Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. June 17, 2010.

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")

Source

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.

Photo source

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.

Tightening the Grip

AKIpress reported that Central Election Committee (CEC) gave three day period for parties to register. According to their press release, it starts on the day when elections were announced.

However, President has set the election date for December 16, 2007 yesterday (October 23). Maybe I am missing out some legal nuances here, but as far as I understand parties have only 2 days left, considering the fact that today is over.

As I was saying before, many were critical of the short term for the Referendum- one month. However, despite of all the criticism, it has passed with inflated turnout numbers and ballot stuffing, which was followed by immediate dissolution of the current Parliament. CEC has not even announced the referendum results, when our parliamentarians filled the rows of unemployed.

Seems like President decided to crackdown on the opposition completely, cutting off possible ways to consolidate, since it was in a rather disbursed state after escalated clashes with government for the past year.

There was a lot of reshuffling among parties since new electoral system was introduced so abruptly, on an extremely short notice. Thus a lot of parties, who are by default weak in Kyrgyzstan, are gathering people for their lists with one hand, while the other hand is writing the charter and programs.

Ata Meken- one of the main opposition parties announced that they are going to unite with Ak Shumkar- another leading parties in opposition bloc. Seems like they won't have much time to discuss the terms of unification, if only 2 days is enough for them.

President is rather quickly and very surely tightening the grip.

Referendum

We are two days apart from the referendum that will bring Kyrgyzstan the next Constitution (or whatever it may bring). There has been a lot of hoopla around this issue, mainly due to the very short term provided before voting day (only a month). Besides, many NGOs, parties and individual politicians were critical of the draft for providing vast field of powers to the President.

Well, I am critical of the referendum becuase it is a completely useless business. Almost 60 million soms is spent on this project, not considering the time and effort directed at this huge political game that will give us, ordinary people, nothing more than a paper, outlining how we should live and act. I come from the view that Kyrgyzstan cannot afford this kind of spediture having huge economic and social problems.

Instead of working, we have been discussing HOW to work for 15 years, constantly changing the rules and Kyrgyzstan has turned into an unreliable partner, unsafe tourist zone, core of corruption, poor country with almost half of population living under poverty line (in 2006 more than 2 million).

It is rather sad that Kyrgyzstan's rating rises only due to revolutions and rallies that has turned into a means of expression on every issue be it shortage of food for cattle or removal of US Airbase. Let us hope that referendum will pass peacefully with no heavy consequences for the economy and society, because I am ready to live under such Constitution (any Constitution for that matter), as long as it provides some development and stability.

As you can see I don't believe in this referendum and Constitution change. Thus, I will have my ordinary Sunday on the 21st of October despite the fact that I have not used my right to vote yet and this is a chance. Although, the result is already known to many, it is still interesting to see the turnout. Many predict that the numbers will be strectched, since many may not even go to polling stations (like me).

For those who will go: at least you will fulfill your "civic duty"
For those who will not go: you will not lose much

On religion

While I was reading an article on Ferghana.ru, which talked about village school teachers prohibiting hijabs at school, and extending my thoughts that this fact contradicts between recent decision to allow passport photos in hijabs , I got an sms that read "Allahu -lailaha-illaila-muhammadun-rasullulah" (God is only one and Mohammad is his messenger).

That felt creepy... Not that I am into these things, but it got me thinking for a bit, until I discovered that it was my friend, who tried to stick to the rules of sms chain that "require" you to send it further.

As for the issue with hijabs, I was surprised to learn that teachers in Nookat (town in the south KG) remove hijabs forcefully from schoolgirls heads and threaten with expulsion. Many of them explain this by the "orders from the top" but do not present any papers or documents confirming these orders.

Another argument from a school director seemed totally ridiculous to me. She states that it is not "aesthetic" to wear a hijab and accused some girls of not combing their hair under the scarf. It sounded very... soviet. Typical coercive methods and intrusion with personal life.

Recent permission to take pictures in hijabs seem to contradict the so called "orders from the top", since having such a photo in your passport, automatically assumes you wear it everyday. Although, not long ago, I read not a single picture has been taken with a hijab on yet, those young schoolgirls from Nookat, who are struggling for their religious rights, will do that for sure.

On the other hand, while government is rather loose on religious rights, security services are increasingly active in combating religious extremism (e.g. Hizb-ut-Tahrir) and maybe dicating their own "underground" rules to schools (and many other institutions for that matter).

All in all, a small ship "Kyrgyzstan" is still lost in political ocean, in many terms: ideology, governance, economy etc.

PS I hope "they" won't knock on my door for having that sms.

Too much talking...

Everyone knows the word "Parliament" came from the french word that means "to talk", however, Kyrgyz MP's seem to take it too seriously. New "talking" season opened in Kyrgyzstan as our parliamentarians back at their working places, which, by the way, have been equipped with new laptops recently.

However, it seems like not many know that they should do some constructive talking in Jogorku Kenesh (parliament), rather than just expressing their personal opinion, mostly emotionally colorful. Having finished to discuss rather absurd ideas of encouraging polygamy in the country and moving the capital to the south in the previous season, some like Jusup Imanaliev, started this season with a proposal to send Bishkek city dwellers to work on farm lands that are left without care. Another MP Dooronbek Sadyrbaev, who previously promised to drop an "informational bomb" on the opening of this season, announced that a top criminal leader was after him and even put responsibility for his life on another MP's shoulder, who is widely assumed to belong to a criminal world (who of them does not?!).

I know that these things happen... but not this often! It is simply frustrating that having so many problems and issues to discuss, our MP's even bother engaging in conversations on such outrageously stupid discussions.
"За державу обидно..." (Sorry for my country)

Kyrgyzstan, former USSR

This is a photo of the famous women vodka (that's what everybody calls it) "Shpilka", which is one of the alcohol products of Kyrgyzstan that will be exported to the US. I was amazed to see the lines written on the back of the bottle that read "a product of kyrgyzstan, Former CCCP (USSR)". It is rather amusing that Kyrgyzstan was officially identified with former USSR on the label of a product.

I don't know whether it is an attempt to associate our product with Russia (which is famous for vodka) or just make it easier for an average American to identify where our country lies. And yet 16 years later we're still a former USSR.