Postcard from Bishkek

It looks as if 2010 is going to end, at least in some respects, as it began.

Back in January, “Siberian air gripped Britain” as unusual High Pressure systems massed over the Atlantic from November 2009 onwards, blocking the customary Westerly winds that would normally bring mild weather to Western Europe.  The result was that they were replaced by Easterly winds which brought with them uncharacteristically harsh weather conditions that are normally associated with the more remote regions of the Russian Federation.

Well, it seems as if the same is happening now.

The chaos brought on by severe weather conditions seems to have brought whole sections of the country, and other parts of Northern Europe, to a standstill.  I particularly liked the satellite picture featured in the Daily Telegraph which seems to show the snow in all its glory: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/uknews/8176958/Brrritain-snow-causes-travel-chaos-in-the-UK-as-the-cold-snap-continues.html

The internet is a wonderful instrument for helping people to keep in touch and up to date about what is happening with their far flung friends and relatives around the world.  I see comments on Facebook and Twitter, for example, from people such as: “No point getting out of bed, we’re snowed in, no school and no way of getting out of the village”.  On the other hand, one person wrote ”beautiful morning; clear sky and mild wind”, but as he’s in Japan I suppose he’s got an excuse, but I am not sure about the person asked “is everyone happy now that there’s a tiiiiiny bit of snow?”.  Do I sense a touch of sarcasm?

There was certainly some sarcasm in the “cable” released on Wikileaks from the American ambassador in  Bishkek about a lunch hosted by the British embassy for Prince Andrew in 2008, where he had the chance to meet with some ex-pat businessmen to get a feel for the business climate here in Kyrgyzstan.  I am not sure that sarcasm is the right word, but the cable seemed to dripping with irony, mockery, derision, scorn, disdain and cynicism – and in my thesaurus those are all listed as synonyms for sarcasm.  For anyone who escaped the furore over the leak of official documents, this cable was one of two authored by the Ambassador about meetings that she had attended that you can find on the Wikileaks site.  In this particular one she described some of the Prince’s apparently “off the cuff” remarks, the obsequious attitude of “his mother’s subjects”, an “expletive deleted” and some harsh words about the French as well as some choice comments about investigations into corruption.  As far as I am aware, although there has been some considerable comment in the press on the affair, he has managed to keep a fairly low profile following the revelations.  I took a particular interest in this cable because, as it happens, as May Boyce used to say “… I was there!”  In fact, I happened to be sitting next to the Ambassador during the meal.  A few people, (including a journalist from a British broadsheet), have asked for my reactions to the leak.  I wouldn’t say, as some people apparently have, that it represents a conversation that never happened, as it does tally in certain respects with what I remember of the event.  It also includes things that passed me by completely.  (Remember she was writing her account almost immediately after it occurred, whereas I am having to rely on recollections of something that took place two years ago.)  One thing that did strike me about her account, however, was that it seemed to reveal more about her and her attitudes than it did about the Prince, or any of the other participants.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this controversy, at least to me, was to compare the different angles that were picked up and emphasized by the reporters for different papers.  One British newspaper, for example, seemed to accept everything in the cable as if it was “gospel” and was full of indignation – as one tweet put it, “The scary part is that media presents foregone conclusions as facts, be it in KG or UK or US.” – but maybe that is because the Prince apparently criticized reporters from that paper.  On the other hand, another chose to concentrate on the Prince’s “sense of humour” and how she had “totally missed the point”.  The New York Times gave the Prince what I thought was perhaps the most sympathetic treatment.

All that, of course, is “old news”.  Two years have passed since Prince Andrew’s visit and the situation here in Kyrgyzstan has changed somewhat – at least in certain respects.

During the election, there were those who said that nothing would change: that politicians are only interested in furthering their own interests; that election promises are easily given in order to gain votes – and just as easily reneged on once actually in office (and the recent experience of British students at the hands of the Liberal Democrats would seem to support this point of view); that tribal instincts are too inbred into the national persona … and so on.  Indeed, there are comments from various sources that suggest this is a fairly widely held point of view … and that there might be something in that.

There are, however, signs that things have changed.

We thought that we finally had a new government – well, it wasn’t to be.  We had a coalition agreement uniting three parties and the Parliament met to formalize the arrangement.  There was a lot of argument but when it came to the vote to appoint the Toroga, (the speaker), Omurbek Tekebayev, the only candidate for the post, needed to muster a majority of 61 votes to be confirmed in office and, as the coalition are supposed to have 67 members, (out of the total of 120), the result should have been a foregone conclusion.  In the end, however, he managed to gather just 58 votes – with 59 votes cast against him – and so he wasn’t elected.  It’s true that some people weren’t present for the vote, from both sides – but obviously more from the coalition, or else there were defections.  Oddly enough, it looks as if some of those were members of his own party that either abstained or voted against him, but who know – it was, after all, a secret vote.

Who would have predicted such a turn of events in the Kyrgyzstan of a few years ago?  Mind you, it’s how Akaev came to power in the first place – the compromise candidate to break a deadlock.

Hilary Clinton commented during her visit, following the OSCE summit in Astana, praising the “incredible resilience of the Kyrgyz people on the way to democracy”: “you don’t often see commitment to constitutional reform and democratic elections” after events like April’s revolution.  The trouble is, I am not sure there is commitment to constitutional reform – two of the five parties in elected parliament, and the one that only just missed out, are opposed to the concept of a “parliamentary democracy” for Kyrgyzstan and even campaigned on a platform of a return to a Presidential Executive.

Anyway, the debate in the parliament was, apparently, quite heated – with swearing and, according to one news report at least, almost breaking out into a fight.  But, on the other hand, as one commentator put it: “The only good thing is that all this bickering is confined to the JK building. I hope it will stay that way for many, many years to come.”

As a result of all the maneuvering, Almazbek Atanbaev, the designated leader of the coalition, has asked Roza Otunbaeva to pass the mandate for forming a coalition to someone else.  The irony is that she already announced that if he were to fail then she would ask Ata Meken to take up the task … which is led by none other than Omurbek Tekebaev.  How he is going to be able to arrange a coalition given these events is anyone’s guess.  She’s been having consultations and the leaders have been holding “conversations”.  One of the party leaders emerged from the meeting with the President and told the assembled press corps, “She asked for suggestions and I told her it was her job”, (to be fair those are my words – not his, but that seems to be basically what he said according to the press report … He did, however express some sympathy for her situation saying, “This is uneasy task for her” – and those are his words as reported in the press).  Another party leader’s comment on his discussions with one of his counterparts was, “I was just sitting and having coffee.”   Whoever’s given the job at the President’s Ala Archa residence today, has got a difficult task ahead of him, and if he fails, (which is not impossible), then according to the constitution all is not lost because the president, herself, can try to appoint a coalition.  If even she can’t do it, then it’s back to the hustings – more elections and more political uncertainty for Kyrgyzstan.

The other “big news” this week has been a bomb explosion outside the Sports Palace where the trial of those accused of the deaths during the events of April 7th was being held.  Last week I mentioned the breaking news that nine “terrorists” had been apprehended who were planning a number of outrages throughout the country.  Well, some more have been caught, and some killed in a shootout in Osh.  The bomb on Tuesday seems to have been one of those planned outrages, (although there are different possible scenarios), and has put everyone on their toes looking for suspicious people and packages.

Funnily enough, I was at the AGM of the International Business Council, (IBC), in the Hyatt on Monday, (the day before the explosion), and was talking to one of the other long standing ex-pats based here in Bishkek –he’s an American and has been here a few months longer than I have and we were exchanging observations about how things have changed in that time and the latest developments – and we discussed that very topic.  I was reelected to the management board of the IBC for another two year term, so that’s another thing that hasn’t changed, but, on the other hand there are some new members and so new blood and, hopefully, we will have some new ideas and vitality.

On a more personal note, I’ve made some changes to ianbek.kg – I’m still in the process of transferring all the old postcards, (not just the weekly “newsletter”), but there is a link to where we’ve archived the old site so they are still available.

Another change is that the kids have gone back to school – well, almost.  I still can’t get used to the long summer holidays they enjoy over here: three months.  Well, school started as usual on September 1st, and the first half term went more or less according to plan.  A couple of days before they were due to resume, however, there was a phone call to say that the school would remain closed after the half-term holiday because there was a problem with the heating system.  After an extra two weeks they got the call to say that classes would begin again this week … but the problems have persisted and they’ve been sent home again.

In a way, it seemed odd because last weekend when I went up to Naryn, (reputedly the coldest city in Kyrgyzstan where a temperature of minus 40 has been recorded in the past), the weather was fine.  During the day, when the sun was shining, it was actually quite warm, although the night was distinctly chilly.  There was some snow on the Dolon Pass, (at 3025m asl), and some small patches on the ground in Naryn itself. I managed to catch a chill, but Kyrgyz cognac and an early night saw to that, and on Monday I was full of beans and back behind my desk as usual.  However, we are promised two days of snow with temperatures falling well below zero.  The snow duly arrived on the arrived on the appointed day, yesterday, and the temperature is currently -13C … so I feel for what my fellow Brits are experiencing back home at the moment.

Andrei is worried that schools may close again because of bomb threats – there has been a telephone warning to one school already following Tuesday’s explosion, but it seems that the weather is going to prove to be a greater disruption than any terrorist threat.

And Finally … on a totally different note, you may be aware that I am a fan of “trivia”.  As I result I was very sorry to miss the first of the Quiz Evenings being organized by one of my colleagues on the IBC board … I was in a meeting that overran, which is, unfortunately, quite a common occurrence here.  Anyway, during the week I came across an interesting trivia question, and I posed it over dinner last night when the quiz master from the next round was present,  It’s part of a competition organized by the Travel magazine Wanderlust, and has stumped a lot of people – and stumped me: Can you name five countries whose name begins and ends with the same letter – but excluding the letter A, (Albania, Algeria, America – I presume that counts, Andorra, Angola… that’s five already, without Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia and Austria …and yes, I did get most of those without looking them up!) and Tibet?  (That’s presumably to stop repercussions from the People’s Republic of China – they get upset when people start calling Tibet a country!)  Anyway, there are a couple of other stipulations: the names must be in English – so Eire doesn’t count … sorry, John – and they have to be real names, not imaginary ones.  Apparently, there are six that fit the bill, but you only have to find five … I confess that, up until last night, I could only get three – and I wasn’t too happy with any of them – for example, one is Czech Republic … but round the dinner table our collective efforts found another two.  I am still trying to work out what the sixth might possibly be.

Tags: Baseball_Kids, Expat, Interesting_Times, Kyrgyzstan, Life_in_Kyrgyzstan, Trivia, Weekly_Postcards