Postcard from Bishkek

 There’s not really any doubt as to who was the first man to walk on the moon.  Conspiracy theorists apart, (who claim that the flight of Apollo 11 was all a massive government inspired hoax and that the crew never left the ground – all the photographs and other “proofs” being forgeries), if you name anyone other than Neil Armstrong you will, probably, be greeted with bemused looks of pity and shocked comments about the lack of general knowledge in the world today.

It’s not quite as clear, however, who was the first person to fly in an airplane.  Oh, everyone credits the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, who took their Wright Flyer onto the sands of Kitty Hawk of North Carolina on December 17th, 1903 and managed four short flights; two each.  Orville took off on the first at 10:35, having won the honour by drawing lots, and was in the air for a total of 12 seconds.  Wilbur managed the longest flight that day; 59 seconds, covering 852 feet, (255.6 meters).  He landed the plane, but a sudden gust of wind blew the plane over breaking the wings and damaging the motor.

As this happens, this wasn’t the first flight.  Of course, I was aware of this fact from my early days having read the Ladybird Book “The Story of Flight” as a young and impressionable schoolboy.  That began with the story of Icarus, (which one of my nicknames at school), of Greek Mythology and the Montgolfier Brothers in their hot air balloon before it got to the story of airplanes.

These days the Wright brothers are credited with inventing and building the world’s first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight.  It wasn’t however, the first airplane … if you count gliders as airplanes.  The Wright brothers, who were bicycle manufacturers, did much of their early research into wing design on gliders.  This research gave them an immense amount of data and they had even patented their revolutionary wing design.

It’s doubtful, however, if the Wright Flyer was indeed the first airplane, as such.  In New Zealand, farmer Richard Pearse, working single-handedly in his barn, had designed and built engine powered flying machine and there is evidence to suggest that he had made his first flight as early as in March 1902.

But there are accounts of even earlier flights…  a birdlike monoplane invented and built by a German émigré, Gustave Whitehead, is said have taken to the air somewhere near Bridgeport in Connecticut, just at dawn on August 14,1901, covering a distance of approximately half a mile; John Goodman Household is supposed to have taken the first heavier than air flight in 1870, launching his glider from the top of a 300 meter precipice on the farm Der Magtenburg, in the Karkloof area of KwaZuluNatal in modern day South Africa and flying for it over a kilometer; and there are even accounts of a steam driven plane designed by John Springfellow and John Henson in 1848.

Reading between the lines, the Wright brothers are probably given the credit due to those patents and wing designs which were the basis of modern aviation, and the fact that, despite the lack of witnesses, (there were only five men in attendance at Kitty Hawk on that December morning), they did manage to get news of their achievement out to a wider world.

The lack of evidence and news coverage of events these days is not something that creates much of problem.  The mass of news agencies vying to be first with breaking news, bloggers and social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter means that news gets out quite quickly, (although it always has to be checked to make sure it’s not a “Naked Duck”).

Take the case of the “Speakergate“ scandal that I mentioned last week.  Although at that stage it wasn’t clear if it amounted to a constitutional crisis, the debate in the parliament proved to a fascinating affair with tweets and blogposts coming fast and furious as events unfolded in the chamber.

In the end, speaker Keldibekov decided to resign, so a vote of confidence didn’t prove necessary.  A parliamentary commission had been set up to consider the various allegations levied against the speaker and found a case to answer.  In his resignation statement, however, he denied them, warning that if the situation continued with people “playing games”, then “nobody can guarantee that the events which happened in Kyrgyzstan won’t reoccur.”

The scandal could go wider with another prominent civil servant feeling that he had to issue a statement denying that he also had no links with organized crime and another one, currently serving abroad, is also facing similar allegations .

I presume Keldibekov wasn’t very happy about the way events turned out, but his supporters, both in Bishkek and his home region in the south of the country, were also upset.  About 60 people gathered outside the parliament with banners declaring their support and opposition to other leading politicians.  In the south, they took to the streets in protest and blocked one of the main roads in the region, (although that was quickly cleared), voicing demands that he either be made Prime Minister, or else Parliament be disbanded.  Interestingly their rallying cry was for the fair treatment of all regardless of what part of Kyrgyzstan they hailed from.  They seem to be of the opinion that those who look as if they are going to form the majority coalition are from the North.

They said that they were ready to march on Bishkek, but Keldibekov flew down to Osh to meet with them instead. He was met by a huge crowd in Osh and, basically, told them to go home.  It was cold and they should look after their health.  He was elected, first and foremost, as a Deputy not as Speaker and would continue to act in this role.  All the same, the system has created what one commentator has called “another sidelined southerner” … and that raises questions for the future.

Perhaps one of the strangest stories of the week was a hunger strike staged in a number of prisons.  Although there was a suggestion that it was connected with power struggles going on in the capital and the departure of Keldibekov from the speaker’s chair, a spokesman for the Prisons service suggested a more mundane reason behind it.  He said that the protest was tied to new limits on prison visitors.  “Prisoners had the right to receive visits from their families and ‘other’ people”, he said, “but under the label ‘others’ they were bringing prostitutes into the prisons,” and the new regulations called for only relatives with identities showing their relationship to the inmate would be allowed to visit in future.  This seems to have been the version picked up by the newswires around the world and, to be fair, the link with Keldibekov’s resignation has been denied.

There have been prison protest about conditions in the past and there has been a campaign of posts on one website in particular recently about the poor conditions in Kyrgyzstan’s prisons especially for those being held on remand.  The authorities have announced the installment in many remand centers, in the south, and there has also been a lot of comment around the world about the routine use of “torture” in Kyrgyz prisons, unbearable conditions and beatings., so there may well be some grounds for complaint.

Meanwhile, the coalition talks are underway and full of leaks … or is that simply keeping the public informed.  A draft agreement was scanned and put on the internet.  It was notable that one of the provisions it contained was for the post of speaker to be rotated between the parties on an annual basis, but it’s not clear how that would work in practice.

Ata Jurt, in particular issued a list of demands which it has for it to be able to participate in the coalition, but it seems that they have finally decided not to do so and so will be left alone on the sidelines with the other four parties in the parliament joining the coalition.  Nothing in life is simple, however, and whilst some of the members of Ata Jurt have apparently signed an agreement of cooperation with the coalition, one of the deputies belonging to one of the parties in the coalition says that she won’t join it.

Everything seemed to have come to a standstill, however, as the parliament had problems collecting enough deputies to form a quorum and the session was suspended until Wednesday, the day before the deadline to have a coalition government in place. On Friday, however, there was a flurry of activity, the coalition agreements were signed and people chosen as candidates for the posts of Prime Minister and Speaker which the parliament will formally vote on when it does finally meet.

There have been suggestions mooted for a new, scaled down, government structure and one of the bodies to disappear would be the controversial council for the selection of judges to the Supreme Court.    Also, according to one scenario, Tourism will become the responsibility of the Ministry of Culture.  I know that some of the countries of the former Soviet Union have adopted a similar approach, but it seems a strange coupling to me and has caused a certain amount of uproar in certain sections of the industry.  Also, it is proposed to reduce the list of parliamentary committees from 16 to 11, but none of them seem to be specifically responsible for questions relating to tourism.  Although, personally, I am not too worried about that, it seems an odd signal to send when everyone says that tourism is a priority with great potential for economic development.

Meanwhile, President Atambaev has been strengthening his team appointing advisors and aides and, in particular, his control over the security services by replacing two of the deputy heads of the National Security Committee, having replaced the head of the service last week.

 

During the week, former President Akaev gave an interview in the Russian media about the current situation in Kyrgyzstan in which he was highly skeptical, but I suppose that is an example of the Mandy Rice Davies syndrome: “Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he?”

His wasn’t the only controversial interview. Another one was given by a leading human rights campaigner over the events last April and the inquiry into how the revolution unfolded drags on.

Despite all this uncertainty, a political analyst in Moscow has concluded that the new political system in Kyrgyzstan is more “stable” than that of our neighbours which are “based on monopoly rule by one party with power concentrated in his hands”.  He might have a point bearing in mind what has been happening around the world this year; the Arab Spring and the appearance of Time’s Personality of the Year: the Protestor.  On top of that there is the breaking news of civil disorder during Independence Day celebrations in Western Kazakhstan, which will doubtless come as an unpleasant surprise for the likes of Tony Blair and Sting who have apparently faced some criticism for their contacts with our near neighbor.

There has been some considerable analysis to the question of the “potential threat of international terrorism and its principal source – religious extremism” in the region … just as there has been for several years elsewhere in the world.  No doubt this will be used as a further argument to put off a decision about relaxing the visa regime here in Kyrgyzstan.

Perhaps the opponents of the move consider it’s not necessary as, according to one Kazakh report, 50% of the 2.1 million tourists that were supposed to have visited Kyrgyzstan this year came from Kazakhstan, (and they don’t need visas), another 33% from Russia, (who also don’t need them), 11% from Uzbekistan, (despite last years incident in the south) and only 45 from what is called here, “the far beyond” – Europe, America, Australasia and so on.

There’s trouble brewing over energy as well.  The situation surrounding the supply of gas to the country looks precarious with some enterprises being cut off whilst homes, at the moment, are still receiving supplies.  Apparently, even the Russian Air Force base at Kant got cut off. It seems that the cold weather, (temperatures of -14 degrees Centigrade are forecast for next week), has increased demand at the same time that supplies were reduced from our neighbours.  The Bishkek municipality is behind with payments for electricity and there are reports of power being cut off from street lights in part of the city.  The price of petrol and diesel in the south is rocketing and people are complaining.  Then, there was a report into the coal industry which was far from complimentary.

The question of language has also been receiving attention during the week … apart from an international review about the decline of the use of Russian throughout the region following the authorities in each of the new independent states that were created following the collapse of the Soviet Union to try to reinforce and strengthen their own national languages, there has been a mounting campaign to get Kyrgyz added to the list of languages offered by Google Translate.  I hope they succeed.

Apparently, the New Year holiday is not for Muslims, at least according to the supreme Mufti … that is according to one of the news agencies.  Mind you, this was the agency that apparently reported as fact accounts that Facebook was closing down.  Any,way, according to their report, the Mufti considers that the holiday is tied to the celebration of Jesus’ birth and Sharia Law only legitimizes two holidays, Orozo Ait and Kurman Ait, both of which are public holidays here in Kyrgyzstan.  He is also concerned about the excesses normally associated with the holiday – excessive spending and excessive consumption of alcohol, (which is basically prohibited anyway).  He did acknowledge, however, that New Year offers a good opportunity to analyze one’s life, think about our mistakes and to correct them and make amends.

 

The question of the future of the American Transit Center at Manas Airport remains exactly that … a question.  As far as I can tell there hasn’t been any developments during the week, but there has been newspaper reports which have referred to Atambaev’s repeated statements about closing it before, during and after the election campaign.

One of the few airlines that flies into Manas Airport from the West is the British airline, bmi, (which is an acronym derived from the title British Mediterranean International – despite that, it is in fact owned by German national airline, Lufthansa). I see that bmi is up for sale and current bidders include International Airlines Group, (the parent company of British Airways) and Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic.  Although bmi is based at Donington Hall in Castle Donington, (which is close to the East Midlands Airport in the United Kingdom), it flies to destinations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia, (including, as I said, Bishkek), from its operational base at London Heathrow Airport.  What makes it an important and attractive takeover target is that it holds 11% of all take off and landing slots at Britain’s busiest airport and operates over 2,000 flights a week.  Despite what seems to be these quite impressive statistics, it seems that the airline doesn’t make a profit.  According to one report that I have seen, it made an operating loss of 154 million Euro in the first nine months of the year.  Quite what this might mean for those us living in Bishkek, or relying on those flights to bring visitors, (be it tourists or potential investors), is not yet clear.

Hopefully, the airline will continue to bring visitors from the “far beyond” on “flights of fancy” to this part of the ancient Great Silk Road, where they will find a visa free regime to welcome them along with the traditional Kyrgyz nomadic hospitality … but we’ll have to wait and see.

 

 

Postcard from Bishkek: the weekly postcard that I send out as an email also gets posted on the website ianbek.kg each week – and there are other postcards which don’t get sent out.  This week, for example, there were posts about: the Legendary Origins of the Kyrgyz  ; a post about Kyrgyz Literature to commemorate what would have been the birthday of the famous Kyrgyz autor Chinghiz Aitmatov; His Highness Prince Karim, Aga Khan IV who supports a number of projects here in Kyrgyzstan, in a post to commemorate his birthday on Tuesday; a photo exhibition called Micro Cherez Macro; Olives, one of latest eating establishments here in Bishkek and a documentary film about a remarkable young man called Almaz.

 

We have added four new panoramas to www.see.kg: three of Ala Too square in Bishkek and another of Prospekt Erkindik at night.

It is now possible to follow me on Facebook, (where I have specific pages for Celestial Mountains and ianbek), and on twitter, (@Bishkekpostcard).

 

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