Postcard from Bishkek

It’s been a strange week here in Bishkek … and also, apparently, around the world.

It began with “Blue Monday”.  A few years a British tour firm decided on a sales gimmick to help “prime the pump” so that people would start booking holidays, and they decided to declare the Monday of the last full week in January as “Blue Monday” – the unhappiest day of the year … what better stimulus to encourage people to stir themselves into action and plan their next summer holiday.  They even managed to drag out a “scientist” who “developed” a “formula” to justify the designation.  It sounded just like something that Sir Humphrey Appleby might have come up with in his attempt to frustrate the wishes of his erstwhile master, the Minister, Jim Hacker.

Incidentally, “Yes Minister” is being shown on one of the channels here at the moment, but I haven’t found anyone apart from me who’s been watching it.

Of course, the whole idea of “Blue Monday” was all bogus, hence all those inverted commas.  It was a sales gimmick, nothing more, but it made the headlines and the story seems to be resurrected every year.  False claims like this can lead to professors being disgraced and dismissed, and even lead to prosecutions … but not apparently in this case.  The Maths teacher in me is offended by this sham use of mathematics, the tour operator in me is offended by the charade in order to try and part people from their money instead of relying on the positive attractions that destinations and itineraries have to offer, and the member of the public in me is offended by the way that we are treated by what appears to be unscrupulous “sharp practice”.  And … I’m not even sure if it was successful as a sales gimmick – January normally sees people turning their minds to planning their next holiday, so it was probably a total waste of time.  It just goes to show, however, what a strange world we live in.

In one respect, however, Monday did turn out to be a particularly unhappy day, with the suicide bombing in Moscow’s Domodedevo airport.  That occupied a fair amount of the news coverage here as it did elsewhere and has led to a heightened level of security at the airport, although it’s hard to see what any airport can do about making that particular soft spot more secure.  I am sure Sir Humphrey would have had an appropriate put down to any “knee jerk reactions”.

Monday also saw, for example, the news that Kyrgyzstan is going to repay Belarus some USD207,000 which it’s owed them since the 1990’s, albeit over three years.  At first glance that might seem a little odd, what with the massive budget deficit they are running that the government has decided to settle the issue after so many years, especially given the fact that Belarus has given sanctuary to former President Bakiev and refuses to extradite him.  Of course, as Sir Humphrey would be the first to point out, that’s not a legal justification for reneging on the debt, and there are very good reasons behind the decision, not least the fact that it will release some USD200 million from the Anti Crisis Fund of the Eurasia Economic Community.

Missing money seems to be have been a theme for the week.  On Tuesday, for example, it was announced that the authorities can’t locate the Bank account where a Chinese Grant of sixty million som was deposited by CARII, the agency once headed by Maksim Bakiev.  There also seems to be an issue over another grant, this time of four hundred million som from Japan.   This hasn’t stopped support coming from the international community, especially from China, Japan and the US.

Then there is the case of the largest mobile phone operator in the country whose bank accounts seem to have been frozen and an investigation into their affairs have been launched by the tax police, who claim that they have revenues of USD25 million but only declared USD15 million profit, and so the hunt is on for the missing USD10 million.

The government seems to have found some funds, however, (something like ten million som), which they hope will go some way towards settling the issue of public sector pay.  We’ll see.

There seem to be a number of measures aimed at raising new revenue, including higher fees for mobile phone frequencies, the sale of thirty eight of the forty seven enterprises nationalized following the revolution last year and the sale of some large tobacco and alcohol companies to foreign investors.  The Ministry of Natural Resources, (responsible for mining industry in the country), is “promising” to increase budget receipts by 27% during the year.  It was interesting to see that the Prime Minister raised the question of Kumtor, (“People are indignant at the situation with Kumtor project.”), on the same day that Roza Otunbaeva met with a delegation from the company and noted that “Kyrgyzstan is ready to consider proposals from your company on involvement in other economic projects across the country,” and their “close cooperation with the Kyrgyz Government working hard on economic recovery”.  All of this seems to raise a few interesting issues and beg a few questions.

There are also calls for economies to be made.  There is a controversy over perks for parliamentarians, (official cars and so on), and even a call for various apparatus of government to be reduced and salaries of government members to be cut.  Sir Humphrey and the Right Honourable  Jim Hacker would be having a field day arguing the toss over this.

Another plot that they would have felt at home with was the question of “Jobs for the Boys”, that was the title for one of the episodes.  In this particular case it revolves around Roza Otunbaeva refusing to approve the nomination of her brother as an ambassador … Apparently, the Prime Minister says that he has “repeatedly proposed him as Ambassador to any country of the world“, but Roza Isakovna just won’t countenance it.

I am not sure if any of the Scots left in Bishkek gathered on Tuesday to celebrate Burns Night, but if the sound of bagpipes ushering in the haggis wouldn’t raise a few eyebrows here in Bishkek, (but I think it would), then even the Kyrgyz would be probably be taken aback by the idea of reciting a poem to a stuffed sheep’s stomach.  As it happens, the Kyrgyz have a similar dish to the haggis, but they don’t treat it with anywhere near the same degree of respect and reverence as the Scots do.

If Interpol refused to assist in the arrest and detention of certain members of the Bakiev regime, then interestingly, they facilitated the arrest of his former Energy Minister in Ireland on Wednesday.

The controversy over the fuel supply for the transit base at Manas airport rumbles on.  Roza Otunbaeva is adamant that there is corrupt practice and Mina is adamant that they have been exonerated by the US Congressional investigation.  At least the Kremlin have now removed the punitive tax they levied on fuel sales to Kyrgyzstan. There was, however, an interesting twist in the story about the base at the beginning of the week.  The press service at the base issued a story about plans for buying sweets, (pastries and chocolate), from a local supplier which has been in been in business for many years, (since before independence, apparently), but despite several years of discussion and visits and advice from specialists in America, still no contract has been signed.  I am sure that Sir Humphrey would be impressed with this excellent example of inertia.

Then, of course, we’ve had the news of the protests in Egypt.  Everyone is drawing the parallel with Tunisia, but there also seems to be one with what happened here last year which are not lost on the local twittersphere … I think Sir Humphrey and the Minister would be united in their concern over the turn of events.

To return to the beginning of the week and to tourism, the week began with a series of articles on “do you trust hotel reviews?”, and it seems that a lot of people do.  OK, fair enough, but it hasn’t stopped Trip Advisor, for example, facing controversy and potential court cases due to their policy regarding removal or correction of what hoteliers consider to be unfair or inaccurate reviews – or worse.  They act with ruthless resoluteness if they feel they have detected false, glowing, reviews planted by the hoteliers themselves, but simply offer the right of reply in response to negative ones.  Later, the news broke that in the UK the state is withdrawing funding for the existing national systems, (note: there are several), of hotel classification in favour of a system which is more responsive to “consumer opinions” rather than “objective standards” represented by checklists.  I am not sure that Sir Humphrey would approve, but I do see some merit in the proposal, (if properly handled), apart from saving the British taxpayer some money.  What I found interesting was that, here in Kyrgyzstan, we are going the other way, and trying to introduce a centralized system.  Well, it won’t be the first time Britain and Kyrgyzstan have carved out different paths forward for themselves.

On a more personal note, I have spent most of the week in bed.  I returned to the office from a lunch on Monday and felt unwell, and thinking I had eaten something that disagreed with me, I retired to let it work itself out of my system.  On Tuesday, however, the symptoms had changed and were more like influenza, so I started treating them.  The temperature, however, didn’t subside, so we called in a doctor who diagnosed a bronchial problem and I am now under a drip for two hours a day.

Although she thinks it could well be a case of food poisoning, influenza and bronchitis all happening to coincide at the same time, she assures me that it’s nothing serious.

The one good thing about it is that it has given me more time to catch up on all those films I’ve been meaning to watch for some time, but never actually gotten round to doing  … oh, yes, and watching episodes of “Yes Minister”

Tags: Expat, Hotels, Life_in_Kyrgyzstan, Tourism, Weekly_Postcards