Postcard from Bishkek

One of my favourite films of all time was released on April 21st 1989.  Some people consider it to be one of the most overrated films of all time, but it was nominated for three Oscars, and regularly features in various lists as one of the best movies of all time … and, yes, as I said, it is certainly is one of my favourite films.

Field of Dreams is a fantasy which tells how a struggling Iowa farmer, Ray Kinsella, is persuaded to follow the advice of a disembodied voice and build a Baseball field on his land in the “middle of nowhere” … and how the voice sends him on a search for an intriguing mix characters from across time.  It is a “feel good” film with lots of memorable moments and quotes.

Amongst the quotations from the film include: Go the Distance … and the conversation when Ray Kinsella is asked by one of the baseball players, “Is this Heaven?”, to which he replies: “It’s Iowa”, .  “Iowa?” remarks the player, “I could have sworn this was heaven”.  Kinsella then asks, “Is there a Heaven?” and is told, “Oh yeah, It’s the place where dreams come true.”  Kinsella looks around, sees his wife and daughter playing and says: “Maybe this is heaven.”

But, of course, the classic quote that everyone remembers is: “If you build it … he will come”.

Actually a lot of people mis-quote that as “If you build it … they will come” … and even the opening page of the film’s official website displays the mistaken quote.   It’s only at the end of the film that Karin, Kisella’s daughter, optimistically predicts that “people will come …” and the theme is then developed by the famous 60’s author Terrence Mann.  Even so, many people seem to identify the film with this misquotation.  (For the record: As the film proceeds, the dénouement reveals that the “he” concerned is Kinsella’s estranged father.)

Unfortunately, many people seem to actually believe this phrase.  The number of times, for example, I have been asked to consider building a hotel in some remote spot of Kyrgyzstan, (and in “some remote spot” I have to include some of the oblast centers – such as Talas and Batken), as well as some of the literally remote mountain valleys.  “All we need is a good hotel,” people tell me, “if we build one, tourists will come”.

If only it was that simple …. unfortunately, I think it is a much more complex situation … yes, I agree that it is a “chicken and egg” situation – without the hotel there will be nowhere tourists as there is nowhere to stay, and without the tourists there is no reason for a hotel.  Somehow, someone has to break this “vicious circle”.  But building “it”, (whatever “it” might happen to be), is only part of the story.  We have a spectacular destination here in Kyrgyzstan … but even so people don’t come, and it’s not necessarily because we haven’t built the hotels … in my opinion it is more to do with the fact that people are unaware that we are here and what we have available.  That’s why I think marketing is so important and why, last week, I was so happy to tell you that we have at least a proposed new brand for Kyrgyzstan …  “Heart of Asia.“

Perhaps one of the reasons I like the film is that is embodies much of the social upheaval that I lived though when I was growing up.  Indeed, at one point in the film, Kinsella is addressed by Mann who says: “Oh my God … You’re from the sixties.”

As it happens, one of the most famous and influential dreams of the twentieth century dates from the 1960’s: that of Martin Luther King, (Junior), which he described in a seventeen minute speech delivered to a crowd of over 200,000 at a Civil Rights rally in Washington DC on August 28th 1963.  A dream that, amongst other things, his children would: “one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”  This single sentence sums up much of the rhetoric the philosophy behind the mass of anti-discrimination legislation that has been adopted around the world, (not just on grounds of skin colour, but race, creed, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation … and so on).  Judge a person based on their character, accomplishments and deeds and not on stereotypes based on the group from which they hail.

I suppose that the election of Barak Obama to the presidency of the United States may suggest that America has made progress towards the fulfillment of Martin Luther King’s dream. On the other hand, one of the deputies has criticized the Ministry of Education for translating state examination questions into Uzbek and allowing students to sit their examinations in Uzbek.  It seems that there is no problem if the examinations are set and sat in the State and the Official languages, (that is, in Kyrgyz and Russian), but the inclusion of Uzbek “stirs up discontent amongst citizens” … and an incongruous enquiry about why not other languages.  That’s certainly started a debate and over 70 deputies voted in favour of calling for a report from the Education Minister on the issue, even though these tests have been issued in all three languages for over eleven years.

Interestingly it was reported during the week that 29% of Kyrgyzstan speak just one language, 46% speak two languages and an impressive 25% speak three or more.  Apparently, most people, (88%), speak Kyrgyz, although two thirds, (67%), speak Russian but only 7% speak English.  I didn’t see any figures for Uzbek, but one Kyrgyz activist scoured Kyrgyz legislation, (the Constitution, the law On Education and the Concept on Ethnic Policy for the Consolidation of Society), in order to explain why he thought the criticism about setting the exams in Uzbek was not only unjust but an affront to the constitution and the whole legal framework.  Sadly, the first comment his post attracted was: “Then to hell with all this law and the constitution”.

All this in the wake of a worrying report about inter ethnic tensions issued by the International Crisis Group last week.  Perhaps even more worrying was the news that a number of NGO’s from Southern Kyrgyzstan have suggested amending the law on the State language in order to deprive Russian the status as an “official language”.

I think it is unlikely for that to happen, but who knows‽.  If it were to happen it would presumably upset Moscow which, according to yet more commentators this week, is getting “cranky” over Kyrgyzstan’s apparent ploys to “play the field” – to obtain aid without having to concede any diplomatic “payback”. Although Atambaev has repeatedly described Russia as Kyrgyzstan’s most important ally, and has said the US airbase at Manas will close when its lease expires in 2014, he has not done enough to assuage Moscow’s concerns. “The ‘multi-vector’ period is over,” according to one analyst, and “it is time the Kyrgyz make unambiguous their priorities – they must go with Russia and Kazakhstan, or with Georgia and the United States and maybe China”.

This was not the only example of a news item where someone seemed to angling to “get the best position”, giving the impression of being ambivalent about its options.  Prime Minister Babanov caught everyone unawares with an invitation to the opposition leaders to meet at the State Residence.  There have been a number of protests against the government around the country and calls for their resignation.   To be fair,. There have also been protests held in support to the government.  Anyway, the Prime Ministerr said that there were no grounds for the government to resign but he was happy to enter into a meaningful dialogue and so issued the invitation.  At first everyone agreed, but in the end no-one turned up, which led to accusations that they were afraid and/or didn’t really want to enter into dialogue.  On the other hand they complained about a lack of good faith, saying that the event would be filmed but only edited highlights would be transmitted and they wanted it covered live.     In the end, one of the disgruntled opposition leaders said that the Prime Minister should stop worrying about publicity and creating a public image and get on with the difficult work of making the necessary tough decisions that need to be taken.  I can’t help thinking how familiar that sounds.

According to a Russian new agency another group of people in Kyrgyzstan might soon be facing yet another form of discrimination, based on age and gender.  This time one of the deputies has apparently suggested that young females, (that is, under the age of 22), should be banned from leaving the country for work.  As it happens, the measure is aimed at addressing what could be a real problem – the exploitation and abuse of young women in particular travelling abroad in search of employment … but one has to wonder blanket discriminatory measures offer the best way to deal with the issues.

More positive was the news that a recent poll in Kyrgyzstan, (carried out by none less than the Gallup organization), shows that, although the level of corruption in the country remains more or less unchanged, there are signs of a growing tendency to turn away from giving bribes as a way to solve problems.  Although the elimination of corruption wasn’t cited by Martin Luther King as part of his dream, I can imagine that it could well qualify as a suitable element in trying to create the better society that he envisaged.  The whole question of corruption has been receiving a lot of attention recently so it may not be all that surprising that nearly everyone surveyed, (well, 96% of the 1500 respondents), think that corruption “is the main problem” for the country at the present time.  They were asked which institutions they considered to be the most corrupt and the resulting list included the “usual suspects”, (the traffic police, police, higher education institutions, customs departments – all mentioned by over 90% of the respondents, followed by the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Tax Service and the Financial Police), although it made me wonder why certain other bodies were missing … bodies which have figured prominently in previous reports on the topic.    In the six months between two successive polls, however, there was a drop of over 10% who said that they would give a bribe to a government official in order to resolve a problem – and a corresponding rise of over 10% who said that they wouldn’t … according to these results it’s now getting pretty close to level pegging – even if there is also a reasonably high number who didn’t answer that particular question.

At the moment I think a lot of ordinary people here in Bishkek are probably dreaming of a time when all the various utilities would work normally.  Huge swathes of Bishkek are going to be without water today as repairs to the system are carried out.   We’ve had a winter of power outages, and questions about the supply of Gas.  I was told yesterday of some people here in Bishkek who have been without gas for two weeks and the Kazakhs have threatened (again) to cut off the supply on May 1st if Kyrgyzstan doesn’t pay its debts the future doesn’t look too good.  Apparently most of the debt is down to large industrial users who haven’t their bills, most of the domestic users pay up regularly.  In fact, if they don’t then people come round to turn off the supply and one you’ve cleared the debt and paid the fines incurred then it costs more to get reconnected.  It seems odd to me that the same system doesn’t seem to apply to commercial enterprises.

Although there has long been a proposal to build a railway link between China and Europe, similar to the Great Silk Road.  (Jules Verne actually set one of his novels on the train!)  In recent years the proposal has been gathering support and discussions are underway with planning for a China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan link that would connect two extensive networks.  Well, someone has now come up with another proposal which he thinks makes as much sense, if not more … constructing a Chui-Ferghana link which would connect the two major populated regions in the North and South of the country and could be a crucial element in a North-South network linking India with Siberia.

People often forget that the Silk Road didn’t just go East-West between China and Rome … but there were sea routes and also North South Routes … including routes which brought Vikings down the Don to the Black Sea and eventually to Constantinople where they formed part of the Imperial Guard… and also brought them into contact with merchants from Samarkand – one of whom gives us graphic and detailed descriptions of a Viking funeral.  There were also routes through the Celestial, (Tien Shan), Mountains, over the Khunjerab Pass and down the Karakorum Highway.

The identification of the Tien Shan as the Heavenly or Celestial Mountains always makes me think of that scene from Field of Dreams …  I see a guide being asked by a visitor, “Is this Heaven?”, to which he replies: “It’s Kyrgyzstan”.  “Kyrgyzstan?” remarks the visitor, “I could have sworn this was heaven”.  The guide looks around, takes in the view and says “Maybe this is heaven.”

OK … so there’s a copyright problem … and we probably still have a long way to go before it’s a place where dreams come true … but, hey, we can dream – Right?

 

 

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:

• The Museum of Fine Arts  - to mark the anniversary of the birth of Gapar Atiev, after whom the museum is named.
• Heart of Asia – where I take a look at the logic behind Kyrgyzstan’s new brand.
• Planet Bishkek – offering a different way of looking at the Kyrgyz capital
• Sunken Cities – arising out of an enquiry raised by a former client, I took the opportunity to look at some of the cities which like the legendary Atlantis have disappeared beneath the waves.
• Snow Leopards – the magnificent endangered big cats … found throughout Central Asia
• Zhiguli – one of the enduring symbols of the Soviet Union which will endure no longer … as the AvtoVAZ company which manufactures these cars announces it is discontinuing the classic model.

 

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 ).  On the Celestial page we’ve posted some interesting views of Bishkek based on Victor’s 3D Spherical Panoramas in an album called Planet Bishkek.

 

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