Global Voices » Chris Rickleton

Wikipedia to Appear in Shughni

Chris Rickleton — Sun, 12 May 2013 03:44:59 +0000

“Good news Pamiris,” writes [ru] Bektour Iskender, President of Kloop Media, a Kyrgyz news portal and blogging platform. “Wikipedia has provided permission to begin a version of the site in Shughni.” Shughni is one of the main languages spoken in Gorno Badakhshan province (GBAO), a remote, eastern part of Tajikistan dominated by the Pamir Mountains. Iskender helped local internet users file the request to create a Shughni section of Wikipedia following a new media training session in Khorog, the province's administrative capital, over two years ago. “Now begins the small matter of realizing [Wikipedia in Shughni]. But I can't help there, since I don't know a word of the language,” he says.

(more…)

Avoid Mycetism, Mushroom Pickers!

Chris Rickleton — Tue, 07 May 2013 04:09:56 +0000

Postage stamps featuring some of Kyrgyzstan's wild mushrooms – edible and non-edible. Images taken from ianbek.kg, used with permission.

“Never eat overripe, clammy, flabby, wormy or spoiled mushrooms,” writes Ian Claytor, translating advice from Kyrgyzstan's Department for Disease Prevention and Expertise in his blog, Postcard from Bishkek. With the mushroom picking season underway in the former Soviet state, the Ministry of Health have come up [ru] with guidelines to help pickers enjoy the pastime safely.

Kyrgyzstan: ‘Charming’ Prime Minister Falls from High Horse

Chris Rickleton — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 15:31:14 +0000

Kyrgyzstan's political elite is once more facing a momentous shakeup after the country's parliamentary ruling coalition formally collapsed on August 22, 2012. The biggest casualty of the schism is likely to be 42-year-old Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov, who has caught the attention of the global media recently due to his apparent penchant for expensive race horses.

On August 13, one of the coalition's own MPs, Omurbek Tekebayev, alleged that the head of the cabinet had received “Islander One”, a British thoroughbred racehorse, as a bribe from a Turkish company, SERKA, in order to secure a contract at the controversial United States military airbase stationed near the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek. Just over a week later, two of the four parties that made up the coalition upped and left, leaving the alliance without a majority in the legislature and Babanov's premiership in limbo. On social networking sites, Kyrgyz netizens have been musing on his fall from grace.

Babanov with a horse. Screenshot taken from Twitter user @Babanochka's public profile.

“Babanov Bashing”

“Babanov Bashing” has been a favourite passtime of the now “interim” PM's rivals for some time. Accused of everything from importing radioactive coal to not being a full-blooded Kyrgyz (see Global Voices background), the founder of the parliament's “Respublika” faction admitted to being Islander One's owner, but denied he had received the horse as a gift from SERKA, maintaining he had bought it above board and for a price far cheaper than the $500,000-$1,500,000 claimed by Tekebayev.

A statement released by his office on August 13, implied he wasn't prepared to take the accusations very seriously:

We can offer Omurbek (Tekebayev) a better deal — let him buy the horse from the Prime Minister for US$20,000 and then he can try to sell it at a higher price

Perhaps Tekebayev was expecting a more humble response. At any rate, with the national legislature in turmoil again, politics has re-emerged as the watchword of the Kyrgyzstani Twitterazzi. Perhaps surprisingly, given his unpopularity inside the parliament, a large number of tweets last week conveyed sympathy for Babanov, lamenting the tragic nature of his eight-month tenure as head of government and complimenting him on his good looks.

Blogger Ilya Lukash tweeted [ru]:

Жаль, что уходит адекватный, симпатичный и инициативный премьер #freekg Бабанов. Единственное правительство, которое не вызывало раздражения

Its a shame that the sane, handsome and enterprising premier of #freekg Babanov is on his way out. The only government that didn't cause [me] irritation

While Amadhon Yusupkhanov waxed poetical in less than 140 characters [ru]:

Недолго правил нами полубог: / Очарованью места нет во власти. / Бабанов сделал все, что мог. / Его запомним молодым и страстным.

Not long ruled over us the demigod: / there is no place for charm in power. / Babanov did everything he could. / He will be remembered as young and passionate.

And even Shirin Aitmatova, an MP from the Ata-Meken party that regularly sullied Babanov's name, reflected [ru]:

большая часть электората в КГ – женщины. Грустный, красивый Бабанов наверное в сердцах у многих всхлипывающих кыздарок

A large part of the electorate in Kyrgyzstan are female. Sad, handsome Babanov is probably in the hearts of many sobbing women.

But @Juve_Kg was happy, exclaiming [ru]:

я понял почему с утра я в хорошем настроении – Бабанов же и.о

Now I understand why I have been in a good mood since morning. Babanov is already interim

A cartoon of Kyrgyz MP Omurbek Tekebayev counting horses. By Vecherni Bishkek, used with permission.

A poll taken [ru] by media outlet K-News on August 24 asked readers who they wanted to be next Prime Minister. The results showed a plurality of respondents in favour of Babanov continuing on as Prime Minister, with messages of support such as this one, from Tologon, flowing in as people voted:

дайте врнемя человеку поработаь, а. Ну что это такое? Мы когда нибуль будем жить в номральном государстве без всех этих интриг? Бабанушка. давай работай. Не сдавайся, с тобой народ

Give a person time to work. What is wrong? Are we ever going to live in a normal country without all these intrigues? [Babanov], work! Don't give in, the people are with you.

But as another reader uu noted [ru], some of the pro-Babanov messages circulating across forums might have originated from Babanov himself:

Читаешь эти комменты и видишь, что пишут несколько человек из команды И.О. премьера. Смешно. Вот как формируется общественное мнение!

Reading these comments you understand, that a few people from interim Prime Minister Babanov's team are doing all the writing. Funny. This is how public opinion is formed!

Despite the implications of the current discord in Kyrgyzstan's ruling class, netizens continue to observe domestic politics with a good sense of humour. Fake News Kyrgyzstan, tweeting [ru] under @fnews_kg had the following things to say about the latest national scandal:

@fnews_kg: ”Коня! Коня! Правительство за коня!” – кричал Омурбек

“Horse, Horse, My government for a horse!” Screamed Omurbek

@fnews_kg: Я парламентская коалиция, я ничего не хочу решать. Я хочу развалиться

I am the parliamentary coalition. I don't want to decide anything. I just want to collapse

@fnews_kg: Президент Кыгрызстана А.Атамбеав решил не создавать коалицию большинства. Причина – скорый конец света

President A. Atambayev of Kyrgyzstan has decided not to form a ruling coalition. The reason – the impending end of the world

Kyrgyzstan: China Inc. Under Attack

Chris Rickleton — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 21:38:44 +0000

Physically bordered, but culturally distant, China’s growing economic presence in Kyrgyzstan continues to be a topic for heated discussion in Kyrgyz society. In the country’s regions, this discourse is reflected in acrimonious standoffs between Chinese companies and locals, confrontations the mainstream media often fails to report on.

Recently, a series of photo and news reports from the ground by youth media organization Kloop.kg have shed light on some of these conflicts, as well as an apparent spike in antipathy towards Chinese investments in the Central Asian republic.

Fear and concern

Complaints about Chinese companies are not unique to Kyrgyzstan. In fact, the fears raised in the small, landlocked state broadly echo those raised elsewhere in the world, particularly in Africa [see Global Voices background], where Chinese investment is growing exponentially.

Typically they are characterized by concerns about state sovereignty, transparency, environmental transgressions, migration worries and the oft-repeated gripe that Chinese companies do not provide jobs for local people. While Kyrgyzstani netizens regularly highlight these themes, they also point to apparent attempts to expropriate firms from the Middle Kingdom.

Image scanned from the Kyrgyz-languague newspaper Маидан (Maidan) by Gezitter.org.

In the print media, the topic of the China-Kyrgyzstan investment relationship is usually covered in editorials and opinion pieces that focus on perceived threats to national independence while appealing to patriotic sentiment. In one piece, translated from Kyrgyz to Russian by the site Gezitter.org, the author discusses a proposal to build a railroad linking China to Uzbekistan through Kyrgyzstan, and asks [ru] whether or not the payment for the Kyrgyz part of track will be the “fatherland” itself. Saying that such a project would allow China to “swallow” Kyrgyzstan, the author recalls battles waged by Manas, mythical hero of the Kyrgyz people, against the “countless” armies of the Chinese.

Such diatribes act to drive “Sinophobia” and colour discussion of the issues between Chinese companies and the local communities where they work, something that citizen journalists and grassroots media organizations like Kloop.kg can help make ammends for.

Via “hyper-local” and objective reportage from the ground, Kloop's journalists, all of whom are under 25 years of age, can present both sides of the story in order to help netizens reach an informed opinion about Chinese investment in Kyrgyzstan.

Below are a selection of photos from Kloop.kg's galleries, the subject of which is an oil refinery being built by a Chinese company, Jundi, in the provincial town of Kara-Balta, western Kyrgyzstan. Originally citizens protested the construction of the refinery at a location close to dwellings on the outskirts of town. Responding to the protests, the company offered compensation to relocate homeowners on the town's outskirts, but residents were unhappy with the compensation paid.

All photos are taken by ELF, the pseudonym for a Kloop.kg photographer, and used here with permission.

Responding to one of a trio of Kloop.kg reports about the Kara-Balta refinery one Kloop commenter, Olga exclaimed [ru]:

Не просто разрастаются,а травят людей. Все это не правомерно.Не соблюдены никакие санитарные нормы!!!!!!!!

[The Chinese company] aren't just expanding, they are poisoning people. None of this is legal. No kind of sanitary norms are being observed.

Another batch of Kloop articles relayed the fate of a Chinese gold mining company operating in southern Kyrgyzstan. Initially the company had had its license revoked for exporting ore illegally, before it was allowed to work again. Most recently, local villagers threatened to burn the company's gold plant down, apparently for the sake of local ecology. Later, however, the villagers backed down [ru] in return for 1% of the operation's profits.

This change of position provoked ironic posts from Kloop readers. Isken joked [ru]:

Это, может пойдем напугаем Билайн поджогом? А за 1% тоже смилостивимся?

Perhaps we should threaten to burn down Beeline [telecoms giant]? Will we get 1% of the profits?

And Akylbek Abdykadyrov bemoaned [ru] the mercenary attitude of the villagers, likening it to past attempts by the Kyrgyz government to ‘shake down’ foreign investors:

Какая власть такой и народ или какой народ такая и власть. Без разницы! Зла нехватает.

As the government is so are the people or as the people are so is the government. No difference. I can't control my rage.

But Aidai Algozhoyeva thought [ru] the villagers were correct to raise a fuss:

Jiteli 4on Alaya pravy.etot zavod nikakakogo doxoda ne prinosit,i na nem rabotaut kitaicy bez dokumentov.zoloto uvoz9t,a otxody ostautsa v Daraute.

The Residents of Chon Alai are in their rights. The [gold-mining] plant doesn't bring in any money, only Chinese without documents work there. They take the gold away and leave the waste in [village in Chon-Alai region].

Also this month, Kyrgyzstan's GKNB (formerly KGB) launched an investigation into five Chinese companies working in a tax-free Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Kyrgyzstan, apparently for failing to pay taxes. While the rights and wrongs of that investment scandal, along with others is still unclear, one thing seems conclusive – China inc is having a difficult moment in Kyrgyzstan.

As Kloop.kg Editor Eldiyar Arkybaev observed [ru]:

Почему китайский бизнес в последнее время мешает людям? Наезжают на них сильно как-то.

Why are Chinese businesses bothering people so much lately? They are really under attack in a big way.

Kyrgyzstan: Civic Initiatives Seek to Tackle Bride-Kidnapping

Chris Rickleton — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 23:22:06 +0000

Since the country's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, ala kachuu, or bride kidnapping, has become a common occurrence in Kyrgyzstan's provincial towns and villages. Although registered as a crime under Kyrgyzstan's criminal code, the government has consistently lacked the political will power to punish perpetrators, many of whom – mainly rural men – have come to regard the act as a ‘tradition’ and a birth-rite.

In recent months, civil society organizations and creative troupes have been harnessing the power of performance to try and educate the population and clamp down on the practice.

Screenshot from video, 'Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan', uploaded on January 17, 2012, by YouTube user Vice.

Kyrgyzstan's Ombudsman, Tursunbek Akun, says that up to 8,000 young women are kidnapped annually. Of those cases, only a handful ever make it to court, partly due to the disinterest of local police and state prosecutors, partly due to cultural norms that discourage families to take back their daughters once kidnapped.

Kyrgyzstan's parliament, dominated by men from the regions, voted against legislation that would ban Islamic clerics from blessing unregistered marriages (such as those which occurred via abduction) earlier this year.

International interest in the phenomenon ebbs and flows, and global rights organizations rarely have the cultural toolkit to suggest appropriate responses to a problem that polarizes village communities. For this reason, initiatives such as the March video-making workshop [ru] for young people overseen by the Kyrgyz NGO Open Line, and taught by “social advert” guru Georgi Molodtsov, are particularly important as a way of conveying messages about the practice in terms that are accessible to local communities.

The four videos below, uploaded on MsBeknazarova's YouTube profile on April 4, 2012, are some of the results of the workshop:

The above video in Kyrgyz and Russian reminds people that bride-stealing is illegal and punishable by law. The white marriage scarf held by the gold-toothed women on the left-hand side of the video is ceremonially placed on the head of a kidnapped bride to affirm the in-laws ‘claim’ on a kidnapped woman.

This video fights against the stigma attached to taking a daughter back once stolen. Many families face heavy pressure from relatives to accept the outcome of a kidnapping. Last year, two kidnapped brides in Kyrgyzstan's Issyk-Kul region committed suicide, leading local people to launch a campaign against ala kachuu titled “Spring Without Them.” The Russian and Kyrgyz text in the above video reads: “You were always there to support your daughter. Now let her make her own choice.”

The video above homes in on the character of Kurmanjan Datka, the most famous woman in Kyrgyz history. Kurmanjan Datka herself escaped an arranged marriage to become the “Queen of Alai”, a mountainous region in southern Kyrgyzstan. The advert encourages young Kyrgyz women to take their destiny into their own hands and resist forced unions, taking inspiration from “Kurmanjan's choice”.

This video encourages Kyrgyzstani youth to use their mobile phone's “main function” and dial “102″ – the hotline for kidnapped brides – when they witness woman-theft. Rather than filming the kidnapping to show their friends later, they should remember that “every girl is someone's daughter or sister”, the advert advises.

The final video in Russian and Kyrgyz, posted by Chalkan TV on its website on May 17, 2012, is not connected with the workshop. The video is of a theatrical performance held by students in the provincial town of Karakol in May – “Women are not Livestock!” Interviewed after the performance, Jypargul Kadyralieva, one of the organizers, explained [kg] the decision to hand out white marriage scarfs with the number “155″, to the audience, as well as the reason for including the word “livestock” in the performance's title.

There is an article in the criminal code – 155 – that should punish the stealing of women for marriage. We want this law to work. For some reason, [in Kyrgyzstan] when someone steals livestock, he is sternly punished, but when he steals a woman, he isn't punished. We want to get across to society that a woman is a person deserving of love…we want to lobby the parliament so that [law 155] works, or to change this law [from "abduction of a woman with the aim of entering marriage"] to simply “abduction of a person.”

According to research by the non-governmental organization Kyz-Korgon Institute, up to 45% of women married in Karakol in 2010 and 2011 had been kidnapped against their will before entering into the marriage.

Kyrgyzstan: Can a Blogger be the Fourth Branch of Government?

Chris Rickleton — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:50:52 +0000

Ilya Karimdjanov is a pest. Armed with a camera, a question and the most popular blog on Kyrgyzstan's most popular blogging platform, Kloop.kg, he is a one-man citizen media machine, the nemesis of rule-breaking cops, corrupt university teachers and the Kyrgyz monetary system. Well, someone has to keep them all in check, don't they?

Kyrgyzstan's weakened executive, unruly legislature and compromised judiciary are not renowned for enforcing their own rules and regulations. Indeed, state officials' disregard for due process is a feature of life in the country that can charm or frustrate foreign visitors to the country in equal measure. For citizens of the country, it is simply the daily minefield they must negotiate in order to get from home to work and back again.

Commissar Karimdjanov, as he has been referred to in the past, has made a habit of exposing these routine violations of law and protocol both on his blog and on the main news portal at Kloop.kg, where he works as a journalist. A recent example saw him “police” a female police officer who appeared to be drinking while in uniform at lunch time:

Karimdjanov: Look, she is drinking beer. Shall we go?

Colleague: Sure

Karimdjanov [to policewoman]: I hope you are not against us making a video. Why are you drinking beer in uniform? It is interesting for us, why is a police official drinking beer?

Policewoman: I have a praznik [celebratory day]

Karimdjanov: But you are on duty…

Policewoman: I understand that it is banned on duty but for one thing it is non-alcoholic…

Karimdjanov: It is not non-alcoholic, we asked the waitress….

Policewoman: It is non-alcoholic you can ask again, and secondly tomorrow is a praznik and [today is] my birthday. May I?

In the Facebook plugin beneath the posted video, Almaz Rakhimdinov noted [ru]:

Not for nothing Ilya Karimdjanov has the title of agent provocateur!

While Cholponbai Borubaeva said [ru]:

Interested to know what will happen to her - a warning or a sacking?

Rinat Shamstudinov argued:

The guys from Kloop [Karimdjanov and colleague, Zarema Sultanbekova] did good. But you should have taken a copy of the receipt because staff [of the police] may do anything possible to turn that Siberian Crown [alcoholic beer] into a Baltika '0′ [non-alcoholic].

This isn't the first time Karimdjanov's activities have earned him attention. Another recent video exposed on his blog posed the question [ru] ”Tiyini – Money No-one Needs?”

On that occasion Karimdjanov went around Bishkek with co-author Begimai Bolotbekova trying to spend tiyini, the much-loathed Kyrgyz equivalent of cents, pence and other smaller-than-small currency denominations. Refused by shopkeepers, stallholders and parking inspectors, he successfully exposed another law that doesn't work – that all denominations belonging to the national currency be accepted in cash transactions.*

Ilya's day-to-day blogging sees him defend the constitution [ru] (particularly article 33, allowing access to free information), expose corrupt university lecturers [ru] and make appeals [ru] for greater press responsibility. In this sense, he is like an onlime ombudsman, performing the functions the government, either through indifference or incompetence, doesn't.

But why does he bother? In response to a criticism by one commenter of his handling of the police-beer scandal, Karimdjanov replied [ru]:

I also thought to dismiss it at first. Just get up and leave, but my conscience would not allow me to. I know that nothing has fundamentally changed and it is unlikely to even be punished, but I have every right to approach such employees and to show them that they themselves are doing wrong.
All of us like to chew the fat and say that it is because of low salaries and all that. But fundamentally you don't even desire to do something useful. This is my country, the place my children will live ! And I will do everything possible so that before they arrive, I will make at least a few people, through examples like these, change the way they think about things and do what is correct! To sit back and criticize – is the easiest thing to do. But I respect your opinion, because my task was to convey information to you. I did this as a journalist, and how you perceive it – is up to you

* Fifty tiyin pieces, the eqivalent of 1 US cent, are accepted in the Kyrgyz supermarket chain ‘Narodni', an organization that fares pretty badly during coups in the country. Tourists in Bishkek may be forgiven for thinking that Narodni are entirely responsible for the circulation of this meloch, or small change, since only they seeem to dispense them, and only they seem to accept them….

Links to videos: 1, 2

Kazakhstan: Hockey Star's Wife Leaves Her Mark on the Kaznet

Chris Rickleton — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 03:36:56 +0000

Stacy Dallman, wife of former NHL hockey player Kevin Dallman, is likely to be remembered in Kazakhstan for a long time to come. After four years of starring for Barys, a team based in the Kazakh capital, Astana, Kevin is now on his way to other foreign ice rinks, apparently because his spouse Stacy's blog, Kaziland, upset some pretty powerful people in the Central Asian republic.

For Kazakh hockey fans, the news that Kevin, 31, had his contract with Barys torn up, is a bitter blow. An ex-defensemen for the LA Kings, Dallman was the heartbeat and captain of the Barys team, enjoying a cult status similar to that of Brazilian soccer star, Rivaldo, when he spent his twilight playing days with FC Bunyodkor in Uzbekistan.

Kevin and Stacy (centre) with the Barys leadership. Photo taken from the blog nortonsports.com

Like Rivaldo's stint in Uzbekistan, Dallman's time in Kazakhstan has ended in acrimony, the government apparently refusing to honour the remaining three years on his contract. In a post titled ‘до свидания’ (‘Goodbye’ in Russian), his wife Stacy signed off on her time in Kazakhstan with a thinly veiled broadside against the Kazakh government:

I’m done. No more blogs about Kazakhstan. I leave behind some of the most intelligent, discerning young people who are poised to become the next leaders of a historically repressed country that I am confident has the desire and ambition to overcome it’s problems.

And, in a nod to classical Russian literature, she added a Pushkin quote to her swansong post:

Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.

“Washing away?” Imagine how that sounds translated into Russian or Kazakh, in the corridors of power where President Nursultan Nazarbayev and his advisors strain to determine the course of their 20-year old ‘managed democracy'.

Or how about this, from a post entitled ‘Home Sweet Home':

I don’t really know why I tolerate it less and less every year. It just pains me when I see so much potential for a huge country with abundant natural resources who’s people don’t see a dime from their land being exploited and instead live in poverty and commanded denial. The money that should be used to develop the country is wasted away through corruption, lies, stealing, greed and selfishness on every level, in every organization from government right down to to small businesses to your everyday nanny or housekeeper.

Harsh words for a government that spends so much time and money burnishing its image, lauding its relative successes in a region strewn with faltering authoritarian regimes.

But the powers that be are probably thick-skinned enough to take some foreign criticism about corruption without resorting to deporting an international hockey star. What may have worried them more is the fact that many Kazakh internet users, usually seen as politically apathetic, came out in droves to agree with Stacy's posts. In a reply to ‘Home Sweet Home', one poster, Sanjiy, said:

What is written in the article is just the top of the iceberg. This blog is one of the bricks the building of democracy in Kaz will be made of.

Another visitor, Aidaika added more damaging words:

Stacy, thank you for your article, everything is true and it hurts me :-( Maybe you’ve heard about Zhanaozen events in last December, maybe not, but just to show everyone here in what country we live and what kind of president we have – the president has given green light to police and army to shoot at civil people.

But despite living in Kazakhstan for four hockey seasons, Stacy didn't seem to know too much about the December 2011 Zhanaozhen tragedy:

Was that the Oil situation?

Mukan.A thought Stacy was biting the hand that fed her:

Stacy, I agree with most of what you are saying. But if you look deeper what made you come to this country ? Is your husband that bad who could find a job only here? I am sorry but this country feeds you and your familly for the past years. I cant say this is a perfect country but you should appreciate the people country and the government where you live.

Another commenter, Kamila, wrote a lengthy post extolling the virtues of the Kazakh state and was subsequently criticized by other respondents for being a pro-government ‘troll'. (For more information about ‘trolling’ in Central Asia, read this excellent report by IWPR):

“Stacy, Just ignore Kamillas, Kamshats and etc. They are being paid by [the Kazakh] KGB 25000 tenge [USD 170] to troll… Ha-ha-ha,” said one visitor, Alma Atinian living in the US.

Clearly, despite her claims to the contrary, Stacy's blog had already become very political. As several local and international websites began [ru] carrying reports about the blog, Barys, her husband's employers, asked her to delete a post:

“If you are wondering where the last post went…. well….Kevins agent made me delete it! Well the agent is blaming it on the team, the team is blaming it on the owner of the team, the owner of the team is blaming it on the president of the country. I’m not quite sure if the president of any country would have enough time on his or her hands to worry about one little blog that less than 100 people read per day…but that’s their story and they are sticking to it. I’m 30 not 13… but whatever, I deleted it to be respectful of the agents/teams/owners/president of the countries request,” Stacy informed her growing fan club in a post titled “Bye-bye opinions”.

Less than two weeks after “Bye-bye opinions”, Yahoo Sports reported that Barys had said “bye-bye” to the Dallmans.

On Twitter, Central Asian political commentator @JoshuaFoust wrote:

Amazing fire de coeur from Stacy Dallman about corruption in Kazakhstan.

@Slage 85, was less complimentary:

“Stacy Dallman, who cares about you? You're a nobody. Stay away from Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. You aren't welcome,” he raged.

But back in Kaziland.com, most posters displayed genuine grief at the Dallmans’ departure, and anger towards the government, whom two posters accused of “behaving like a little girl” in its handling of the blog. One hockey-supporting father begged:

Kevin don’t leave. You are the best captain. All my friends shocked. The son cried all evening.

While Gussein contributed perhaps the most moving tribute to the pair:

Thank you very much for your effort to change Kz into a better place for its people. And i really appreciate what your husband, Kevin, has done for Barys. We are gonna miss you guys!!! and i’m sure that one day during our lifetime Kazakhstan will be a free country, and it will be a place where people would be able to practice freedom of speech. For now, you did what was right, and we will remember it for generations to come. I personally have no regrets, but only a sorrow that we have to be separated. We will miss you, our Canadian brothers and sisters.

Politics and sport – an explosive combination.

N.B For a dose of feel good on the Kaznet, check out the music video “Englishman in Shymkent” on YouTube. It is up to 100,000 hits now, and deserves ten times more.

Tajikistan: Where Size Matters

Chris Rickleton — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 03:45:03 +0000

Like any ancient Roman politician worth his salt, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon knows the political capital to be made out of large, ostentatious public works projects. Yet unlike the Caesars, Sullas, Pompeys and Catos of the Eternal City, he is loath to pay for them out of his own pocket.

A case in point is the National Library of Tajikistan, hailed as the largest of its kind in Central Asia. The building, whose essential statistics are 52 x 167 metres, amassed over $40 million from the beleagured state budget. Moreover, the Tajik government has asked ordinary citizens of the country to fill up its shelves with any unwanted literature, and, according to a news report by Kloop.tj, requisitioned books from university students under duress.

National Library of Tajikistan. Image from kloop.tj via rfe/rl.

Tajikistan’s external debt stands at $2 billion. The country’s Gross National Product per capita is currently around $2,000, making it one of the poorest countries in the world, and one of the least able to afford such lavish displays of architectural excess.

But this doesn’t appear to concern Rahmon, the post-Soviet republic’s twenty-year head of state. He is infected, some say, by Dubaism, by the desire to build things that are the biggest, tallest, widest, longest (and any other superlative related to size) in the region, world, multiverse and so on. But unlike in the capitals of the United Arab Emirates, there is no oil money to pay for these schemes.

His flagship flagpole project

In an interview in a Voice Of America video posted on YouTube about the President’s 2011 pet project, the tallest flagpole in the world, which at over 165 metres high took $3.5 million from the state budget, Tajik opposition politician, Muhiddin Kabiri, said:

You know what they say. People who are short wear high heels to compensate for their lack of height. If we can’t get people to pay attention to our economy, tourism, high-tech industry, democracy or human rights, then we can get our own citizens and guests to pay attention to projects such as the world’s tallest flagpole.

On his Facebook page, renowned Tajik blogger Zafar Abdullayev brainstormed [ru] an ironic excursion to the largest library in Central Asia, not far from the tallest flagpole in the world:

Tomorrow I am going with my friends to the National Library. I am bringing some of my books. Whoever wants, come with us! 10.00 behind the statue of Ismoili Somoni. Books help you see a completely different life!

But Konstantin Bodarenko [ru] didn’t like the idea of giving away his books:

But I don't want to give away my books – who will need them there?

Abdullaev vowed [ru] that his library tour group would be:

visible from all sides of the town, just don’t confuse us with the flagpole.

To which Rustam Rahmatov replied [ru]:

Just in case..I’ll hoist the flagpole up in my hands and Zafar will be on top of the flagpole!

Abdurahmon Rahmonov had [taj] a positive view of the exercise:

Great Zafar, you are working for the sake of the next generation! If they don`t read today they won`t have a better future. Hopefully (inshallah) there will be more people who read books /readers.

Wobbly regimes don't like independent media

But even joking about the government's ‘Dubaism’ is becoming harder in Tajikistan's current political climate. As discontent inside the country continues to grow, Dushanbe has intermittently blocked Facebook, causing users to enter the site via proxies until the block was lifted with help from the OSCE earlier last month.

The Rahmon regime's concern over the social network lies in the fact that Tajiks often use the space as a forum to discuss pressing social issues and political problems. Pages on the site such as ‘Tajikistan Revolution 2012′, although little-visited, are unlikely to lead to a softer stance towards citizen media in the long-term.

The block was part of a broader crackdown on the freedom to publish that began in early March this year. Zvezda.ru, where an article appeared predicting the downfall of the Rahmon regime, and CentralAsia.ru, was also banned, whilst ferghana.ru has long been blocked in the country.

Beyond their suppression of the written word, the Tajik authorities have launched a systematic campaign against religious freeedoms in the predominantly Muslim country. A March 20, United States government report placed the country inside the top sixteen worst abusers of religious freedom in the world, indicating another record the state's ruling family may be trying to break.

Bullish in a recent interview with Euronews, Rahmon said that there could be “no shortcut to democracy” in his country. Speaking of Russia's recent parliamentary and presidential elections, he added:

[Creating] a European or American style democracy in Russia or other former Soviet Republics in just a day or so – this is impossible – it's just a dream.

At one stage, so was building the world's tallest flagpole:

'The highest unsupported flagpole in the world, in Dushanbe'. Image by Radioi Ozodi (RFE/RL).

Author's note: Citizen journalist Tohir Pallaev contributed translations to this article.

Kyrgyzstan: The Internet on Trial?

Chris Rickleton — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 10:27:48 +0000

The ongoing trial of an ethnic Russian journalist accused of inciting racial hatred in a series of online articles may have profound implications for Kyrgyzstan's regulation of the Internet, as well as testing the neutrality of the country's moribund judicial system.

Vladimir Farofonov is accused under article 299, section one, which applies a charge of causing “national, racial, religious or interregional enmity” via “means of mass information”. Under conditions of judicial impartiality, the case's outcome would probably hinge on the difficulty of proving Farafanov's articles correspond to the charge at all, given that Kyrgyz law makes no provisions for the Internet as “means of mass information”.

Nevertheless, given that local courtrooms are often slaves to overriding political moods, it is far from certain that proceedings will devote themselves to this technicality alone.

Further complicating a case described by CPJ as “politically motivated”, Farafonov himself, appearing at the opening of his trial on March 28 [ru] said that over 11 of the 16 articles that had been brought as evidence against him at the trial were not written by him, something state prosecutors, not generally known for their mastery of the web, will have difficulty in disproving.

Moreover, the idea that the offending articles were written by more than one person has even been put forward by opponents of the very works attributed to Vladimir Farafonov.

Jyrgalbek Turdukozhoyev, an influential former editor of Bishkek-based online news agency, Kabar.kg, launched a written invective against “the Farafonovs” in the Kyrgyz-language press last year, then gave an interview to “Kyrgyz Ruhu” newspaper, later translated and published online, in which he explained the decision to pluralize his target:

“In my article, I was far from “assigning” the list of articles published under the signature V. Farafonov, to one author, because for me it was clear that behind [the articles] is a whole group of authors, weaving and carrying nonsense,” he said.

To summarize this strange situation, then: An ethnic Russian journalist, born in Kyrgyzstan, faces the possibility of imprisonment (up to five years according to article 299 section one of the Kyrgyz criminal code) for inciting racial enmity in articles published online. The journalist himself denies he is racist (he cites a part-Kyrgyz wife in his defence), denies that he is the author of most of the articles (and many of his accusers appear to agree with him), while his legal team denies that the Internet falls under the umbrella of “mass media”.

N.B If this appears to have a touch of farce about it, it still pales in comparison to the decision of a provincial court in the South of the country to sentence two Jehovas Witnesses to imprisonment as Islamic radicals in May last year…

The right to incite?

But what exactly has Farafonov (or people pretending to be him) done to offend the Kyrgyz state prosecutor that brought the charges against him? An article on Eurasianet.org attempted to frame the accusations against the journalist in the context of some of the openly insulting rhetoric contained in the pieces attached to his name:

“[The journalist's] writing will hardly help his case. In September 2010, Farafonov wrote on byeli parus…that only 20 percent of ethnic Kyrgyz are “modern humans,” while 80 percent are “stupidly stuck in the Asian middle ages.”

In an August 2011 article about the murder of a Kazakh tourist in Kyrgyzstan’s Issyk-Kul region, published by Centrasia.ru, Farafonov calls the Kyrgyz press covering the story “prisoners of political darkness,” trapped in “absolute stagnation” akin to an era of “early feudalism.” Labelling the murder an example of “elementary Kyrgyz hospitality,” the author’s scathing references to “primitive” rural Kyrgyz were condemned by Kyrgyz-language newspapers….”

Inflammatory? Certainly. Capable of causing inter-ethnic discord? Intangible. But much Russian-language media coverage of the Farafanov case has focused on the perceived one-sidedness in the application of article 299. A quick scan of gezitter.org [ru], which translates Kyrgyz-language print media into Russian, reveals no shortage of chauvinistic articles [ru] that might be better suited to the specifics of the racial enmity charge, since they originally appeared in printed newspapers.

However, while organizations such as the International Crisis Group observed the Kyrgyz-language press’ role in fuelling tensions between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in the run up to and aftermath of ethnic violence in 2010, no ethnic Kyrgyz editors or journalists have been brought before the courts since that time.

Commenting on Kloop.kg's facebook plugin, Bektour Iskender said:

I don't know whose side I am on in Farafanov's case. But the fact that Kyrgyz language newspapers aren't investigated for nationalism at all – this is certainly a fact IMO.

Take Sha noted that the case had important implications for press and internet freedoms in a country that generally enjoys a better track record in both than its neighbours:

Kyrgyzstan differs from CSI [former Soviet] countries in that you can write what you like and [the state] won't come and grab you, whether it is online, in forums…

But on Twitter, it was clear that Farafanov's writing had caused offence.

@tano-banzai: Farafanov is a ****

Meanwhile, @Samatdolotbakov articulated:

People, have you read the articles of #Farafanov “on the Kyrgyz”? Little **** has irritated me. The following tweets will be citations from his articles…

@Ryskulbekov agreed, tending toward the theory that the articles were written by a collective, rather than an individual:

@Ryskulbekov: @samatdolotbakov Samat, I consider, that these Farafonovs are the most genuinely destructive forces in our society

Once referred to as Central Asia's 'island of democracy', Kyrgyzstan has a reputation for political openness and media freedoms superior to the countries that it borders. The Tajik government's recent move to block Facebook, for instance, is an example of a decision that is almost unthinkable in Kyrgyzstan, where MPs actively use social media. Indeed, even aggressive ”trolling” across the country's online space is “pluralist”, according to an excellent IWPR report about comment “wars” between Central Asian netizens and state-sanctioned anonymous posters.

But there are signs that this may change. Recently, the government enacted a long-ago-passed parliamentary ruling blocking the independent Central Asian news website, Ferghana.ru, which lawmakers felt stoked inter-ethnic tensions in its coverage of the June 2010 violence. The country's former President, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, had banned the same site during his own time in office, but that block lasted just a month, as he was overthrown in a bloody coup in April 2010.

Regardless of what Vladimir Farafanov has or hasn't written, his conviction would set a worrying precedent for state incursions into online territory. If he is found guilty, then the Internet – and everything written on it - could be considered “fair game” for zealous state prosecutors and a compromised judiciary.

Kyrgyzstani bloggers await a verdict with mixed feelings.

Tajikistan: Tajik Voices Muted in Putin Video Debate

Chris Rickleton — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:10:24 +0000

A song apparently dedicated [ru] to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has surpassed 1,000,000 hits on YouTube, becoming one of several politicized clips to gain ‘viral’ status on the RuNet ahead of the country's presidential vote in March.

That the voice of “V.V.P” (Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, Putin's full name and the title of the song) is from Tajikistan, has already been established. So has the singer's name: Tolibzhon Kurbankhanov. Other than this, a lack of information about the hit and its origins has powered online conspiracy theories and anti-migration tirades, discourses in which Tajik opinions have taken a back seat.

VVP – he saved the country/VVP – he protects us / VVP – raised up Russia/ And development just keeps on going,” croons [ru] Kurbankhanov in the song's catchy refrain, his Russian touched by faint Farsi flourishes.

Over at the Eurasianet blog Inside the Coccoon, Katya Kumkova notes the song “extols the virtues of Russia’s former, and, likely, future president, as no other before it.”

Yet a number of Russian commenters questioned whether the video could have come from Putin's PR department, reservations that seem to have more to do with Kurbankhanov's ethnicity than the Kremlin's ability to talk itself up.

A special relationship

While it is no secret that nationalism is on the rise in Russia – a tendency Central Asian migrants have generally born the brunt of – there seems to be a special disdain for guest workers from Tajikistan. Despite the fact that Uzbek labour migrants outnumber [ru] their Tajik counterparts two to one in most Russian cities, it was a pair of fictional Tajik handymen, Ravshan and Jumshud, who were the subjects [ru] of repeated and brutal mockery on Nasha Russia, a popular comedy sketch show on T.V.*

With their status as “the other” endorsed by a frequently racist mainstream media, a Tajik national would indeed seem a strange choice to be the hero of a pro-Putin pop campaign. Hence the theory then, that the video is actually an ultra-nationalist attempt to discredit the Russian premier, as anti-immigrant voters lose faith in the V.V.P political brand (despite Putin's best efforts to appease [ru] them) in the runup to the March 4 ballot.

Certainly, the part of the electorate that may be tempted to vote for a different Vladimir on Russia's day of destiny bared their teeth in the comments section underneath the “VVP” clip:

What a great country we have. The ‘elite’ has its money in the west, its children in the west, palaces and football clubs…and we have guest workers and Tolibzhon Kurbankhanov,” vented [ru] Prohor1990

Bashing Putin via Kurbankhanov was a common theme:

In the best traditions of Central Asian despotism. The best proof that under V.V.P we are closer to becoming a Bukharan khanate than a European democracy,” said walery1963, [ru] a comment that earned 28 ‘likes'.

Another popular comment suggested Kurbankhanov had performed the song in exchange for his working papers:

What wouldn't you think up in order to get yourself registered?” asked [ru] OttoZiverT.

A presumed Tajik responded to these racist diatribes with a rueful account of his time in Russia as a migrant:

I came to Russia, with love and hope, but as time passed I developed a hatred and contempt for Russians, since the HATE subsided, only contempt remains,” bejsimpatico [ru] posted.

Bejisimpatico was then told [ru] to put things in perspective by Contessa111:

Don't take it all so personally. Unfortunately it is just the law of group think. In California for instance, everyone hates on the Mexicans, who come to earn money. In Germany they hate on the Turkish guest workers…people are always glad to have someone to look down on from high,” the commenter [ru] advised.

Meanwhile, in Tajikistan…

In the discussion space under the “V.V.P” Youtube posting, comments in Tajik were conspicuous in their absence, migrants from the country being the subject of conversation rather than active participants. In their turn, news agencies and blogging platforms with the .tj domain code seemed bemused by the attention the video had attracted.

A report by Kloop.tj, who publish both in Russian and the country's official language, Tajik, moved to discount allegations by Russian media outlets that Tolibzhon was a “sufficiently well-known pop star in Tajikistan”. As an interview with the Chief of Staff at the Tajik Ministry of Culture revealed:

The name Tolibdzhon Kurbankhanov says nothing to me. Previously, we have not heard of him. This singer is not known to anybody, and he has not participated in Dushanbe in events and concerts. I think he’s an imposter,” said Abdughaffor Abduzhaborov.

An anonymous post on seb.tj, assessed the main message of the “V.V.P” Youtube commenters as “take Putin back to Tajikistan with you.” Beneath this subtitle, it chronicled a host of unflattering comments made about Tajiks by Russian visitors to the “V.V.P” clip.

On a blog “2shanbe.tj” (a play on words; “Dushanbe” is the capital of Tajikistan), a dispatch by the admin similarly listed a store of derogatory comments by Russian Youtube users under the following introduction:

The quality of [Kurbankhanov's] singing, rhyming and the music clip as a whole are, to put it mildly, poor. The majority of users that have viewed this clip showed nothing but irony and sarcasm towards the Tajik people.”

Yet these two posts generated little in the way of discussion, and popular Tajik blogs passed the “V.V.P” clip over, suggesting a general ambivalence among Tajikistan-based web users towards trending nationalist memes - all the more predictable around election time – on the Runet.

* It should be noted that the Nasha Russia sketches involving Ravshan and Jumshud are as much a parody of racism in Russian society and sterotyping of Central Asians as they are a parody of Tajik migrant workers themselves. Nevertheless, the depiction has proved a penetrating one, and has added an extra thorn in prickly diplmatic relations between the two nations. Also, although only 6.7% of Russia's migrants are Tajik, other non-Tajik Central Asian migrants are prone to being referenced as “Tajiks” by passers-by in Moscow. This was the experience of Aida Kasymalieva, who has a brilliant piece up on RFE/RL titled “First Person: Life In Russia As A Non-Russian Child.”

N.B Despite having attained overnight stardom, Tolibzhon Kurbankhanov's genuine views on Putin and the political situation in Russia, ditto his permanent place of residence, remain unknown. In an interview uploaded by the same user who posted the original clip, Kurbankhanov is seen sports bag in hand, thanking his fans, apologizing for not being able to reply to all their fan mail and hinting at a follow up to “V.V.P”. All the while, Dushanbe international airport, Tajikistan, looms large in the background….

Kyrgyzstan: Nationalist Politician's Statements Spark Protests

Chris Rickleton — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:05:17 +0000

Recent pronouncements by MPs of a provocative and nationalist character have brought debates about language, identity and self to the top of the KyrNet’s ‘to blog’ list, and not for the first time, either. Since bloodshed between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in June 2010, nationalist rhetoric has made nests for itself both online and inside the Kyrgyz parliament.

Nevertheless, having come into sharp relief in the aftermath of those tragic events, “ultra patriotic” voices seemed finally to be taking a well-deserved rest in the country, as a government of more moderate political sentiments coalesced around new President Almas Atambaev. Enter language warrior Urulkan Amanbaeva and inter-ethnic peace-pooper Kamchybek Tashiev.

Adapted from the blog thekulas.blogspot.com

When looking at how important a given issue is to Kyrgyz netizens, citizen media portal Kloop.kg’s Facebook plugin is usually a fairly reliable indicator. In still-young 2012, the most discussed articles have been Kyrgyz MPs and their cars, MP Urulkan Amanbaeva’s belief that ethnic Kyrgyz government officials should speak in Kyrgyz, and, most recently, MP Kamchybek Tashiev’s statement that Kyrgyzstan’s Prime Minister should be a “pure blooded Kyrgyz”.

The details of the Amanbaeva case, which involved the deputy from the Respublika faction squawking at an official from the treasury for answering a question posed in Kyrgyz in Russian can be read here. But it is the statement of Tashiev, a polarizing politician from the south of the country, which has attracted the most attention from netizens.

“Oh Tashiev, so very Tashiev”

It was Tashiev’s party, Ata-Jurt, that edged victory in Kyrgyzstan’s parliamentary elections in October 2010. Judged by international observers as the country’s most free and fair in 20 years of independence, the result reflected a growing nationalist fervour – especially in the country’s ethnically divided south. But since then, “Kamchike” as he is affectionately known by the country’s red top media, has comprehensively failed to get along with any of the other parties in parliament, and even had a fight with one MP while the legislature was in session.

If Tashiev has an ultimate nemesis, it is Omurbek Bobanov, leader of the Respublika faction and current Prime Minister, who he has accused of a range of misdemeanours in the past. On February 8, in an interview with the Kyrgyz tabloid De Facto, he said the following:

Society is full of people who are opposed to Babanov leading the government. Everyone knows who Babanov is. I should say openly, and let people not be offended, that the head of government should be a pure-blooded Kyrgyz, who will actually be rooting for the interests of the country. We have been ruled by Tatars, Jews, Russians and others. With the coming to power of Babanov we are now ruled by Kurds. The man who guides the nation should be a full-blooded Kyrgyz. So they say in Russia, and in Kazakhstan. And why should we be ashamed to talk about it?

Russians? Ok, that was the Soviet Union. Tartars – some loose orientalist reference to the age of Ghengis Khan, perhaps. Jews – when was that?

In referring to the people of Zion, Tashiev may have been speaking of Maxim Bakiyev, the son of Tashiev’s former boss, Ex-President Kurmanbek. Maxim’s mother was Russian and his father at various points was accused of being a non-Kyrgyz Dungan (how else could his unpatriotic, corrupt activities be explained?), while Maxim, seemingly by virtue of having Israeli business partners, was labelled “a Jew”. Thus, ethnicity is clearly a complex thing.

Chalkan.kg columnist, Aida Kasymailova, blogged in a piece titled “Tashiev – the true Kyrgyz”:

Yesterday, all Kyrgyz, on hearing the news [of Tashiev’s announcement] via radio and television, glanced at themselves in the mirror and asked themselves whether or not they were “pure-blooded”. They remembered their ancestors up to the seventh generation, enquired with their current and former wives. Some found a reason for pride, but many, doubt.

The allegation that Babanov is a “Kurd” stems from the fact that his mother is Kurdish, according to a comment re-tweeted [ru] by Kyrgyzstan’s second-most followed twitterer, Edil Baisalov:

If Tashiev is having a go at Babanov's mother, then he should apologize

Bektour Iskender, president of Kloop, let out a despairing cyber-sigh on his citizen media portal's Facebook plugin [ru]:

Oh Tashiev, so very Tashiev

Another user, Bahadir Nazirkhanov, said Tashiev's focus on “pure-bloodedness” put the status of ‘national’ literary hero Chingiz Aitmatov [ru] in doubt:

To follow Tashiev's logic, should we also put C. Aitmatov in the category of unpure?

Indeed, such a thorough and discerning search for purity could reduce the Kyrgyz nation down to Tashiev and a few of his friends, although even Tashiev's own children might miss the cut.

Nazambai Ishkahametov said:

What fascism? Tashiev's wife is Kazakh. To follow his logic, his children are not pure-blooded

But among the liberal complainants, there were a few ready to rally behind Tashiev's message. Kyalbek Kyrgyz said:

Correct Tashiev! Kyrgyzstan is for the Kyrgyz, and not for any old half-hearted b******s. In order that pro-American ass-analysis isn't written here, continue your patriotic duty. If you don't like the Kyrgyz, go somewhere you do like!

Mind your language

Tashiev's announcement certainly raised the stakes in terms of the nationalist debate. Prior to now, most of the country's discourses on patriotism have had language, rather than genetics, at their core. The need to develop the state-endorsed Kyrgyz, perhaps at the expense of the country's other official mode of communication, Russian, has been a key concern, not only of the country's politicians but of popular culture figures, too.

In an engaging article on Eurasianet.org, Nate Schenkkan profiles Tata Ulan, a Kyrgyz bard/rapper with revivalist cultural leanings, whose performances have made him a national talking-point:

The music video is all one take. Standing behind a podium bearing the state seal of Kyrgyzstan, wearing a felt kalpak hat and armor like the national epic hero Manas, a masked figure hectors the audience over a bounding beat:

In 20 years what has the state given its children? / Sold out wisdom, turned to business, wisdom’s on the street now! / What do my Kyrgyz need? You're a Muslim, you need religion! / What do my Kyrgyz need? Pure Kyrgyz language is what you need!

Ulan went on to tell Schenkkan in an interview that, like many urban Kyrgyz, he had to go back to the books to ‘learn’ his native tongue:

“In order to learn my language, I started to read Manas,” he said. “I had never spoken Kyrgyz, at least not well. And I couldn't write the language at all. But then I read Manas, and immediately I started to write”.

[Ulan] is now a fierce advocate of the language. “If you grew up in the city and don't speak Kyrgyz, you're a myrk,” he says in ‘Ne Kerek,’ inverting the insult native Bishkek residents use for non-Russian speakers who move to the city. It is statements like this that prompt accusations of nationalism.

An archived Spektator blog has more on the bizarre term “myrk” here.

N.B For readers of Russian, a satirical blog on Akipress.kg that re-imagines public discourses as fairy tales, makes for an interesting introduction to politics in the country. Last week the theme was inevitably ‘pure-bloodedness', discussed in a post “What is on your mother's side?”, with “Kamchi” and “Omurke” as the main characters. In the blog, the author infers that “Kamchi”, who has the Kyrgyz national dish besh barmak in his blood, has long suspected “Omurke” of being ” far too pretty” to be a true member of the “besh barmak nation”.

We will allow Global Voices readers to make up their own mind on that score. Tashiev is on the right, the “impure-blooded” Bobanov on the left:

Kyrgyzstan: World Bank Country Director Storms Out of Round Table

Chris Rickleton — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:46:42 +0000

For Kyrgyzstan-based netizens the story of last week was undoubtedly the sudden and violent meltdown of Alexander Kramer, head of the World Bank's Bishkek office, at a high level government-donor round table on February 3, 2012.

Kramer appeared to boil over during a speech by his IMF counterpart, Koba Gvenetadze, during which he rose from his chair, lobbed a drinking glass in the direction of Kyrgyz Deputy Prime Minister Jomart Otorbayev, and stormed out of the meeting.

David Trilling, Eurasianet's Central Asia editor, was one of the first to blog the news:

The incident occurred during a donor meeting at government headquarters, known as the White House, in Bishkek. According to one eyewitness, Kramer had just spoken for a few minutes, praising recent government initiatives and encouraging Bishkek to ensure officials are chosen for their merits. He defended the World Bank’s sometimes slow motions in the country, noting that development is “a marathon rather than a sprint,” according to EurasiaNet's source. During the next set of remarks, by the International Monetary Fund’s country director, Kramer suddenly stood up, yelled, “This is all crap!” and threw the glass, which shattered on the floor in front of Otorbayev.

Although the Kyrgyz government and the World Bank offered slightly different versions of the condition that caused Alexander Kramer to “totally freak out“, as one online news agency put it, both agreed that it was something to do with blood.

According [ru] to citizen media portal Kloop.kg:

The World Bank argues that the office head performed the act solely because of his sharply deteriorating health. The glass, they say, was thrown by accident, and now Kramer is in hospital.

“The act of A. Kramer was caused solely by the state of his health: there was a sudden onset of circulatory disorders of the brain, which led to the extraordinary and unusual behavior of A. Kramer,” said the World Bank in a press release.

The government press service similarly reported that the behavior of Kramer was the result of a “heart attack”.

Tellingly, Kloop's reportage continued:

The World Bank has apologized for the behavior of the head of its office and said that the incident had nothing to do with the person speaking at the time – the head of the International Monetary Fund in Kyrgyzstan, Koba Gvenetadze.

It is no secret that officials from the fund and the bank often regard each other with suspicion and occasionally even hostility. In fact, the dysfunctional relationship between the global economic order's bad and good cops was the subject of a fascinating chapter in ex-World Bank Chief Economist Joseph Stieglitz's 2002 whistleblowing best-seller “Globalization and its Discontents”. But if the IMF's abrasive, take no prisoners approach to fiscal policy in the developing world was the source of Kramer's red mist, why did the tumbler land closest to Deputy PM Otorbayev?

Twitter user @Ahmadon had [ru] another theory:

Hahaha, Alexander Kramer – hero, man, baike [elder brother in Kyrgyz], you see, he couldn’t be f***ed to listen to the empty chatter of our state officials

A second Twitter user, @azzzik, compared [ru] Kramer to ex-presidential candidate turned nutty clairvoyant Arstanbek Abdylaev, the subject of this recent Global Voices Post. However, post-tumblergate, Abdylaev's premonitions of ruptures in the international political order seem suddenly prescient, and a third user of the service suggested Sabri bey, a Turkish man who thinks he can fly, was a more worthy parallel.

A few days on from the scandle, the focus of Bishkek Twiterazzi is on Kramer's future:

@ajoroev: Is it true that Alexander Kramer is already the ex-head of the World Bank in Kyrgyzstan and moreover, [already] overseas?

While the former has yet to be confirmed, various agencies have since reported that he is now recuperating in London.

Whatever happens to Alexander Kramer in the long run, it is clear that one projectile-throwing monkey won't stop the show. Yesterday, the World Bank announced that it would be providing nearly $20 million in infrastructural funding for Kyrgyzstan's two main cities, Bishkek and Osh, in 2012. Whether that package will include compensation for a certain smashed glass will doubtless be the subject of a future round table.

N.B: Last time Global Voices relayed the status of imprisoned ethnic Uzbek rights activist, Azimzhan Askarov, he had just had his life sentence - handed down initially by a regional judge - reinforced by Kyrgyzstan's Supreme Court. While Askarov remains in captivity, a recent interview with Eurasianet journalist Nate Schenkkan found the activist “psychologically resilient” and still interested in the rights of others. According to Kloop.kg, on February 6, Shirin Aitmatova became the first Kyrgyz MP to visit Askarov since he was interred over one-and-a-half years ago. On Twitter, not all the tweets using Aitmatova's @thelostroom tag were positive about the visit.

Kyrgyzstan: “Putin Is a Complex Bio-Robot”

Chris Rickleton — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:44:30 +0000

Arstanbek Abdylaev, scourge of the Kyrgnet, has struck again. Noted on Global Voices before for predicting a planet shorn of seasonal transition, this ex-presidential candidate and current head of the “People’s Academy” is back to tell the universe what he really meant, having been mocked and misunderstood by netizens back in November 2011.

Now, with the help of a new sidekick, a kalpak-sporting, silver-tongued ethnic Korean called Alexander Pak, he is even dabbling in political philosophy. The world, the pair told an expectant press conference on January 27, 2012, is run by figures who are standing behind the figures we think run the world. If that sounds a bit Zeitgeisty, then Abdylaev has added an original twist: Russia’s under-fire prime minister, Vladimir Putin, is a “complex bio-robot.”

Not much of this will make sense until you tune into Abdylaev’s first press conference where his utterance “Зима не будет”, or “there will be no winter” made him an overnight online sensation. Along with that pearl of wisdom, his helper, Mirlan Asakeev, suggested that life had “begun with the Kyrgyz”, and would begin again with the Kyrgyz, at the end of the year 2012. Adam and Eve, he argued, to the astonishment of the assembled hack-pack, were “63.5% Kyrgyz.”

This time round, Asakeev was limited to a bit-part performance, his coveted position as Abdylaev’s number two apparently usurped by Pak. Pak, whose mastery of Russian exceeds that of both his colleagues, proceeded to explain that the original phrase “there will be no winter”, had been taken too literally, and that actually it had a “big energetic and informational bloc” capable of creating a “moment of total quantum leap” for humanity.

A New World Order

Besides the assertion that Kyrgyzstan would be the “informational centre of the 21^st century”, Abdylaev revealed that he had forewarned the Kazakh and Russian governments of the political perils rippling accross the globe:

“Four months ago we wrote to the Kazakh ambassador – we said, you are going to [suffer] terrorist attacks – mass upheavals – they laughed at us. We wrote to the leader of the Russian Federation – Putin. We said that there would be war in Arabia, and they laughed at us, but there was [war]. Now my words are being proven, not by a historian, or an academic, or paper, but time,” Abdylaev said.

Where could the press conference possibly go from there? Well, despite apparently being ridiculed by the Russian leadership, journalists heard, Moscow still has a place in Abdylaev’s New World Order – chiefly as the brawn behind Kyrgyzstan’s brain. Since Europe will soon be starved, disease-ridden and submerged under water, he reasoned, Russia would have no choice but to turn East.

“Why are we writing to Russia? Russia and Kyrgyzstan will conserve humanity. That’s why I call Putin “a complex bio-robot”… We will give a program to the Russian leader, Putin, and he will do it, because he has the power,” Abdylaev said.

And for the dull reporter lost on the difference between an ordinary bio-robot and a complex bio-robot, Abdylaev elucidated:

With a bio robot, you give him a program and he does it, correct? But Putin is a complex bio robot – he himself does it.

Perhaps this difficult, semi-mechanic nature is the source of Putin’s reputed marital troubles….

As the press conference wound down, Alexander Pak summed the group's message up as follows:

This phrase [there will be no winter]… is also a code. Anyone who has heard the phrase “there will be no winter” has already received the code and they are using it, even if they are not fully conscious of this. That code contained here among the Kyrgyz should arrive in every person, and through it every person should come to a condition of over-standing; they will become more than human and they will be aware of their true capabilities and their real meanings as human beings… This is why Arstanbek [Abdylaev] called Putin a bio-robot. Barack Obama is also a bio-robot. Other bio-robots stand behind these people and behind these people are other people and today these people are all bio-robots. This code [there will be no winter] allows these bio-robots to become human and write constitutions for the future era, the era we have called the golden era.

So, what is this strange “People's Academy?” Aside from obtuse letters to world leaders, do they have any publications or academic accreditation? Increasingly they are beginning to sound like a cult, a fact that could get Abdylaev into trouble in a country where the state is often hostile towards obscure religious movements.

Inter-internet conflict?

On YouTube, Abdylaev’s second coming earned a mixed reception, both from local Kyrgyz Internet users and from the broader RuNet:

“In my brain after watching that clip I had a total quantum leap,” said [ru] underaszZz

“Who are they kidding, it has been -20 here for two weeks,” quipped [ru] alexxx8999 .

In among the good-natured banter, there were some seemingly derogatory comments from Russian Internet users towards Kyrgyzstan, repositories of the Russian Federation's rising tide of nationalism:

“Is there a doctor in the studio! Or aren’t there any doctors in Kyrgyzstan? How can they allow abnormal people airtime?” asked [ru] breeedfrtf .

“Who let them off the building site?” asked [ru] TheMacsander, a probable reference to the fact that many Kyrgyz work abroad in Russia as labour migrants.

“Judging by the commentaries, Russians differ from fascists only in their stupidity,” raged BeksKazama in response.

But other RuNet types saw reasons to envy their small, mountainous Central Asian neighbour, and took Abdylaev's public appearance as a cue to bash United Russia, the political machine that took victory in Russia's recent elections to the state Duma - a vote tainted by allegations of massive fraud.

“Kyrgyz wake up, don’t call the Russians to your aid! Otherwise you will soon have United Russia and corruption, in other words the whole bouquet ‘from Russia with love!'” said [ru] marysimon79 .

“You know, I think it might be worth going [to Kyrgyzstan], given that they don't have United Russia there,” said [ru] TheSarajPictures

Another less politicized strand of commentators made the connection between Abdylaev's metaphorical/metaphysical musings and Kyrgyzstan's Chui Valley, something of a weed-basket for Eurasian marijuana smokers during Soviet times:

“What are they smoking?” asked [ru] SuperSascha2012

“O Great Valley of Chuika [Chui-grown marijuana] Ototo – there will be no winter,” said [ru] Mariyajuri.

“Great Chuika this year, I smoked and [got a] quantum leap straight away,” teased [ru] Mikkado31

But whether stoned or sober, the “energetic code” of Abdylaev's “Peoples Academy” is drawing a few genuine followers:

“They are trying for us. We just need to become different, change our souls, become purer! It is great that they want to bring this to the people. There is no point picking holes in their grammar. Come, let us be people, brothers and sisters. It will be easier for us to live this way,” said [ru] psipolza

And truly, who would lack the humanity to disagree with such sentiments? Perhaps only the evil bio-robots among us:

N.B According to Bishkek-based citizen media portal Kloop, Abdylaev's second press conference has already surpassed his first in terms of online popularity. Once again, the catalyst for a spike in viewing figures was a prime-time slot on Russian satirist Stas Davydov's internet show “ThisisHorosho“.

Kyrgyzstan: MPs Told to Ride the Bus

Chris Rickleton — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:38:39 +0000

Members (MPs) of Kyrgyzstan's Jogorku Kenesh parliament are not generally associated with self-sacrificing behaviour. Nevertheless, a suggestion from within the legislature that MPs should give up their state-funded cars and take a minibus to work has moved Kyrgyz netizens towards a reappraisal of what their elected representatives should and shouldn't be entitled to.

The proposal came from within the ranks of the socialist Ata-Meken party, as part of a continuing discourse on how to shrink an alarmingly bloated and deficit ridden state budget. The reactions of MPs from other factions were then comprehensively canvassed in an excellent article by Kloop.kg's Begimai Bolotbekova.

Ata-Meken's Akunaly Dosaly outlined [ru] the “shuttle scheme” thus:

In each faction, there could be one or two custom vehicles while the majority of MPs could take a shuttle bus. They could arrive in the morning then be brought back in the evening.

This would seem a reasonable initiative, given that MPs of different factions can hardly be expected to ride the same bus. But even with that proviso, some lawmakers weren't happy with the idea.

Jyldyzkan Joldosheva of the Ata-Jurt party said [ru]:

I have a house in Bishkek – I refused a [state-funded] apartment. But the car, I cannot refuse because it is not a luxury, but a necessity

Incidentally, if the allegations of one news portal [ru] are to be believed, Zholdosheva is rather fond of state-funded “necessities”.

Although a couple of MPs supported the parliamentary shuttle plan in principle, others thought it unfeasible. Tatiyana Levina of the Ar-Namys party said she wasn't against travelling by shared transport per se, but feared that it might give off the wrong impression to the electorate:

If you give up company cars, you need to give up everything – payments, subsidies… Well, how would that look? Everyone lives in different parts of the city. I think our voters would find it more annoying [if we got a bus to work], because our pensioners cannot ride buses for free – they must pay a fee

So the knowledge that MPs get a free bus pass would be more of an irritation to the electorate than watching the same representatives cruise into work in a government-allocated Toyota Camri? Hmmm…

Nice wheels, baike

It is worth mentioning that not all of Kyrgyzstan's legislators drive a Camri to work. Some of them eschew the gift for their own flashier set of wheels, while others alternate between privately owned and publically owned automobiles.

Following the interest in Bolotbekova's article, Kloop.kg invited their posse of young journalists (all aged under 24) and readers of the portal to take snaps of deputies on their way to work. The results were displayed as follows (example):

Azamat Arapbaev, MP of the faction Ata-Jurt, goes to work in a ”Lexus LX570″, 2008 model, with the registration number 0028 KG.

According to [current information], this brand of car changes hands for USD 87,000.

To afford this car - without eating anything and living on the street – would take:
- An MP on an official salary: 4.5 to 6.5 years
- The average working resident of Bishkek: from 22 to 33.5 years

The article, featuring fifteen such profiles, generated a stream of comments from netizens, who via Kloop's Facebook plugin either chose to defend specific MPs as “honest” or move in for the kill with complaints about graft and inequality.

Tynchtyk Maldybaev posted ironically:

But why do you [speak] badly of our deputies, they are the demigods, the Kyrgyz representatives of God on earth, they only think of the people

Another reader, Isken, quoted the English historian Lord Acton:

For we know that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely

But while some readers strained to calculate how long it would take them to own a Lexus, others suggested that the piece had attempted to bias the people against the ruling elite. In response to these accusations, Kloop Editor Anna Leilik replied:

We had no goals to show MPs in a positive or negative light. You probably noticed we did not have the same number of deputies from different factions – the cars were randomly selected. We wanted to compare data from different sources with the photos. With regard to the [costs of the cars] and the salaries, they are publically available online, and the same thing we did – calculate – anybody could have done.

From private armies to public transport

Views on the moral character of MPs not withstanding, the very fact that the Kyrgyz parliament is debating such changes marks a massive shift from April of last year, when former house speaker Akhmatbek Keldibekov proposed legislation that would allow lawmakers and their personal bodyguards to carry weapons in and around the parliament.

Back then, a Kloop poll showed a vast majority of portal users as being opposed to the legislation, while several who supported it did so only for the bloodiest of reasons. One user, Nurbek, commented:

I am FOR this law. Let them shoot at each other in the Jogorku Kenesh

Clearly, less than 12 months down the line, the legislature is a changed place. It has a new ruling coalition, a new speaker, and its members are pondering the need to swap the ”parliamentary fleet” for a communal shuttle. Somewhere in all this there is a reality TV show waiting to happen.

N.B.: Coincidentally, Akhmatbek Keldibekov left the speaker's office amidst a scandal surrounding the distribution of the special ‘KG’ registration plates. Ranging from the presidential plate (KG 001) to less prestigious registrations in the KG hundreds, these items are something of a status symbol in Kyrgyzstan and usually get you past traffic cops without any bother. What plates the proposed “faction buses” will carry is as yet unknown.

Kyrgyzstan: Ravshan Jeenbekov and the Facebook Generation

Chris Rickleton — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 11:09:06 +0000

Of all the divides in Kyrgyzstan’s fractious political society, one too often overlooked is the divide between generations. Unlike the famed North/South schism, which manifests itself in elections and street-protests, the generational split is subtle in its complexion; existing within political factions rather than between them, as members of a younger, tech-savvy elite openly challenge their blog-phobic bosses in the national parliament.

The recent effort to install a Prime Minister to head the government is a case in point. The majority of the candidates who put themselves forward for the appointment were under forty-five, something which in itself represents a sea change in domestic political circles.

Following firm backing in the coalition vote, Omurbek Babanov, aged 41 , took the post on December 23. But the leader of the Respublika faction, to a great extent, was the establishment choice. An ally of recently elected President Almas Atambayev, he can be reasonably relied on to do the head of state’s bidding while Atambayev himself enjoys the more glamorous lifestyle of grand interstate summits and security staff reshuffles.

A more independent, reform-minded PM might have been Ravshan Jeenbekov, also 41. But with only 5 coalition votes, his candidacy flopped. Moreover, he failed to win the support of many members of his own party, Ata-Meken, who under the leadership of veteran politicker Omurbek Tekebayev, pragmatically decided to endorse the Atambayev-inspired status quo. After the announcement of the coalition’s vote on December 19, Jeenbekov’s Facebook wall was flooded with condolences.

“Mr MP Jeenbekov, after your party didn’t support you during voting for the post of Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan, do you intend to continue working with the traitors?” asked [ru] Aziz Abakirov

“Aziz, hello. Each person chooses their own path. I work according to my convictions and I travel my own path. Many members of my party made their choice. It is their right, although not completely, I think, given [their obligation to] their ideological and political position. I will have to work among them, yes, because I am an MP of this party. I am obligated,” replied [ru] Jeenbekov.

“But answer, how can you love a woman after she has cheated on you?” pressed [ru] Abakirov.

“Aziz, love for a woman and politics differ strongly from one another ),” Jeenbekov [ru] answered.

Even during less exciting moments in Kyrgyzstan’s political calendar Jeenbekov’s wall overflows with discussions. While the MP responds unfailingly to praise (he is human, after all) and ducks the odd difficult question (he is a politician, after all), perhaps the most important element of his profile is that it offers his nearly 4,500 followers a single space where they can discuss topical issues and meet edninomyshliniki (like minded people) with whom they share common values. The fact that an elected representative frequently participates in these exchanges brings the whole process a step closer to Rousseauian visions of direct democracy.

“Pity that many MPs do not realize that the consciousness of the young is growing, and that this is no longer the same people who just nod at what their “bosses” say. Or maybe they understand it and are therefore hiding from us, because our thoughts and ideas knock them down. Inevitably there will come an intellectual ‘revolution’. Now, many young leaders realize that they can participate in the government, as is their complete right to do so!” Uluk Kydyrbaev concluded during the December 19 wall discussion, to a score of ‘likes’ from other users.

Indeed, by showing the ambition to nominate himself for the PM spot Jeenbekov didn’t nod at his party bosses, he defied them. And, with growing online followings that undermine more traditional forms of political loyalty in Kyrgyzstan (regional, patronage-based, deference to seniority etc), the day when he and other social-media-friendly deputies seek to challenge the aksakals on their own terms may not be too far away. As Jeenbekov predicted in a reply to one of his contacts, Ilyas:

“Ilyas, I think, that at the next elections the [Ata-Meken] party will be reformatted. I am sure that [at the next elections] a strong party, with a liberal-democratic position will appear.”

Watch this space.

Social Media in Kyrgyz politics: No Magic Wand, Yet

Cynics will make the argument that social media such as Facebook and Twitter are limited in their ability to transform either the agency or the fundamental structure of Kyrgyz political society and currently, the numbers support their case.

While internet penetration in the country, at just under 40%, compares favourably to most Central Asian states, social media statisticians estimate that only 1.17% of the country has a facebook account, the vast majority of whom are based in the capital, Bishkek. Also, a 2009 report cited by Neweurasianet suggested that less than 10% of Kyrgyz internet users are over 40, meaning that many of the most powerful and influential in this post-Soviet society still get their kicks offline.

Nevertheless, as overall usage continues to grow, a Twitter or Facebook account is increasingly being seen by local bigwigs as a valuable source of political capital. A September Global Voices post by Elena Skochilo highlighted a Facebook-based witch hunt which demanded Kyrgyz netizens ‘unfollow’ or ‘defriend’ politicians on Twitter and Facebook, who do not use their accounts personally, or, who set them up opportunistically, prior to elections. As human rights activist Dmitry Kabak posted [ru] on the group's wall:

“I know 100% that Dastan Bekeshev, Shirin Aitmatova, Ravshan Jeenbekov write themselves. I do not know who writes in the accounts of Nariman Tuleev and Tursunbai Bakir uulu. [Their] Twitter and Facebook [activity] intensified on the eve of the presidential race. Marat Imankulov… is not writing himself- the date of birth and positions don't tally, and there are only links to news stories “about himself.” Please add information about “suspicious activity” on political accounts and then un-follow.”

But whether Kyrgyz power-brokers see social media as an opportunity to communicate with constituents or simply another way of boosting their public profiles, their dalliances with online activity are sufficient evidence that Facebook and Twitter are gradually altering the political landscape of this year-old parliamentary republic. The latter in particular has become ‘The News Before it Happens', with online agencies such as Kloop relaying live Twitter-feeds from deputies musing on laws and coalition-formations as they spar and haggle in the legislature.

Moreover, in a small country where institutions are feeble and personal connections all-conquering, the scattergun effect of a succinct 'tweet’ may prove the equal of multiple phone calls in times when a lethargic body politic needs to be shaken into action. That, at any rate, is the conclusion drawn in a brilliant article on the Foreign Policy blog by Natasha Yefimova-Trilling, titled Twitter Vs. the KGB.

The beginning of the piece finds US photographer Nic Tanner in a spot of bother. While covering the aftermath of the November presidential elections in the southern city of Osh, he is accosted by plain-clothes-wearing men who claim to be representatives of the local equivalent of the KGB. After frantically phoning his journalist colleague, Natasha's husband David, an SOS tweet went out from @DTrilling, followers of whom include “young former and current Kyrgyz officials”. Within minutes, a tense situation was diffused and Tanner was free to go, baffled by a complete reversal in the officers’ behaviour towards him. But as Yefimova-Trilling explains:

This is not a story of Twitter's ability to galvanize grassroots protests and marshal ordinary citizens to defend just causes. Kyrgyzstan is a place where high-tech social networks meet old-fashioned patronage networks. All those who got in touch were people we knew personally, and people with some clout…Our use of social media didn't tap a network of underground civil-society activists — it simply sped up the well-oiled machinery of string-pulling.

And sadly, Twitter is no magic wand if you are an ethnic Uzbek human rights activist. Arrested following ethnic conflict in southern Kyrgystan, a regional court convicted Azimzhan Askarov to a life sentence on a series of charges that international and domestic human rights organizations feared were ‘trumped up’ against a background of seething nationalism. Despite being one of the most tweeted about subjects in the Kyrgyz Twittersphere – #Askarov - the Kyrgyz Supreme Court upheld the regional court's decision on December 21.

Social media then can go far in Kyrgyz politics, but probably only so far, insofar as public life in the country continues to be dominated by familiar faces, a compromised judiciary and what RFER/L's Daisy Sindelar refers to as “cynical season(s) of gray-haired power-jockeying”.

N.B One infrastructural obstacle to the powers of internet-based social technologies in Kyrgyzstan is the nation's currently patchy supply of electricity. Following a cold snap that saw an uptake in energy consumption in the northern half of the country, the Soviet era energy grid is wheezing, leading to sustained shortages for citizens. In a parody of this bold nostradamian statement, Sadybakas Abylov has produced [ru] a lively and very readable blog post titled “There will be no electricity”.