Postcard from Bishkek

One of my favourite sayings,  as a former Maths teacher, is that “I am not afraid of numbers …”.

Apparently there are people who are afraid of numbers and there is even a name for this condition: Arithmophpobia or Numerophobia.  Personally, I am not sure whether there are people who tremble with an irrational fear at the very thought of a number, (for example: a telephone number, an account number, a date, a time, a page number or a shoe size) … or if it is simply a dislike of Maths … working with numbers.

Some numbers do have a sort of mystical quality attributed to them in popular culture, such as 3 – the trinity; 7 – as in lucky 7; 12 – a dozen and 40 – the equivalent of many.  There are others with negative associations which, I suppose,  might lead to a phobia associated with them, such as 13 – as in unlucky 13; 4 – in Chinese the word for “four” and “death” are homophones – they sound the same; 666 – “the sign of the Beast” in the Book of Revelations and 23 – … yes, well, ask William S. Burroughs, the author of Naked Lunch …

The ancient occult art of Numerology associates divine or mystical attributes with numbers and measurements, and was a central tenet of Pythagoras’ philosophy and the Kabbalah.  As far as I am concerned, however, there is nothing special or metaphysical about numbers; they do not have mystical form and quality in themselves … but there is something special about them – the way that they are used.

There is nothing to be afraid of when we encounter a number … they are an integral part of our lives but they are bandied around with gay abandon and whenever we encounter one, we seem to have a tendency to abandon logic and common sense and give them a reverence akin to religious faith … if it is in the numbers then it must be true.  Numbers are often as quotes from the Bible, to justify almost any argument – for and/or against.

So, I was intrigued when I came across a new feature on the website of Bishkek’s largest newspaper, Vecherniye Bishkek, (Evening Bishkek): Tsifra Dnya – Figure of the Day.

Each day they feature a statistic, stated simply and plainly – without comment.  In itself this strikes me as potentially dangerous … encouraging blind acceptance of the “fact” instead of encouraging an enquiring mind, questioning what the given statistic really represents.  However, if approached in the right frame of mind, it seems to me that it is a good stimulus for a “Thought for the Day” …

Some of the statistics presented were general, such as:

… but some were specific to the situation here in Kyrgyzstan, such as:

• The borders of Kyrgyzstan measure 4503 kilometres
• The length of roads in Kyrgyzstan is 34,000 kilometres
• Bishkek occupies 16958 Hectares
• The shores of Lake Issyk Kul  are 688 kilometres long
• Glaciers cover 4.2% of the territory of Kyrgyzstan
• The glaciers of Kyrgyzstan hold 650 milliard cubic meters of water, (i.e. 650,000,000,000)
• In Kyrgyzstan there are approximately 88 Mountain Ranges
• The average altitude of Kyrgyzstan is 2750m above sea level
• There are 69,000,000 cubic meters of water in the reservoir of the Kambar-Atinskiy Hydro power station

• The number of women members of the Jogorku Kenesh, (parliament), is 24 – out of a total of 120
• 30 members of the Jogorku Kenesh have two, or more, degrees
• 7 members of the Jogorku Kenesh have Ph.D.’s
• 29 members of the Jogorku Kenesh are Engineers

• The number of young people (18-30) in Kyrgyzstan is 1.5 million, (32%)
• 71044 graduated from the 11th Class of school this year
• There are more than 10000 homeless children in Kyrgyzstan
• There are more than 1000 schoolgirl abortions (from 12 to 17 years) in Kyrgyzstan
• In Kyrgyzstan there are 2204 schools
• The number of registered unemployed in Kyrgyzstan is 64200

… as were the statistics about “incidents”:

• In 2011 there were 3789 fires
• In 2011 there were 18494 litres of blood donated for transfusions
• The number of suicides in Southern Kyrgyzstan rose 4 times in the course of a year

… and the crime figures:

• In the first half year of 2012 there were 120 cases brought against officials
• There were more than 5000 criminal cases arising from the troubles in Osh in 2010

Of course, a lot of statistics presented economic data:

• Construction projects in Kyrgyzstan in 2012 are worth 13,361,400,000 som
• In 2011 there were 21 trademarks registered
• 40000 people visited the Russian Drama Theatre in a season
• $700,000,000 damages are claimed by investors against the Kyrgyz Government
• $500,000 are set aside in the budget to pay for lawyers to defend Kyrgyzstan in cases brought by investors
• The GDP of Kyrgyzstan between January and June this year was 114,900,000,000 som
• The budget deficit for 2012 stands at 18,497,300,000 som
• In Kyrgyzstan there are 294 Bankrupt companies

Then, there were just the odd miscellaneous item of trivia:

• There are 75 civil and military boats in Kyrgyzstan
• Every second car imported into Kyrgyzstan are right hand drive vehicle
• There are 203 traffic lights in Bishkek
• 14 Kyrgyz sporstmen are participating in the XXX Olympic Games

 

• Kyrgyzstan commemorates 7 state (national) holidays -

That struck me as off because there are 13 Public holidays:

Which ones, I wondered counted as State (or National) Holidays.  Oh … and March 24th , (which, presumably, was one of the seven), is no longer a Public Holiday.

• 90% of newborns in Kyrgyzstan are registered within the first year of life

I presume most are actually registered shortly after birth – but the idea that 10% were still unregistered by the time they reached their first birthday struck me as extremely odd – and I wondered why it took so long – and what sort of difficulties it might create later on … without the registration, for example, they can’t receive Health Care or go to school.

 

Tags: In_the_News, Life_in_Kyrgyzstan, Statistics