly regulated, although prohibited elsewhere.  Now, the Supreme Court is going to examine the prohibition – against the provisions of the constitution which is supposed to guarantee certain rights.

Taking away those rights, it’s being argued, “was just not cricket”.

As an aside: although the appeal to traditional values, customs and religion – gambling being un-Islamic – does have some logic to it … and I appreciate that there is little or nothing that can be done, for example, about internet gambling which is based outside Kyrgyz jurisdiction … but there are some other inconsistencies … There are, for example, the lotteries … with tickets sold from little booths set up around the city.  Also, bookmakers – betting shops – are still legal, (so I could have placed a bet on Afghanistan beating Bangladesh – although I doubt if the bookie would have had any idea what sort of odds to offer).   In fact they bring in over a million soms to the state budget in taxes and fees.  That may only be $200,000 – but, it’s still quite a significant figure.  

 

Turning to more “mundane” matters …

Inflation is currently running at 1.2% since the beginning of the year.  Although in January it was running at just 0.4%, in February it was double that – largely due, according to the pundits, the exchange rate chaos following the Kazakh devaluation compounded by seasonal variations and the uncertainty over the political situation and events in Kiev and the Crimea.  As it happens, there’s been some intervention and additional regulation from the National Bank.  The banks are arguing that to try and bring some order to the market, in future the operation of exchange offices should be restricted to commercial banks.

One of the deputies has also suggested imposing a form of price control on imports in order to address the balance of payments problem.

I am not sure how either of these are likely to work out.

Mind you, the government are not running away from difficult decisions … they are, once again, addressing the issue of electricity tariffs … apparently behind closed doors.  Maybe they are conscious of what happened last time raising tariffs was considered.

 

The Ministry of Education is mulling over one particular hard decision, the introduction of a rental scheme for textbooks.  There is a distinct shortage of textbooks and although there have been attempts to replenish the stock, spending public money and and receiving aid from abroad but this hasn’t made much of an impact.  The idea would be to charge a fee for more recent publications and allowances would be made for children from poor families (which may well include substantial numbers depending on the definition adopted and how it is applied) … and may run into problems over the legal provision that education is supposed to be free.  Ninbd you, many schools already operate a system of “deposits” for issued textbooks.

There have a whole host of statistics about school attendance.  Here, although most schools tend to be all through … the term Primary Education is used to refer to classes 1 to 4 – for children aged from 7 to 10 years old, and Secondary Education for classes 5-11, for children between 11 and 17.  I am told that in “former times” (a euphemism for “in the Soviet period”), attendance was more or less 100%, but these days it’s not quite as good.  Apparently, the attendance rate is currently about 85% (Primary) or 86% (Secondary).

That doesn’t sound so good but, back in the UK we have our fair share of truants.  When I was on teaching practice  in Oxford, for example, we had one pupil who was nearly always present in school on Mondays, usually present on Tuesdays, it was 50-50 if he was in class on Wednesdays, he was usually absent on Thursdays and rarely ever attended on Fridays.  

There are children who miss the start school early, (before 7 years old), but they are the exception rather than the rule … there also others who don’t pass their exams and progress to the next year’s class and there are some who drop out – either for a period or completely out of the system.  As a result there a class may not consist of a single cohort of children all the same age.  In a Primary class, something like 19% of the children are out of the designated age range … and in the Secondary sector 8%.    

The situation has regional variations … here in Bishkek the situation is worse than in the rest of the country – the overall attendance ratio is just 76%.  It seems that a lot of the truants are out working.  This week saw another raid on some of the city’s markets where a number of children were found working in one capacity or another.  

One of the deputies has a new draft law which may prove to be popular – but may also create significant difficulties.  He wants to ban a range of public officials from holding assets abroad.   In theory, they are already prohibited from  operating businesses, but his proposals would ban them, (their spouses and minor aged  children),  from opening and having bank accounts (deposits), to store money in foreign banks outside Kyrgyzstan, from having securities, bonds, shares in foreign states, or owning real estate property outside the country.  Upon assuming office they would have to close bank accounts, stop keeping money in foreign banks outside the country, dispose of any foreign securities and real estate property that they own abroad within 3 months.

 

Perhaps the story of the week, however, has to go to the piece about the man who handed in to the police a an anti-tank rocket grenade launcher.  He says he found it on the side of the side of the Bolshoi Chui Canal … hey, it happens.  The police are looking into his story, but they said that people who hand in illegal armaments won’t be prosecuted … and the reporter then went on to point out that the police managed to lose lots of armaments during the revolution of 2010.  Would that, I wondered, include an anti-yank rocket grenade launcher?  Just what would the police want with an anti-tank rocket grenade launcher?   

It doesn’t seem like cricket to me.

 

Actually, I was tempted to litter this week’s postcard with lots of cricket references, (such as: being bowled over, being hit for six or reaching the boundary, bowling a googly, or a “chinaman”, needing a long stop, playing on an uneven wicket, being out for a duck, bowling a maiden over … oh, and so on).   Some were relatively easy to incorporate – but others were clearly contrived and, in the end, I decided to leave it with just the “it’s not cricket” theme.

 

_______________________________________

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:

• The Best …  - Kyrgyzstan offers some of “the best” experiences here in in Central Asia – 09/03/14
• Swastikas … and all that - A strange sight to the east of Naryn, a copse of trees planted in the shape of a swastika – 10/03/14
• A Pony of Prime Ministers - A recent news report highlighted the fact that in 23 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, independent Kyrgyzstan has had some 25 Prime Ministers … but is this a fair representation of the situation – 11/03/14
• Solyanka - A traditional soup dish which is on the menu at many cafés and restaurants in Bishkek and around the country- 12/03/14
• The price of gas … - Kyrgyzstan is not rich in Natural Gas resources although it is rich in the number of ways you can pat … and soon, some people think, you may have to be rich in order to pay the bill … as the price inexorably rises – 13/03/14
• Cotton Club - An important and useful textile, but sometimes a controversial crop …  - 14/03/14

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: