Kyrgyzstan
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.
Local media are still actively discussing the stalemate situation around 8 contested presidential candidates. Around 50 people went protesting in front of the Central Election Commission today (October 4th) to back those who had previously been removed from the rally based on the CEC decision of September 20-24. Since then most active and relatively popular among those 8 candidates – Toktayim Umetalieva, Nariman Tuleev and Tursunbai Bakir Uulu – have literally been squabbling with CEC for a right to go for a presidency race.
The issue boils down to September 20, when CEC finds most of the supporting signatures of the candidates false. Commission suspects of made up signatures and some technical mistakes in the collected lists – the violations that, according to CEC, explain their decision of refusing the candidates (initially 9) for continuing with their campaigns. The candidates appeal for court claiming the decision was political and, well, illegal. After several court proceedings and Parliament’s direct involvement, by Sunday (October 2nd) the situation gets fairly calm as some of the candidates are finally admitted to the Kyrgyz language test.
September 29th – CEC decides to review the signature lists again and then come up with the final go – either registering or rejecting the candidates after the authenticity of signatures is verified (by October 6th). CEC’s Kanat Abdykadyrov says that CEC will only act according to respective law on the elections and will double-check the papers in the presence of the candidates, their proxies, media and civil society representatives. Umetalieva, Soodanbekov, Tuleev and some others call it populism and warn about the chance of appealing to criminal court against some of CEC members.
In the meantime, Marat Sultanov, another candidate from Ata-Jurt party, drops out and volunteers his support to Nariman Tuleev (one of the contested candidates)… Two things raise questions here: Why not support his fellow party-man Kamchybek Tashiev, who is already in the game and, by some accounts, has relatively big chances to win? And, what will eventually happen to Tuleev and Co? Things should be sorted out within the following few days.
More to come in the future posts…
That case probably marked the start of active politicization of the state language issue. Since then Kyrgyz language has become a matter of serious debates that are mostly led by parties with nationalistic sentiments. Read the full story »
Following on my theme from earlier last week, while in Bishkek this past summer, I was really interested in the signs of global youth corporate culture spreading into Kyrgyzstan. Probably the clearest example is the artist and start-up collective called The Loft (loft.kg), which serves simultaneously as business cluster, exhibit space and art studio.
Some of these photos were taken at different times of day. And again, apologies for the terrible quality.
Editor’s note: Bishkek is known for two things: blight and tragedy. But is there another way of viewing the city? neweurasia’s Schwartz explores the interaction between aging Soviet architecture, Kyrgyz urbanization and invading nature in a new photo-essay. [All photos by Schwartz, CC-usage.]
It may sound crazy, but Bishkek is one of the most aesthetically beautiful and anthropologically-philosophically interesting cities I’ve yet encountered. Make no mistake, this city has some hardcore urban blight, with slum conditions literally right around the corner of a downtown that is itself slowly rotting and crumbling (that is, when nationalists and ideologues aren’t constantly reconfiguring its shape in their endless pursuit for symbolic coherence). There’s a distinctive Philly or Detroit verve, right down to the homeless who live in the network of underground tunnels beneath the city and crawl out, mole-like, when night falls, to rummage through the stinking trash bins.
However, what really catches my eye is the aging Soviet ideological-utilitarian architecture, slowly becoming entangled in tree branches and creeping vines —
– or the gradual whittling down of the sharp angles of the avenues, the square sidewalk corners chipped away by the onslaught of pedestrians into curves, the pavement locked in a battle to the death with the invading tendrils of tree trunks and roots.
What I find fascinating in this is how an experiment in rigid urban planning — you can’t get much more “rational” than slapping a grid down onto the earth! — that was, as I understand it, pretty much a sleepy ghost town during the Soviet era, has since independence slowly been reclaimed and adapted by human beings and nature and turned into something rather bustling, organic, alive.
A lot of my acquaintances in Kyrgyzstan are under the assumption that their country is totally obscure in the West. To the contrary, they are fairly well-known — for political upheaval and intense poverty. Images of mobs surging against the White House as Svoboda looked on and rotting, almost post-apocalyptic infrastructure are typically the first things that come to a Westerner’s mind, well, usually with a culpak or two thrown in.
Of course, like any country, Kyrgyzstan has several realities, often overlapping, sometimes contradictory, sometimes merging. A lot of Western specialists, and for that matter, a lot of Kyrgyzstan’s own intelligentsia, tend to identify the most unstable, tragic and savage realities of the country with its totality, often at the expense of some really cool or interesting other aspects.
One of these aspects has been the gradual entrance of what can be described as global youth corporate culture — informal office environments, where graffiti art adorns the walls, there’s a mixture of business savvy and punkish DIY ethics in the air, and co-workers often go out clubbing together after work. Business start-ups and artist collectives in this mold are starting to sprout across Bishkek, and it’s all got a very incipient Berlin vibe in my opinion.
BarCamp 2011 was certainly the topic of the past weekend among so called Internet activists of Kyrgyzstan and some countries of Central Asia. People who usually do their communication through chats, skype calls, comments, tweets and likes gathered in Bishkek to talk in person and discuss latest developments in Web 2.0, open source software, applications and what not. Official website of the event says that more than 1100 people registered for the conference. However, my estimates of real attendance is 500-600, which is also a good indicator for our region. Here is my traditional photo story about the event.
Kyrgyzstan celebrated its birthday last week. For some countries the first 20 years of independence might be very difficult during which the country goes through many hardships – writing a constitution, introducing currency, building state institutions, establishing relations with neighbors and, finally, bring about conditions for state-society relations and harmony in society. But not for Kyrgyzstan, where one finds to no serious problems to tackle! This young, vibrant, free and enthusiastic country is free from any problems. Because its leaders know the way that others do not – imploring pagan gods and forces to improve their lives, and then just relax because “things will now certainly get better!”
I must say, the weather’s been lovely and the city’s been teeming all day with people in costumes, on roller blades, and just in general having a good time. I’m glad that I’m here to see Bishkek in such a good mood, especially after so much unhappiness as of late.
Dina Tokbaeva from IWPR and I spent the morning at Ala-Too Square watching the parade, which included everything from T-72s to Korean drummers. The photos below were taken by us (for credits, check out the file names). Then we did the most “natural” thing: sat down at Cafe Academia over two cups of green tea and debated the future of Kyrgyzstan. ;-)
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