Postcard from Bishkek

In theory – today marks the beginning of Ramadan, the Muslim month of Prayer and fasting … although it all depends on the sighting of the New Moon … and whereas some Muslims are happy to calculate the date on the basis of astronomical data, in Muslim circles this is a hotly debated issue.  Anyway, for those who rely on actual sightings it is possible that in some parts of the world the month will start tomorrow.    

Also, in the Muslim calendar, the day isn’t reckoned to run from midnight to midnight but runs from sunset  to sunset … so if today is the first day of Ramadan – for practicing Muslims, it actually began at sunset yesterday.

Also, although Ramadan is always on the same dates of the Islamic calendar, the date on the Gregorian calendar varies from year to year.  The Gregorian calendar is based on the solar cycle whereas the Islamic calendar is based on lunar cycles.  The two don’t coincide – the solar calendar being longer than the lunar one, which means that Ramadan moves in the Gregorian calendar approximately 11 days every year.

The fact that so much depends on sightings of the moon (to determine when the month starts) and the timing of sunrise and sunset (to determine the times when people can eat), special calendars are printed with the relevant astronomical data.  The muftiat have complained that the calendars on sale in the bazaars are actually wrong … and  people shouldn’t rely on them but only on the official calendar available from the mosques … which are available free of charge.

Most people think of Ramadan in terms of fasting – the main and outwardly most obvious feature of the month, but in fact it’s meant to be more than that … it’s a time for spiritual development, purifying the soul, improving relationships with God, family and friends.   President Atambaev in his message congratulating the country on the holiday drew special attention to this as a theme, saying that it was a “month of purification, harmony, mutual forgiveness and charity” when Muslims turned to God “asking for peace and tranquility, health and well-being” … and urging people to be guided by this.  It’s a time for reconciliation!

Over the years, the muftiat has been the subject of considerable controversy … with controversies over sale of places for the hajj – the annual pilgrimage to mecca, sex abuse scandals, tax evasion … and so on.  Well, now the Orthodox Church is the subject of much attention.  There has been a lot of ill feeling among the congregation with stories violations of tax and labour legislation … with priests being forcibly evicted from the livings, pressure put on people to bequeath property to the Church … and more.  I don’t know what’s behind these stories but, yesterday it as reported that the newly installed Bishop has been deposed and the dioceses is without a Bishop. 

There was one sign, perhaps, that harmony and conciliation is on the agenda.  The supporters of the former Speaker of the Parliament have called off their … well, sort of.  The road between Osh and Irkeshtam is now open but they are continuing their protest at the roadside.  To matters worse, shortly after it was opened there was rockfall elsewhere along the road – blocking it once more … an act of nature?, an act of God? … who knows.

The other big problem down South has been the month long absence of Gas … the Uzbeks having cut off the supply until debts are paid, but there may be more to it than that.  The government have now decided that two Gas storage facilities that already exist but are in need of renovation, will be upgraded in order to try and prevent such interruption to supplies.  It’ll take some time to do this – maybe years … and in the meantime.

We are about to get a state of the same up here in Bishkek.  The gas supply for the whole of the central region is going to be turned off for the month July, to allow for essential renovations.  Apparently, when the system was built in the Soviet period, it was deigned as one massive ring system and no-one thought to put in facilities to isolate individual sections in emergencies or to allow work to be carried out bit-by-bit.  No-one seems to be happy about this … but there’s nothing we can do about it.  At least we don’t need Gas for heating at the moment – it is in the high 30s every day – but watch the electricity consumption figures rise.

I’m not sure how they plan to achieve this, but an official announced during the week that even if the tariff for electricity is increased – for 96% of users, they won’t see an increase …?!  Technically, I suppose, it is possible … but I would hate to be one of the 4%.

Despite the doubts of several experts in energy sciences and economics, a wind turbine has been set up in one of the State Reserves – to provide power to one of the posts which is quite remote.  It will be interesting to see how effective it is and if it can point the way to greater sustainable energy in the future.

For those of us in Tourism, there was one piece of interesting good news.  Among the sites voted to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List during the week, there were three from Kyrgyzstan – the ancient Silk Road cities in the Chui valley;  Nevkat Suyab and Balasagin.  Actually, virtually nothing remains of any of them – apart from the Burana Tower, there is very little to see … they are mainly archaeological digs … but for those who don’t need massive ruins to feed their imagination, these sites – especially when taken together (they are only about 25 kilometers apart from each other), they provide an impressive reminder of the Silk Road.  I suppose, however, that now we will have to put together and implement serious packages that will allow the sites to become better known and at the same time preserving them.    

 

One of the Parliamentary Deputies has been expressing his surprise that not one of his colleagues has listed any foreign interests in their annual declarations of income … not one … including himself.

They are about to go off on their Summer Holidays … the final session will be on Monday.  In the meantime, they are still busy discussing and making new proposals … one would increase penalties for “insulting” people … it’s not necessarily as simple as it sounds – life rarely is simple.

There was a proposal, for example to implement two “health measures”, to ban the sale of High Energy Drinks and to control the use of nasvaya - a sort of herb used by locals … who put it under their tongue and it gradually releases chemicals … it’s apparently a sort of mild narcotic.  However, the measures have fallen.  It seems that Kyrgyzstan cannot ban the sale of High Energy Drinks because if they did then they would fall foul of the World Trade Organization regulations … and as for nasvaya – their seems to be a wavering of support.  As a result, the authorities have decided to increase their efforts at persuading people of the “potentially harmful” effects of both rather than relying on legislation.     

In a way, I think this may be a blessing in disguise … legislation tends to be flouted anyway … if people don’t see the reason and justifications for it so the advertising campaign may be a start of creating the right conditions in society for introducing stronger measures.  

Apparently, for example, the complex of duty free shops at Manas airport have come in for some attention as there appear to be irregularities in their record keeping.  Goods provided to the shops are meant for export but some seem to have found their way onto the local market.       

Education has been ion the news quite a bit this week – even though schools and universities have closed for the long summer break.  In particular there have been announcements of measures to improve pre-school provision, school meals, and textbooks.  I am not sure to what extent this will help cut down on the reported number of 23500 school dropouts every year … because, once again, other factors come into play.  President Atambaev, for example, pointed out in a speech that many students go to school not in order to gain knowledge – but simply to get a piece of paper – a diploma.

Among the interesting statistics that emerged during the week was that 30% of the farmers who received loans, used them to pay pay for weddings.  I don’t think there was necessarily an implication of misuse of the money – that it was loaned for purposes and then diverted to pay for the wedding, the loan application may have been in order to pay for the event – but it is an indication of the social importance of these events.

Another was the fact that there are more than 16000 “non-commercial” organizations registered in the country … Associations, Charities, Funds … etc.  I suppose this could be seen as a healthy sign of the social awareness among the population, but it also strikes me as a little worrying, because they are all going to be seeking finance … and where is that going to come from.  Of course, the definition of “non-commercial” means that any profit is not then redistributed among the organization’s founders or members, so it can also include, for example, Foundations like Schools which can be run as a business but reinvest any “profit” they make back into the organization.

I was intrigued that one particular statistic came out this week – that in the country there are some 475 people who have been granted refugee status … the International Day of the Refugee, which would have been the normal time for such a figure to have been announced, was last week.  

Perhaps the most interesting statistic was that Kyrgyzstan has seen it’s first prosecution for computer piracy.  A firm building and selling computers was installing software which wasn’t licensed … something that is pretty common here … but this is the first time that a case has got to the courts.  

Although there has been a lot of attention given to music and video piracy in the past … all the measures taken so far seem to have had little effect.  It’ss be interesting to see what effect this case will have on the industry.  

 

For the record: This week’s postcard is a bit shorter than usual, because I am off to Naryn.

Photo credit: PsJeremy – on the road again /Foter / Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

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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:

•  Things to do, playces to go, people to see … - Must Dash … Gotta Go.  I have things to do, places to go and people to see – 22/06/14
• QWERTY – an exception to the rule - Although this has (virtually) nothing to do with Kyrgyzstan, it was time to say Happy Birthday to the Typewriter … and the QWERTY keyboard  - 23/06/14
• Zhang Qian, Chang Ch’ien – the original Silk Road traveler -  to commemorate the inclusion of the Silk Road cities of Nevkat, Suyab and Balasagin into the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites, I took a look at one of the pioneers of Silk Road Travel (although, to be fair, he almost certainly never got to visit these particular cities) –    24/06/14
• Chupacabra -  So what has been attacking and killing the livestock in the Kochkor region? … and what is the best way to deal with it? – 25/06/14
• Lagomorpha Leporidae  – among the surprising victims of the Chupacabra were sheep, a goat, hens and Lagomorpha Leporidae : rabbits – 26/06/14
• Ali bin Uthman al-Hujwiri – Sufi Saint - On the eve of Ramadan, a look at one of the Sufi Saints from the Ferghana valley – 27/06/14

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 @celestialM

 

 

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