Postcard from Bishkek

You might expect that, as a former Maths teacher, I do not suffer from Arithmophobia – the fear of numbers.  Indeed, one of the books that I brought with me when I cam out here 15 years ago was “The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers.”  Oddly enough it has no entry for 57, jumping from 56, (the 6th Tetrahedral number), to 57.296… , (the decimal equivalent of 57 degrees and 18 minutes, the number of degrees in a radian).

This seems to me a little unfair as 57 does have some curious and interesting features … for example it happens to be a “Leyland number”, that is it can be written as x^y + y^x where x and y are whole numbers bigger than 1, ( for the record: 2⁵ + 5² = 57).  There aren’t that many of them!

But it also has other, less esoteric, claims to fame.

Perhaps the most famous is the advertising slogan used by HJ Heinz company: “57 varieties”.  In fact, they don’t have just 57 varieties, their range now carries something over 6000 different products.  In a way, it is surprising that the Heinz company  haven’t been had up in court for misrepresentation because this slogan has never been true in all the years it’s been in use.  As long ago as in 1896 when Henry John Heinz, the entrepreneur who had established the company, was inspired by an advert on a New York train for a shop which had “21 styles” of shoes, they already had more than 60 lines.  For the record, the firs was Horseradish sauce – not Tomato sauce … nor Baked Beans.  The slogan was so successful that it is now universally identified with the food giant.

The number 57 was also important in the story of the “McCarthy Witch hunt” in that it was the number of communists or communist sympathisers that he claimed were known to be working in the State Department.  When he first made the claim in a speech at Wheeling in West Virginia, there were no recording and it is not clear what number he quoted.  Some sources say he said 205, and that later he quoted different figures, so he was accused by his opponents of constantly changing his position.  Indeed, there is an argument that 205 might well have been a justifiable number – more justifiable than 57.  However, in the senate hearings, and later on, where there are records, he consistently used the figure 57.  (There is a, presumably Democratic, joke that his staff were so upset that he couldn’t remember the number and kept changing the figure, they tried to find a number that it would be easy for him to remember … and there was a bottle of Heinz Tomato on the table … so they chose … 57).

Then there is the fact that there 57 political parties, out of 148, that have registered with the Central Election Committee, (CEC), that they intend to participate in Kyrgyzstan’s forthcoming parliamentary election.

That probably doesn’t mean that  voters will be faced with ballot papers with 57 names.  According to the procedures laid down, there were five days to register their intention to participate and nominate representatives who will be responsible for different aspects of the election.  These 57 made it in time … almost a hundred failed to do so for one reason or another.  There are other deadlines that have to be met in the coming two months and I wouldn’t be surprised to see parties drop out of the race, to unite or combine, if not formally merge before election day.

The deputies will be selected from party lists, the number of successful candidates will be allocated after the election according to some rather complicated rules … they have to reach a minimum threshold of votes and there is a is also maximum threshold of seats that any one party can hold.

Even so, fifty seven, that’s an awful lot of parties for such a small country – yet alone 148.  It is claimed that some only have the legal minimum of 10 members … so it is hard to imagine how they would be able to maintain a campaign, pay the 100,000 som deposit and obtain the threshold of 5% of the national vote in order to be allocated a seat in the 120 seat chamber.

Although the population is over five million, there are probably a little less than one and half million people who are actually eligible to vote, and many of those are migrant workers living abroad … not to mention the difficulties arising out of the events in the South which mean that less people will be willing or able to vote – the turnout in the referendum was in parts of the south was not that much over 50%.  Although, generally, there was a high turnout for the recent referendum, it seems that this election is going to be a lot more complicated … and that means there will be a lot more potential for possible difficulties.  Indeed, there has been comment here that the election will not only be difficult – it could be disruptive.  There are still calls to postpone the election – but there is no sign of that happening.

There have been a number of initiatives to try and head off and disruption.  For example, the CEC have banned the distribution of T-shirts and Baseball caps with a party’s logo, fearing that they could be used as a “uniform”; The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has instigated a cope of conduct for the election.  So far only about half the parties have signed up to it, however.  I have been told that one reason some parties have been reluctant to do so is that they are afraid that doing so would prevent them from contesting the results in the event that … well, I’m sure you get the idea.  Even after the election, there is a risk of further protests.

The OSCE’s other initiative, the Police Advisory Group, is still proving to be a hot potato with arguments still raging over the proposal to dispatch fifty-odd unarmed police officers to Southern Kyrgyzstan.  The Mayor of Osh, Melisbek Myrzakmatov, is one-hundred percent opposed to their deployment.   Appointed by Bakiev in January 2009, he managed to hold on to his post after the April revolution by resolutely defending the provisional government.  He is also in trouble with the government for a number of other reasons, He is a devout and proud nationalist, and there are some who question his role in last month’s events in the city and how the authorities handled it … hmmmm …. he has declared that to a Russian newspaper that decrees issued in Bishkek have no force in Osh … hmmmm … (and, incidentally, he’s not alone in this as the tax authorities are apparently still telling entrepreneurs in the South that the “tax holiday” for those who suffered in the disturbances doesn’t apply to them) … in trying to renovate and regenerate the city some people, mainly Uzbeks, say that he is trying to evict them from their homes, (although to be fair, he has said that he wants to create ethnically mixed areas and to break up the ethnic segregation that used to exist in the city, and I can’t help thinking about the parallel with Christopher Wren’s plans to regenerate the center of London after the Great Fire of 1666)  … There are moves to have him replaced – he has both supporters and opponents in the interim government so it wasn’t simply a case of being able to “sack” him – he claims that he was offered a number of alternative posts.  There were protests by his supporters during the week in Osh – and people went home early from work in case there was any trouble … there wasn’t.  Apparently the situation was resolved in some way on Friday – but, to honest, I’m not sure what was eventually decided.  Anyway, I think we may be hearing more about Mr. Myrzakmatov in the days ahead.  I hope it’s good news.

Apart from announcements about the election, the other big topic in the news this week has been education.  The start of the academic year, September 1st, is only a couple of weeks away and preparations are reportedly well under way, despite a shortage of teachers.  New schools are being built around the country and even a new subject being introduced into the curriculum – which sounds pretty close to Personal, Social and Health Education, (PSHE).   Why does this all sound so familiar to me?  It takes me back to a previous life, a long time ago and far, far away.

There is a lot of work to do still, especially in the South, to prepare for the new year but the authorities are adamant that schools will open on time – even there.  One interesting measure is that the government and UNICEF are providing additional security measures, including guards and vehicles to take children to and from school.  That news brought back memories of standing on Bus Duty at the end of the school day!

Health and Safety has been an issue in other ways as well.  Apparently a number of schools in Bishkek, together with a long list of other organizations, have been closed, or partially closed, for breaches of Fire Regulations.  In a way, that is quite good as it shows they have regulations and are enforcing them.

There are also supposed to be more surveillance cameras being installed in the city.  The work is being aimed at traffic control, but I guess they can be used for other purposes.  To be honest, I haven’t seen any … the only one I know of is run by a telephone company and looks over the main square.  It’s a webcast – and if tou are interested, you can find it at: http://webcam.saimanet.kg/

… most of the time it shows what a quiet sedate life we live here in Bishkek.

In the UK it’s exam results season – my nephew should be getting his results soon … well, here, they get their results almost straight away … but now the official statistics have been released.  I’m not sure how they equate to previous years, but something like 13% of school leavers walked off with “honours diplomas”.

Oddly enough, even with these results, there are apparently spare “budgetary” places, not taken by students, on courses in the Universities.  That seems odd, because education is highly valued here – everyone wants their son or daughter to have a university degree … and are prepared to pay for it.  So much so that one University official was arrested for taking a bribe in order to arrange the admission of a student.  (He wasn’t alone – another official in one of the local authorities was also caught red handed accepting a bribe this week).  I wonder if stories like this mark a shift in attitude … we’ll see.

There may be new schools being built in the country – but there’s one less University.  The People’s Friendship University in Djalal Abad has had it’s license revoked – presumably because it was the base of Kadyrjan Batyrov whose speech, so it’s claimed, was the spark that ignited the troubles last month.  One group of students has been transferred to Bishkek en masse, but the rest are being transferred on an individual basis to different institutions.

As well as taking time, all these initiatives cost money and there have been talks on how to organize funding for education.  There is even talk about reintroducing the “textbook fund” – contributions from pupils to help pay for textbooks … which struck me as odd because I was under the impression that children either bought their own books or paid a fee anyway … as I said: Why does this all sound so familiar to me?

Of course, money is always an important topic – and the economy is still reeling in different ways.

It was reported that the average wage in Kyrgyzstan now stands at 6618 som a month – that’s about USD143, or EUR110 or GBP95 -  and marks an increase of about 9% on last year.  Mind you, prices are rising as well … in theory inflation is running at 5.9% since start of year, (which is just over 3% more than the figure for this time last year).  Bread this week went up by about 14% and, due to the global rise in wheat prices, worse may be to come as the cost of a ton of flour has risen by 40%.  The authorities are adamant that everything will be OK … well, we’ll see.

According to one official statistic, unemployment down (just) at 66000 which, according to another report is about 20% of the workforce … which strikes me as odd and suggest that there are only about 350,000 workers out of population of just over five million.  The reduction could, at least in part, be due to the fact that people are being employed in the reconstruction efforts.  In Djalal Abad, over 1500 people have been employed to work on “public works”, however, I think it is more likely to be the case that people just haven’t registered as “job seekers”.

Another piece of “good news” issued during the week is that Tax revenues for the seven months from January to July rose (just) on last year’s comparable figure …  but we are still heading for a massive budget deficit and I am not sure where this money is coming from because trade is down – GDP is reported to have fallen by 5.4% – Statistics … they always raise more questions than they answer.

One interesting piece of news was the announcement that the government are going to make it easier for foreigners to work here.  They are looking at extending the patent system which, for a one-off payment, allows people to work for a period without having to keep records, report on their business activities and satisfies most of their tax obligations.  As you can imagine, there are problems with the system … one of which is that foreigners are normally charged more (five times more) for the patent than local citizens.

However, it’s not all bad news.  The First Deputy Prime Minister has announced that he has seen an intensification of interest in investing in the country and even a slight rise in the first seven months of the year compared to last year!

On a different score, there have been some less intensive moments during the week.

The new Brazilian Ambassador has presented his credentials to the government and made the usual messages of goodwill and cooperation.  This time, however, he was also able to announce that there will be special folk music concerts and football coaching arranged for people in the South of the country and that Kyrgyzstan’s top football team, Dordoi – from Naryn, will be going to Brazil for a training camp.

A delegation from Kyrgyzstan went to the Altai region in Siberia, for a long time held to be the original home of the Kyrgyz,  and where there is still a sizeable Kyrgyz community.  Whilst there, they met with “traditional knowledge holders” – manaschis and the like, visiting “holy places”, and historical and archaeological sites.

George W. Bush may have had trouble saying Kyrgyzstan, (I used to have the clip from youtube, but accidentally deleted it from my harddrive), but The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office seem to have gone one step further and created a new spelling for the country: Kyrgystan (honest! … see http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/find-an-embassy/?l=K go to the box “Find by country name and scroll down to the bottom).  Let’s hope it’s just a typing error, and not a sign of a new policy.

This week I came across an example of a different sort of “oral history” – a project undertaken by the Historical Journalism class at the American University of Central Asia, (AUCA), in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan during the Spring of 2009.   The project was performed, not by historians, but by students of journalism.  No doubt future historians will find accounts valuable “primary sources”, but the students’ prime aim was to record the stories, the experiences, and present them for a wider audience before the storytellers were no longer able to recount them.  The class interviewed a variety of elderly people recruited with the help of a local charity, (Babushka Adoption), and the results have been published as both a book, (available from Amazon), and on their website, (http://www.centralasianhistory.org/) .  Amongst the thirty three interviewees are: a shepherd, a farmer, a driver factory worker, an engineer, a teacher, a student, a Korean who was “deported” Central Asia as a little girl, a Kulak’s daughter, a “kidnapped” bride, someone described as a “Ladies man”, an army officer, a local “Party” secretary and a KGB officer … They tell about events such as: Urkun and both the First and Second World Wars, the collectivization of agriculture and “forced” settlement of the nomadic shepherds, the post-war reconstruction period, Stalin’s death, the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras, independence and privatization as well as issues such as language, religion, the roles of men and women in society, school days, war experiences, migration issues, deported nationalities, agriculture, food, and entertainment.  It’s well worth a visit!

There have been more Kyrgyzstan sporting successes this week.  This week saw the opening of the first ever Youth Olympic Games, (YOG, being held in Singapore between the 14th and 26th August).  The Kyrgyz team consists of just eight athletes: Shadybek Sulaimanov and Urmatbek Aamatov in Greco-Roman Wrestling (both 17 years old and competing in the 50kg and 58kg classes respectively); the boxer Islomzhan Dalibaev (18 years old, competing in the Welterweight, “up to 69kg”, class); Iliaz Baktybekov in the Modern Pentathlon (17 years old); swimmers Dmitry Alexandrov and Catherine Lysenko, (17 and 15 years old respectively and both competing in the 200m breaststroke event); Bolotbek Toktogonov in Judo (15 years old, competing in the 100kg class) and rower Ruslan Moltaev (15 years old and competing in the Canoe Kayak 200m event).  They are accompanied by their coaches and the head of the State committee for Physical Culture and Sport and the President of the Kyrgyz National Olympic Committee.  The Greco-Roman wrestling events took place on the first day of competition, Sunday and provided some of the fifteen Gold Medals to be won on Day One.  The fact the press conference after the event was held in Russian indicated the domination of the CIS countries, (former republics of the USSR) in this sport.   Aamatov won all his bouts in his class, walking away with the Gold Medal and Sulaimanov , although losing his opening bout he went on to win the remainder, taking third place and the Bronze Medal in his class.  Their success meant that on Monday morning, Kyrgyzstan held joint sixth place in the medal table along with neighbouring Kazakhstan.   Congratulations obviously go to all those who “made the grade” and participated in the event, and especially to the medal winners.  Their successes compare well to Kyrgyzstan’s record in the main Olympic Games. Since the first time that Kyrgyzstan competed in the modern Olympic Games, in the Winter Games in Lillehammer in 1994, Kyrgyz athletes have one three medals: Aidyn Smagulov took Bronze in the 60kg class for Judo in the Sydney Games of 2000 and Ruslan Turmenbaev won Bronze and Kanat Begaliev won Silver in the Greco-Roman Wrestling competition in the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.

The highlight of my week however was an email that I received last weekend.  It took me aback, intrigued me and certainly grabbed my attention.   A film crew are preparing a short documentary film on camels and I was asked if I had any advice for them.  The focus of the film will be camel cheese, (yes, that’s right camel cheese!), but the project as a whole will explore the gastronomic, cultural and economic ramifications of the camel in pastoral communities. As part of the project they will be visiting / filming in 12 countries across both Asia (Afghanistan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Tajikistan) and Africa, (Egypt, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Western Sahara) over three months …  Now we do have camels in Kyrgyzstan – not that many of them, to be fair, but it is even possible to buy Kyrgyz camels over the internet!  (Honest! click this link and see for yourself: http://www.expatads.com/155/posts/14-Pets-Birds-Animals-Cattles/29-Buy-Sell-or-Exchange-Pets-Birds/46613-Camels-for-Sale.html.)  Indeed, farmer Christopher Oates bought seven in 2004 for his 600 acre mixed organic farm on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall, where they are a great attraction and used for camel trekking (have a look at: http://www.farmersguardian.com/camel-trekking-business-a-labour-of-love-for-young-farmer-david/19956.article).   If anyone is interested in the film project, then can I suggest that you go and have a look at their pages on http://whattookyousolong.org/.  There’s also a promotional video on http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/353808285/what-took-you-so-long-to-find-camel-cheese – yes, they are looking for sponsorship … anything from USD1 to, well, you name it … and, yes, I have signed up.

I haven’t counted the number of stories I have mentioned – I was tempted to see if I could get it up to this week’s “curious and interesting” number … 57 …  but I think that’s probably enough for now.

Tags: Expat, Interesting_Times, Kyrgyzstan, Life_in_Kyrgyzstan, Mathematics, Weekly_Postcards