What a wonderful weather outside! It has been snowing in Bishkek for the past three days. As the temperature has been below zero, snow is not melting down. It is cold, and eveything in white. Bishkek residents are happy. Some are enjoying real winter weather. Others are happy that snow is hiding all the dirt in the city.

“Kyrgyzgidromet“, a Kyrgyz hydrometeorology center, states [ru] that for the past three days Bishkek has seen 70% of the monthly norm of precipitation.

Here are some pictures of the city under snow.

Young active people do their best in internships in diffrent professions, besides only studying. Antonio Henriques, one of 20 top-managers in AIESEC, has visited 28 countries for three years. He tells neweurasia about advantages and achievements of active youth and compares young people in other counties with Kyrgyz students.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 12:30 — 11.4MB)

Photograph by Flickr user Brew Ha Ha

The government of Kyrgyzstan has developed a draft law on animal identification, says AKIpress on the 29 of January 2010.  At a meeting of Parliament Kyrgyz First Vice-Prime-Minister Akylbek Japarov stated that according to the proposed statute a unified system of animal identification was planned to be created in Kyrgyzstan (full text of the proposal in the Russian language ).

According to the proposal, all animals should get an individual or group ID (differences in ID will be made according to type of animal are also proposed by statute) and special documents should be provided for them.  The Registan’s Noah quoted Akylbek Japarov regarding this proposal:

We’re prepared to make a passport for every single sheep. That is, from birth to the slaughterhouse you can learn its entire genealogy from a laser scan.

Japarov’s remark has quickly headlined news websites around the world, for example ‘Kyrgyz sheep will be given passports’ or ‘Passports and insurance can be given to each Kyrgyz sheep’.   But is the proposal really a silly idea?

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Photograph by Flickr user Kamil Porembinksi (CC-usage).

Editor’s note: This is a translation of Nuraika’s post (RUS).

I recently started hearing about SMS Reports. “What cold they be?” I wondered. A blog, a magazine or some sort of educational novelty? Apparently, it has been around for some time, and is a system whereby teachers update parents on their children’s progress via text messages. My school had nothing of the sort, which I’m now secretly happy about. Read the full story »

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I just read an article of Shamil Ibraghimov, Executive Director of EFCA Kyrgyzstan, about responsibility of businesses for the development of society and what makes them frugal today in our country.
Author tells us that in 1910 in the Russian Empire, which also included Turkestan from where the Central Asian Republics would rise during the Soviet Union, there were 6,278 charitable organizations, 75% of which were financed by private donations. In Moscow alone there were 628 charitable institutions: hospitals, schools and almshouses. In Kyrgyzstan, most specifically in Karakol Russian and Tatar merchants were traditionally engaged in patronage, publishing books and founding the first theater companies. Read the full story »

Translation of Mirsulzhan’s post (RUS).

The Russian “Vedomosti” newspaper reports that, according to Global Trade Alert, Russia and the European Union were leaders in introducing trade barriers in 2009, despite the declaration signed last November by the G20.

Since then, G20 nations have introduced 184 protectionist measures. Around the world, 257 such measures were introduced in addition to 56 that can be interpreted as violating the interests of partner-states. Another 188 measures are planned for 2010, six times fewer than the number of liberalization measures. Read the full story »

neweurasia continues to captivate you with the most interesting photos. Today, December 31, 2009 I went to the Ala-Too Square, and took pictures of our Ayaz Atas (Father Frost/Santa Claus).

Early last month I decided to spend the last warm day of autumn (24 C!) in Lake Issyk.  It was truly a gift of the mountains.

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