Stories about Kyrgyzstan from July, 2007
Kyrgyzstan: HIV scandal
Bonnie Boyd reports of a scandal in southern Kyrgyzstan in which nine children have contracted HIV/Aids due to medical and institutional negligence.
Kyrgyzstan: Mourning
Noise, a blogger originally from Kyrgyzstan, is saddened to learn about the deaths of the icons of world cinematography Bergman and Antonioni: “We will install a projector and a screen in our yard today, and will show their films to everyone.”
Kyrgyzstan: Issyk-Kul
morrire posts pictures from her visit to the southern shore of Issyk-Kul, one of the biggest high-altitude lakes in the world – and favourite holiday destination for Kyrgyzstani citizens.
CIS: Blog Camp
Mirsulzhan posts an announcement for the upcoming CIS Blog Camp in Kiev.
Central Asia: Expert interview
James of neweurasia interviews Central Asia specialist Dr. Eric McGlinchey – the topics of the long conversation include radical Islam, Russian influence, the regime in Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan's development.
Afghanistan/Kazakhstan: Moving around 42 kids
Tom T retells his adventures of accompanying 42 young Afghan students across the border from Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan.
Kyrgyzstan: Sealing off the capital
Asel reports that the Kyrgyz authorities are planning to impose harsh restrictions on entering the capital Bishkek during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in August.
Kyrgyzstan: Wedding season
Kyrgyzstani couples choose the summer months to get married. As the ceremonies portrayed by bloggers are mostly Western in style, they convey a different, somewhat "non-exotic" image of the landlocked Central Asian republic. From white doves to violins, the Kyrgyzstani dream wedding seems above all one thing: expensive!
Kyrgyzstan: Moving the capital?
Daniel Kohler, on Registan.net, discusses whether the recent suggestion of a Kyrgyzstani governor to move the capital closer to his southern constituency is politically motivated.
Kyrgyzstan: Double-decker
Bektour is amazed by the sight of an old London double-decker in the streets of the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek.
Kyrgyzstan: LGBT in the press
Genderstan rounds up some press coverage of LGBT issues in the Kyrgyz media, most of which, unfortunately, turns out to be homophobic slander.
Kyrgyzstan: Interview with Bektour Iskender
Bektour Iskender is the founder of an ambitious Kyrygz blog platform called Kloop. Kloop uses Wordpress, signs up bloggers en masse, has ambitious targets, and hopes to help revolutionise journalism in Central Asia. Bektour sat down and answered a few questions for Global Voices.
Kyrgyzstan: Islamic banking
CXW says that Islamic banking might gain a foothold in Kyrgyzstan, thanks to involvement of the private sector and the Islamic Development Bank.
Central Asia: Evil ranking
BordersCA, a blog on borders in Central Asia, is reporting that Turkmenistan is slowly loosing its “Evil-Number-One” status to Uzbekistan. A sign of this are the small, yet continuous changes put in place by the new Turkmen president Berdymukhammedov, such as the removal of the arduous and omnipresent highway passport...
Kyrgyzstan: Missing in action
Major Jill Metzger disappeared from the US military base in Kyrgyzstan last year. CXW is catching up with the latest developments on the mysterious case and finds that the American officials are not investing enough effort into a full investigation.
Central Asia: Clash of opinion
Josh Foust engages in an extremely interesting discussion with an Uzbek journalist (working for a Russian news agency) about Western promotion of democracy in Central Asia.
Kyrgyzstan: Passport ordeal
Tamara needs to get a new Kyrgyz passport in oder to enter the United States – and she chose not to pay a bribe to speed things up. This might have been wrong, as she already finds herself wading knee-deep through the Passport Office chicanery.
Central Asia: The week in the news
For all news junkies out there, Central Asia Now features a comprehensive roundup of last week's headlines.
Kyrgyzstan: From national surveys to a spy-lady in parliament
The results of a national survey strike some bloggers as too positive; the Kyrgyz head of state is the fifth-sexiest president of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Kyrgyzstan slides down the failed states ranking, and a spy scandal in the capital's parliament on the eve of an important international conference - all these are the topics that kept the Kyrgyzstani blogosphere busy over the last week.
Kyrgyzstan: Polygamy
Asel discusses whether polygamy is an Islamic tradition or due to socio-economic pressures in post-independence Kyrgyzstan.
Central Asia: Ask the expert
James of neweurasia asks regional expert Dr. Johannes Linn about economic development, regional geopolitics, human rights, and development prospects for Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
