“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.

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?

The main objectives of the statute are: to provide state supervision of the movement of animals in Kyrgyz territory, to get prompt information on the livestock in order to increase its productivity, improve management, and forecast market livestock products, and to plan and conduct preventative veterinary measures.  Sounds good to me.

Nevertheless, there are a lot of critics, not to mention the usual train of unanswered questions, such as whether it is the most important and actual problem for our country at present, or whether it is a good idea to spend federal money on it, or how long time and how much money it will require to make our bureaucracy fulfill this bill efficiently, etc.  Let’s not even get into the topic of costs!

Criticisms, both positive and negative, can be found on the Diesel forum.  For example:

Taxper: ‘There is no other problem except counting the sheep and giving them passports…’

PPetro: ‘heh.. They can’t make passports even for people; it was said that there would not be passports until March.’

N-style Concept: ‘The main point here is an opportunity for getting new taxes.’

And, of course, Noah, the original observer, has this to say:

What I love about this is that you take a good idea and then run it through the Soviet institutional methodology for implementing it in a way that appears to use ‘high technology’ [but] is also complicated… and would require a large bureaucracy to oversee.

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.

The SMS Report is a daily information service that informs parents about what their kids are learning, how well they are performing, and what important school events they should be aware of – all delivered conveniently via SMS. Messages include grades, attendance, upcoming exams, social events, daily schedules, and much more.

Now, Kyrgyzstan’s schoolchildren will not be able to evade their parents’ wrath using whiteout or by tearing the page with the bad grade out of their journal. According to ИА 24.kg, busy parents can now communicate with teachers and administration members to find out how their kids are doing and whether they are having problems in school. “If teachers and parents agree, a proposal could be submitted to appropriate government agencies,” said Askerbek Aliev, head of the Pervomaiskaia district administration in Bishkek.

So how does the SMS Report work? The website of the “Ozat” boarding school for gifted children describes the process as follows: at the end of the school day, an operator logs all entries from the class journal into a database, after which SMS messages are automatically sent to parents’ mobile phones.

The Diesel Forum had a discussion thread on the topic:

Готенок: Not a bad idea. Parents will have better control over their children. But do they all have mobile phones, and if they don’t, can they all afford them?

s@ilor: Wouldn’t it be easier to put this information on the Internet? It seems cheaper any way you look at it.

advocat: I think anyone concerned with how their child is doing in school would be very happy to have such a service. I’d gladly pay 200 som per month to know whether my child’s studies were going well and whether he was skipping school.

Janysh: This kind of service is available on our market, albeit in a lower quality form. A company called JESA facilitates it, and it’s called Mobi-Report. The service informs parents about grades, skipped classes, homework, schedules, and miscellaneous school information. The same company offers entrepreneurs a similar service to provide their employees with (i.e. “Let’s help one another make money.”). Advocat – we pay 220 som per month and are satisfied with the result.

(ODETT): I call the teacher myself and am up to date on my kid’s progress.

Дорого: Pay your teacher this money. She’ll call you everyday.

BKT: It’s a service for lazy parents who don’t have the motivation to call the school or visit to see how they are doing. Those who really care about their kids already know how they’re doing.

Галактика: SMSing grades is lunacy. An internet-based report card is a much better idea. The problem is our schools are not capable of offering parents such a service.

flowers: There is a similar service up and running already. It’s called “Bolochok.” You pay 75 som per month and everyday you receive grades, attendance reports and other information, including parent-teacher conference dates, on your mobile phone. Unfortunately, many school directors refuse to even consider the idea. But I also know parents who use the service. If such a thing were offered at my kid’s school, I would gladly take advantage of it.

Aerin: It’s a good idea and has long been implemented in the 24th District School. The parents get an SMS every day… a list of classes, if a kid skips one he gets an “A(bsent)” or a grade if he had a test… I don’t understand people who are against it. The system doesn’t cancel parent-teacher conferences… It’s simply a great convenience for many parents… My sister is a good student and my parents know this from SMS reports, but they also visit the school often and meet with teachers. Parents of kids who skip school definitely benefit from this, since they are immediately informed and can take action. Sometimes, difficult or problematic kids are hard to monitor; they lie to their parents and conceal poor results…

It is difficult to predict how such a report system will affect the students’ mindset, whether it will make them more responsible or cultivate an appreciation for learning. Certainly, “surveillance” will become more sophisticated, and there will be more standing in the corner. I always thought that parents who didn’t attend school meetings simply didn’t have time to raise their kids. Perhaps, mobile monitoring will help them manage their growing offspring.

So far as Soviet citizens were not allowed to be enterprising and any mark-up on goods constituted as illegal the system of private charities fell down. After the fall of the Soviet Union, entrepreneurs used to think only about themselves, which is actually good, but all social projects started to be financed by various international donors: the European Commission, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), OSCE and many different embassies.

Author says that the situation in Kyrgyzstan today still leaves a lot of room for improvement:

…our legal norms don’t include sponsorship and charity. A business giving social support to a project has to do this surreptitiously, altering its accounts secretively in order to avoid incurring additional taxes. Although, of course, it is also important to understand that the government is not in the position to solve all social problems, especially on a local level. It simply cannot reach every village. Only corporations and the community itself have the necessary resources for this.

Also posted in my personal blog.

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.

The instruments of trade wars – non-tariff barriers, sanitary measures and import quotas – were used in only 10% of cases. Tariffs were raised in 14% of cases (see diagram). Over 50% of all discriminatory measures were in the form of government support for local producers and trade protection (antidumping and compensation duties). There is no government aid among measures planned for 2010. Nearly 60% will be defensive.

The world’s biggest protectionist is the EU (90 measures). Among countries, first is Russia (37), followed by Argentina (21). The biggest victim of protectionism is China, which faces 146 defensive measures. The most vulnerable sectors are the metal and chemical industries: every third measure implemented is against them.
Russia’s increased duties have affected 7% of imports, while for 2% of imports duties were lowered, according to Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina. Some defensive measures were ineffective, while others helped maintain production. Her deputy, Andrei Slepnev, admitted that 96 measures were taken against Russian exporters, which cost the country $2 bn in 2009, or less than 1% of the total export value.

As for Kyrgyzstan, I like how Rafhat Hasanov describes the possibility of protectionism:

“…The WTO regime stipulates that Kyrgyzstan is not allowed to engage in protectionism. Theoretically, it is silly for a small country to do it in the first place. How can we protect ourselves against, say, American or even Russian companies? Our trade with WTO countries is duty-free. We are given the opportunity for the greatest possible welfare. No one can introduce dumping measures against us, like it is happening with Russia. The problem is that our closest partners in the WTO are 3000 km away. They are Taiwan, Japan and, perhaps, Pakistan. The other problem is that in order to transport goods, Kyrgyzstan needs to go through Kazakhstan, China or Russia. This is a serious obstruction, because these countries’ discriminatory measures hinder our export.”

In light of this, I don’t see the benefit of Kyrgyzstan entering a customs union with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Editor’s note: cross-posted from ehot’s LiveJournal account. The specks in the photos are from autumnal airborne seeds.