Postcard from Bishkek

Friday started quietly.  Although the sun was shining when I went down to the office at six, it wasn’t particularly warm.  That didn’t put the crowds off, however, as they gathered early in the morning, creating traffic chaos.  On the way back from the hotel after a meeting I discovered one road clogged with cars stationary the entire width and length of the carriageway, one minibus standing at 90 degrees totally blocking the way for the drivers still sitting in their vehicles behind it so that they couldn’t move forward … and the cars lined up behind them meant they couldn’t go back.  Surrounding the “parked” cars a multitude was forming.  The throng moved off and formed a parade which progressed, singing and chanting to the deep boom boom of drum beats, along the main street, Prospect Chui, to the main Ala Too Square, (which, it has been suggested, may soon be renamed Manas Square after the legendary Kyrgyz hero), where there were speeches, dances and much revelry.  When I finally got back to the office I discovered that Twitter was all a twitter with congratulatory tweets buzzing back and forth.

Being a Brit, you might forgive me for thinking that everyone was celebrating the wedding of the newly created Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in an ancient church some eight thousand miles away, … but no, Friday was also Dehn Goroda, “City Day”.

Dehn Goroda is a traditional “holiday” in Russia and countries of the former Soviet Union, designed to instill interest and pride in the city amongst its inhabitants.  Each city will have its assigned day, which often celebrates the founding of the city, the date being fixed accordingly.  (It is usually held on a Sunday, however, events organized to commemorate the occasion may take place over an extended period and if the allocated day is a Sunday, then they will usually start on the previous day, the Saturday).

There is usually a lot of preparation work in order to clean the city and make it presentable.  Buildings will be decorated, street bunting and posters erected.  Events may include concerts, festivals and parades in which the city, (Mayor, etc.) will play a leading role, but the idea is to involve as many of the local citizens as possible, if not all of them, and will often conclude with a firework display.

It is seen as the City’s birthday and all those Congratulatory tweets were between citizens of Bishkek congratulating each other on the city’s 133rd birthday, along with lots of gushing emotion of the type: “we love Bishkek”.  The city’s fountains were turned on after their winter rest – although they needn’t have bothered because the skies open and there was a downpour during the celebrations which seems to last well into the night, accompanied by loud music and that firework display.

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One thing about festivals like this is that they help to take people’s minds off their troubles and tribulations, giving them something positive to do, to commemorate and celebrate.

An awful lot of attention this week has been focused on the delayed, but soon to be released, report of the International Commission of enquiry into the events of June last year.  One news website and a Russian newspaper seem to have received a leaked copy and published excerpts and commentary.  It looks like being a fairly controversial document as nobody seems to come out of its observations and conclusions with much credit.  Interestingly, Kimmo Kiljunen, the head of the commission, has declined to speak with the media about the leaked reports, saying that he “did not recognize the extracts put to him”. He also says that the leaked report could not be relied upon, since the document was not yet complete.  Curioser and curioser.

The controversial book about the events that I referred to last week, (“The hour of the Jackal”), is still in the news.  Although no-one, apart from one of the deputies, seems to have seen it, there was a website that carried a photo that purported to show it.   The criticism levied at it is that it incites racial hatred and so it should be banned and prosecuted.

Interestingly, a newspaper report, which is also posted on the internet, quoting an article in the Russian media has also attracted attention and comment as worthy of prosecution as it makes derogatory remarks about the Jews.  It is phrased in slang which passed me by until I read some of the commentary which draws out some of the more inflammatory elements.  It’ll be interesting to see if anything comes of it.

There is more positive news about a new book being published, however.  During the week a new translation of Ella Maillart’s book “Turkestan Solo” into Kyrgyz has just been published; an initiative of the Swiss charity, Pamir Bridges.  The book is the account of her travelling through Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan during the early years of the Soviet Union, and is a good read full of fascinating observations of and insights into the country, the people and the troubled times.   It’s a nice thought that this is now available in a version that means that more of the local population can read it.

Despite having discovered and confiscated a host of weapons in the building of the parliament a couple of weeks ago following the altercation between two of the deputies, the speaker has proposed that deputies should be granted permission to be allowed to carry weapons.  There might well be some risk in being a deputy which might make them nervous.  The home of one, for example, was subject to a grenade being thrown at it, although no-one was hurt.

All the politicians and political commentators have their eyes on the Presidential elections which are slated to take place later in the year.  There are seemingly never ending discussions about the procedures and continuous speculation about who will stand as a candidate.  Roza Otunbaeva cannot stand.  One report suggested that there were already some 15 potential contenders including: Atambaev (the Prime Minister), Baibalov (the former Procutrator General), Babanov (the First Vice Prime Minister – although he’s “temporarily resigned” from the post), Kamchibek Tashiev (the leader of the Ata Jurt party),  Keldibekov (the speaker of parliament), Felix Kulov (the leader of Ar Namys – although some people think he’s more likely to try for the post of Prime Minister).  Then there are other prominent local politicians such as Alikbek Jekshenkulov, Tekebayev  , Adahan, Ishak Masaliyev, and Sariev … OK, I know that’s only 1 … but those are the names that I have seen being floated.

There are other players who like Roza Otunbaeva, will not or cannot stand but who are likely to have interesting influence on the course of events – not least of which will be the past presidents, Akaev and Bakiev.  Both are issuing press releases and making statements on the situation here and both seem to have some “supporters” or “sympathizers” still in the country.

One commentator has raised a particular potential problem, but I don’t think he will be thanked for having done so.  Given such a wide field of potential candidates, he thinks it is unlikely that anyone will win outright on the first round, and if the experience of the parliamentary elections is anything to go by, he could well be right.  That opens up the possibility that the second round will be contested by opposing candidates from the North and the South, raising the prospect of opening old wounds once more.  Still, it’s only a counterfactual, a possibility and not a foregone conclusion.  Also, I get the feeling that most people see no benefit in further chaos and disruption and want nothing more than to be able to getb on with their lives in peace and security.

There has also been some speculation about the proposed “anti-terrorist” military bases proposed for the South of the country – one American, in the Batken region, and the other Russian, near Osh.  Apart from being another potential playground in the current version of the ‘Great Game’, questions are being asked about who would gain from them and what risks are involved.

Tuesday saw an interesting meeting at the Hyatt.  It was the regular monthly open meeting of the International Business Council, (IBC), and this month it was dedicated to the question of measures to prevent corruption.  It’s amazing how everyone seems to assume that corruption, (and attention is nearly always concentrated on just the question of bribes rather than the other ways in which corruption – the abuse of power – can manifest itself), is inherent in Kyrgyz society and just another one of those factors that investors have to take into account before deciding to set up business in the country.  I won’t say that I haven’t come across stories of corruption or heard stories and examples of it in my sixteen years here, but our approach is pretty simple and, (so far), has worked.  As the anti-drugs slogan put it: “Just say no!”.  Know the situation, know your rights, try to follow the “rules”, pay the fees, get everything documented (receipted), be prepared for delays and difficulties, but don’t put money into someone’s pocket rather than the budget.  Remember that the person who is your “krisha” today will not always be there, and you may simply be creating more problems for tomorrow.  It was interesting to hear how many speakers echoed the thought that although punishment is an important element in the fight against corruption, prevention was far more important … and more effective.  On the other hand, it’s also a long term “solution” and requires a “sea change” in attitudes and perceptions.

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There have been other things to take our minds off the trials and tribulations of daily life during the week.  Apart from the prospect of the Ala Too Square being renamed, the commission for adopting new state symbols, (the flag, Gerp – state seal or coat of arms and anthem), has received several proposals of designs for a new flag which have been published.  You can see them on http://farido4ka.kloop.kg/archives/797 or http://kg.akipress.org/news:362771 – sorry, the text is in Russian, but the designs speak for themselves.  Needless to say, there has been a certain amount of discussion, but not much in favour of any of the new designs.

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That’s not to say that a certain wedding went unnoticed.  Although there hasn’t been much hype for the event here in Kyrgyzstan, it hasn’t gone unnoticed.  One taxi driver congratulated me on the occasion, as if it was my wedding and, to be fair, there were one or two tweets about it during the afternoon.  We bought a cake in the office and I gave in and let those who wanted to watch the ceremony leave early so that they could get home in time to watch it at four o’clock, (we’re five hours ahead of London at the moment).

Although we looked at the 360-degree panorama of Westminster Abbey on the BBC website, there was slightly more interest in short, four minute, video clip of Thursday’s gathering in the Orthodox Cathedral here, commemorating the arrival of the miraculous “Holy Fire” from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, (partly because Tatiana and Lisa from the office make a fleeting appearance).   (There’s more about that on ianbek.kg.)

Talking of 360-degree panoramas, I have a favour to ask.  We have a site with several such panoramas taken around Kyrgyzstan, www.see.kg, but we’ve heard from some people that it takes a long time to load.  Here, it loads in about 10-15 seconds, but one person in the States says it takes about four minutes.  We are trying to look into why this is happening.  Is it an occasional problem, or something associated with the server, the bandrate, or what?  We’ve also set up a temporary mirror site, hosted on  a different server, (http://seekg.eu5.org/).  Can I ask if it’s possible to help us by having a look at these sites and let us know how long it takes to load, then we can try and diagnose the cause and decide what to do to rectify the problem.  Thanks!

Back to ianbek.kg … we put a ‘hit counter’ on it back in September and since then we’ve had over 5000 unique visitors and over 11,000 page hits.  I know that’s not much by some standards, but it’s still very gratifying.   There’s more information on the site this week about Statisticians’ Day – a “professional holiday” here in Kyrgyzstan, World Malaria Day, Kyrgyz Cemeteries, Our attitudes to financial questions and Cashflow, the monthly meeting of the IBC which considered ways of preventing Corruption, Ella Maillart, Kyrgyz Wedding traditions, Bishkek’s fountains and  The arrival of the Holy Fire from Jerusalem.

We’ve also got up and running the latest in our series of Cultural websites.  This one is dedicated to Kyrgyz crafts, (www.crafts.kg), which features in addition to the Kyrgyz specialty of working in felt, (Shydaks and Ala Kiyiz), embroidery (Saima), patchwork (Kurak), and work with leather, wood and metal.

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I’m off to Naryn tomorrow.  It’s a holiday, (May Day – International Labour Day – May 1st), and as it falls on a Sunday, Monday has been declared a non-working day, so we decided to take advantage and vary our normal routine of going up on Saturday/Sunday.  It’s back to the office on Tuesday, however, as it’s a short working week … just two days, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Thursday is another holiday, (Constitution Day commemorating the adoption of a new constitution following the demise of the Soviet Union), as is next Monday, (Victory Day marking the end of the Second World War, at least in Europe).   The government has decided that there’s no point in calling people into work on Friday so they have moved that working day to the Saturday of next week, making a long, long weekend – five days from Thursday to Monday.

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