Ben Paarmann
RSS feed for Ben Paarmann 
I hold an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge and have grown fond of Central Asia over the last couple of years. Which is why founded neweurasia, a blog network about the five former Soviet countries of the region. Mostly irrelevant ramblings can be found on my personal blog.
Latest posts by Ben Paarmann
4 September 2007
Uzbekistan
Central Asian Borders writes about the former Silk Road capital Samarkand's 2750th anniversary. Uzbek president Karimov came on a visit, and his entourage made sure that every major street was blocked for the event, causing lots of hassle for the inhabitants.
Kazakhstan
KZBlog has the latest developments in Kazakhstan's political soap opera, including new rumours why president Nazarbayev rushed to change key personnel and the fate of his son-in-law.
Armenia
Onnik Krikorian finds it scandalous that the World Bank's own watchdog “Department of Institutional Integrity” has not yet sent an investigation commission to Armenia following serious allegations of corruption in the Bank's public utility lending.
Armenia
Observer reports of the new academic year starting in Armenia. There are less children starting school each year, but there are still traffic jams around schools because of proud parents driving their kids to school.
30 August 2007
Azerbaijan
Having lived and worked in Azerbaijan, Carpetblogger is not surprised by the news that a newly-built highrise collapsed in the capital Baku due to poor building standards.
Kyrgyzstan
Scraps of Moscow links to an IWPR article about the impact of labour migration on the healthcare system in Kyrgyzstan, and finds many similarities to problems elsewhere in the developing world.
Next time we will be there again :)