Postcard from Bishkek

We’ve come a long way since 1969 when the Apollo 11 astronauts set foot on the moon.  The huge Saturn V rocket carrying Columbia, (the command module) and Eagle, (the Lunar Landing Module) on its historic journey was launched from the Kennedy Space Center on Cape Canaveral in Florida on July 16th and five days later Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin emerged from Eagle onto the surface of the moon and a place in the history books.

It was “a close run thing”, as the Duke of Wellington described the Battle of Waterloo.  Not only, for example, did they encounter a shortage of fuel, a lever broke off the control panel and a pen was pressed into service as a substitute, enabling the Armstrong and Aldrin to take off from the Sea of Tranquility and rejoin their crewmate Michael Collins who was in the Columbia, orbiting the moon.

It may seem odd to consider that this great feat was achieved without many of the scientific advances that we now take for granted and that something as low-tech as a pen would “save the day”.

It is nearly thirty years since man last walked on the moon, and the world has changed considerably in that time.  The Spacelab has come and gone finally crashing into the Pacific, robots have wandered on Mars, a probe has made a soft landing on an asteroid, and the Shuttle is in the middle of its last voyage into the cosmos.

Much has also changed back here on Earth.  The map has changed with some countries disappearing and new ones being creating.  This week, for example, saw the latest, Southern Sudan, taking its seat in the United Nations.

Kyrgyzstan, another of those new nations, is approaching its twentieth anniversary, following the break up of the Soviet Union.

Who would have thought, for example, that here, on the territory of the former Soviet Union there would be not only a Russian air base but also one operated by the USA.  In theory, the base is part of the war effort in neighbouring Afghanistan and due to close when that ceases.  Opened in the wake of the 9/11 atrocities in New York, it has certainly been a bone of contention between the Americans and the Kyrgyz, at least since 2005.  There are even grounds for believing that Bakiev’s failure to close the base in 2009 may have been a contributory cause behind last year’s revolution.  A think tank specialist based in Washington has now gone public with speculations that there is sufficient rationale for maintaining the transit centre as an “indefinite deployment”.  It is interesting that one of the sponsors of the event where he was speaking was Mina Corporation – the company at the centre of the controversy over fuel supplies for the base.  Although these comments have been reported here, I haven’t seen any response.  I suppose everyone is waiting for the outcome of the presidential elections before risking “rocking the boat”.

Arrangements for that election are going ahead, and we already have the first few nominations.  A couple from congresses of different political parties and a couple of private, individual nominations. Having registered with the Central Elections Commission, the candidates now have to prove that they have held Kyrgyz citizenship for the last 15 years, pay the 100,000 som deposit (about USD), collect the 30,000 signatures in support from their supporters around the country and pass the examination in the Kyrgyz language.   Campaigning officially starts on September 25th and continues until October 29th.

The parliament has been recalled for a couple of sessions having risen for the summer recess last week.  There are some new procedural rules which include adopting laws after three readings, not just two as before; special arrangements for handling cases where the President decides to exercise her right of veto; attendance requirements for members, including deductions from salary for non-attendance; the quorum for a vote to be declared valid and binding and the banning of one member voting by proxy for another.

Meanwhile, life carries on as normal.  The same themes seem to crop up repeatedly in news reports, almost to the point of monotonous regularity.  How anyone is supposed to decide if Kyrgyzstan would be better off in or out I don’t know.  There are conflicting opinions voiced virtually every day.  The Dordoi market traders, for example, say that their business has not been impacted by the imposition of the new customs regime when it was imposed on July 1st.  Mind you, the restrictions on cross border trade that were imposed last year means that Central Asia’s largest bazaar now works mainly for the internal domestic market and consumer goods are not brought into the country in such large quantities as before.

Mining is another perennial theme.  One gold mine, (Ishtamberdy, in the southern Djalal Abad oblast), has apparently come on stream with some 3000 tons of concentrate already produced, after 5 years of exploratory work.  That’s not 3000 tons of gold.  Oh, that it were, because with the current price of gold that would likely solve Kyrgyzstan’s economic problems.  The concentrate now has to be refined, separating the gold from impurities.  What surprised me was that it will be sent to Kazakhstan for this process, even though there is a refining plant here in Kara Balta and the announcement of the establishment of another gold processing plant in the south of the country.  It’s thought that eventually the concentrate will produce some one and a half tins of gold each year, worth just over two billion som.

Other gold mines, on the other hand, are still facing problems.  Once is still going through the courts in a challenge to the withdrawal of their license whilst another project is still suspended over controversies over environmental issues and the question of compensation for the local communities and the improvement of the local infrastructure.

Of course, it’s not just a question of gold.  It is said that all the elements in the Mendeleev Table of elements can be found in Kyrgyzstan.   Plans have been announced to develop an aluminum deposit and build a plant to process the mineral. There was another announcement about plans for the development of tin deposits – and if they are realized then they will represent the second largest projects in Kyrgyzstan after the Kumtor gold mine.

Another important sector of the Kyrgyz economy is agriculture – especially pastoral agriculture; the rearing of livestock.  Kyrgyzstan is famous for its sheep, but there cattle, goats, yaks and horses are also reared in the country.  There were a couple of interesting stories relating to this during the week.  One government department is proposing the introduction of a ban on exporting meat in response to considerable recent price hikes.  The cost of a sheep has risen by half as much again whilst the cost of a cow has almost doubled.  These hikes, it is claimed, are the result of soaring costs for fodder and fuel and a massive increase in meat exports, which apparently grew almost 30 times (! – but, see below) last year on the figure for the previous year.  Most of that is sheep meat, (mutton and lamb) exported to places like Iran.  Apparently, it is very difficult if not well nigh impossible to export meat to Kazakhstan at the moment.

The second related statistics about the export of meat last year.  Apparently the export of horses also grew last year, but only by just over 13%, whereas that of cattle fell by just over 20%, although the trade showed signs of recovery in the first quarter of this year.  The National Statistics Committee also reported that the trade in sheep and goats also fell by over a third on the previous year, and I’m not sure how we are supposed to reconcile this with the other claim of a massive increase in meat sales.

Tourism is, of course, another sector of the economy with which I have a particular interest.  It was claimed that last year over 500 million dollars were raised by the tourist industry, representing something like 4% of the country’s GDP.  That claim seems surprisingly good following year’s disappointing season and has attracted some critical comment.  The claims by some resort owners ,that that I referred to last week, that they were being “forced” into signing contracts in the “fight against poverty” have been rejected  following an investigation into them conducted by the regional authorities who announced that they “do not square with reality and no violations were detected.”.

There was some other good news for Issyk Kul during the week.  For example, the train service from Bishkek has been increased from three times a week to week to daily.  Also, it appears that the water in Lake Issyk Kul is much cleaner than it used to be in Soviet times.  According to a researcher at the Kyrgyz Academy of Sciences, this is because there are no longer large oil bases that used to surround the lake and a reduction in the number of steamboats carrying cargoes.  The pollution caused by water scooters and motor boats is tiny in comparison to that which used to exist.  On the other hand, he foresees possible future problems arising from the lack of in depth scientific research and the increase in the number of small hotels and resorts in the lake shores.

I’m not sure if this will also help but t he president’s son announced on his Twitter account that he and an MP had decided to demonstrate that Kyrgyzstan welcomes tourists by going to the main border crossing point to meet and welcome tourists, handing out leaflets about Issyk Kul containing a map, and useful information like lists of resorts, police posts, petrol stations, tourist attractions, and hotline telephone numbers.

For those with an interest in the history of Kyrgyzstan may be interested to know that the remains of a large statue of the Buddha had been found during archaeological excavations near the village of Krasnaya Rechka, just 30 km away of Bishkek.  Interestingly, the news rep[ort about the discovery was quoting a report from a Russian news agency, RIA Novosti.  The clay statue was almost twice life size and was found by archaeologists during the excavation of a temple from the 8th to 10th centuries.  The report quoted Asan Torgoev, (a researcher at the State Hermitage Museum and head of the Russian side of the expedition), as saying: “this year, a unique discovery was made on one of the hills hiding the remnants of the Buddhist temple of the 8-10th centuries in the Medieval complex – the clay Buddha statue almost 2 human heights tall in (the) Lotus position. It was colored.”  The statue was in the altar niche of the temple with smaller statues of bodhisattva in upright position on both sides. Unfortunately, they are not complete.  Only one third of the torso of the Buddha statue and smaller parts of the bohisattvas have survived.  Restorers are currently cleaning the statue and expedition members are preparing the excavated part of the temple for conservation.   There are plans for the archaeologists to extract the remnants of the sculpture composition, assemble and restore it.  This will all take some time as it is not a simple task, but eventually the finds will become exhibits in one of the Museums in Kyrgyzstan.

Perhaps the most depressing news of the week was the report that two youths have been arrested for their part in a robbery where the victim died.  According to the police, their illicit gains from the robbery were two lighters, a comb and one som – about two cents.

A survey to discover the most and least expensive places for an ex-pat to live concluded that  Bishkek actually came in as the fifth least expensive city of those surveyed.  Even so, one som would not go very far.  Although there are cost advantages to living here compared to back in London, for example, there are also disadvantages.  But then, as they say, “there are two sides to every coin”.

This was brought home to me by an essay in Newsweek about the two faces of Belfast in Northern Ireland:“the one of murderous pettiness and explosive grudge-bearing, and a second city in which the locals were warm, verbally agile, and exuberant”.  As I read this I thought to myself that the same is true for Bishkek.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: Expat, Life_in_Kyrgyzstan, Weekly_Postcards