As long as Kazakhstan still aspires to enter the top 50 most competitive states of the world (although these efforts have so far resulted in decline of its competitiveness, as the World Economic Forum’s annual reports show), the republic has managed to enter another list of countries, unfortunately, a shameful one. Ehot reports that Kazakhstan has been included in the blacklist of Ebay web-shop as a country, to which they don’t ship any products due to the theft of packages in these countries [ru]. Read the full story »

Last week the Embassy of Kyrgyz Republic in the United Kingdom had organized a presentation of the books of English authors about Kyrgyzstan. The presentation took part in Daunt Books shop based in Central London. Mr. Kuban Mambetaliev, the Kyrgyz Ambassador opened the presentation with his welcoming speech and greeted everyone who gathered that evening. He started the speech with reference to Kyrgyz history:

The history of the Kyrgyz people started more than two thousand years ago. The first note of ‘Kyrgyz’ was mentioned in ancient Chinese manuscripts by the chroniclers of that time and it is a historical fact.

It was a great honour for everybody to meet Mrs. Rowan Stewart, Mrs. Saffya Faar – the authors whose books were about Kyrgyzstan. Mrs. Lucy Kelaart, the editor of magazine ‘Steppe’ (a Central Asian Panorama) was also among invited guests and she recently published interesting essay about Kyrgyz treasure Issyk-Kul.

[inspic=128,left,fullscreen,150]Mrs. Rowan Stewart’s book called ‘The Kyrgyz Republic’ is the main guidebook for many tourists, politicians and historians and contains very important information about the country. This is third edition and hopefully she will continue contributing to writing about Kyrgyzstan. Last time she visited Kyrgyzstan was back in 2007 and she admits that it has really changed in a positive way. She noted big progress in tourism development and she was amazed by fantastic scenery, amazing view and incredible valleys.

Mrs. Saffya Faar wrote ‘Revolution Baby’ which is about Kyrgyz revolution which took place in Bishkek in March 2005. She wrote it while she was in Kyrgyzstan for 3 years. She is absolutely in love with the country and even named her four month old daughter Jamilya, a Kyrgyz name.

I believe the presentation of these books is an important step towards building cultural relations between two countries and contributing to writing about Kyrgyzstan. I would like to thank the Kyrgyz Embassy in the United Kingdom for the chance given to Kyrgyz people in London to meet fantastic authors!

As was predicted by the expert community of Kazakhstan – and confirmed by the insider sources in the government, Kazakhstan’s state oil-and-gas company KazMunaiGas would create a joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell Plc to handle the production segment of the Kashagan oilfield, Reuters reported. KMG in the beginning of 2008 expanded its stake in the Kashagan project following a row of tense negotiations around repeated delay of production by the Eni-led consortium and increased costs of the exploration and production.  Now the state wants KazMunaiGas to  take the lead in the production in five years, as other companies developing the Kashagan oilfield would get respective “new roles”.

This is a series of a photo-response by our readers to the call for pictures of Tashkent to celebrate the 2200th anniversary of the capital city.

This is a photo of memorial for unknown soldier in Tashkent that stands to the North from the Globe. The memorial symbolizes the grief of people, whose friends and relatives did not return from the World War II.

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“You are in our hearts!”

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-the Google Earth image of the momorial for unknown soldier and the Senate of Uzbekistan, both located in the Independece Square in the center of Tashkent.

Continuing the topic of sports – here is the video of Rivaldo’s first goals in Bunyodkor (former Kuruvchi), a leader of the national championship of Uzbekistan. Rivaldo, a 36-year-old midfielder, was recently bought by Bunyodkor from AEK Athens of Greece. So far, there was no information on the sum of financial deal. However, given the fact that Bunyodkor offered 40 million euros to Barcelona to purchase Samuel Eto’o, it can be said that AEK Athens was paid a lot.

Well, the beginning is not bad.

Recently, a head of the Uzbekistan Football Federation Mirabror Usmanov has informed that the Uzbek football should have at least 20 high class legionnaires, foreign football players. In the press-conference given the other day, the head of UFF discussed the problems of the Uzbek football and the ways to improve them. Mirabror Usmanov thinks that the Uzbek football needs a foreign experience to improve.

However, there is a question of finances. The Uzbek football teams are not rich and cannot afford high class foreign football players. So far, the majority of the foreign football players in the Uzbek football come from CIS countries, where football is not that developed. Though, Gazeta.uz reports [ru] that all expenses in purchasing legionnaires will be covered by the Uzbek government.

Many football teams of the country cannot afford foreign football players. However, the Uzbek government is ready to cover all costs in buying the legionnaires. According to Usmanov, this decision is approved by Islam Karimov himself.

Moreover, according to Gazeta.uz, the national team of Uzbekistan will be trained by a foreign coach. There were rumors that a famous Uzbek football player, current trainer of Bunyodkor (former Kuruvchi), Mirjalol Kosimov was going to train the national team. I guess the Uzbek football is learning from the Russian experience with Guus Hiddink, a Dutch football coach, under whose supervision, the Russian national team made its way to semi-finals in Euro ’08.

Recently, Bunyodkor made a one-year contract with Brazilian Rivaldo. Rivaldo will be paid EUR 5 million. Bunyodkor also tried to purchase Samuel Eto’o from Barcelona for EUR 40 million. However, Eto’o refused, but visited Uzbekistan and met with officials of Uzbekistan and fans of football.

It is good that the Uzbek government wants to improve the Uzbek footbal. However, when a great part of population suffers of poverty and other socio-economic problems, one can ask a reasonable question – is it a right way of investing the tax payers’ money, at least now?

…remarked Thomas Edison, the inventor of the electric light bulb and a man familiar with the challenges of the creative process.  It takes real struggle to birth something, be it a child, a contraption, or in our case, a book.  We’ve come a long way with CyberChaikhana, and after the late-summer interlude it’s now time to leap back into the struggle.

I will begin writing the complete rough draft manuscript, chapter by chapter.  It will take me a few months to finish; as I proceed, I will release material.  Additionally, I will return to my previous habit of publishing a post in this space at least once a week.  I invite everyone to join our Google group to receive automatic updates, and most of all to spread the word — Schwartz and CyberChaikhana are back!

Here’s a round-up of all the pertinent posts herein:

• About the project
• The chapter list
• A sample chapter
• The selected raw blog materials for Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgystan and Kazakhstan
• A note about the productive Philadelphia meeting
• And a reflection on writing a book derived from weblogging

We’ve also attracted the attention of some very cool academics, including Mike Gallen, an Americanist from La Salle and Cambridge Universities who is now at Carnegie Mellon University; Sabrina DeTurk, an associate dean of graduate studies at Saint Joseph’s Univesity; and J. Nathan Matias, another Cambridge alum and founder of the World University Project, with whom I’ll be working in the near future.

There are also exciting things going on behind the scenes at neweurasia, but I’ve been sworn to secrecy.  Don’t worry, none of it is as dramatic as what’s happened lately on Wall Street, but the strategists are really going to try to push some boundaries during the next several months.

During the last meeting with members of the Dushanbe legislature (Majlis), heads of local enterprises and public organizations, school principals, heads of health facilities and clerics, the mayor of Dushanbe announced that the electricity rationing throughout the country will not hit Dushanbe.

Speaking at the meeting, Ubaidulloyev said that electricity rationing introduced in the country will not hit Dushanbe.  According to him, such a decision was made by the president at the beginning of this week.

Good, but one thing makes me doubt. He says that the rationing will not be introduced, but people should use electricity rationally. Sorry, but what if the winter gets cold and we need to get warm? Obviously, we will use all electric heaters to warm our living space.

The global financial crisis that has steadily evolved over the last twelve months to erupt in a full-blown crash over the past days will have consequences around the world.  Russia’s stockmarket was forcibly closed until Friday, and some analysts are already predicting some sort of re-run of the 1998 crisis that also took its toll in Central Asia.  Meanwhile, banks worldwide are getting into liquidity problems and severely restrict lending.  What are the implications for the region?  Read the full story »

Kazakhstan football federation decided to fire Dutch coach Arno Pijpers after losing their last two 2010 World Cup qualifiers.

However, to be fair, the first match was won – the Kazakh national team defeated Andorra 3-0, but then lost to Croatia (with the same score) and Ukraine (3-1). Also, to be completely fair, the sportsmen now play far better than before Pijpers assumed the post – but, certainly, they still lack technique and speed.

The KFF said Kazakhstan under-23 coach, German Bernd Storck, will lead the senior team for the Oct. 11 qualifier against England. The acting coach Storck is named temporary, and – as the ex-Soviets say – there is nothing more constant than a temporary thing.