Turkmenistan
The Turkmenistan government wishes the swine flu would just go away. Image by Flickr user Ben Chau.
Editor’s note: Has Turkmenistan come down with a bad case of the swine flu? neweurasia’s Annasoltan investigates in this new post series on Turkmen healthcare. Meanwhile, neweurasia’s Timur and Bakhrom debate whether the disease is a serious threat. Read the rest of our ongoing coverage on the disease here.
The Turkmen authorities haven’t reported a single case of swine flu in the country. Meanwhile, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 200 countries have reported cases of pandemic influenza H1N1, including over 6,000 deaths worldwide by mid-November. Is Turkmenistan an oasis of health?
Don’t be fooled by this “miracle”. The American author Mark Twain once said, “There’s lies, damn lies, and statistics”, and Turkmenistan is a country that proves him right.
But for once there’s a new twist to the same old story: of all the pandemics to sweep the globe in the last twenty years, this one seems to be giving the Turkmen authorities a serious headache.
Image by Flickr user Daniel Broche (CC-usage).
Editor’s note: This is the latest post in neweurasia’s ongoing coverage of the rise of the “Turkmenet”, the online community in the Turkmen language, as well as third on the rise of the mobile internet across Central Asia. Check out Annasoltan’s previous post on the mobile internet in Turkmenistan and Pravdin’s post on the mobile internet in Uzbekistan.
It’s a simple rule of capitalist economics: the more customers there are, the better services become. Not so in Turkmenistan.
The Russian company Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), the largest mobile phone operator in Russia and the CIS, dominates the cellular market here. The company has been bragging about the expansion of its customer base in Turkmenistan. Meanwhile, customers are complaining that service is getting more expensive.
Indeed, according to a World Bank chart, while the cost of Internet services has fallen between 2003 and 2006 in countries where it is widely used, in Turkmenistan it has been rising in the same period.
You ask: why is this news? Because it actually could affect the development of civil society in Turkmenistan.
Image by Flickr user Bad Humbug (CC-usage).
Editor’s note: This is the latest post in neweurasia’s ongoing coverage of the rise of the “Turkmenet”, the online community in the Turkmen language, as well as the rise of the mobile internet across Central Asia. Check out Pravdin’s post on the mobile internet in Uzbekistan.
According to the 2009 Information Economy Report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNTCAD), mobile phone and Internet penetration is rising most in the developing world. More than half the world’s people now have access to information and communication technologies, especially mobile telephones, with 1.4 billion Internet users and more than 4 billion mobile subscriptions around the world at the end of 2008, the report says.
Matching this worldwide trend, the Russian company Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), the largest mobile phone operator in Russia and the CIS, has just announced that the number of MTS subscribers in Turkmenistan have exceeded 1.5 million, a half million increase since February 2009. It’s a surprising and staggering number.
Consider that Turkmenistan’s population amounts roughly to 5 million, this would mean a roughly 25% penetration. Yes, it’s a relatively low penetration when compared to the higher cellular rates of neighboring Uzbekistan, which is home to 12,5 million mobile users or 46% of the population at the end of 2008 according to ITC Statistics. Nevertheless, if true, it would be a milestone for Turkmenistan.
Image from the 2009 edition of "The Stars My Destination", a classic American science fiction novel by Alfred Bester about the impact of technology upon human freedom. Turkmenistan's planned satellite launch may one day be seen as symbolic, signifying the moment the country embarked upon a cyberspace odyssey.
Editor’s note: For the last two months neweurasia’s Annasoltan has been tracking the development of the “Turkmenet”, the small but growing online community in the Turkmen language. Mystery surrounds the motivations of Turkmenistan’s government: why are the authorities so aggressively intent on expanding the internet yet also so untypically relaxed about digital dissent?
It’s a philosophical riddle as old as when humanity first learned to harness the power of fire: Will technology bring freedom or slavery? Lately, observers of Turkmenistan find themselves asking this very question about the Internet.
Photograph courtesy of the Chronicles of Turkmenistan. Click on the image to read their article.
Editor’s note: Human trafficking has always been a major part of Central Asia’s economy . As long as go as the Abbasid Caliphate, Central Asians were being enslaved and exported across the world to work as prostitutes, servants, and soldiers. neweurasia’s Annasoltan reflects upon modern trends in this dark market.
According to a recent report by Jane’s Intelligence Review, persistent economic hardship and porous borders have contributed to a rise in human trafficking in Central Asia to countries like Turkey, Pakistan, Thailand, and the European Union and Gulf States. Human trafficking can have a broad definition, including various forms of forced or cheap labor the most common of which is sex work, and, of course, Central Asia’s.
You’re probably saying, “Okay, why is this news?” Well, that’s precisely the attitude Turkmenistan’s government is taking.
“I can’t believe it, my dream has come true,” says a young Turkmen reacting to the news that Turkmenistan will soon acquire its first national space satellite. The satellite is intended to accelerate the development of communications systems and internet connectivity in the country, according to official Turkmen news reports. Indeed, aside from boosting national pride and invoking trust in the country’s development , it does in reality means good news for the country’s internet and mobile phone users.
Of course, a satellite isn’t exactly what Niyazov had in mind when he vowed to put Turkmens into space during the 21st Century. But then, since becoming president, Berdimuhammedov has envisioned greater internet access as one way to improve Turkmenistan’s relations with the outside world.
Turkmen rap songs are gaining speedy popularity among the Turkmen youth. New rap websites are popping up left and right.
“Palestine”, a song about Palestinian children killed by Israeli security forces by Zumerchas of the rap group Darkroom Posse, has been rapidly making the rounds among listeners. Darkroom Posse has toured in Turkey and includes rappers from Turkmenistan, Russia, Canada, and the United States.
Is serious discontent simmering on the Turkmen internet? Image by Flickr user miscpix (CC-usage).
Editor’s note: Recently Turkmenistan has been shaken by social unrest, surprising many who see the country as an “island of calm”. neweurasia’s Annasoltan reports on the reaction of the growing Turkmen online community, a.k.a., the “Turkmenet”, which has been having a very public and intense discussion about the loyalties of their government.
A clash erupted between Chinese and Turkmen workers of a Chinese natural gas company in the Samandepe region of eastern Turkmenistan on 12 September. Approximately 200 Turkmen workers were reportedly detained and 15 hospitalized.
The Turkmen workers had complained of wage discrimination and poor working conditions, the report said. Meanwhile, in what appeared to be downplaying the importance of the event, the Chinese Embassy and the Turkmen Foreign Ministry have released no official comment.
Although, as usual with such situations, the incident was completely unmentioned by the tightly-controlled Turkmen media, news of it still reached the “Turkmenet” — the online Turkmen-language community — and quickly sparked a vibrant and very public discussion.
Islam may the fastest growing digital religion in the world. Photo of an iPhone Qur'an by Flickr user Nazim Zeeshan (CC-usage).
Editor’s note: The mechanisms of Islam’s resurgence in Central Asia and beyond are little understood. For example, Islam may be the world’s most digital religion, out-pacing its historic rival Christianity, as well as more recent competitors like secularism and free market capitalism, in the cybernetic marketplace of ideas. neweurasia’s Annasoltan examines Islam’s return to Turkmenistan from the viewpoint of its FaceBook user community.
When religious freedom in Turkmenistan becomes an issue the first thing that comes to one’s mind is the persecution of religious minorities living in the country. Yet, there has been an important development that has mostly gone unnoticed: the gradual rise of Islamic religious influence among Turkmenistan’s young population.
It is a trend that is visible in all Central countries, not to mention the world. The fact that about 90% of Turkmenistan’s population is Muslim makes this development the more natural after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Photo by Flickr user riacale (CC-usage).
Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov is making a trip to the United States this week which includes a speech at the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly and meetings with top US officials. It will be difficult for him to present himself as the hoped for reformer who is willing to take Turkmenistan out of present isolationist course.
Nevertheless, Berdimuhammedov held talks on Monday in New York with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Apparently, both sides want to do more to seize opportunities to build closer ties.
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