New Pantheras Born

Yesterday we visited a swearing in ceremony of soldiers for National Guard "Panthera"-
one of the elite special operations division in the Kyrgyz military. Ceremony was rather dull, but it was interesting to see conditions provided for our soldiers.

Absolute moajority of newly enrolled soldiers come from rural areas. Some are interested, some don't have a choice. One of the soldiers said that he joined the Nationl Guard because their family budget could not cover him and his brother who enrolled into university this year. So, he had to give a way to his brother and switch to military.

I was glad to see new facilities: dining rooms, barracks etc., built with the support of United States. New soldiers were also glad to sleep in new beds, eat good nutrition food and wear new uniforms. However, it was sad to realize that our government is not able to provide for our army, which is a serious indicator considering that military of always enjoys more government funding compared to any other sectors. Also, mind you, that this ceremony took place at the most well-funded divsion of Kyrgyz military, not mentioning others.

Dying Kyrgyz Language

Currently, many fear that Kyrgyz language will die as a widely used language. Although, usage of the language is increasing on a daily basis, it has not "invaded" television, commercials, books, newspapers etc., which is important for its development.Best newspapers, TV channels, books, ads are in Russian. Moreover, absolute majority of organizationsincluding government prefer to use Russian, as opposed to Kyrgyz.

Partially, such a situation is dictated by market demand- usage of Russian covers more people of multi-ethnic composition of Kyrgyzstan. One can also find many resources readily available in Russian, use of which is more cost-effective.

However, on the other hand, Kyrgyz society faces such problems as contradictions within education system-while the number of Kyrgyz language high schools is increasing, most universities and institutesstick to Russian. This causes problems for many students coming from villages and small towns,some of whom don't understand even basic Russian, not counting scintific or political terms.

Increasing internal migration has contributed to social tensions as well, since urban areasstill carry the Soviet legacy of Russian representing urban and Kyrgyz-provinciality, whichhardens internal integration process.
Moreover, some of seasonal workers migrating to Russia are showing antipathy to Russian language in their homeland,after facing difficult working and living conditions in Moscow, Yekaterinburg, St. Petersburg etc.

Kyrgyz language still carries very formal role and many organizations, companies, schools use it in response to legal requirements. As a result, many materials such as books, magazines, newspapers, ads in Kyrgyz are ridiculously unprofessional, which shows negligence of Kyrgyz government to this problem.

Example: Almost all shop names in Bishkek are in two languages-Russian and Kyrgyz. Usually, they are translated directly. However, this barber shop carries two different names: in Russian- "universe of beauty", in Kyrgyz- "beaty of the universe" (or "miss universe")

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Two problems of Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan faces two main problems for coming years: energy and food. An illusion and constatnt talks about Kyrgyzstan as a land of endless electricity source eclipsed the minds of many, including our officials who are faintly attempting to stabilize the situation. Winter of 2007-08 showed that threat of being left in the dark and without heat is real. Despite the fact that Uzbekistan increased gas prices (40%), this winter revealed that our main power dam- Toktogul water level has dropped dramatically due to absence of formal policies regulating waterflows.

Currently, government is trying to restore water level by limiting usage of electricity (switching off). It has also initiated a construction of two additional dams on the same Naryn river as Toktogul. Although, Prime Minister Chudinov announced today that limits on electricity usage will be dropped, my friend, who works in one of the electricity companies told me that limitations may be active till one of the new dams start functioning (Fall 2009).

Another problem of food security was also discussed in the parliament upon entring agricultural season 2008, where they decided to determine specialized regions to grow grain-crops, establish another vice- prime minister, who will be responsible for "social issues and food security" and subsidize farmers. These policies are very much Soviet and authoritarian. From my recent to Open KG TV show, where participants discussed this problem, I concluded that Kyrgyzstan lacks long-term agricultural policy and stimulation mechanisms. While many still percieve agriculture as a government sector, not many (including our government) consider free market regulations to encourage production (fiscal, monetary, tariffs). Another aspect of this problem is our import-dependency, especially on consumer products, which should induce our government to look at our neighbor (Kazakhstan) in search of good deals.

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Erica Marat

Just like many lectures on politics, this one also had a very loud title: "National Ideology and State-building in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan". Presented by Erica Marat, it was on the level of introductory politics course- nothing new. Her main points:

-ideologies in KG and TJ are soviet legacy


-no distinction between citizen and ethnicity

Analysis was rather basic. She definitely writes better than speaks (in terms of lecturing).

It was more interesting to see very old struggle between Soviet vs. West battle on the floor, when Nur Omarov, self-proclaimed Kyrgyz political scientist basically criticized every aspect of the her presentation and the whole lecture turned into a talk show.

There she is, in case you were wondering how she looks:

photo source

Russian Xenophobia

Almost 20% of Kyrgyz GDP is formed from remittances sent from overseas, mainly from Russia. According to unofficial estimates (which are more realistic) more than 1 000 000 Kyrgyz citzens work in Russia.

Although, living conditions of most labor migrants are terrible, this year has started with even more disturbing facts of murders allegedly based on ethnic hatred. Most of the murders through numerous stab-wounds, are affiliated with so called "skinheads", a group of extremely nationalist young men, which hunt down people of non-slavic dissidence.

Russian xenophobic attitude has always been an issue since the start of Kyrgyz-Russian relations. Even Soviet times cannot deny such attitude in Kyrgyz SSR as well as in Russia. Any USSR born Kyrgyz will cofirm this. And there have been attacks and killings in Russia since the late 90's. Presently, it is far from mass movements of nazis or ethnic genocide, however, it has been a hot issue in the media for the last two months. Why?

1. Because the number of migrants is increasing, thus the level of crimes with their participation also increases
2. There have not been much of immigration in the territory of former USSR, except for 1930's. It takes time to establish cultural tolerance.
3. Xenophobic attitude always existed, heavily tabooed in Soviet times. Political changes in the late 20 years gave freedom to positive as well as negative attitudes.
4. First wave of immigrants have settled down their immediate material needs and started to seek for fulfillment of higher needs like equality and fair treatment.

Unfortunately, it is normal process and time is the main factor. Another factor is effort done by Russian government and immigrant diasporas to demand their rights in the legal framework.