Postcard from Bishkek

Back, when I was a lad, there was a film (based on a book of the same name), called “The Man Who Never Was“.

It was all about a wartime scheme by British Intelligence called Operation Mincemeat which was aimed to deceive the Axis powers into thinking that Operation Husky, (the Allied invasion of Sicily), would take place somewhere, (Sardinia and Greece).  They managed to find a corpse, gave it a new identity as Major William Martin, R.M., along with some papers with the misleading information that they wanted to fall into German hands, pushing it into the Atlantic waters off the coast of Spain.

The plan worked a treat.  When the body was found, the Spanish Intelligence Service passed copies of the papers to the German Intelligence Service which, in turn, passed them on to the German High Command.

It was so successful, in fact, that the Germans still believed that Sardinia and Greece were the intended objectives, weeks after the landings in Sicily had begun which they took to be merely a feint.

I suspect that today’s date, October 13th, is one that several people probably wished had never been … October 13th was, for example, the day in AD54 that the Roman emperor Claudius was poisoned, to be succeeded by his 17 year old stepson Nero … that’s not only the guy who is supposed to have fiddled while Rome burned … and whose reputation was such that he was known to the early as the early Christians as the Beast, “666″.

It was also the day in 1307 when hundreds of Knights Templar were simultaneous arrested by the agents of the French King, Philip the Fair, only to be tortured into a confession of heresy which was to lead to their deaths and the demise of the order … and, because it happened to be a Friday, the designation of “Friday the 13th” as an unlucky date.

As it happens, the day didn’t exist in 1582 … at least not in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.  Earlier that year Pope Gregory signed the degree which established the Gregorian Calendar which was to correct the calendar drift that had been a built in consequence of the Julian Calendar introduced by Julius Caesar over one and a half millenia beforehand.  The seasonal equinoxes were about ten days out of synchronization with the calendar and so, in these four Catholic countries,  the ten days between 5th and 14th October were dropped from the calendar … the day following October 4th was designated October 15th.  Other countries and territories followed suit later … some Protestant countries objecting to the Catholic “invention”.  Britain only adopted the new calendar in 1752 – when eleven days had to be dropped from the calendar.    Russia only adopted it in 1917 which resulted in 13 days disappearing from the calendar.

As it happens, this week has seen a lot of “significant dates” …  World Post Day; Leif Ericson Day; World Mental Health Day; World Sight Day; International Day against the Death Penalty Day; Coming Out Day; the First International Day of Girl children; the International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction; Columbus Day; Free Thought Day … not forgetting the anniversaries of the the publication of two extremely influential books: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; the first night of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats - well worth seeing for all felinphiles, (yes that is a word, I didn’t just make it up); the opening of Vatican II; the Outer Space Treaty coming into force; Columbus making landfall in the “New World” … oh, and yes, for the Americans … Wednesday was 10/11/12 – us Brits have to wait a month before we can make this momentous day.

Fortunately, following the excitements of last week, there seems to have been very little that could be styled as “dramatic” happening here this week.  That’s not to say that the events haven’t been momentous … and time will tell if they prove to have been so … but I am able to say, once again, that life goes on …

There were some protests down South and apparently some police were hurt, but when one news agency was reporting crowds in the thousands, another put the figure in the hundreds.  There were also protests here in Bishkek when the politicians appeared for the initial hearings … to be remanded in custody for two months whilst investigations are undertaken.

It seems that on Wednesday, when one politician had promised that eleven thousand protesters would descend on the main square in Bishkek, in the end there were about fifty.  The police far outnumbered the protesters, but they were standing back and not really making themselves obvious.

Those politicians arrested for trying to storm the parliament building on October 3rd are not alone; the former Mayor of Bishkek has also had his case on corruption charges extended and his detention extended for yet another month.

Amongst the demands being made by different groups of protesters are to change the terms of the detention from being “in custody” to being under “house arrest”.  In addition to holding rallies and blocking roads, a group of women from Southern Kyrgyzstan have started a Hunger Strike in support of their demands.  There was a report on Friday of someone setting fire to themselves, but I haven’t seen anything about that and I don’t know if it was connected with this or prompted by something else.

Meanwhile, both the Prime Minister and President have made statements to the effect that protests are one thing, but the right way to achieve political ends is through the ballot box … Meanwhile claims and counter claims are being made … were the arrests and detention the results of a “political order” by those in authority? … were the accused guilty of tax evasion and “corporate raiding”? … and so on.

One of the incidental side effects of all these protests is that a Red Cross / Red Crescent sponsored event had to be called off.  They were planning to hold street side demonstrations of first aid at a number of major intersections in the city – but it was felt that it might lead to misunderstandings in the present circumstances … instead some leaflets were given out and the demonstrations took place in a school gym – somewhat safer but reaching a far smaller potential audience.

I had to attend a meeting in the main Government building on Wednesday – when the eleven thousand had been promised – and passed a couple of groups of German tourists, (unfortunately they weren’t ours,) wandering about and taking photographs … somewhat bemused by the sight.  Although security was tighter than usual – they made me turn my camera on when I entered the building to show that it really was a camera – but it wasn’t oppressive by any means.

One piece of potentially momentous news was that “Snega ne budet” – there will be no snow.  You may remember that last year one of Kyrgyzstan’s more colourful politicians made ripples when he declared that “Zima ne budet” – there will be no winter … we weren’t sure what to make of it and all happily smiled when we heard it … then temperatures fell – until we felt that they couldn’t fall any more having reached well beyond the seasonal averages … and we weren’t so sure who was going to have the last laugh.  He came out with further revelations that had been revealed to him in messages from the cosmos – including the claim that Valdimir Putin, (Happy Birthday for last Saturday, by the way), is a bio-robot!  A Russian TV presenter turned a clip of the press conference into a viral hit on the internet.   Well, he’s been at it again … he called a press conference to inform us all of the latest revelations, but I actually felt quite sorry for him because, it seems, all the reporters were interested in was if he had a “weather forecast” for us” … that’s when he told us that they’ll be no snow …

Actually, there was some snow – at least in the mountains, although we didn’t see any down here in the city.  The day before the eleven thousand were supposed to descend on us, the first snow of the season fell on the main Bishkek Osh highway causing delays of several hours as traffic tried to cross the Tuu Ashu Pass about 180 kilometres from Bishkek.

The parliamentarians have been busy trying to decide a number of other questions.

According to one press report, whilst some people were trying to storm the building, one committee was busy considering the vitally important questions as to what colour of tights were to be permitted in the Parliament precincts.  When I first read the article I thought it was meant to be humourous piece, a joke  … satirical … but then I thought about it … and wondered … and, to be honest, I am still not sure about it.

Another committee was considering whether or not to implement a law to impose a requirement on people to insure their homes.  There was a estimate that it would cost something like 5000 som, just over USD100, to insure 100 square meters … which may not sound a lot, (my apartment, for example is quite compact and only 50 square meters, so would presumably cost me about 2500 som), but the average salary in Bishkek is only somewhere around 8000 som a month – and in the regions it is actually less.   Then someone realised that the greatest property owner in the country is the state … and there isn’t enough money in the budget to cover the possible premiums … hence the measure has been put on ice.

 

The Ministry of the Interior has been busy dealing with protests but has also found time to announce that they want to toughen measures taken against parents for offences committed by their offspring.  That won’t come as particularly welcome news for the parents of a couple of young children, (aged 10 and 8), who were playing in a Russian Orthodox graveyard … and happened to damage some of the headstones … about a thousand dollars worth of damage.

Some of the deputies have asked the authorities to find the body of  Adbykadyr Orozbekov – I wouldn’t blame you for asking “Who?”, but his name is quite well known here, especially amongst the Kyrgyz.  He was  the first Speaker of the parliament – who was killed in 1938 as part of the Stalinist purges.  Apparently, it is known that he was shot, but not not where his body was disposed of.

There have been some interesting statistics published this week – some good but some a little depressing. It was announced, for example, that the amount of glaciers and snow, which cover just over 4% of Kyrgyzstan, have seen a reduction of 20% since the 1960′s when, it is estimated, there were over 8000 glaciers covering 8000 square kilometres.  Kyrgyzstan is host to some 45% of Central Asia’s glaciers which are the main source of water for the regions rivers and the loss of the ice cover is expected to lead to a greater flow of water which could mean more problems in the future – water shortages and less potential for hydroelectric generation.  Perhaps we need to bear that in mind when we think about the various projects that Russia and hina are anxious to help us build,

The National Report on the Environment also came out with some startling statistics … that Kyrgyzstan has 83 million tons of toxic waste, most of which is, apparently, in the Issyk Kul region; there is considerable radioactive waste stored in the republic – apparently something like 50 different sites, (211 stockpiles and 33 tailings), which contain something like 145 million tons of waste  and cover something like 6000 hectares.  One major area of concern is that the deposits are in river basins and it is feared could pose a threat to large areas of Central Asia.   Much of the radioactive material dates from the Soviet period and there has been much work undertaken to survey the various sites and make them safe.

On the social front, it seems that almost one woman in eight marries before they reach their eighteenth birthday,  Although that is made by just 10% of women in urban areas, it reaches about 15% of women in rural areas.   Marriages under the age of 19 are only possible with the parents’ permission.

Although it is thought that the economy will slow down this year, largely due to the problems associated with the Kunmtor goldmine, it seems that the International Monetary Fund, (IMF),  think that it will rebound again in 2013 – and they were predicting a medium term recovery … even though the Head of the organization was announcing that she thought there was a real risk of crisis facing the world economy at the moment.  Indeed, they seem to be so confident that they have approved a further three year economic support package worth more than a hundred million dollars.

 

There was a press conference about the Social fund which revealed lots of information about pensions pensions and pensioners.  Although the average pension is supposedly 4270 som , (that is just under a hundred dollars, seventy Euro or sixty pounds … a month!), it is an “average” figure which means that some people, (quite a few, actually), get less.  To add insult injury, it was revealed that there are between thirty and eighty thousand “elite” pensioners who receive between 15,000 and 70,000 soms a month.  Although that is interesting – those ranges (30,000 – 80,000 and 15,000 to 70,000), don’t seem to be very helpful … Although there are over 120 “generals” receiving supplementary allowances as part of their pension, I suspect there are very few people receiving the anything like the 70000 upper limit quoted … but for every person receiving 15,000 there would need to be 10 pensioners receiving something like 3000 to get an average of 4720.  

 

And remember, the premium for the compulsory insurance of a property is estimated to cost about 5000 som per 100 square meters … that is, more than the average monthly pension.   

Given those comparisons, it is easy to understand that many people want to migrate … to leave this paradise for a better life elsewhere.  In the twenty one years since Independence, we have seen large reductions in the populations of ethnic Russians and Germans, for example, who have taken the opportunity offerered by those countries for their compatriots to return home.  There have also been a large number of ethnic Kyrgyz who have sought to move … to Kazakhstan or Russia, or places like Turkey and Greece, as Economic migrants – to work and earn a living sending funds back to their family who are able as a result, not only to buy the essentials but also the occasional luxury items.  It turns out, according to some research published during the week,  that something like 800,000 Kyrgyz citizens are currently living abroad – that’s the equivalent of about one sixth of the population.  About 400,o0o have applied for and received foreign citizenship.  Technically, it used toi be that if someone received a foreign passport then they were supposed to renounce their Kyrgyz citizenship and surrender their Kyrgyz Passport, however, recent changes in legislation are meant ot encourage those living outside the country to retain their Kyrgyz citizenship and there are evenm provisions recognizing the status of “dual nationality” … and as it happens only just over a tenth of those who have become foreign citizens have decided to renounce their Kyrgyz passports.  However, holding dual nationality does subject them to certain limits, for example they cannot hold certain posts on government. 

During the week it was announced that Kyrgyzstan is submitting a film to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to be considered for nomination in the Foreign Language catelgory for an Oscar.  The film “Pustoi Dom“, (Empty home or Empty house), follows the fortunes of one such economic migrant.  Although I believe their is a version with English subtitles, I saw it in Russian … and I think it was well worth the effort – like many foreign language films a little “arty” but also very realistic and down to earth.

Amongst those who may be forced to migrate are any foreign citizens who are infected with HIV.  Technically, they are supposed to be deported but in answer to questions from a deputy, the Ministry of Health reported that although they inform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) who are apparently the government department responsible for deportations – there hasn’t been a single case where one has been deported.  That surprised me in many respects … for example, that it was the MFA who are in charge of deportations, I thought it would be the Ministry of Internal Affairs.  There were other worrying factors such as the attitude that this reveals that seems to prevaiul and even be institutionalized towards people infected with HIV.

 

All this and I haven’t even got round to several issues, such as the developments in tourism – a subject dear to my heart … marred only by the fact that there was to a three day weekend conference to draw up a tourism strategy …  ”Marred?” – yes, due to the fact we received the notice informing us about the event and invited to participate at 3:00pm on Thursday … the three day conference started at 9:00am on Friday … I have an important visitor here from the UK (which is one reason the postcard is a little late this week ) and cannot go and I know of other who are actually away with groups and also cannot attend.  I often complain that things are often left to the last moment here, but these events don’t just happen – the plans have been in the pipeline for some time … so WHY DIDN’T THEY TELL US BEFOREHAND???  If only they had told us a week ago then we might, MIGHT, have been able to make alternative arrangements and taken part … but maybe that was the whole point … maybe they didn’t want us to participate … or am I being paranoid.

Then there was the breaking news of Maxim, (Bakiev, that is), was he?, or wasn’t he?, (arrested, that is).  The news broke yesterday that he had been arrested in London at the request of the Kyrgyz and the American governments … but later that was revised to he had been “detained and then released with an apology for the misunderstanding”.  Curios … and curioser, as Lewis Carroll put it.

 

Definitely curios, interesting and memorable even, but perhaps we’ll have to wait for the future judgement of history as to whether it was momentous.

 

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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 has been the following postcards:

• Civil Aviation  – Sunday was the Day of Civil Aviation here in Kyrgyzstan
• Why I have never been to … - An  unusual blog post got me thinking about the reasons people choose NOT to travel to particular destinations
• One passport or two … - News that some countries are clamping down on dual nationality, I take a look at the situation and attitudes here in Kyrgyzstan
• World Day Against the Death Penalty - On the day dedicated to opposing capital punishment around the globe, I took a look at the policy debate that erupted here in Kyrgyzstan four years ago
• WMHDAY - As well as being the World Day Against the Death Penalty, Thursday was also World Mental Health Day, so I took a brief look at the state of provision of Mental Health services in the country
•  Oscar Hopeful - News broke during the week that the Kyrgyz Film “Pustoi Dom” is up for an Oscar in the Foreign Language category

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