Postcard from Bishkek

Seventy years ago today, the Glenn Miller Band picked up the first ever Gold Disc awarded for achieving sales in excess of one million copies.  The record was a recording of Chattanooga Choo Choo … and sales of the 78rpm record, (remember those?), was sufficient to keep it at the top of the Billboard chart of best sellers for nine weeks.

The song describes a train journey from track 29 at Pennsylvania Station in New York, through Baltimore, North and South Carolina, finally arriving at its ultimate destination: Terminal Station, Chattanooga.

Chattanooga?  Yes, the city really does exist, it wasn’t invented specifically for the song. It’s the fourth largest city in Tennessee, situated on the state’s southern border with neighboring Georgia on the banks of tributary of the Tennessee River. That catchy name, which sounds as it might easily have been be an onomatopoeia, is probably derived from a Shawnee word, (although it was the Cherokee Indians who originally lived there).  For a time it was known as the place where “cotton meets corn” as it was on the natural boundary between the Appalachian mountain communities to the North and the cotton producing states to the south.  One of the city’s other claims to fame is that it is supposed to be the home of the “tow truck”, invented by a Chattanooga garage worker, (Ernest Holmes Senior), back in 1916 – I love that … a garage worker called Senior! … it’s amazing what I learn researching these postcards..

The train also really did exist and many of the trains travelling between North and South would have passed through the city on the way to (or from) the super-hub junction of Atlanta.

Despite all that, I suspect that the only reason that most people outside Tennessee have heard of it, is because of that song.

The gold discs were originally a publicity stunt dreamed up by the record companies.  Several different thresholds were employed, sometimes the decision to issue one was based on the number of records sold, and on other occasions it was based on the value of the records), and it wasn’t for over 15 years that the industry standardized the system.

As it happens, gold is important to Kyrgyzstan.  The Kumtor gold mine accounts for a fair proportion of the country’s economy and there are a number of other mines which it is hoped will soon be producing alongside Kumtor and will boost the economy still further.  However, all is not well in the industry.

Although the Supreme Court decided in a long running cancel the convoluted case over the annulment of the license to develop the Jeroy goldfield, barring any government agency from implementing the government decree whilst the case goes back to the lower court, one deputy is calling for all the licenses issued under the previous two presidents to be recalled and reviewed and the Ministry of the Economy and Anti Monopoly policy is about to submit a new draft law on “subsoil use” to the parliament.

Work at Kumtor has come to a stop, with the workforce of some 1400 employees going on strike over social security payments.  The management say that procedural; rules were broken and therefore is illegal and asked the courts to rule on this.  As it happens, to make matters worse, production at Kumtor seems to have fallen as they seem to have hit a poor grade of rock.  The General Director, having finished his term of office, is about to leave the country and this can’t be how he would like to leave Kyrgyzstan.  His successor certainly has his hands full.  All this led confusion led the General Director of another company to issue a cri de couer expressing his bewilderment about what Kyrgyzstan actually wants from the mining industry.

Part of his piece was about the environmental claims that are often laid, (unfairly he says), at the foot of the mining companies.  It’s a ever recurring theme; one of the articles about the Kumtor strike, for example, referred to the accident when a lorry fell off a bridge spilling its load, (which, admittedly, consisted of cyanide), into the stream below even though it had no direct bearing on this particular story.

Environmental issues are also frequently mentioned when people complain about the transit base at Manas.  If you have been reading these postcards for any length of time, you’ll know how I love statistics … well, last year the base apparently saw over 21,000 flights, (which makes about 60 a day), carrying one and a half million personnel, (that’s about 70 a flight and over 4000 a day … I wish they were all tourists and spent a bit of time in the country), and 21,000 tons of cargo (about 1000 tons per flight).  There are something like 1500 Americans and 700 locals employed at the base.  The Americans are currently looking to increase their caché with the local community by purchasing more groceries from Kyrgyzstan.  There are problems, however,

One of the deputies has been complaining that a lot of money from Kumtor and the base which should have gone into the budget has disappeared, “into somebody’s pocket” … indeed one commentator, (a Westerner), has made much in an article about the insidious influence of the airbase in the country, asking if it is the source of all the instability that we have seen in the last twenty years.

The link between the base and Kumtor came up in another analysis, this time from a Russian source, which speculated that America is preparing a new revolution in the country, in an attempt to keep the base after the lease expires in 2014.  Much was made in it of a White House Prayer Breakfast attended by the former speaker on an official visit to the country, drawing parallels with a similar visit by Tekebaev, another Kyrgyz politician, a few years ago before the last revolution.

There was less comment about the discussions underway between the Americans, Kazakhstan and Russia about opening a new transit corridor, aimed at facilitating the withdrawl from Afghanistan.

Stories from last week continue to dominate the news.  The “glass throwing” incident when the Country Director of the World Bank apparently stormed out of a meeting has attracted much comment.   Most of it has centered around his health, (he’s apparently in London undergoing treatment), and the World Bank have certainly been trying to show that they still support the government and its “100 days of action” programme of reforms.  That didn’t stop one journalist from commenting that it is “not difficult to imagine an international donor having a fit of outrage in a country notorious for inefficiency, poor policy making and corruption” – a comment picked up by some of the reform minded commentators in the country.

Some of the donors have money to burn if one news story can be believed.  It was reported that Kyrgyzhydromet are to receive a quarter of a million dollars in order to develop a website.  It is part of a larger project worth something like two and half million dollars, (or six million depending on how you read the story).  I am not sure what the site is supposed to do, but I think you could buy an awful lot of functionality for that sort of sum.  Needless to say, people are asking questions about exactly where that money will end up.

Corruption is well and on the radar screens.  The arrest of top officials at the country’s biggest mobile phone operator has dominated much of the news with a number of what seem to be attempts at in-depth analysis.  Many of the people who know the individuals concerned are still expressing their bewilderment and doubt about the allegations, but the coverage is raising many questions about personal connections between the different players, and promising more startling revelations to come.  In the meantime, the authorities are talking about taxing mobile phone operators’ “excess profits”.   There was even a suggestion that the company may end up going out of business as a court case over the ownership was due to be settled.   It definitely seems to be a case of “watch this space”.

One of the big stories during the week was when the Energy Minister claimed that the majority of funds designated for the construction of the power station Karambatta-2 were stolen and the prosecutor’s office are investigating.

Another big story of the week is the continuing row over the “radioactive coal” delivered from Kazakhstan to Bishkek’s heating plant.  Some of the coal has apparently been used, but there are still plans to ship what’s left back to Kazakhstan but, for some reason, they don’t seem keen to accept it back.  A criminal investigation has been opened and claims about who signed the order for the coal have been circulating, including calls for the Prime Minister’s resignation.   It’s been that foreign experts should be invited to help with the cleanup … and one deputy has suggested that an appeal be made to the international court in the case.  Meanwhile, some veterans of the Chernobyl cleanup held a press conference where they claimed that the background radiation from the statue of Lenin was as dangerous as that being emitted from the coal.

The furore has somewhat overshadowed the other radioactive “scandal”, the dumps left over from uranium mining operations in the days of the Soviet Union.

When the law banning casinos was passed last year, it seems that it was only the start of another long running scandal.  Although Prime Minister Babanov has suggested creating a special zone on the shores of Lake Issyk Kul, this week he has said that the law as it stands must be enforced and the casinos must be closed.  The Finance Minister has reaffirmed that there have been no moves and there are no plans for changing the situation.  Meanwhile the anti-corruption agency has been commissioned to investigate reports that deputies have been payments to lobby for a change in the law.

Problems over power supply continue unabated with restrictions operating virtually throughout the country – indeed, throughout the whole of Central Asia.  There are daily announcements in the press and social media about which areas are to be cut off, sometimes for repairs to equipment, (in one case we lost one of two high voltage power lines for a few hours), but sometimes in order to control consumption levels.  So far, we have been fairly lucky in the office although offices in the next block have suffered continual disruption.

The situation with gas is not much better.  Supplies from Kazakhstan have been reduced and are even under threat.  Kyrgyzstan was given just days to pay off its outstanding debts for gas and in the meantime supplies to industrial enterprises have been suspended.

The two previous presidents of Kyrgyzstan have also been in the news this week.  It seems that Askar Akaev has been receiving a stipend from the National Academy of Sciences ever since he fled the country in 1995.  Although he appears to have been in disgrace, the officials of the Academy say that they had no grounds to stop the payment as he has been filing regular reports on his scientific research.  Now, however, someone has taken the plunge and an order has been signed to stop the payments.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that  Kurmanbek Bakiev has been granted Byelorussian citizenship, having fled there following the revolution in 2010.  I don’t know about the situation in Minsk, but under Kyrgyz law, generally, it’s not possible to have citizenship of two countries so it seems as if Bakiev must have denounced his Kyrgyz citizenship.   This could make some difficulties for him to return to “clear his name”, as one of his relatives has apparently claimed he is preparing to do, because one of his former allies is making claims that Kyrgyzstan needs to be led by “pure Kyrgyz”.   Mind you, the deputies have passed a law simplifying the procedure for gaining Kyrgyz citizenship under certain conditions.

Another law they have passed would make it impossible for anyone over 60 to adopt a child in Kyrgyzstan, (although they have included some circumstances where it would be permitted).

The claims that “Zima ne budet”, (“There’ll be no winter”), has spawned a lot of mimicry, especially as we have been experiencing yet more cold weather, (although nothing like they’ve seen in the Ukraine).  The twitter that asked if “Vesna ne budet?”, (“There’ll be no spring?”), got me a little worried but the “zemletresseniye ne budet”, (There’ll be no earthquake”), was more in keeping with the spirit of the original – especially as it followed one on Friday.

The quake was not strong, only between 3 and 4 on the Richter scale,  but the epicenter was only 10 kilometers from the city center, (about a kilometer down).  I can’t say I actually felt any shaking, but I certainly heard it – a long rumbling sound.  At first I wasn’t sure if it was an earthquake or an explosion, (one of the tweets following the event even speculated that it was the result of a strike from an Iranian missile targeted at the airbase), but the sight of Vlad standing underneath the lintel of the doorway, convinced me it was probably serious.

 

 

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:

• Futsal indoor – Indoor football in Kyrgyzstan;
• Leilak Pile Carpets – one of the lesser well known of Kyrgyz traditional crafts
• A Trivial Pursuits Question – commemorating the launch of the board game Monopoly;
• Claudius Bombarnac And The TransCaspian Railway; – an adventure novel by one of the masters of Science Fiction, Jules Verne, and how his vision may be coming to pass;
• FEZ – not the headgear, the Free Economic Zone;
• Deep Blue And The Revival Of Chess – commemorating the computer’s first victory over a Chess Grandmaster in 1996.

 

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, Weekly_Postcards