Postcard from Bishkek

I expected to spend most of my time this week writing about the election campaign which has now been underway for a week.

I am not sure, however, what I can actually write.  There are a number of posters and banners lining the streets for this party or that.  The loudspeaker vans have been going up and down the streets.  I have seen some cars adorned with flags for one party or another like football supporters often decorate their cars when there is a cup final.  Adverts for parties are interspersed throughout television programmes – but oddly enough it struck me that it a different party each night … one night it was all Ar Namys, and another the SDPK and another a different party.  Maybe it was just coincidence that as I was channel hopping I just happened to catch the same party all the time.  Different political leaders have been interviewed in the media and, of course, there has been plenty of comment and analysis.

I have been approached by canvassers three times – but when I responded with “Ya inostranets” – “I’m a foreigner”, (and so don’t have a vote) – one, very businesslike, immediately turned their attention to someone else, another started a conversation about where I was from and how long I had been here whilst the third wanted top compare electioneering practices in England and Kyrgyzstan – how did we do it?

Although there are twenty nine parties contesting the election, only a few of them are likely to win seats in the 120 seat parliament, (the Jogorku Kenesh).  Mathematically, at least nine of them won’t be represented when the deputies gather for the opening session as there is a 5% threshold – they have to gather at least 5% of the votes across the country in order to win a seat.  In theory, then, there could be as many as twenty parties, but in reality it will be far less and most people seem to think it will be down to down to about six or seven parties.

The first week has shown a few parties as being more active than the rest, with huge poster, banners, flags and loudspeakers touring the city center, organizing meetings and rallies and so on.  I have heard the suggestion that some parties have adopted a policy of “wait and see”, with the intention of entering the foray in the latter stages of the race.

There seems to be some concern expressed about the possible rise in nationalism – as politicians seek to curry favour with the electorate and adopt populist positions.  Even the Russians are concerned – I even had a news cutting on this theme sent to me from Moscow, and the authorities have appealed for politicians to avoid the temptation.

The wording and format of the ballot papers has now been decided – as well as the party names, apparently the top five candidates in each party’s list will be printed.  One version of the ballot that was considered was the size of an A3 sheet of paper.

In theory, the last day before the election, Saturday October 9th, is supposed to be free of campaigning.  Some politicians, however, are still going to be competing with each other.  The Kyrgyz Chess and Chequers Association have announced a special competition

The Uzbeks are tightening their border controls and there was a message from the British embassy which implied that they seem to think that the border is closed to foreigners – even though the crew from “What took you so long”, who are making the film about camel cheese, managed to successfully cross earlier in the week.   The embassy sent out a message saying that, whilst they have “no specific information about possible trouble, with the elections approaching,” we may wish to consider obtaining Kazakh or Tajik visas … Hmmmm.

Roza Otunbaeva doesn’t seem to be expecting trouble.  She has actually left the country for a week, to attend the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York – having spent five days in Turkey last week.  I admit that when I first saw that I thought it was very brave as several coup d’etats in history have taken place when a country’s leader is abroad – but, as I said, I suppose it is also a sign of confidence on her part that things will go well in her absence – and, indeed, there hasn’t really been any news stories of any major incidents.

There has been plenty going on, however.

In response to the message from the embassy, I’m not sure about getting a Tajik visa because there was an incident at the start of week when 23 soldiers were killed in an ambush during actions to detain the escaped prisoners that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.  This led to a partial, and short lived, closure of the border.

Down south, the situation still seems to be tense.  One sign that things are perhaps getting better, however, is that school attendance is reportedly 92% – and, if it is accurate means just two absentees out of a class of twenty five, which isn’t bad considering all that has happened and made me wonder what it was like in other times.

Trials for some people involved in earlier incidents have started but we are waiting to see how they develop.  The ombudsman has published some results from his investigation into the troubles but there has been a fair amount of controversy over them and President Karimov of Uzbekistan took the opportunity in his speech to the UN General Assembly to call for an Independent International Inquiry.

The official criminal investigation into the events of April 7th has also been completed.  The lawyers are apparently now reviewing the papers before the cases actually go to court.  I wonder if the this might have an effect on the campaign?

During the week I met someone from Osh who had lived through the events and is still, understandably, quite shaken by the experience.  He told me that he’s come to the conclusion that the press aren’t reporting everything.   They are telling us, however, about the reconstruction efforts, including the provision of temporary housing for the winter, (two roomed constructions of 28 and 42 square meters which will be enlarged in the Spring to 100 square meters), and apartment blocks.  It’s also been reported that the Bakiev properties, which were burnt down in May, are currently being repaired, apparently being being financed with funds from the Bakiev family.

At least two of his ex-Ministers are still in trouble.  Although an amnesty for “economic crimes” was announced, (on certain conditions), they have been told that they are not eligible because they didn’t meet the criteria.

Another sign that things are returning to normal is that there are a number of “festivals” taking place in the next week.  One is a “Peace Festival” with various events happening at various places around the country.  Another is “OIMO”, pronounced, oddly enough, “oi – mo” and means pattern in Kyrgyz.  It’s the sort of even my mother would have really enjoyed – a crafts fair organized by CACSA, (The Central Asian Crafts Support Association).  It brings together craftsmen from all over Central Asia and is normally held in July but but was cancelled, for obvious reasons.  Interestingly, we are normally one of the sponsors, but this year they didn’t ask us.  Anyway, unfortunately I am going to miss it because I will be in Naryn.  A third is the Jazz festival which was supposed to have taken place in the Spring – but was also cancelled due to the revolutionary upheaval which closed the borders so that international guests who were at the Almaty Jazz Festival at the time couldn’t get here. I’m hoping to make it to at least one or two of the sessions.

Another event I have missed is the “pre-opening” evening of the Aussie Butcher Shop and Vis-a-vis cafe.  Yes, that’s what it’s called, although they will probably change the name in the new year.  It’s a pity that I had to miss it because the owner promised “organized chaos” with “free drinks and food till the budget runs out” – which struck me as an interesting turn of phrase … notice the order of priorities: chaos (organized or otherwise) – free – drink – food – money.  I should point out that the owner is British, not Australian, (it’s the butcher who is Australian – hence the name), so this should not be taken as casting any aspersions on that great nation from the southern hemisphere where I may well be spending a couple of weeks before the end of the year.

As I said, I am in Naryn over the weekend.  I was going to go next week, but the diary is filling up and so I decided that I should go while I still had some free days.  I am a bit worried because they’ve had some snow.  I say “some snow” – apparently it was between 50 and 80 centimeters and cut off several remote communities.  The roads have now been cleared, but its caused a certain amount of chaos – and it meant that the film crew from “What took you so long” had to return to Bishkek instead of taking the spectacular Naryn-Kazarman-Djalal Abad road on their way to Uzbekistan.  Although we can get snow in the mountains even in August – I’ve had snow fall on me in August three times, once in Norway and twice here in Kyrgyzstan – it’s a bit early in the year for this sort of thing.  Fortunately, although there was a cold snap at the end of last week, things have turned warmer and the short term forecast is for clear weather, so everything should be fine … I will be sure, however, to take some extra layers of clothing with me.

Another “hazard” that I am likely to face is the “drilling and blasting” that is taking place in Boom Gorge.  This narrow valley carries the road from Bishkek to Issyk Kul, which is also part of the main road to Torugart and China – a vitally important trade route as China goods transit through Kyrgyzstan to markets in Kazakhstan and beyond … or at least they used to before the border closed as a result of the revolution and the creation of the Kazakh-Russian-Byelorussian Customs Union.  The drilling and blasting is all part of the reconstruction of the road – they are widening it from two lanes to four – which should be quite interesting in some places as the road seems to take all the available space already.  It will only affect some six kilometers of the road, and only four hours each day, but the work is planned to take until mid-December and will cause considerable disruption to traffic.

Actually I have spent a lot of my time this week thinking about marketing.   That’s mainly because, as I wrote last week, I have decided that we are not going to London for the WTM exhibition at the start of November.

Part of that, of course, has been the work we’ve been doing on www.links.kg, which has turned up some real gems, for example a blog about a one woman’s life in Thaland and another’s in Marakesh.  You could be forgiven for asking yourself why on earth, for example, a website about Kyrgyzstan would have links to these.

There comes a time every year, (it’s usually around February of March), when I surprise everyone by announcing that “I’ve already forgotten about this year – I am thinking about next year already”.  Usually by that time we have already received most of the enquiries that we are likely to receive for that year’s business.  (That’s not to say that we won’t have more clients contact us later in the year, we do have quite a few that we “pick up” during the course of the summer, just that any marketing activities are likely to yield fewer results in the short term.)  Well, it’s come around earlier this year and I am now thinking in terms of 2012, not 2011.  I am not sure how next year will turn out – not surprisingly, we haven’t had that many enquiries for next year and I presume that foreign tourists are like everyone else here, waiting to see the results of the election campaign that  has just got under way.

By far the most interesting news of the week, however, has nothing to do with mundane matters like finance, marketing or election campaigns.  It’s to do with the appearance of Red Deer, (a Maral Deer), in the streets on the southern outskirts of Bishkek.  Although rare, apparently it isn’t exactly unknown for deer to appear on the edge of the city.  This particular one, however, is not a wild deer but the fawn of a doe which escaped from an enclosure in one of the city parks earlier in the year and managed to evade all the efforts made to recapture her.  She was often seen wandering in the park, but not in recent times and so it was thought that she might have been killed, (and eaten? – venison is prized here just as much as elsewhere).  The fawn, whose been given the name Bambi for some reason, can still be seen, however,  wandering in the park, still sporting a collar around its neck.  You can see a short 19 second video clip taken in August when Bambi seems to have brought traffic to a stop when he found his way onto a grass verge at the side of a busy street.  People got out of their cars and lined up with their mobile phones raised to take photos of it, at http://bulbul.kg/video:1353/.

Tags: Expat, Interesting_Times, Kyrgyzstan, Life_in_Kyrgyzstan, Weekly_Postcards