Postcard from Bishkek

It was almost 200 years ago, on June 16th 1816, that Lord Byron read Fantasmagoriana,  (Tales of the Dead, a collection of German short ghost stories that had been translated into French), to his four house guests (Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont, and John Polidori), at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva.  They had been kept indoors by the inclement weather, (incessant rain in what turned out to be a “wet, ungenial summer”).  It was this that inspired his challenge to each guest that they write a ghost story, and which culminated in Mary Shelley writing the novel Frankenstein, and John Polidori writing the short story The Vampyre, (the progenitor of the romantic vampire genre), and Byron, himself  writing the poem Darkness.

If Byron’s challenge really was responsible for the burgeoning horror culture that has developed over the years, then he’s got a lot to answer for.   I’m not sure why horror is so popular as a genre … although I have enjoyed the odd example, (Jack Nicholson’s spine chilling “Johnny’s coming” performance in The Shining, for example), I have never really appreciated it.   The kids, on the other hand, love it and can’t get enough if it.  I have learned no to send them out to get a DVD to watch because the chances are they will come back with an ooshus, (horror film).

Fortunately, I have very little experience of ghosts and the supernatural in reality and such ooshus stories belong very much to the realm of the imagination.  Once, however, as a teacher – of Religious Education, no less – a pupil told me that he was being haunted by his recently deceased grandmother, (which I confess was quite a shock and I did not handle well), and more recently I was told of ghosts haunting a building here in Bishkek.  That was also quite a shock as, in Islam there is no real tradition or teaching about ghosts; (there are angels, people and spirits – jinns, from where we get the word Genie).  Also, as I understand it, in Tengrism, (the shamanistic tradition that predates Islam here in Central Asia and which still helps to shape much of the traditional folklore and lifestyle of the Kyrgyz), there are spirits, but not specifically ghosts.

Sometimes it seems hard to tell whether art imitates life or vice versa – as horror stories like gunmen going wild on a shooting spree as the seem to occur with monotonous regularity on news bulletins.   This week, for example, we’ve had the unfolding story of the incident at a Kazakh border post where the bodies of 14 border guards and a forest ranger were discovered.   At first, no official comment was forthcoming which meant that speculation was rife.  Let’s face it, it would have been plenty of speculation even if there had been some official comment, but the absence of any official explanation meant that there was plenty of scope for the identification of possible culprits: smugglers; separatists; terrorists.  The fact that one border guard was missing looked interesting, and sure enough, he was found several days later, in a state of shock and with a missing firearm.  Since then he has apparently confessed to the killings – but that seems to have raised suspicions amongst observers: could one 19 year old really have overpowered 15 others and wrought such havoc?; was it a “genuine” confession or did he “confess” under “duress”? … and so on.  One anchor on a Kazakh TV news show was so incredulous that he apparently resigned rather than read out the confession story.

Kyrgyzstan’s “rampage”, of course, happened two years ago and the disputed interpretation of events in Osh and Djalal Abad continues to rumble on, with several stories claiming that one party or another is trying to fan the flames of ethnic discord – if not hatred.  The latest seems to involve an inflammatory rap song.  As one commentator put it: reconciliation is still “elusive” amidst concern about “wounds that continue to fester”, “ongoing discrimination” and  ”nationalist rhetoric” in both parliament and media.   Perhaps one positive sign, however, was President Atambayev’s attack on politicians who play “dangerous games” by inciting ethnic enmity.

 

One of the deputies who maintains a high profile has been creating a stir once again, this time by complaining about the dress code in the parliament – saying that women shouldn’t wear mini skirts and men shouldn’t wear track suits.  Although he might have a point about what is suitable, or appropriate, clothes to wear, it has brought him for a certain amount of criticism … aren’t there more important things to worry about?  His intervention has had some impact however, in that journalists accredited to the parliament were banned from attending sessions in T-shirts and jeans.

One of his earlier interventions also seems to have gained ground in that it has been announced that the parliament are looking at drafting a law to prevent young women, (under 22), from travelling abroad to work.  This comes after some disturbing, (I was tempted to say “horror”), stories about the way that some young women have been treated in the past … including incidents where the have been victims of ill-treatment by Kyrgyz “nationalists” abroad.

Another suggested piece of draft legislation in the news this week concerned the fines imposed for taking part in demonstrations that have not been sanctioned by the authorities.  Just as the Russians have increased the penalties in order to crack down on protests, the Prime Minister had mooted the proposal to increase the fines from 2000 som, (just over 40 dollars) to a million som, (just under 22,000 dollars – an increase of 500%).  It seems that it might have been effective, however, in that on Friday there was no protest outside the White House!

That figure, (500%), sounds pretty dramatic, but at least it isn’t a measure of inflation … which would be horrific.  There have, however, been some other worrying, (bordering on horrific), statistics including the fact that, whereas Kyrgyzstan was expecting growth this year of 7.5%, the World Bank forecasts just 2.5% – and yesterday the official governmental forecast fell to just 1.8%.   It has already been announced that production by Kyrgyzstan’s light industry has fallen by almost 28% in the first five months of the year, (I am tempted to ask if it will soon be a “ghost” of its former self?).  That’s being blamed partly on the regulations of the new Customs Union, partly on inefficient work by state bodies and partly on “illegal production”.  The only area of the economy that seems to have shown any sign of growth (14.5%) has been energy.

If there is talk about the effectiveness of various bodies, then some of the governors of Kyrgyzstan’s oblasts, (provinces), have been experiencing their own horror stories with threats to “sack them” if they don’t get industries in their regions working.  That seems a bit harsh to me – as it’s not entirely within their hands.  It’s not like in the old days of the Central Command Economy, when the governor could issue an order, (a prikaz), and it would be done, (or at least, in theory, it would be done).  Nowadays, in a market economy, the authorities have to create the right conditions and try to persuade businessmen to invest their money and efforts into producing results.  Although a lot will depend on the leadership given by the governor, they can’t deliver everything in the same way that they might have been able to in the past.

The governors aren’t the only ones to have had their work come under scrutiny this last week.  It was announced, for example, that some 92 licenses for micro-credit organizations had been revoked and the National Bank have submitted suggestions for amendments to the legislation for consideration by the parliament.  At the moment, however, they are not proposing limits on the interest rates they charge, (currently somewhere in the region of 30%), because the “high rates” is one of the things that people are most upset about.  They are also outraged that some people are able take out several loans – some of them in order to pay off earlier loans.   Despite this, it is generally agreed that Kyrgyzstan has a particularly well developed and growing microfinance sector.  Just over 70% of the borrowers are women, with 44% of the loans going for projects in agriculture, (giving rise to the claim that “our farmers feed everyone, while the donors make money”), and 27% for trade.  Mind you, most of it seems to be concentrated in the north with over a quarter of the borrowers in Bishkek.

The National Bank are proposing yet more reforms – this time banning payment terminals operated by private firms and requiring that all payments to utilities (gas, electric, heating, telephones – mobile and landline – internet and cable TV … etc.), take place through a “bank”.  In the draft law gets passed then to have a mobile phone will require having a bank account and making all payments by bank transfer … now that sounds like a real nightmare.

Other groups face nightmare situations as well.  There are often stories about the pressure exerted on various groups, especially  non-traditional religious group.s (like Jehovah’s Witnesses and Baptists), or the LGBT community, (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender).  There was the Kyrgyz girls apparently attacked by Kyrgyz “nationalists” for fraternizing with “foreign” males, the story that upset me most was by a young Kyrgyz girl in the south of the country who “attracted” a lot of “unwelcome” attention because she emerged from a church … it seems to have been assumed that she was converting from Islam, whereas in actual fact, she had been in the Church because … she was learning French and that was where the French lessons were being conducted.

 

The really big news this week, (at least as far as I am concerned, that is), was about visas.

Earlier in the week there were interesting articles concerning the difficulties faced by Indians and Chinese in obtaining visas.  It was announced that India is looking to support a new Central Asian University, but the ambassador  also let loose some interesting comments on the need to simplify the visa process as many Indian citizens faced difficulties when applying.  Something similar was said by the Chinese ambassador.  I felt really pleased because I have been saying exactly this for some time now.

Then, at the end of the week came the news that the parliament had given a third reading to the bill establishing a 60-day visa free regime to the citizens of some 44 countries.  The bill still has to be signed by the president, so it is still not exactly a done deal, but I don’t think there’s much chance of it not being implemented at long last.   Add this to the fact that both Tajikistan and Kazakhstan are also implementing similar measures, and Central Asia looks like becoming a much easier place to visit.

Having said that, there are still some things about the measure that cause me concern.  The first is the fact that expectations may have been raised unreasonably.

It has been pointed out, for example, that Kyrgyzstan earned some five million dollars from visa fees – and at least one (foreign) correspondent (who should know better in my opinion) asked if the increase in the flow of tourists would be sufficient to “rake in as much”.  I thought that the point of a visa was to exercise some sort of control over who was allowed to come into the country – not to “rake in” money – but I suppose I could have got that wrong.  What’s more, those fees were not all “profit” for the state budget;  under the law about non-tax payments, fees are supposed to reflect the actual costs involved in delivering the service.  (So eliminating the need for a visa, and hence to issue a visa, should save the state some expenses.)

Five million dollars in visa fees would suggest something like 100,000 visas were issued at USD50 each … the fees vary according to the type and duration of the visa, but fifty might be a reasonable figure for some “back-of-an-envelope” calculations.  It’s thought that only something like less than 10,000 tourists to the country come from Western countries – referred to here as the “Far Abroad” – as tourists, suggesting that the other 90,000 visas are issued to … well, to whom, exactly?

Not all of those visitors come from the 44 countries which will now be granted a 60 day visa free regime … there are the Indian students, the Chinese businessmen, and so on …

Then again, some of the arguments cited by the Ministry in justification of the original proposal worry me.  They implied that foreign tourists spent more than 100 dollars a day in the country, that they spent 10 days in the country and that 10% of what is spent in the country is then paid into the state budget in the form of taxes.  Personally, I think that there are serious reasons to question each of the assumptions.

Much more worrying is the the fact that the measure is being implemented so late in the year that it will have very little impact this year.  Most of the tourists planning to come to Kyrgyzstan in 2012 will already have their visas.  In other words, we won’t see the full effect of the introduction of a visa free regime until next year at least … but that won’t stop people drawing conclusions much earlier than that.

Having removed the need to obtain a visa, we’ve made it easier for people to come here – we’ve removed one of the barriers, but only one of them.  There is still the question of  how they get here – there being so few flights, border crossing points, and so on.  Adopting a policy of “open skies” might help to alleviate that problem, at least a little.  More importantly, however, we have to deal with raising the awareness of the country abroad … establish a brand and achieve name recognition … basically: market the country, and for that we need to make sure that we have something worth marketing … which involves investment of time, effort and money to make the most of what nature has bestowed upon us.

To make matters more interesting, this week there was also some other changes enacted in Kyrgyz legislation which would introduce a much stricter regime in dealing with foreigners who are found to be in breach of the law or regulations – including deportation.

 

Finally, there was a report suggesting that the government are considering looking at the possibility of allowing foreigners to buy real estate and land in order to help attract and develop investment.  At the moment it is possible, but not necessarily easy, for foreigners to buy some forms of real estate, (for example, I own my own apartment), but at the moment foreigners cannot own land.  So, although it is possible for a foreign citizen or company to on a house, shop, factory, or hotel, it is not possible to own the land on which it stands.  There’s nothing unusual about that, it is a provision that many countries make in their legislation.  The suggestion, however, that Kyrgyzstan might relax its regulation in this respect seems enlightened, to say the least.

It goes to show how we live in interesting times.
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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:

• Obstacles to doing business - An “infographic” exploring “what businessmen complain about” in Kyrgyzstan caught my attention last week;
• Koreans in Kyrgyzstan - as the Week of Korean Culture here in Bishkek came to an end, I took a look at the Korean community here in Bishkek
• Balykchi – Gateway to Issyk Kul - most people simply pass through Balykchi on their way to the resorts and the beaches of the Northern shore, but it’s worth stopping for a short while.
• The Mynah Bird - One of Kyrgyzstan’s more common sights
• Kashgari – Ancient Linguist - a character from the authentic Silk Road
• 1000 Little Things - yet another anniversary … the 1000th postcard

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 ).

Tags: Expat, Life_in_Kyrgyzstan, Weekly_Postcards