Tajikistan
Translation of Nuraika’s post (RUS).
I’m in Dushanbe again! The weather is mild and welcoming, despite the snow. The sky is gray, the streets are wide, the people are good-natured and there are lots of contrasts that catch the eye. On the one hand, you still notice the legacy of the Soviet period – old cars, people in traditional clothing, etc. Read the full story »
Translation of Nuraika’s post (RUS)
Dushanbe is situated in the Gissar Valley, on the river Dushanbinka, surrounded by mountains and picturesque gardens. It is a green city with lots of alleys lined with elm and maple trees.
One of the city’s main attractions is the Central Botanical Garden, which belongs to Tajikistan’s Academy of Sciences, and holds over 4500 varieties of plants from all over the world. Read the full story »
Translation of Nuraika’s post (RUS)
Winter in Dushanbe begins very slowly and gently. It is still autumn outside, the trees reluctantly shed their leaves, and the sun plays hide-and-go-seek with the clouds. Looking out of my window, I can see the chiming clock of the museum and a big intersection. How nice that the supermarket isn’t far from the hotel. My schedule permits me to go buy souvenirs in memory of the pleasant trip. Read the full story »
Translation of Nuraika’s post (RUS)
The Chaikhona Rokhat is probably the most popular tourist spot in Dushanbe. People come here not only to eat, but also to immerse themselves in the rich world of Tajikistan’s culture and history: ganch modeling, painted walls, ceilings, carved wooden columns, and so forth. You can try authentic Tajic cuisine and have a taste of Eastern extravagance.
It’s been a big year for barcamping in Central Asia. There was, of course, the mother of all barcamps in Almaty in the Spring, organized by neweurasia’s own Yelena. Another one was pulled off in the Fall in Kyrgyzstan, followed-up by a training seminar in Bakten — trailblazing the digital frontier — not to mention EduCamp back in Almaty.
But when 2009 started, no one could have imagined that there would be barcamps in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan (consider this post by neweurasia’s Vadim from a while back). Yet, the impossible has happened in both Tashkent and Dushanbe.
The attached video is a short story about an amateur tour for Kyrgyz during the event in Dushanbe (and when I say “ameteur”, I really mean it). If you watch closely you might catch some familiar faces from neweurasia et al. Enjoy! ;-)
Image by neweurasia's Schwartz (CC-usage).
Editor’s note: The Tajik government has recently instituted fees for information requests from journalists and the general public. In this editorial, neweurasia’s Botur examines how putting a price tag on information will only serve to hurt freedom: “Information is the lifeblood of democracy”.
In today’s world when just about every country is striving to improve its transparency, accountability and public access to information (or at least pretend to), the Tajik government once again decides to swim against the stream.
Last week the government issued a decree that envisions charging fees for reimbursement of costs incurred by providing information to news organizations and the public. The fee has been set at 10 cents per page or $10 per 100 pages. Consider that the average salary in Tajikistan is $70 per month, not to mention that there are barely two dozen functioning newspapers and news agencies, all of whom are strapped for cash.
It has already become a tradition that in BarCamp-like events there is always someone from neweurasia, who represents the project. The forum “Digital Youth of Central Asia” is not an exception. Kyrgyz and Kazakh teams made a presentation about neweurasia and lobbied Tajik internet users to read and blog with neweurasia.
read previous posts from the event (1)
The forum “Digital Youth of Central Asia” is continuing. Participants are busy doing and attending different presentations. Participants from Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan were very active in the beginning of the day and have already done their presentations on blogging, micro-blogging/video-blogging, PR and new media, and others.
Participants from Tajikistan are beginning their presentations. At the moment, we are in a big conference hall and an IT specialist from Dushanbe is presenting his software program that reads Tajik text, i.e. voices it. As he explains, his program is created not on “letter-reading” software, but on “syllable-reading” one.
At the moment, we have found and coded 3259 syllables that we found in 3800 pages of text… We have also discovered that 148 syllables make 75% of Tajik language, 418 syllables make 90% of the language, from 684 to 3259 syllables have only 5% share… This is also a very valuable data for linguists.
The program also reads texts in Russian, but with Tajik accent :)
The IT specialist also says that they have created a software program for tajik-russian and russian-tajik disctiories, and working on integration of voicing program with dictionaries.
Yet another BarCamp format event is taking place in Central Asia. Now, it is happening in a beautiful city Dushanbe, and is called “Digital Youth of Central Asia”.
The forum is organized by the Center for Information Communication Technologies, under support of the Tajik Branch of Open Society Institute/Assistance Foundation (OSI/AF-Tajikistan), the World Bank, and the last, but not the least, the Ministry of Education of Tajikistan.
The event is taking place at the Vefa business center in the heart of Dushanbe, and will last for two days - December 5-6. Participants are from different countries, but mainly from Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and few people are from Uzbekistan. The main idea of the forum is to gather technically well-educated and active youth from different corners of Central Asia, and have them share ideas and experiences, create networks that will put the start for further mutual endeavors.
Majority of participants are from the host country. However, as the forum cannot host too many people, many Tajikistanis, especially those from remote regions, could not make it to the forum. Nevertheless, there is a live video-conference going on with three regional centers of Tajikistan - Hudjan, Kulyab and Kurgan Tyube.
It is 10:40 at the moment. The opening sessions of organizers is finished, and participants are out for a coffee-break. BarCamp format presentations will start at 11:00 and will take place in 4 different rooms. According to the time and presentations table, I feel the day is going to be interesting, as there are many terrific-sounding presentations and video conferences.
Stay with us! We will keep you updating about the process of the forum.
First photos:
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