Postcard from Bishkek

Most of our lives consist of mundane, day-to-day, drudgery but sometimes, just sometimes, we experience something which acts like a watershed which changes our way of looking at the world; our own version of the “Damascus Road”.  It might be a religious conversion like St. Paul’s but it might be somewhat more prosaic than the bright light which blinded him on the Damascus road.

When people used to ask me, for example, how I ended up here in Kyrgyzstan, if I was feeling particularly mischievous I might reply, “Because I failed the eleven plus”.  Failing the selection exam at the age of 11 meant that I went to a Secondary Modern School rather than a Grammar School.  Although it was a good school, it limited my options when it came to choosing subjects that I could study for University entrance – hence I ended up training to be a teacher and studying Theology and the Psychology of Education rather than my  “first love”, Mathematics.  I went into teaching and drifted from Religious Studies to Mathematics and Statistics, eventually ended up teaching Computing.  It was because of my background in computerized administration systems that I got invited out here to help open an office. If I had passed that exam then my career would have been totally different and I wouldn’t have met Tony and received that invitation.  I wouldn’t be here now.

Another example: A few years ago, one of our staff returned from a year in the states where she had been attending a course in an American University.  She told us about an internet site which allowed her to exchange messages with her new found friends in the states and maybe once a day she could check it for messages from them.   After a short while I noticed that several other members of the staff were also logging onto the site, so I decided that I had better go and check it out.

Before you could see anything, you had to register … so I registered.  To be, honest, at the time I wasn’t that impressed.  Having had a quick look round I logged out again and more or less forgot about it.  From time to time, however, I would get messages telling me that I had been tagged in a photo, or someone wanted to be my “friend”  … but most of them went ignored.  Despite my history as a teacher of computing and IT, the whole world of social media was passing me by.

Then, out of the blue I got a message in my email telling me that yet someone else wanted to be my friend … That particular message caught me unawares and brought me up short.  “I know that name” I thought to myself … it was my nephew and he was an avid Facebook user … he had found me and “added” me to his list of friends.  So, I logged on again and began to realize that there were more things in Facebook than were dreamt of in my philosophy … to misquote the bard.

Not only does Facebook help me to find and keep in touch with relatives, old friends and former colleagues, iot also acts as a platform for communicating with people in the here and now; it’s a good source of information and I can get updates about all sorts of topics of interest, from Marmite and the Archers to James Taylor and Eldar Djangirov.

I am not as accepting as some people on Facebook – I tend to accept invites only from people I know but some people build up huge numbers of “friends”, all of whom can receive a single message be it what you had for supper, an advert for a party or some other event, where the next flashmob is going to congregate or, in place of a flashmob, read protest meeting;  Indeed, social media like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have taken a certain amount of “credit” for the role they have played in events like the Arab Spring; they are both very popular here, and their use is rapidly growing.  For many of the local there are Russian language equivalents, like Moi-Mir (My world) or Odnoklasniki (Schoolfrinds), but Facebook and Twitter offer global coverage … or, at least they will so long as the internet censors don’t get to them.

To those who are registered users of Twitter, the newspaper headline that informed us that “130 million tweets everyday are not worth reading”, will not have come as much of  a surprise.  What might be surprising is that it took a group of researchers from a variety of US universities, including the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (MIT), to discover this. I have to admit that as I skim through the screens full of tweets, I sometimes wonder if it is worth the time and effort.  But then, but occasionally, (just occasionally), one turns up which is full of significance and send me off on a search for more details and I think to myself, “I’m glad I saw that!”

This week, for example, there was the news that the offices of the largest mobile phone operator here in Kyrgyzstan, Megacom, (which was part of the empire of Maxim Bakiev and was duly nationalized after the revolution in 2010), had been raided by the anti corruption branch of the Security Services and the Director detained.  As it happens, I actually know the guy because we both sit on a committee together, so it came as a bit of a shock.  Of course, I don’t know the details of the investigation but it seems out of character that he should have been involved in corrupt practices.  Anyway he’s been detained for two months whilst the investigations continue, as I understand it, in the same remand prison which saw the riot a couple of weeks ago which led to over a thousand prisoners throughout the country sewing up their mouths in a hunger strike.  (That protest, by the way, now seems to be over.)

Despite this apparent setback, and the prolonged history of litigation and murky details of past ownership, there still seems to be potential buyers for the company and Prime Minister Babanov met with some of them during the week.

Corruption, or rather the fight against it, has been in the news quite a lot this week.  According to one MP, the President spent the whole of the week on the issue.  He has indeed commented on how corruption is “a way of public administration” in the country and complained that Financial Police, prosecutors’ office and the courts were not yielding results. Pointing to officials earning salaries in the region of USD200 a month who bought villas “for millions of dollars”, he told the law enforcement bodies to get their acts together and show results by the end of March, or else lose their jobs.

The Minister of Finance made a claim that the Prosecutor’s office ask for USD1000 to open a case, and apparently said that he had been asked for five thousand.  That brought a rejoinder from officials asking him for details: I suppo9se that could be interpreted as a case of: “put up or shut up”.  Another tweet took me to a blog entry where a student said that he was trying to create a campaign against corruption in universities and other institutes of Higher Education.  He said that wanted to publicize cases but was faced with the prosecutors’ office saying that he shouldn’t, the students should come into the office and write a complaint, (a  zayavleniye or application), and they would immediately start an investigation.

The Minister has now announced a new system of public procurement which, it hoped, should put an end to one form corruption, the practice of providing a “kickback”  He did say that the draft budget contained “unpopular, but effective measures” aimed to bolster economic development.  I am not sure if he had in mind when he said that the current draft going through the parliament that would require increases in the tariffs for electricity, gas and heating, but remembering the effect of the increases in energy tariffs at the start of 2010, I suppose we will have to see how unpopular they will prove to be, and keep our fingers crossed.

 

The other big story of the week, in terms of the number of news stories it has generated, seems to have been the continuing dispute over the fate of Casinos in the country.  It is claimed that, despite the ban on Casinos imposed by a change in the law last year, there are several that are still operating, “underground”.  Meanwhile, former employees in the “gambling industry” have continued their daily protests demanding that something be done to provide them with work.   One tweet bemoaned the “daily” nature of the protests.

Prime Minister Babanov has made some comments about the possibility of opening a special zone on the shores of Lake Issyk Kul, where Casinos will be allowed, but they could banned for Kyrgyz citizens, in the same way as it is possible for foreigners to buy alcohol in Pakistan in certain establishments although locals can’t.  The Association that represented Casinos has also come up with suggestions, including allowing those who were granted licenses in the past to continue operating until those licenses expire, and charging a hefty entrance fee to help keep out the local population.

Meanwhile there are claims that some of the deputies have received substantial incentives to lobby for a change in the law to allow Casinos to continue operating – well, I for one, would call USD5 million pretty substantial.  On the other hand, the Speaker of the parliament has said that the law must stand and be enforced.  If not, then “why did we pass the law in the first place?”

 

Another tweet that caught my attention during the week was about the plans to build a new Central Mosque here in Bishkek on the site of one of the city’s cinemas.  It’s going to be pretty huge and will be financed with help from Turkey.

It is interesting to see that some aspect of religion is flourishing.  There have been many recent reports, not all of them publicized here asked one MP, in the local media, of the problems facing different religious groups, be they Jehovah’s Witnesses, Korean Baptists, even Muslim itinerant preachers.  Perhaps the strangest report on this during the week came from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty of a Tengrist, (a spiritual movement which predates Islam here in Kyrgyzstan, connected with the ancient shamanistic beliefs and traditions of the nomadic Kyrgyz), facing trial on charges, (which he denies), of inciting Religious and ethnic hatred after making derogatory remarks about “many Muslim mullahs” in a radio interview.

The mosque is not the only major building project.  Another tweet informed that the Americans have allocated USD145million towards building a new embassy here in Bishkek and they held a ground breaking ceremony during the week.  That will be their third embassy in Kyrgyzstan.  The first was a small two storey building right next door to the headquarters of the Committee for National Security, (KGB), which was replaced by a purpose built embassy on the outskirts of town.  That, however is too small for the 130-odd staff that currently work there – hence the need for a new building which looks as if it will be quite big.  It’s due to be completed in 20147, just as the withdrawal from Afghanistan is supposed to be completed and the lease on the Manas Transit Center expires.

President Atambaev reminded the Ambassador of that in a meeting during, (as if it is likely that she had forgotten).  Even so, there are still protests from people who want Kyrgyzstan to renounce the agreement ahead of time.

One of the most interesting reports I saw during the week was an assessment of Iran’s likely reaction to further Western pressure over its nuclear programme.  Quoting Iranian spokesmen, it suggested that there were plenty of American military bases within easy reach of existi9ng Iranian missle technology – including Manas airport.  It made me think that President Atambaev had this in mind when he voiced his concern last year about the possibility of Kyrgyzstan becoming a target for those opposed to America and the war in Afghanistan.  Maybe he had a point.

What really surprised me about that report was the aerial photographs of those potential targets, (including Manas), which showed aircraft parked in neat lines on the tarmac.  I had thought that from the early days of military aviation it had been recognized that this made them easy targets.

I suppose that I also have to refer to the flood of tweets on Friday that informed us that the director of the World Bank office in Bishkek had thrown a glass, (or, according to some accounts, a set of headphones), and then stormed out of a meeting, (muttering and, according to accounts at least, swearing), with the Deputy Prime Minister.   I have seen a video report of the event and although it happened, it seems to me that the tweets were a little overdramatic.  It certainly doesn’t seem to have signaled any change of policy or attitude especially as he had just commented in his speech about how the Kyrgyz Republic is very much willing to improve work and relations between its “development partners” and the government; that the 100-day action program is very important for a new government and that, “the World Bank may be very slow and bureaucratic, but this should not be seen as unwillingness to help”.

 

Amongst the other issues to have cropped up throughout the week have been concerns over the potential for yet more ethnic unrest following some disturbances in the Batken region, in the extreme South West of the country which seem to have led to the resignation (or was it dismissal), of the governor.  Although most of this seems to have been reported in the international media, it hasn’t gone unnoticed in the local media.

There has also been a fair amount of attention on the events of April 2010 – with denials about the presence of foreign snipers during the revolution; more on the investigation into the confiscation of property held in Bank safe deposit boxes, actions taken by the interim government, the condition of Azimjan Askarov in jail, and so on.  One interesting thing to note, however, is that Interpol have issued a formal “red notice” against Janysh Bakiev, the former President’s brother … I wonder what made them change their mind in this respect?

The mining industry – a vital component of the country’s economy – seems to be back in the news as well, with hopes expressed that work will start this year on exploiting three more gold deposits; despite the fact that the moratorium on issuing licenses seems to have delayed some exploration work and talk of additional taxes being laid to prevent gold mines from making “excessive profits”; a critical report about water pollution near the Kumtor Gold mine and the news that the Agency for Geology and Mineral Resources are going to be give help by the Finns in digitalizing the vast amount of information about the country’s subsoil resources currently held in the archives.

It looks as if there could be some political fallout from the cargo of cheap “radioactive coal” supplied to the Bishkek Heating plant from Kazakhstan which the government ordered should be returned but Kazakhstan refused to accept.  Apparently, some of it has distributes to schools and orphanages so that they can heat their premises and, as you can imagine, not everyone is happy about this.  Despite that, they could probably use the coal.  Just as across Europe at the moment, many schools are closed due to the cold weather.  Some needy families have also received free fuel to help them cope with the extreme weather conditions – but I’m not sure if it is more of that “radioactive coal”.  As well as provoking an energy crisis in the country, the snow has caused numerous avalanches (21 in one night) which have blocked many roads.

The politician who confidently announced that “zima ne budet”, (“There’ll be no winter”), seems to have got it wrong. That didn’t stop him holding another press conference where he claimed the Vladimir Putin was a “biorobot”.  This was picked up by a Russian comic who posted a satirical commentary on Youtube which quickly went viral.

 

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism, (referred to locally as MinCultTourism – which can be taken to mean the Ministry of bodybuilding), has surpassed itself this week.  After the apparently, (hopefully), abortive attempt to introduce licensing of tourism activities, they have apparently now established a Concerts Commission and issued instructions about the staging of theatrical entertainment and concerts events in Kyrgyzstan.  Anyone wanting to stage a concert will have to present it to the commission who will issue a certificate granting permission to stage it withion the course of a year,  It seems that they have taken this measure in the face of “a lot of” complaints about the artistic levels of concert programmes and the performance skills of the artists.

One of the deputies has proposed a draft law that Kyrgyz officials should wear national costume at official dinners with foreign delegations, saying that there is a need to strengthen Kyrgyz culture and language. Although the sentiment seems reasonable, (lots of statesmen do this as a matter of course, but I don’t think I can see David Cameron or William Hague enjoying the prospect of dressing up as Morris Dancers and I can just imagine Margaret Thatcher’s or Winston Churchill’s reaction to such a suggestion), personally, I am not sure that it is a question that requires legislation.

I’m not sure that officials wearing national costume will support the development of the language but the issue seems to be a hot one here.  I saw a suggestion during the week that the status of Russian as an “official language” should be removed.  A few weeks ago a Deputy Minister was harangued for answering questions in the parliament in Russian, and there has been a suggestion that officials should conduct discussions and negotiations with foreign counterparts in Kyrgyz.  The Japanese Ambassador – a very good friend of Kyrgyzstan – must have caused a few upsets when he remarked that if all international agreements had to be written in Kyrgyz then it would cause problems and delays in administering assistance and implementing projects.

As an aside, the question of the importance of the Kyrgyz language has cropped up in conversation several times during the week and I have to admit that I am somewhat embarrassed that after sixteen and a half years, I still haven’t learned it.

Which brings me, perhaps, to my favourite tweet of the week was about the problems of translation from English into Kyrgyz: “this is why Kyrgyz translation is frustrating. the word “leaching” translates to “суюктуктун жардамы менен кандайдыр кошундудан ошол суюктукта эрүүчү нерсени ажыратуу.” that’s ONE WORD  (that came from a dictionary and I don’t know Kyrgyz, so don’t feel it necessary to correct me)”.  (For those that can’t see the Cyrillic characters, it reads: “this is why Kyrgyz translation is frustrating. the word “leaching” translates to “suyutuktun dzardamy menen kanaidyr koshundudan oshol suyuktykta nerseni azhyratuu” that’s ONE WORD  (that came from a dictionary and I don’t know Kyrgyz, so don’t feel it necessary to correct me)”)  The sharp eyed amongst you will have realized that this is not a single tweet, which is limited to 140 characters … it’s actually 281 characters and was split across three separate tweets.

 

By the way … the reason for today’s emphasis on social media is that it was back on February 4th, 2004, that Mark Zuckerberk founded Facebook … It’s just eight years old but already it is difficult to remember how we used to cope in a world without it.

For the record, today is also World Cancer Day, and although I had thought of writing a postcard based on that theme, there seemed too many potential references to social media to pass up.  Ironically, it was announced on Thursday that the Ministry of Health have declared 2012 as the “Year of Healthy Heart” to draw attention to the high rate of mortality in the country from heart disease – about 50 people die from cardiovascular diseases every day.  My first reaction was “Typical.  Trust the Kyrgyz to wait until February to declare a theme for the year”, but that may be unfair because they obviously started planning some time ago and Thursday was simply the day they held the press conference to announce the many activities that are planned to take place during the rest of the year in order to raise awareness and provide training for doctors and health workers.

 

 

 

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 postcards about : A SWOT analysis of tourism in Kyrgyzstan that I was asked to produce for a report; Tom, one of the kittens with a particularly mischievous character; the Fine Arts in Kyrgyzstan to commemorate Inspire Your Heart With Art Day; Embassies and Foreign Relations to mark the anniversary of the opening of the American Embassy, (the first in Bishkek – although there seems to be a bit of a controversy about that), twenty years ago; I wonder if Bill Gates would come to Bishkek? Inspired by a news item about how he turned up to give a speech at a South London school Prizegiving; and another rant from my soapbox about the reliability of tourism statistics.

We’ve also posted a couple of new panoramas in the Latest section of www.see.kg.

 

It is now possible to follow me on Facebook, (where I have specific pages for Celestial Mountains and ianbek … and also links.kg and Kyrgyz Diary), and on twitter, (@Bishkekpostcard and @celestialMTC ).

 

 

If you decide that you don’t want to receive these weekly postcards in your email anymore, please drop me a line to  and I will take you off the distribution list.  Alternatively, if you know someone who might be interested in being added to the mailing list, then get them to drop me a line and I’ll be happy to do so.

Tags: Expat, Life_in_Kyrgyzstan, Social_Media, Weekly_Postcards