Kyrgyzstan
With the presidential elections “fever” over and the president inaugurated, it is now time in Kyrgyzstan to appoint a new government. The incumbent president, Almazbek Atambayev, ascended to presidency from the post of the prime minister of Kyrgyzstan and triggered the government reshuffling.
On Monday, 19 December 2011, then candidate Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov initiated decreasing the number of ministries. He argued doing so would save some 1bn soms (about 22m USD), and decrease the salary burden on budget by firing over 3,000 state employees. A wise move indeed; however, there is room for further “shrinking”. For instance, the ministry of education and sciences can assume the “youth” component of the ministry for youth, labor and employment. Whereas the ministry for social security could intake the “labor and employment.” Further, the ministry of economy and antimonopoly policies can safely deal with “finances” of the ministry for finances. After all, they are of the same “nature.” Read the full story »
I have hard time understanding Speaker Akhmatbek Keldibekov’s desperate attempts to keep his position. As someone involved in politics for quite some time now, he must realize that election of a new president inevitable entails reshuffling of politicians. Moreover, the president-elect Almazbek Atambayev has views that sometimes contradict those of Keldibekov’s. When the 2010 elections got several known politicians back (!) into the parliament, they had to negotiate and make concessions and compromises: Atambayev (SDPK) got premiership, Omurbek Babanov (Respublika) was given vice-premiership and Keldibekov (Ata-Jurt) received the position of the Speaker. The latter now has to go, simple as is. Read the full story »
Corruption in Post-Soviet Central Asia is something very familiar to people living in the region. Without bribing, one is destined to see their case be delayed for a long time, very often beyond time limits defined by laws.
Be it application for a new passport, or registration at a new place of living, or even finding a day care for your kid — bribing is the easiest way to get it all done faster and without a hassle.
Transparency International (TI) has released its annual Corruption Perceptions Index 2011 (CPI) that ranks countries/territories based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be. According to TI, it is a composite index, a combination of polls, drawing on corruption-related data collected by a variety of reputable institutions. The CPI reflects the views of observers from around the world, including experts living and working in the countries/territories evaluated.
This year Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have proved that they can also have stablility in something — if not positive and progressive, then at least something not really desirable by leaders of developed countries. That something is the abuse of public power. Read the full story »
Today Kyrgyzstan is holding presidential elections. For the first time in the history of independent Kyrgyzstan, the presidency is shifting from one person to another in a peaceful way.
Current president of Kyrgyzstan Roza Otunbayeva is casting her vote.
Esquire-Russian analyzed UN’s World Population Prospects (2010 revision) and The Economist data and came up with a map that shows a forecast of the extinction of various nations based on the so-called net replacement rate – the average number of girls, delivered by an average woman in a lifetime in a particular country and survived until the end of the reproductive period at these levels.
According to the map, countries which has less than millennium to exist are marked in brown. “Light browned” nations will live in the 3000-3299 years period. “Milky” identifies those who live from 3300 to 3999 years more. “Orange” countries will exist from 4000 to 9999, and those countries colored in “gray” will live for 10,000 or more.
All green countries on the map are the luckiest — they will never disappear, the “immortals.” Read the full story »
Criminals brought to justice.
This is an everyday tagline journalists write about when covering common-day societal happenings – and sometimes it’s a tagline that describes the injustice that swarms their own profession – particularly in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, today.
Killing a journalist is killing a civil servant. Killing a journalist not only kills the voice of a community, but also kills the news, the ambitious and trusted medium through which we learn about the news and the vehicle through which we learn about what goes on in society.
On October 11th, 3 men were sentenced for the murder of independent Kyrgyz opposition journalist Gennady Pavlyuk, in Kazakhstan. Pavlyuk, 51, died on December 22nd 2009 after being thrown – hands and feet bound – from the 6th floor of a building in the “Apple” city of Almaty. And 2 years later, an answer to the puzzle has finally been instituted.
A week and a half away from Election Day and one of the front runners in the act of international campaigning is, and has been, banned from participating – the media. How can elections be called free and fair if the media is bound? They can’t – and especially not in Kyrgyzstan these days.
Back in August neweurasia noted that in the following the country’s October 2011 elections, 11 online medias were denied accreditation during the campaigning, while traditional medias were indeed approved. The reason: according to Kyrgyz Law, web-based new agencies are not recognized as legitimate media outlets. To read more into the story, check out: “Internet barred from covering Kyrgyzstan’s electoral campaigns”.
Online media aside – officials have been attacking traditional media, too. Radio shows have been interrupted, TV programs jammed – and so on. From BBC and CNN to Euronews, K+, Russia’s RBK, Rossiya-24, Russia’s Channel One and beyond – international media has fallen victim to a Kyrgyz national media-misdemeanor.
Read the full story »
Institut d’Alisher Navoi, a Belgium-based non-profit think tank focused on Central Asian studies in Human Rights, Regional Security, Sustainable Development and Good Governance, released a call to the members of the Security Council that will be held on October 21, 2011, on a new member-state as non-permanent Member-State of this body from among the Asian countries.
The seat is supposed to go to either the Islamic Republic of Pakistan or Kyrgyzstan.
The statement goes:
“In the view of the fact that a membership in this authoritative body of the United Nations means acknowledgement of the contribution of the candidate country to the international peace and stability under the international law, we, representatives of the civil society from Alisher Navoi Institute express our firm discontent with a possible election of Kyrgyzstan to this respective body of this universal organization.
According to independent observers the internal political situation in Kyrgyzstan is far from stability while the central government in Bishkek attempts to convince its own citizens and the world community
in its ability to fully control the situation in the country. But de-facto the Kyrgyz authorities power is restricted just to the northern areas of the country.An illustrative example, in the middle of August 2010 the mayor of the southern city of Osh, Melis Myrzakmatov ignored the decision of the President Otunbaeva that he should resign. Frankly speaking the internal political situation in this poorest Central Asian nation is on the edges of the anarchy. Different types of public disorders with and without any reason don’t stop in this country. The aggressive form of nationalism against ethnic minorities, especially the Uzbek minorities is fiercely being introduced on the eve of the upcoming presidential elections.”
Many Westerners view ballroom dance as a stuffy activity in which our parents or grandparents engaged. We have visions of coat tails, long dresses, and couples whirling endlessly around a ballroom floor, barely making eye contact, or even touching each other in any appreciable way. However, anyone who has experienced an international DanceSport competition first-hand knows that the image described above is completely untrue.
For many former professional ballet or modern dancers, DanceSport has become the way to continue dancing after their careers with professional companies have ended. The prize money and sponsorships can be quite large, and the DanceSport circuit is worldwide. But here’s something you might find interesting: over the last five years, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan have emerged as new DanceSport powerhouses, with multiple couples achieving high rankings internationally and new membership in the World Dance Federation.
Translator’s Note: Originally written by neweurasia’s Nuraika (RUS)
TEDxBishkek. As we had previously announced, last Saturday was the day of TEDxBishkek – the first event of this kind and scale in Bishkek. The actual event took place at Vefa Center last Saturday, but its pre-inception spirit had already been hovering around by Friday. The opening ceremony was held in «Цех», the creative, colorful, a bit crazy atmosphere of which is especially appealing to similar occasions.
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