Changeable, like the weather
After several weeks of very cold weather, with four foot icicles hanging down from the guttering surrounding our building, we are now experiencing a warmer period. Even though, however, I am still wearing a pullover, (albeit a short-sleeved one), … just in case.
On Friday morning I had an early morning meeting at the Hyatt and as I left the building in search of a taxi it was overcast and spitting with rain. By the time the taxi approached the Hyatt, however, a veritable shower had started. I told the driver to pull up outside the gates of the hotel and not bother driving up to the door. To do so would mean having to stop at the barrier whilst security walked round the vehicle on a tour of inspection. I could walk the short distance with no problem in the time it would take. The diver looked at me askance. “But, it’s raining,” he said, “you’ll get wet.” As usual in these circumstances, I pointed out that was English and, as such, wasn’t afraid of a little rain. I was used to it.
In fact the forecast is for more cold weather to come next week, with the possibility of snow on Wednesday. Indeed, by Friday evening the temperature had fallen sufficiently for it to start snowing.
I think I am going to need that pullover!
It’s not just the weather that’s changeable here in Kyrgyzstan. It should have been a quite week as, after all, it started with a two day holiday. The three day week, however, provided enough “excitement” to fill a normal fortnight.
The big news as the week comes to a close seems to be that the coalition government is at risk of breaking up. The week began with some members of the Ata Jurt party, (which is a member of the coalition), and Ata Meken, (which isn’t), raising questions about the sustainability of the current arrangement. The Speaker, who is from Ata Jurt, is opposed to leaving the government, but obviously not all of his colleagues agree with him. They point to the fact that the government seems to have three leaders, (Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Speaker), from different parties and that they seem to go their own way. Apparently there hasn’t been a meeting of the coalition as such since the government was formed.
To make matters worse, there are accusations against the Deputy Prime Minister’s alleged involvement in one of the major company “scandals”, concerning the Megacom mobile telephone provider, and it seems as if two visiting members have been making allegations in the Russian press about the propriety of dealings in the dealings in the company. These caused the leader of Ata Jurt to say that if they were proved, would lead to his party leaving the government, although official statements from the Kyrgyz authorities say that the Russian parliamentarians only asked that the rights of the Russian investors in the company be protected in accordance with the law. The Russian investor they refer to is just one of over 300 Russian companies currently represented in Kyrgyzstan.
Furthermore, there are other allegations flying around concerning other companies which seem to implicate other people in possible, (including an MP), in possible nefarious activities. There has also been considerable comment on the amount of money said to have been siphoned out of the country, even after the April 7th revolution last year.
There is a lot of talk continuing about “organized crime” in the country. The Russians are getting quite concerned in particular about the amount of narcotics transiting the country, and Tajikistan, and are currently talking about returning to guard the borders of the two countries, although it is not clear to if this is just a discussion point or if we are going to see some concrete proposals forthcoming.
Anyway, the political uncertainty all came to a head on Thursday with a special meeting of the Parliament to consider the future of the government. They started in open session and then excluded the press whilst they continued their deliberations behind locked doors. Although one politician has said that the coalition has survived with the main issues between the parties being resoplves, Ata Jurt have apparently postponed any decision about the future of their involvement until March 22nd, after the Norus holiday but before the one commemorating the People’s Revolution, (the Tulip Revolution), in 2005. So, I suppose we will all be on tenterhooks, wondering what will happen next, for another ten days.
So much for the agreement that the three parties signed just a few months ago and was supposed to last for two years. I suppose that I shouldn’t be all that surprised as it seems to be typical here that agreements are reached in principal with the details left to be ironed out later. Sometimes the various issues are successfully resolved, but sometimes …
Even if the uncertainty generated by the various jockeying for position in the government and parliament wasn’t enough, some, (other), politicians are mooting the idea of establishing yet another level of democracy – a Kurultai. A Kurultai is a traditional gathering of the people, (or their representatives), practiced by the nomadic Kyrgyz since ancient times. It’s not something that everyone welcomes, especially when you remember that Kurultais were used by both Akaev and Bakiev which raises some suspicion about them which is compounded by the threat of further unrest as a result of the rocketing inflation, especially in food prices. Then, there are some suggestions that the idea is being promoted by politicians who failed to get elected to seats in the parliament as a way of maintain their influence, (or at least their public profile), in the lead up to the Presidential elections later in the year.
There are a couple of people down in Batken, (in the extreme remote south western part of the country), who may be embarrassed by the turn of events. They are the proud parents of a set of triplets that were born during the week and they have decided to name the three newly born boys after the three leaders of the coalition. Mind you, before its discussions on their its own future, the Parliament voted to give the parents a special grant of one million som, (that’s the equivalent of over USD21,000, or EUR15,000), in order that they could build themselves and their offspring a new house.
It hasn’t all been political wrangling this week, however. Roza Otunbaeva followed up her European trip of last week with a short stop in Bishkek in order t attend a function marking International Womens’ Day, before zooming off to the States for her second meeting with Barak Obama in six months, the usual round of meetings and to accept an award as a “Woman of Courage”. Her acceptance speech was published in the Washington Times.
During the “long weekend” there was an outbreak of fires at restaurants in Bishkek. Of course, there are suggestions that they might be linked because they all broke out at roughly the same time. According to one report that I have seen, however, although there are signs of arson with two of them, the other seems to be connected with a microwave catching fire. The motivation for such attacks seems to center on the possibility of either some gang activity, (although one of the managers claims that there were no previous indications of this), nationalistic feelings, (they were all specialist Russian or Ukrainian restaurants), or a Muslim group possibly upset about the consumption of “pork and vodka”. The authorities haven’t come to any conclusions and investigations are underway. Fortunately, only person was injured despite considerable damage.
This week I have managed to celebrate four birthdays, (including my own). I was invited to a “birthday concert” on Monday for Aizada Mamatapova, the Director of one Bishkek’s Music Schools, which turned out to be a banquet. As it was supposed to be a concert and I thought I would be able to get away after the concert before they sat down at the table … and the vodka … but when I walked in I was ushered into one of the classrooms which was serving as the dining room. This time they had the meal first followed by the concert. I was impressed; the performances didn’t show any effect of the vodka. I had been told that it was a “Jubilee” which meant it was a “round number”, (which in turn meant lots of vodka and cognac), but I couldn’t believe it when I was told the exact figure. I wasn’t the one present who thought that she was, at least, ten years younger, she is so active and sprightly, even though I knew that she has three grown up children and several grandchildren. I only hope that when I get to her age I look anywhere near half as good as she does and will feel really good if I am half as sprightly as she is. My own birthday, the next day, and the other two that we celebrated for people in the office, were much more subdued in comparison.
Once I had recovered from the cognac and, believe it or not, the Kyrgyz Whiskey that I was given for my birthday, I had to settle down to work. In fact, I’ve been busy throughout the week. So busy, that I ended up missing four meetings and a trip to the theater for a Premier. Thursday afternoon and Friday were particular bad with interruptions practically every ten minutes, (visitors, telephone calls, emails …), which meant that it was almost harder to concentrate on finishing any particular task than it had been earlier in the week.
One piece of news that arrived on Thursday was that a deputy is proposing to reintroduce three of the taxes abolished over a year ago, (which were sometimes called “nuisance taxes” when the tax code was being revised, including the hotel tax and advertising tax which will directly affect us). His main argument seems to be that there is a large shortfall in the budget which needs to be filled and I can see that this is a real problem. As I have said before, I am not sure how the government is going to raise the funds in order to raise of public workers. The budget is going to increase by something like 30% this year, whilst growth is estimated to grow by only single figures, which suggests that business will be squeezed by raising taxes. The government have said, however, that they are not going to raise taxes. Maybe that is the reason he is suggesting that they be introduced not as taxes but as “fees”.
On a happier note, we have added two more panoramas to www.see.kg, making a total of 41 spherical views of places in Kyrgyzstan in all on the site … 41, so far! One is of the square outside Tsum, the Central Department Store in downtown Bishkek, whilst the other is a snow scene taken in the Alamedin valley on our recent excursion into the mountains.
Bishkek