One of the interesting aspects of writing the “Postcards from Bishkek” is the feedback that I receive. Often people make a comment on one or other points that I have made – sometimes agreeing with me, sometimes taking issue with me. Sometimes, they ask for more information – such as “who is this person Roza Otunbaeva who has just been appointed as President?”. Occasionally, I receive articles from abroad which people think I may not have seen and they think that I would find interesting.
This week I received an article from the Washington Post – you can see it here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/24/AR2010102403375.html – and I was asked for my opinion.
This particular project has proved to be somewhat controversial – here’s a link to one article about it: http://www.eurasianet.org/node/62241
Anyway, as it happens, I have long thought about writing an article about the benefits and drawbacks of receiving aid from the donor community, but I have never got round to it. It’s not a straightforward issue and I haven’t had the right stimulus to give me the impetus to sit down and organize my thoughts. This seemed to be the right moment, and so here are some thoughts on the topic that I put together in reply. More…
One of the emails that I received this week thanked me for the weekly postcard that I send out giving a review of the weeks events here in Kyrgyzstan, but the writer admitted that they were rather confused as to to who was who and the positions taken by the various parties in our recent election. She asked me if I could spread some light on these questions.
This is the reply that I sent: More…
One morning in October 1987, I woke up at six o’clock as usual, had a bite of breakfast and got into my car to drive to school. As I emerged from the garage, I got a bit of a shock – there was absolute chaos everywhere I looked, high winds, branches of trees all over the place and rubbish blowing everywhere. As I drove to school meandering in and out to avoid the fallen trees lying across the road I wondered what on earth could have led to this mayhem. I turned on the radio in the car and heard for the first time reports about the hurricane force winds that had swept over Southern England and Northern France in what is now referred to as the Great Storm of 1987. More…
http://www.buddy-baer.com/
Jesse, Svetlana’s globetrotting friend from the States (who wiped the floor with me at ten-pin bowling), is on his way back home. Typically, he’s chosen a route which is far from direct – taking in nine more countries, (if you count the airport transfers), and visiting the Baltic States and Finland en route.
He seems to be enjoying it, however. Apparently, “Vilnius is alright; Riga is pretty cool; and Tallinn is Amazing!!!”
He took time out to drop us a line and send us some photos from Helsinki, the capital of Finland, where the temperature is distinctly cooler than he’s been used to – but not as cold as in Riga. More…
Zamira, who runs the tour department, got married on Saturday.
After the official registration ceremony, the “molodyosh” – “young people” – went on the traditional walkabout to several different spots around the city, parks, war memorial, etc., to promenade and be seen.
In the meantime the parents and other guests rushed to the restaurant where the reception was to be held to make sure all was prepared. More…
Theodore Hertzen was born in 1935 in the village of Ak Dobo in Leninopole, (currently known as Bakai Ata) of Talas oblast, where there is a small museum dedicated to his life and work.
He was educated at both the Bishkek and Moscow Institutes of Art and he has been granted many awards such as the titles of Monumental Draughtsman, Kyrgyz National Painter and Kyrgyz National Art Craftsman. He has exhibited in several exhibitions and galleries – in Kyrgyzstan, the former Soviet Union and internationally. More…
To help preserve the priceless, pristine, virgin, natural resources that it possesses, Kyrgyzstan has a total of 83 Specially Protected Natural Territories, (SPNT), with a total area of about 800,000 hectares, which is 4% of Kyrgyzstan’s total land area. Perhaps, the most famous of these specially protected regions is Ala Archa – just outside Bishkek.
Since declaring Independence in 1991, the country has become a regional leader in conservation issues – ratifying the World Heritage Convention in 1995, the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1996 and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance in 2002. More…
There is an old maxim in Real Estate … the only thing that really counts is “location, location, location”. It is such an overriding principle that in 2001 it was used for the title for a TV programme on Britain’s Channel 4. The mantra basically encapsulates the idea that identical homes can increase or decrease in value due to location. It’s repeated three times for emphasis, and makes it easy to remember the phrase. More…
I am sometimes embarrassed by the fact that, although I have lived here for some fifteen years, I still can’t speak Kyrgyz. My excuse is that I don’t get the practice … I live in Bishkek, in the North of the country, where everyone speaks Russian, or they want practice speaking in English.
That’s not to say that I don’t know any Kyrgyz … I have a smattering of a words and phrases which I try to trot out at appropriate moments.
On Sunday, there was one phrase which I heard over and over again – and which I had no trouble recognizing : “On jill”, which means “Ten years”. More…
I am not particularly good at sports, although I am willing to try my hand at most. Apart from needing a certain level of skill, most, if not all, sports also require a certain amount of dedication and a level of fitness. It won’t come as a surprise, therefore, if I say that I am not a particularly good swimmer.
It’s not for the lack of trying … I have tried to learn at least twice.
When I was young, my mother took my brother and I to the local swimming pool and tried to teach us to swim. There were organized classes on Wednesday evenings, but for some reason, she decided to teach us herself. I remember entering the water with an inflatable rubber ring around my waist and going through the motions as she walked along the side of the pool calling out encouragement and instructions. It was only many years later that I discovered that she couldn’t swim herself, but she thought it was important that we learn. More…
