Postcard from Bishkek

For some time now I have been giving my postcars a title … like, “Phew Wot a scorcher!”  That’s because I also post them on my blog (ianbek.kg) where each post has to have a title.  It’s like a newspaper headline/

Headlines, of course, serve several different purposes … they have to grab the reader’s attention and at the same time as trying to convey something about the content of the story.  The British tabloid “The Sun” is famous for its catchy headlines usually portrayed in very large print, (144-point or about 2″ high), which takes up most of the front page.  Unfortunately, however, they are not always in the best of taste.  Consider “Gotcha” announcing the sinking of the Argentinean battleship Belgrano during the Falklands War, or “Freddy Mercury ate my hamster”.  Another of their classic headlines was “Phew, wot a scorcher” in 2003 which commemorated the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Britain – 38.5 degrees Celsius, (or 101.3 degrees Fahrenheit).  

The Brits are renowned for always talking about the weather.  It is probably a result of the fact that, as an island nation sitting in the path of the Gulf Stream, we experience a very changeably climate.  The Great British Summer often disappoints as the Daily Telegraph pointed out a few years ago when they used the headline “The great British summer disappoints again”.  Hardly a pithy headline, but note the “again”!

Well, we’ve been having a number of “scorchers” recently … with temperatures well into the thirties – although as I am writing this it is a relatively cool 25°, although the forecast is for it to rise to 38 later today, and 41 tomorrow.  It’s so hot that the Marmite is oozing out it’s jar and making a mess on the kitchen shelf. In fact, it has been so hot that we met a guy that had just come to Kyrgyzstan from Kenya and he commented that, “it’s hotter here than in Africa!”

To be fair, Kenya is quite high … but then, so are we.

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It’s been so hot, in fact, there was the report that there is a high risk of fire breaking out in the current weather conditions in the forests of Kyrgyzstan; particularly in the western regions of the country.

A column of smoke was seen to the north of the city on Thursday.  That was unusual because the chimneys of the heating stations which provide central heating and hot water to the city are located to the East and the West.  It appears that Dordoi,, (Central Asia’s largest bazaar where virtually all the stalls operate out of shipping containers), had been rocked by an explosion which injured one person, (he received an ankle injury after being thrown by the force of the blast), but, fortunately, there were no fatalities.  The investigation into the cause of the explosion is continuing, but it looks as if it wasn’t anything to do with terrorism or civil unrest … it seems to have resulted fire breaking out in a warehouse storing some 100 tons of fireworks, (that seemed an awful lot of fireworks to me!).  Sixty two fire fighters, seven fire engines and three water tankers were involved combating the inferno for about eight and a half hours.  Although they arrived within minutes, the warehouse was destroyed before they arrived on the scene. Some 800 square meters of timber were consumed in the blaze and some of the neighbouring housing was also damaged in the explosion.

I wonder if the firework display planned for the Independence Day celebrations will be affected.

Oddly enough, one of the ministries is trying to buck the trend for deregulation by saying that we need new licenses and permits rather than trying to reduce the number that we have the moment. One of the examples they quoted in support of their position was the need for greater control over the transport of fireworks and explosives in the country.

The Chairman of the Central Election Commission noted, in its relatively short history, (just twenty years after independence following the break up the Soviet Union), Kyrgyzstan seems to have taken first place in the world when it comes to the number of elections and referendums that it has held; and, of course, we are gearing up for yet another one – the Presidential elections slated for October 30th.    The electoral commission has made arrangements for 29 polling stations to be established in 23 countries where there are Kyrgyz diplomatic missions, which will bring the grand total of polling stations to 2293.

The number of nominations for the election has already reached over thirty, and they don’t close for another ten days.  The list includes leaders of political parties, journalists, businessmen, as well as number of unemployed not exactly in the public eye and so not  widely known to the general public. What’s more, a number of potential candidates have yet to declare themselves, including the current Prime Minister, Almazbek Atambaev, who is generally regarded as the front runner for the post.  There is a lot of discussion about potential coalitions and running tickets.

Atambaev has been one of the large donors in the fund to replace the Erkindik statue, (the Statue of Liverty), in the main square with one of Manas and another of the Kyrgyz author Chinghiz Aitmatov.   Over six million som has been received so far, (in donations ranging in size from 1000 to almost 4and a half million som – USD100,000), but there is still a long way to go to reach the target of 28,000,000.

The replacement statues are being cast in Russia and have to be transported here.  They were supposed to arrive on August 23rd, but that date has now been revised to the 29th – although it is said that they can still be erected and be in place for the celebrations on the 31st.

There is still a lot of controversy about the Erkindik statue.  One of the youth groups has argued strongly that it should be destroyed as it represents an affront to Kyrgyz traditional culture.  It now appears that it has suffered damage and the offending arm that held the tuunduk was in danger of “collapse” having suffered the erosive effects of snow and ice in Bishkek’s winters, as well as the heat of Bishkek’s Summers.

There has been more criticism of the haste in which the decision to pull down the statue and erect two new ones was made.   The Kyrgyz Union of Artisits say that, at the very least,  there really should have been an open competition for the new statues.

The new statues are seen by many as an example of the rising influence of national sentiment, in a country where symbolism is far from being simply symbolic. Another would be the proposal to rename the capital city as Manas.  A petition is being organized to collect the signatures to present the proposal formally to parliament – they need 10000.

So, Manas City would be served by Manas Airport, (with the airport code FRU – those things are, apparently, really difficult to change); one of its main streets will be Prospect Manas and there will be two statues of Manas within a couple of blocks of each other.  All this has aroused a certain amount of sardonic, if not sarcastic, comment on the social networks.  One American expat blogger has had the temerity to ask how important Manas was before the current craze for naming everything after him.  The Soviet attitude to him was somewhat “schizophrenic”, regaling in the historical and cultural significance and importance of the epic, it also played down the nationalistic overtones.  Over the years, especially the years since Independence, he’s certainly been used as a unifying symbol – uniting the Kyrgyz, that is.  The spirit of Manas has often quoted as an important force in Kyrgyz culture.  President Akaev even wrote a book about it.  However, that is not to say that the suggestion hasn’t been controversial and the debate on the topic rages on.

(As an aside, I was intrigued by the comment of another (Kyrgyz) tweeter who said: “I was born in a town which is no more, in a country that no longer exists; am I actually alive?”)

There are a number of other on-going controversial issues that keep resurfacing in the news.  Take corruption, for example.  Kyrgyzstan doesn’t do very well in Transparency International’s survey of perceptions of corruption.  One government minister announced this week that the National Registry Office is the most corrupt institution in the country.  (The State Registry Office has nothing to do with registering Births, Marriages and Deaths, as in the UK – it registers all sorts of property rights.)  The Minister went on to say that the public little or no confidence in the institution.  Funnily enough, over the years I have seen similar remarks made about other government agencies, especially those concerned with construction, the tax authorities, Customs and the police – especially the traffic police.

Well, we seem to have hit a nadir in public confidence in that a deputy governor of one of the oblasts, (provinces), has been arrested for accepting a bribe of 3000 som (that’s just over USD65) and a sack of flower.  Reports also surfaced about the detention and questioning of one of the oblast governors about his alleged connections with members of the previous regime and “crime bosses” and being involved in “economic crimes” have also been made – and hotly denied!  It’s all part of a plot to vilify him, his press service said.

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During the week I have met quite a few people who have decided to rush off into the mountains, where it should be cooler.  Personally, I am not convinced about that, but I am still planning to go up to Lake Issyk Kul next weekend with some of the kids.  They have been eager to go for some time and the long school holidays (three months … YES, three whole months), have been dragging on a bit.  I just hope that the weather doesn’t go English on us and decide to take a turn a turn for the worse.

I’ll be sure to pack a hat – so I don’t get sunburned like I did last year if, that is, the weather continues its current trend – a couple of the six or so books that I have on the go at the moment and the Kindle that Rosa and Gary bought me  – Thank you, by the way, it’s “Grrrrreat!”, as Tony the Tiger used to say.

Anyway, as a result, there might not be postcard next week … I’ll decide on Thursday if I can get one ready in time to send out on Friday before we set off.

In the meantime, I hope that that those of you in the Northern hemisphere are enjoying your summer, and those in the Southern one, are having a bearable winter.

 

 

Tags: Expat, Life_in_Kyrgyzstan, Weekly_Postcards