This roundup is cross-posted from Global Voices

Anara – by teokaye

Anara is one of the ‘youth at risk’ that took part in the weekend trip. Instead of going to school, she supports her family by collecting plastic bags at Dordoi bazaar, a massive clothing market made up of thousands of containers.

Kyrgyz-US relations
The killing of an ethnic Russian driver by an American soldier is likely to put a strain on Kyrgyz-US relations, says Tolkun at neweurasia. Kyrgyz Report also comments on the story and thinks that the Bakiyev administration might use the incident to put pressure on the US to tone down its criticism towards the Kyrgyz government. This piece of news comes at a time when Kyrygz politicians voice their disillusion with “US-style democracy”. However, as Nathan reports, there is not a lot in Kyrgyzstan’s political systems resembling the US form of government. Readers also offer their two cents.

Kazakhstan: back to business
With the Borat controversy ebbing from the blogosphere, it seems to be time to talk about the important things again. The decision over Kazakhstan’s 2009 chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has been postponed by the foreign ministers of the 56 member states for one year. Several bloggers offer their comments: KZBlog is skeptical that Kazakhstan should be automatically given the chairmanship so that hard-liners loose part of their influence. After all, real change is already under way and unstoppable, even without the merely prestigious post. Nathan of The Registan wrote a great background post on the politics of the chairmanship and notes that Kazakhstan might actually withdraw its bid in case chances become too slim. On neweurasia, Adam Kesher provides coverage in Russian, saying that postponing the decision by one year means that the OSCE expects real reforms to happen now. Read the full story »

Sir Richard (“Dick”) Evans is to become the chairman of Samruk, Kazakhstan’s state holding company, reports The Guardian. Dick Evans is of somewhat dubious fame in the UK. He is the former chairman of British defence giant BAE Systems and is frequently being brought into connection with a running scandal involving an alleged £60m fund to bribe Saudi officials into buying British defence equipment:

Shortly after he stepped aside as BAE chairman, Sir Richard was interviewed at length by the SFO at the end of 2005. Sir Richard and BAE deny any wrongdoing, and the current chairman, Mike Turner, made public threats last week that a £6bn Saudi contract to buy Typhoon aircraft could be derailed if SFO inquiries into Swiss bank accounts were not curtailed.

The word Samruk in Kazakh translates as “the bird of revival and happiness in ancient Kazakh mythology” – the holding company, however, has less mythological footing and is supposed to “to improve the efficiency of the Government’s asset management.” The general principle of Samruk is “to provide an active shareholdership that will not interfere into the activities of the national companies and that will carry out the state strategic policy in the areas of their activities.”

Among the list of companies are KazMunaiGas, Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (railways); Kazakhtelekom; KEGOC (Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operating Company), and Kazpost (postal services). It is hoped that Sir Evans’ appointment will facilitate the companies’ flotation on the London Stock Exchange.

Rather than seeking to privatise the firms, the Kazakh government apparently likes the idea to cling to the companies it owns. The establishment of a state holding company seems to cement that attitude. In 1998, Kazmunaigas predecessor Kazakhoil was almost on the verge of being privatised, but that obviously never happened. The state-owned oil and gas conglomerate also proved to be the method of choice for the Kazakh government to soak up previously privatised assets and thus increase the state’s share in “strategic” industries such as the hydrocarbon sector.

Sir Richard Evans, who has good experience in the linkages between politics and big business, is probably the right man to chair Samruk. Taking into account his dubious track record, he seems an even better man to advise the Kazakh government.

According to www.akipress.kg, at about 15:00 on December 06, 2006, an American soldier shot with pistol a civilian of Kyrgyzstan citizenship at checkpoint at Ganci aviabase, “Manas” airport, Kyrgyzstan. “The civilian was given an emergency treatment by the doctors of US Air Force at the place where incident occurred and on the way to the medical center, where doctors certified his death.” Airport administration gave information about the dead. He was Alexander Ivanov, ethnic Russian, a 42 years old driver of a vendor organization Aircraft Petrolium Company that supplied fuel for jets. The reason why he was shot is under clarification. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave an official note to the ambassador of United States of America in Kyrgyzstan, Maria Iovanovich. MFA inquired official explanation of the incident from American party.

This incident may cause big anti-american debates on both local and international level, as it is not the first time when US Air Force is on headlines for flawed actions. I guess that Russia could press on United States too, as the victim is an ethnic Russian. Another reason for debates may also be the fact that US Air Force soldiers have diplomatic immune, and even cant be judged at the International Criminal Court at the Hague, Netherlands. So even if the soldier is guilty, no specific actions could be done. I guess it is a little early to make conclusions. Lets keep track of updates.

This is a translation of a feature article that Alieva posted on the Russian version of neweurasia.

It is an early morning and it’s still dark outside. Artem has not been sleeping for a whole night. He is not sick, just can not fall asleep. Calling a nanny doesn’t make sense; she will probably curse him for not sleeping at night. Artem is looking out of the window but because of the duty curtain can hardly see anything. He is tossing and turning in his bad and is only dreaming about the day when he sees his mom again.
This women’s prison is located in the village called Stepnoye not far away from the capital. 500 women from all over the country are serving their sentences here. They are convicted for different sorts of crimes. I was shocked when I discovered that many of them are sentenced because of selling drugs. Others are just swindlers, petty thieves and those who don’t admit the fact that they are guilty at all. You can also see murderers here: many of them are not even denying the fact that they used to kill people being in absolute consciousness.

Svetlana has recently turned 22. She gave birth to Artem a year and a half ago. At that time she was under the trial but not convicted yet. She named the boy after her father. She was delivering a child in a maternity hospital of Chui district. Convicted women are usually brought here by prison escort so that they can not escape after all. When Artem was born Svetlana was convicted to 10,5 years in prison: no one bothered to give her a slack because of the new born infant.

Looking at this young fragile woman you could never imagine that she was capable to kill someone. This someone was her own husband, by the way. When I asked her why she was here she replied in a calm tone that she had committed a homicide. Her husband was taunting her and one day not being able to stand it any more she stabbed him with a knife.

Svetlana is not sorry about everything that has happened. She is only sorry for Artem. They can spend together only 3 years. Than they will be separated from one another as, according to the law, children older than 3 years can not stay behind the bars with their convicted mothers. They are either sent to relatives or to orphanages.

Now Artem can still be seeing his mother. At least during the day. There are special conditions for those with children in this prison. They don’t work as all others do and can spend the whole day playing with their kids. Staying with them at night, though is not possible.

Every morning Svetlana wakes up with the feeling that somewhere outside of this cell, but still very close a small creature with big sad eyes is awaiting for her. Artem loves her mom and, in spite of the fact that he is not even 2 yet, seems to understand how desperate their situation is. The destiny was unfair- Artem was born behind the bars and, if we think of that, he is doomed to suffer for the crime that was committed by his mother. He has never seen his mother smile, he doesn’t know that candies exist in the real world. For now he is more aware about that porridge that you can not even reject without being punished for that. On his birthday no one gives Artem teddy bears. But he doesn’t care about that. His main dream is that they have a house where he, his mom and a poppy will live together.

But the reality is that in a year Artem will be sent to his grandmother. It was decided by someone else and will, presumably, do good for a boy, that will literally become an orphan than. He will be waiting for his mother to be released and will for ever remember what it was like – leaving behind the bars.

Photo by simosx

The main event in the life of Tajikistan which is happening these days is the electricity cut in almost all parts of the country due to construction of the new hydroelectric power station “Sangtuda 1″. Rahmon even compares the electricity cut with apocalypse in his post on Tajik-Russian blog. Winters are severe in the country and this winter is no exception. This makes a lot of problems for the population.

Taking into consideration that gas is not available in most parts of Tajikistan electricity remains to be the most vital energy. It could be better to make the construction in the summer and the lack of electricity could not be felt that much as it is felt in the winter but the problem is that the winter is the best time for construction. As far as I know in warmer seasons it is not possible to do the construction due to excessive amount of water in Vakhsh river.

Cole is describing the situation of electricity cut in Khojand where he is currently living and working. He regrets that he went to Tajikistan because the lack of electricity makes him distant from all goods of modern civilization. He is not able to work in his office and his days are spent sitting in the cold darkness because on average he gets about an hour of electricity in the morning and one at night. Here what he thinks of Tajikistan….

When God was making Tajikistan he thought to himself, “Why don’t I create a barren mountain outpost in the middle of the largest landmass in the world, give it frigid winters, and endow it with leaders who are too corrupt and inept to provide the barest of essentials to its people, namely electricity, water and gas.”

Actually Cole is right about the corruption and Transparency International supports his words. As talksmart reports, this organization conducted the annual survey for 2006 where it rates countries in terms of corruption. Finland, Iceland and New Zealand are on the top of the list because ‘they are perceived to be the world’s least corrupt countries’ and Tajikistan is almost in the bottom of the list. This year it is placed on 149th place out of 163 countries rated. ‘It is a composite index, drawing on 12 polls and surveys from 9 independent institutions, which gathered the opinions of businesspeople and country analysts.’

Ismaili Mail reports that the governments of Tajikistan and Pakistan are interested to build a road connecting them for the first time besides reducing the distance between the two countries by 90 per cent. This road will open a way for Tajikistan and other Central Asian countries to the Indian Ocean, which will definitely increase the amount of investments to our country. That’s a great news for our country.

On Daily Yamiuri is posted an article about a film from Tajikistan, which has won the grand prize at the Tokyo FilmEx film festival. The jury headed by Kim Dong Ho, director of the Pusan International Film Festival awarded the movie with the top prize “for the cinematic intelligence the filmmaker demonstrates in creating a fluid and dynamic relationship among characters, environment and narrative.”

“To Get to Heaven First You Have to Die is about 20-year-old Kamal, who has been married for months, but is unable to consummate the union. One day he meets an attractive woman and follows her home, where the woman’s husband appears after a long absence. The story is told in a simple and quiet tone, but it maintains a tense atmosphere.”

This is a translation of the post that Inga wrote for neweurasia on the opening ceremony of Asian Games.

Kyrgyzstan got quite tonight. Local fans got glued to their television screens as they were watching live broadcasts of the opening ceremony of 25th Asian Games. State Television that night became the most popular one among local broadcasting companies which happen rather rare. Cafes and bars in Bishkek were full with crowds of visitors who shoed up there that night mainly for watching television.

The show was really worth it: the event was staged by the best screen writers and the music was jointly created by German and Egyptian composers. The opening ceremony featured 7 thousand actors and 19 thousand local volunteers who chose to participate in this fantastic performance.
This year the competition which official slogan is “Asia United” will feature over 2 000 athletes from 45 countries. 25 000 reporters has arrived to cover and broadcast the games.

A combined team of sportsmen from Kyrgyzstan was comprised of 135 athletes aspiring to bring home a number of various medals. During the ceremony the flag of Kyrgyzstan was carried across the stadium by the Olympics, a weight-lifter, Ulan Moldodosov. He was accompanied by such well known sportsmen as Kanybek Osmonaliev, Kanatbek Begaliev and Danyar Kobonov.

“This is the first time when so many athletes from Kyrgyzstan participate in Asian Games”,- commented the vice chair of the Sports Committee, Almazbek Kasenov. “That’s why we are counting on at least 15 medals: 2-3 gold ones, 3-4 silver and several bronze medals as well”.

As sportsmen themselves were telling before they started for these Games it was not an easy endeavor. Besides exercising to prepare physically they needed struggle to hold a grab on sponsors who were able to support athletes financially. Local businessmen and MPs were those who chose to support Kyrgyz sport at the end of the day.

As Orozbek Anarbaev, chairing the government department on physical culture, emphasized: “

The government of the country allocated 15 million soms to support our athletes, but our local millionaires also did their best. Probably because some of them are former sportsmen as well. Their support made it possible for sportsmen to attend trainings and keep their shape. That’s why now we are seriously counting on their success ”.

Thus local businessmen did their best. As well as the State Television Channel. The opening ceremony, as I already mentioned, was broadcast live by KTR. The quality of the picture, by the way, was excellent. The quality of the comments on KTR during the show was way worse. One of the sport “correspondents” of KTR had been faltering on air for … 3 hours, literally torturing viewers with his comments.

The ignorance of someone called mr.Kakishev in this case was outrageous. Several times he characterized Qatar as a “developing country”. Further he was going on and on, “elaborating” on Islamic culture and traditions. The ignorance in this case was abysmal! The so called journalist was screaming: “How come that such a small country with population hardly reaching 600 000 can host Asian games! Shouldn’t Kyrgyzstan than be the next hosting country?” After this phrase I’ve got a temptation to switch off my TV immediately not even watching the games till the end, even though the show itself was marvelous. I decided against it though and just turned down the volume. The conclusion in this case is fairly simply: Kyrgyz State Television is special enough to turn even the most spectacle scenery into absolute rubbish. This is also a kind of talent, I presume.

I feel really tired. I am just from bazaar where I purchased ingredients for “plov” that I am going to cook tonight at my friend’s birthday party. I am tired but at the same time I am full of pleasant emotions from what I have seen in the bazaar. You might not understand me if you are not a CA dweller. Nevertheless, let me tell you a bit about what makes our bazaars unique.

If you are traveling through the Central Asia, I strongly suggest you put bazaars (markets) first on the list of your tour. The bazaar is a place that is governed by its own rules and laws, and has its own traditions and etiquette. It is a unique place that can give you valuable information on the cultural and historical background of people living in the area.

Just walk into the bazaar, letting yourself surf a wave of people that seems to have no end, hear the noise of sellers who loudly praise their goods, of people who buy goods bargaining aloud, or of those who are just asking for prices but have no money in their pockets (it is cultural phenomenon); smell the aroma of fresh baked bread or “plov” being served in neighboring “chayhanas”; look at the colors of different kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables that shine on the sun like a piece of jewelry. It may seem that it has almost no organization, no signs, no directions, just people. It is like a maze, so if you want to find something you have to ask. Lots of things are hidden where you might never find it, that’s why just have yourself flow in the sea of people, and you will discover things way more interesting than the things you were looking for, such as the scary heads of dead cows and bulls hanging at butcher’s shop, people suspiciously asking you to buy gold at gold bazaar, old women (who look very innocent!) at grocery shops sweetly smiling to you, while cheating on scales to others, etc.

The bazaar is also the best place to find out what is going on both in local area and throughout the world. It has its own analysts, politicians, sociologists, psychologists, etc, whose prediction of coming events very often proves to be true.

Bazaar is also one of few social institutions that has preserved ancient culture and traditions. No matter what good you are going to purchase, you have to pass though several rituals. First, you ask for price, then with a surprised face-expression you say that the same good is sold in a cheaper price in other corner of bazaar (even if it is not true) to which you get the answer “Go and buy it there.” What comes next is a bargaining process; e.g. if the price is, say, 800 som, you ask for 700. You keep asking, and seller keeps discounting little by little, and you will find the golden middle, say, at 750 som (there are good bargainers that can make it even cheaper). Never buy a thing without bargaining, because it is a part of bazaar etiquette.

In short, you can find lots of unique things that you don’t usually find in other places of the world. Here are some pictures of our bazaars:

Sea of people at the bazaar

Columns of Infinity

Official Turkmen suspicion took on new levels on Sunday in an unusual diplomatic incident in Ashgabat on Sunday. A Czech military plane on return home from Afghanistan carrying the country’s deputy defence minister and the army chief of staff was grounded in Turkmenistan for 14 hours due to armed guards present on board, the Associated Press reported.

“The Tu-154 was carrying a total of 30 passengers and crew — including four armed military police members, who routinely accompany top Czech politicians and military commanders on their foreign visits, said Czech Defence Ministry spokesman Andrej Cirtek.”

Czech Foreign Minister Alexandr Vondra’s reaction to the incident has been hostile and he has promised the matter will be discussed further. Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, however, was more conciliatory, arguing that although the detention had been intentional, it was caused by a simple misunderstanding.

Citing comments by Czech Ambassador to Russia Miroslav Kostelka, a Czech news agency CTK report explained that the Turkmen military attaché notified the Czech embassy that the military plane was forbidden was landing in Ashgabat in a faxed note, but failed to follow up this message with a phone confirmation, as is standard practice. As CTK reported:

“The Czech Republic had written consent for an intermediate landing stopover in Ashgabat, but the local authorities unexpectedly cancelled this over alleged discrepancies in documentation relating to firearms on board. They proceeded to inform the Czech embassy in Moscow, which also oversees Turkmen affairs, about this by fax at 8:15 on Friday evening, at which time nobody was in the office.”

A member of the Committee for Defence and Security of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament, Jan Vidim, who was part of the affected delegation, Turkmen authorities only agreed to the release of the plane after personal consent from President Saparmurat Niyazov, Russian news service RIA-Novosti reported.

In previous comments, Niyazov has claimed to attach great importance to relations between his own declaredly neutral country and Western military alliances like NATO, which the Czech delegation was representing. More specifically, he has argued that Turkmenistan to prioritise the “political, diplomatic, legal international, economic and other nonmilitary activities of the world community with regard to peace threat, violation of peace and acts of aggression.”

However, this commitment to regional stability has been undermined by an evident lack of communication among military institutions on both sides. First, this curious occurrence suggests that Turkmen communication protocols are extremely underdeveloped. Whether this is subject to shortcomings among Turkmen military staff or otherwise may only be surmised. Second, more seriously, there is a lingering sense that efficient communication among military organisations in a highly sensitive region has become atrophied to the point where such impasses can occur. Is it possible that Turkmen neutrality has merely decayed into a lax form of Turkmen indifference, which cannot possibly augur well for regional security and collaboration?

According to the results of the survey conducted in Tajikistan by International Financial Corporation this summer, the entrepreneurs undergo regular inspections by different governmental agencies. The frequency of inspections varies from 6 to 21 times a month depending on the region.

Most of the time the inspections are conducted by tax inspection (91%), fire inspection (34%), sanitary inspection (30%), “Tajikjstandard” agency (20%), energy inspection department (19%) and by the social security fund (12%).

According to IFC, the inspections and corruption are the main obstacles on the way of development of private sector in Tajikistan. The development of new business is challenged by complicated procedure of license obtainment. Consequently, 75% of the interviewed businessmen solve their problems by informal methods and only 18% solve their problems by official methods.

In its recently published annual report, the International Financial Corporation, IFC, ranked Tajikistan second from the bottom of a list of 28 countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia in terms of the business climate.

I think that the regular inspections by governmental agencies are not the main obstacles for private sector development. There is another reason which I think is the main one. It is the relatives of high officials, the children or nephews or brothers, whoever is closely related to them. Using different leverages that they are provided with by their relatives in the government, they control all the business.

Recently, in Dushanbe I met Parviz, a fifth-year student, who studies in Tajik State University. He was very pessimistic about doing business in Tajikistan. He said that it is impossible to do a business in Tajikistan, especially in the cities if you don’t have a “krisha”. Krisha is a Russian slang which literally means a “roof” or “shelter” but the meaning is “custody”. This slang is used in most of the former Soviet republics.

Your krisha can be a criminal, a high official in the government, especially in a law enforcement agency or a former warlord. It is better to have a krisha from law enforcement agencies or from the government because the criminals and former warlords are not that much influential in Tajikistan.

“I opened a small shop for a loan which I received from a bank where I was selling DVD-players”, said Parviz. “However, after some time when I was done with the loan and started to get a profit, two guys came to my shop and asked me to close it. They said that the son one of one high official had opened a new market where he was selling DVD-players and no-one else in the city had a right to do it”, ruefully said Parviz.

Parviz says that he was lucky just to close the shop and lose nothing but the future profit. There are cases when you start a business and if it is a successful business then there come people who give you less than a half of what you have invested and seize your business. These people are usually representing someone from the government or law enforcement agencies.

If your business is not that successful you have a chance to float but besides the official taxes you have to pay extra “taxes” to your krisha, so no-one else can make you sink. However, very often it comes out that your krisha is very “heavy” and you can not maintain it.

This is a translation of the article that Profet posted on Russian neweurasia

It is really sad but gas prices in Kyrgyzstan will again skyrocket starting this January since Uzbekistan is planning to charge almost double prices of those that have been previously set in bilateral agreements. Thus consumers will end up paying 5,6 soms per cubic meter.
It is probably safe to state that upcoming negotiations between Kyrgyz and Uzbek sides that are to be hold on December 5 in Tashkent will eventually fail since Uzbekistan doesn’t not tend to compromise when it comes to the national interests of the country. Especially, if these interests have to do with financial issues.
It is also predictable that some advocates of applying strict political measures will start pressuring for drastic measures in negotiations with our Uzbek neighbours, emphasizing that Kyrgyzstan can not afford being nice, constantly compromising in negotiations with Uzbekistan.
May be it is, indeed, worth starting being a bit more firm about own interests and use the issue of the water that Kyrgyzstan sells to Uzbek neighbours as a pretext for further bartering?

Addressing this issue we should draw a chart of advantages and disadvantages that Kyrgyzstan can be confronted with in such situation.
Let us, for instance, imagine that following the demands of some radical proponents of uncompromised fights for national interest, Kyrgyz politicians will start challenging Uzbek government with ultimatums.

Some positive sides of such tactics are :

-The president and the government along with those advocating firm positions will be politically advertised as genuine patriots;
-The price for the electricity that we sell to Uzbekistan is increasing. State budget benefits from this enormously. Some financial problems of the country get automatically resolved

Negative aspects will probably include:
-Not willing to negotiate prices any more Uzbekistan is free to impose any gas prices for Kyrgyzstan.
-All bilateral treaties between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan will be faltering on a stage when neither of the parties is willing to take any initiative or responsibility when it comes to the issues of border land mines, enclaves, transportation, as well as all economic projects.

- Unwillingness of Kyrgyzstan to compromise on the issue of gas prices and electricity export to Uzbekistan may cause problems in the sphere of agricultural cooperation. The matter is that the south of Kyrgyzstan tends to rely on the Uzbek export of agricultural products. In case of worsening relations Uzbekistan can easily impose restrictions on exporting agricultural products from the Uzbek part of Fergana valley, which will inevitably stir the population of the southern districts of Kyrgyzstan.

Thus, it is obvious that Kyrgyzstan today can hardly afford (politically and economically) to be implacable in its negotiations on gas issues with Uzbekistan. That is official Bishkek needs to be politically creative and diplomatically wise in the course of Kyrgyz-Uzbek negotiations.
It is worth mentioning, though, that once Kyrgyzstan already proved to be inefficient in the process of such negotiations, as the president of the country failed to start talks during his official visit to Tashkent, when the deadlines were not that merciless. Bakiev and his administration should have probably offered Uzbekistan something really attractive and unrejectable so that to make the neighbors more interested in compromising. Considering the fact, that both parties have a considerable amount of common interests (border issues, for example) it’d be possible to suggest that a number of agreements could have been reached and Kyrgyzstan could have had more room for maneuvering in further negotiations.

At the moment, though, Kyrgyzstan can hardly exercise any kind of firmness in negotiations with Uzbek partners. Instead the method of unofficial meetings and talks (that proved to be much more efficient than official negotiations) should probably be utilized.