Postcard from Bishkek

So, 2011 has finally arrived … and, as usual, I slept through it – well almost.  Having fallen asleep, as usual, watching the TV, I was woken up at 12:15, (or should that be 24:15?, or even 00:15?), by the fireworks.  Apparently, the ban on fireworks is only valid in Osh.  Here in Bishkek the salute, (that’s what they call a firework display here), went off in all its glory, as usual.  It lasted for another half an hour, lighting up the sky in a multitude of colours, especially greens and reds, accompanied by loud bangs.  As I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, and trying to console a distraught Garfield, (that’s the unimaginatively named Ginger cat sharing my bed with me), I couldn’t help wondering if the authorities in Osh didn’t have a point … all those explosives could easily have been mistaken for yet more examples of riotous incidents and terrorist outrages.

I suppose that I shouldn’t have been all that surprised by the overnight revelries.  The people of Kyrgyzstan enjoy a celebration as much as anyone else on the planet.  Over the last few days I have seen the odd fireworks on sale, and although I wondered why the police didn’t intervene and confiscate the goods, if I had checked the earlier press statement, I would have realized that they refereed only to Osh.

My local “cake and booze” shop, “Prague”, had been well stocked up with Christmas goodies, (cakes and chocolates – not to mention a dazzling array of alcohol from around the world), earlier in the week, but only two days ago they were almost sold out.  New stocks arrived, only to disappear almost as quickly as they were delivered.  Yesterday evening, when I popped in to top up my stock of Tonic for the Gin, the place was almost bare.

As it happens, it all seems to have passed off smoothly.  A quick scan of the news wires and social media reveal that there is nothing reported in the early hours of the morning apart from messages of “congratulations”, (season’s greetings and expressions of goodwill), for the holiday.

Those hoping for a traditional “White New Year” were partially satisfied.  It turned very cold yesterday and the sky was grey and overcast.  It was perfect conditions for snow, but although it tried, only a thin layer, maybe a grain or two deep, managed to fall and settle.  It did create, however, a white sheet, albeit a thin one, on the ground not walked or driven on.  Unlike Times Square in New York, which had tons of snow shoveled up and carted away so that revelers could watch a ball rise and fall on the stroke of midnight.  In the news clips that I saw there wasn’t a drop of snow in sight.

It is still cold here now:  Minus twelve when I finally surfaced at six, picked up Garfield and made my way down to the office to feed him and the other two cats and then settle down to put the final touches to the postcard.  Two hours later and it is still minus ten.

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One good thing about the celebrations is that the general “atmosphere” doesn’t seem quite as cold as it used to feel.

Oh, there are still moments which raise concern … but if, like Rip van Winkle, I had awoken from a long sleep, (maybe not forty years – just one year),  sometime over the last few days, I might have thought that nothing much had changed since last new year – until, that is, I read the news.

This week, for example, the authorities managed to discover and defuse a car bomb outside what used to be the Constitutional Court, before the Interim Government disbanded it.  (Now, it houses the Procuror’s office – the office of the General Prosecutor, replacing the building gutted on April 7th).  The car belonged to an American living in one of the towns about 50 km outside Bishkek and had been stolen the day before.     The authorities think they know who was responsible and have linked it with the earlier explosion outside the Sport’s Palace.  There are reports that they have arrested some of the characters concerned and put others on the wanted list and are searching for them.  There are also reports of significant finds of various things in their belongings: grenades, guns, ammunition, religious literature, specialist clothing (camouflage), chemicals, batteries, cell phones …

That’s the story that has had the most coverage, but there have been others.  In a strange report, I’m not sure of the details of the story but, apparently, a man took a package from someone and later handed it into the police.  It seems to have contained a bomb and he is being hailed as a hero.  I was also told of a news report about a bomb being discovered in a school, but I didn’t see anything about it and so I don’t know if it is true … it could just be a rumour.  There have also been a number of false alarms.  One happened near to the hotel.  One of the neighbours spotted some youths playing with a manhole cover and called the police.  They sealed off the area and carried out a search but found nothing.

It seems that Janysh, (Bakiev’s brother), may have been seen in Osh, raising all sorts of questions: was it true?, what had he been doing?, who did he see?, who knew about it? … did the authorities know? – and, if so, what did they do about it? – and if nothing, why not?.

As a result, the Security services are still on high alert, saying that a serious terrorist threat still hanging over Kyrgyzstan.

So, when I got a phone call from the local “beat officer” yesterday, (New Year’s Eve), my heart stopped for a moment as I contemplated what he might want to tell me.  As it turned out, he enquired about my health, about business, and wished me a Happy New Year.  That was it.

Of course, that’s what the terrorist wants … keep everyone on their toes, anxious, nervous, afraid … I felt that it was just like London a couple of decades ago – and what it must be like in Greece at the moment.

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Anyway, as I have said before, life goes on … people get on with preparing celebrations, the PM, (Atambaev), takes his first foreign trip – to Russia.

The Parliament has continued their deliberations on a wide range of topics.  They are NOT going to increase energy tariffs – which should please the masses in Naryn who demonstrated about this a week ago, reminding everyone about how the April events unfolded.  They are also going to install ramps with handrails in the building to make access for the disabled easier, (as far as I am aware, although there is one blind member of the parliament, there is no-one who is confined to a wheelchair).

The deputies have decided on a two hour break on Fridays so that members can say Namaz, (prayers) and to set up prayer rooms in the building – which has raised a few eyebrows amongst the literati as, technically, it’s a secular country – but if they can say prayers sessions of the US Congress, (where there is supposed to be a constitutional separation of State and Religion), I suppose that arrangements to allow individuals to conduct personal devotions is not out of order.

There is a proposal from the Ministry of the Interior for all cell phones to be registered.  Although I understand the logic behind this, and it seems like a good idea, I am not sure how it will work in practice, and especially how foreigners bringing their own sets from home and operating on “roaming” might be affected.  I’ll have to keep an eye on that situation.

Following last week’s comments about teachers’ salaries, there have been yet more comments and promises about a pay rise, even from the PM himself, albeit if some of them revolve around a restricting of the salary scheme … “with bonuses”.  The crucial point, however, was when the Minister commented: “If we are provided with necessary funds, …”, so I don’t suppose everything is settled, yet.

So, all in all, it looks as if Parliamentary Democracy may be making an impact on the way things are done here in Kyrgyzstan – even if the country was ranked 106th, (out of 167 countries surveyed), in the Economist’s Democracy Index for 2010 – one place ahead of Russia.  Mind you, the results might be different if the survey was conducted today – who can tell?

The  week has seen some more revelations from Wikileaks – including another cable from the ambassador, here in Bishkek.  It wasn’t quite as newsworthy about her thoughts on Prince Andrew’s lunch, but informative all the same.  Much more interesting has been the release on a Russian news service of a couple of others.  They claim that their source is an “independent reporter” working with the wikileaks project and that they are genuine – they certainly seem to have a ring of truth about them – but, all the same, there are questions about their authenticity and veracity.  I wonder if we’ll ever know if they are genuine.

A Kazakh Muslim organization have announced that they intend to propose Roza Otunbaeva for next year’s Nobel Peace Prize, and a Kyrgyz organization investigating the events in Southern Kyrgyzstan this summer want to nominate Islam Karimov, for their efforts in trying to limit the conflict and disorder in Kyrgyzstan throughout the year.

There has also been a call for all government websites to be in Kyrgyz – the State Language – and not just in Russian – the Official language.

Talking of websites … we’ve just set up a new one: www.see.kg.  It offers a series of “spherical panoramas” of sites around Kyrgyzstan.  Our photographer, Victor Rehemyae, has visited a number of sites around the country and taken a series of photographs which can be presented on screen as if you are standing in the place of the camera, and can twist and turn, look up and down, and the scene unfolds on screen as if you were there.  Better than that, you can zoom in to see things in more detail.  Of course, it’s not perfect … what is?  It is like photograph, a snapshot taken at a single point in time.  It’s not a film, video or clip, so there is no motion.  It doesn’t feed all the senses, only the sight.  There is, for example, no sound and you cannot get a sense of the smells or feel the warmth of the sun on your skin, nor the chill of the winter breeze as snow lies on the ground.  At the moment it’s only a test version and there are only about twenty panoramas on the site … but we hope to add to those over the course of time.  Still we hope it will give a good idea of the scenery available.

During the week I came across a number of reports or comments by people who have been here this year as an observer on this mission or that.  I found this one quite interesting … nothing about the elections, but providing an interesting insight into the life of an election observer:  http://paulwessonelection2010.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-annual-round-robin.html

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So, 2010 is now confined to the annals of history … and I found myself contemplating on the comment posted by a former pupil on Facebook: “Looking forward to 2011, lots of changes and hopefully less complications!.”

Oh, I do so agree!

Tags: Expat, Life_in_Kyrgyzstan, Weekly_Postcards