Postcard from Bishkek

Well, after another four years it’s finally here: The Rugby World Cup.

This time it is being hosted in New Zealand.  They co-hosted the first event with Australia back in 1987, lifting the Webb Ellis cup after beating France, 29-9, in the final.  Although it was suggested reducing the number of participants to sixteen, twenty teams from around the world will take part in the event over the next six weeks.   Kyrgyzstan isn’t one of them, although Rugby is played here.

In fact, a few years ago, I was walking with yet another former player who happened to be visiting Bishkek, back to the hotel from the Orthodox Church where we had been to the Easter service.  As we passed the main Spartak Stadium it was obvious that there was a big event going on.  I threaded my way through the large crowd to ask an attendant what was happening.  In the stadium there some people playing national games, but it was just a warm up to a three nation mini Rugby competition with teams from Russia, the Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to stay and watch and, as is so typically frustrating here, I never saw any press reports of the event, so I have no idea how it turned out.  Mind you, I can guess that Kyrgyzstan probably took the wooden spoon; the Ukraine has quite a good team and although they didn’t qualify to go to New Zealand, (basically being knocked out by Romania), Russia did. Kyrgyzstan didn’t even take part in the qualifying rounds, although our neighbours Kazakhstan did.

There is a Rugby Federation, but the RFU, (the Rugby Football Union, the sport’s ruling based in Twickenham), don’t seem to know anything about them.  The strongest teams in the country are from the police and every year there is a competition between teams from the different regions or oblasts.    One of the generals is very keen on the sport as it requires physical fitness and a variety of skills and helps to develop courage and character.  They do run a national team and I am the proud owner of a Kyrgyz national Rugby shirt, although, to be honest, Maxim wears it more than I do.  It’s a bright red, short sleeved shirt made of thick material.  Getting it proved to be difficult as it doesn’t seem to be available here but I have seen it being sold over the internet.  The problem was that the payment service wouldn’t accept credit card payments over the internet from a computer based here in Kyrgyzstan!  Fortunately, John, one of my friends who was here as a consultant managed to get one on one of his visits home.

Anyway, yesterday saw the opening match, a purely pacific affair between New Zealand and Tonga.  Kick off was at 14:30, Bishkek time and it was being shown live at the Vis-à-vis café.

Like many places here in Kyrgyzstan, the café suffers an identity crisis.  It’s not clear what it should be called, and it’s known variously as Vis-a-viv, (the café’s old name), The Aussie Butcher, the Ozzie Butcher, The British Butcher, the Queen’s Head or, more prosaically, Dave’s place.

David is a larger than life, British ex-pat who’s been here in Bishkek about the same amount of time as I have, so he’s what they call “an old hand”.  I don’t think he ever wanted to open a café, but when he opened a butchery business, the idea of a café as an outlet to showcase his products proved appealing and it has become one of the mainstays of many expats here in Bishkek.

He’s from the West Country and a former Rugby player, hence his decision to show the matches live.  I suppose that if he has to be in the café working, then he decided he might as well make an occasion of it.

Likewise, as another former player, (but nowhere near David’s standard; when people ask me what position I played I usually reply 17th man in the fourth team in a club – Malvern RFC – that only ran three teams … and yes, I do know that in Rugby Union a team only has fifteen players!), I decided to try and go along to watch at least a few of the 48 matches, although I haven’t yet selected which ones.

So I trotted off to the Vis-à-vis for yesterday’s match.  The result?, well. I suppose it was a foregone conclusion with the Kiwis being the favourites and on their home turf, in front of a home crowd.  Mind you, there were at least tries which I don’t think I would have awarded; New Zealand may well have deserved the score but, technically, it seemed to me that the ball was held in the elbow and never actually made contact with the ground.   Then again, that could be why I never refereed anything other than school friends and friendlies.  Tonga put up a good show, but it seemed to me that they were obviously better and kept their opponents under pressure when they kept the ball in tight rather than throwing it around.  Whatever, it was an enjoyable afternoon!

I suppose that I should face up to the fact that whilst some people reading this may be aficionados of the “game for hooligans played by gentlemen” and understand what I am writing about, others may not have the slightest idea … Rugby?

But, then again, it’s possible that this is true each and every week as I write about the events in this remote spot in Central Asia.  Remote, we might well be but whilst, at least according to one American author, some people apparently say that “Kyrgyzstan is not the end of the world, but that you can see it from there”, this is not exactly a “backwater”.  After all, even though we may not be a major Rugby playing nation, there is some Rugby played here!

Mind you, there are moments when it’s not clear exactly what “games” are being played out … and what the rules are.

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Symbolism and mysticism, for example, seems to be an important aspect of life for many people here.  Take the inauguration of the new statue of Manas in the main Ala Too Square in the centre of Bishkek as an example.  The statue of Lenin was removed in 2002, the “Year of Kyrgyz Statehood”, to be replaced by a monument called Erkindik – Kyrgyzstan’s own “Statue of Liberty”.  Unfortunately, this monument fell foul of Kyrgyz sensibilities as represented a female angel figure – a concept alien to Kyrgyz and Muslim tradition, holding a tunduk, (the apex of the yurt, a sort of ‘felt frame tent’ and the traditional dwelling of the nomadic Kyrgyz), which is only ever touched by men.  This was being interpreted as a bad omen – so it had to go and be replaced by one of Manas as the bringer peace.  A better symbol and omen for the future.

However, the unveiling ceremony didn’t go exactly to plan.  A bad omen might well have been the fact that when the ribbon was pulled to reveal the statue, it got caught and only revealed the statue in its full glory when a gust of wind caught it and blew it away.  Almazbek Atambaev, put that down to an Act of God, “coming to our aid”.  More importantly, however, the people at the ceremony saw 40 eagles, (there’s that magic number again, I wonder who was counting … actually, someone shot a short video of the event – you can see it at http://bulbul.kg/video:9522/

- and it looks like more than 40 to me), flying above the statue, circling it before flying off.

The Master of Ceremonies behind the event actually commented in a press conference that it was not part of the planned ceremonies – even going so far as to say that it would have been impossible to organize.  It was “accidental”, a coincidence, but is definitely being interpreted as a good omen.

Eagles have played a role in another story this week.  Someone digging through the archives of photos in one of the news agencies came across a picture showing some, (including the now disgraced former President), politicians standing in front of a banner with symbols of traditional Kyrgyz ornamentation.  In this particular case, the motif concerned was that representing an eagle, with its head thrust forward and its wings spread wide.  Normally that would be taken as appropriate and a good sign, but the eagle eyed researcher, (pun intended), spotted the fact that the repeating pattern depicted behind the politicians were upside down.  Instead of soaring into the skies, they were plummeting earthwards. That was definitely a bad omen.

Then, there’s the flag – red with a yellow symbol representing a tunduk, surrounded by 40 rays of sunlight, (representing the original 40 Kyrgyz tribes from which the nation claims its descent).  This design wasn’t, apparently, one of those offered in the original “competition” back in the early days of independence, but was a compromise based on the most popular submission.  The original was, apparently, blue with a white motif.  The trouble is that in the South of Kyrgyzstan, blue is a colour of mourning and was thought by some people to be inappropriate and a bad omen.  The colour red was chosen partly because, although it is a different shade, it was close to the Soviet flag and partly because it was the colour of the standard of the legendary hero Manas in the Kyrgyz national epic.  Some people are now pointing the finger at that choice as also being a bad omen, explaining that red was the colour of the hero’s “battle standard” and so, they say, it is no wonder that there has been so much conflict and bloodshed in the country’s short, twenty year history.  As a result, there are suggestions to revert to the original choice of blue – despite the possibility that this could symbolize a lot of mourning; especially for those in the South.

In another incident, some Kyrgyz nationalists have protested about some posters celebrating Kyrgyzstan’s 20 years of Independence which they consider as unpatriotic.   One of the posters depicted three yurts under awnings displaying the flags of America, Russia and China.  Down in Osh a group of young people even took one down and burned it;  saying that the picture “degraded” Kyrgyzstan.  Another poster depicted a foreign tourist surrounded by Kyrgyz, which they said showed them in a “subservient” position.  In yet another the date 2011 is shown by a series of hands showing the relevant digits.  One of the 1’s is shown an extended middle finger and even though it is facing the wrong way it’s been identified as a rude gesture.  Most of the offending posters have now been removed in both Bishkek and Osh.

And so life goes on with little incidents being given an importance that perhaps overshadows other interesting and potentially vital concerns.

The Prime Minister, for example, is facing growing criticism, but that could all be tied up with electioneering.  At one point someone was even tweeting “Where is the Prime Minister?”  One of his keynote policies, Kyrgyzstan’s entry into the Customs Union, was branded by an “expert commentator” as “economic suicide”.  There have also been comments posted on the internet which seem to link him with some people involved in casinos and connections have been drawn with the drug traffic from Afghanistan.

Talking of drugs, the Kazakhs have accused Kyrgyzstan of harvesting about 800 kg of marijuana.  Cannabis grows wild in many parts of Kyrgyzstan and Chui was apparently a well known “brand” in Soviet times.

The pressure is so great that one of the most popular internet forums seems to be getting “nervous” and has apparently removed some topics which contained critical comments.  Perhaps this is yet another sign that some of our neighbours, greater control is going to be exercised over the internet and social media.  I understand, for example, that there are problems accessing some of Google’s services in Kazakhstan and according to one analyst, the Uzbek authorities are getting very anxious about social media outlets.

Prime Minister Atambaev is not alone in facing criticism.  The Mufti is facing charges of trying to “seize power” in the muftiat’s ruling council with displeasure over the problem of fixing the date of last week’s holiday rumbling on, accusations about the cost and conduct of the annual hajj, (the pilgrimage to Mecca).  This is not necessarily encouraging coming in the week that plans to build a new central mosque in Bishkek, to accommodate up to 10,000 people and costing something like ten million dollars.  Most of the finance seems to be coming from Turkey.

Plans and arrangements for the Presidential election are going ahead.  Only some of the candidates have filed the necessary deposit and list of signatures supporting their candidature, and some of them have sat their examination in the Kyrgyz language – everyone making mistakes and one candidate said that it made him feel like a schoolboy preparing for a class test.  Some of the candidates have called for the Central Election Commission to be dismissed because they were late announcing the timetable for the tests, but as I understand it they were waiting for these conditions to be filled.  As it happens, the protesting candidates want these conditions removed as well.  With so many candidates, and many of them apparently relatively obscure and unknown to the general public, a new website has been set up so that voters can pose questions to them.    Each candidate will have a separate page with a brief biography, their election program and political views that they advocate.  I was intrigued to see that the moderators would prohibit questions that “humiliate the honour and dignity of the candidate (nationalism, racism, homophobia, sexism, etc.)”, and I wasn’t quite sure what that meant.

One of the deputies, not a candidate, has suggested a new policy which is likely to be somewhat controversial.  He wants to see a ban on young people leaving the country.  He says that many young people go abroad without the permission of their parents and the relevant documents and this innovation would help to keep them in the country until they reach their majority.  The proposal is already being condemned in some quarters as being unconstitutional … Kyrgyzstan abandoned “exit visas” back at the end of the last century.  I was a little more surprised however, by the claim that “minors” can apparently get past the border controls without the proper paperwork.  I know of, for example, one woman who was travelling with her two children who was asked, “Where is the letter from their father giving permission for them to leave the country?”

Gazprom, a petrol company, received a lot of attention during the week when they announced plans to invest USD103 million in the exploration of oil and gas in Kyrgyzstan, not mention building a refinery.  I’m not sure how successful the exercise will be.  Although there are some small fields known in the south of the country and there are hopes that on the flanks of the Ferghana valley there may be as yet undiscovered fields, but it does not seem like the situation with Gold and several other mineral resources which seem to be scattered widely throughout the republic.

The government has also announced plans to improve the infrastructure across the country but in particular for the newly built residential neighbourhoods in the Bishkek suburbs during 2012, so it looks as if all those protest meetings outside the parliament and White House by the residents may have paid off.  As it happens, one twitter tweeted the comment, “Nee dnya beyez meetingov” – “there isn’t a day without meetings”; (here the word “meeting” tends to be reserved for “protest meeting”.)

The Minister of Finance made a statement in a seminar which made me smile.  As I have said in many postcards in the past, as a former teacher of statistics I adopt an attitude of healthy distrust whenever I meet one.  Well, he seems to agree with me to a certain extent, because he said that we have a problem of “statistical distortion” when it comes to the topic of the volumes of donor assistance.  Not only does each donor organization have its own procedures, (sometimes complex bureaucratic procedures), they also include aid which does not go through the state budget, and in some cases make contributions through other, international agencies such as the United Nations Devel0pment Programme, (UNDP).  As a result, the agencies and the government and the different donors have got different information about what has been given and what has received.  This struck me as a good of example of something that I have said so many times, (both in these postcards and to my classes when I taught the subject): that statistics tend to raise more questions than they answer and we need to be very clear about they actually tell us.  I was so pleased to see this report that I wished I was back in the classroom where I could use it as concrete example to illustrate the point.

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I have well and truly exceeded my planned word limit this week, but there is lots more that I could have mentioned; more of the development of the mining sector, for example; petrol smuggling into Tajikistan; the ongoing saga of the selection of judges; a couple of car accidents involving high profile characters; the fact that today is World Suicide Prevention Day … and so on.

Let me end, however, on a more personal note … I seem to have added a new member to my family: Boisye.  When I got back last weekend from my regular monthly trip up to Naryn, (and a side trip to Myortvoye Ozero – Kyrgyzstan’s own Dead Sea; it’s so salty that it is impossible to sink in it), I was sitting at the computer checking my emails and heard this rather loud mewing.  My first thought was that it was Mathilda, the black and white stray who turned up a couple of years ago with a bad leg and who’s hung around ever since, even though her leg is now fine.  She has a rather loud meow.  So I went to open the door to let her in, but she wasn’t there and was nowhere to be seen.  In fact, I looked around and couldn’t see anyone or anything.  Eventually, skulking behind a box under the stairs I found a fluffy little kitten, about two months old, obviously house trained – he was looking for a toilet tray – and scared out of his wits.  He had obviously been abandoned by someone trying to dispose of a litter.  This seems to happen quite a bit.  They drop them off outside the office knowing that we will take them in and try to find them a home.  This time, however, Andrei and Maxim have really taken to him and forbidden me to give him away, so it looks as if I might be stuck with him.  He is actually quite cute and ‘loveable’ – except, that is, at three o’clock in the morning when he jumps up on my bed and starts clawing at the blanket asking to be fed.

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Watching the games being played out her … with all these shenanigans to distract us and all the bad omens that surround us, perhaps it’s a good job that Kyrgyzstan is not in New Zealand this year.  Maybe we’ll make it to England in 2015 or Japan in 2019.  In the meantime, I’ll pop along to Dave’s, watch a game or two and take the opportunity to stock up on Bacon and Beef Jerky.

Tags: Expat, Life_in_Kyrgyzstan, Weekly_Postcards