Reading the Newspaper (1938), N. Karaxan (1900-1970), Savitsky Art Museum, Nukus, Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan, 19 November 2008. Image courtesy of Flickr.

Editor’s note: neweurasia’s Musafirbek Ozod goes beyond statistics and formal reports to write about what it’s actually like to live and work as a journalist in Uzbekistan. This is the first part of a series, and part of the ongoing CyberChaikhana project.

A few days ago, Chris Schwartz, one of neweurasia’s managing editors, asked me to write about the disconnect between what the news reports about Uzbekistan and what life is actually like there for journalists. I started quoting reports by international organizations but he immediately stopped me.

“No, don’t think like a journalist this time; think like a blogger,” he said.  “Write from life, not statistics.”

As you can imagine, breaking out from the dry officialdom of journalism and speaking with one’s own inner voice is a challenge, but “writing from life” is what neweurasia is about.  So, here goes…

Read the full story »

On June 23 President Karimov signed the decree on introduction of biometric data passports in the country as of January 1, 2010.

The biometric data passports are introduced with the purpose of raising their security level, development of mechanisms for prompt and exact personal identification at crossing the state border, ensuring the safety of international civil aerial navigation and effectiveness of international avia transport. Read the full story »

Released on June 3 2009, the “Worst of the Worst. The World’s Most Repressive Societies 2009″ report by Freedom House lists two Central Asian states - Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan - as worst of the worst.

The report is based on “Freedom in the World” Freedom House’s Annual Global Survey of political rights and civil liberties.

What does this mean? The worst out of how many countries? Why again Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan and why not Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan? Let’s try to find answers to these questions. Read the full story »

This is a translation of Musafirbek’s post.

The Brian Horton Quartet started its tour of Uzbekistan with a concert at the Turkiston Palace in Tashkent, where it was supposed to perform with local singer Aysel Balich. But unfortunately she didn’t show up. The U.S. Embassy which coordinates the tour hasn’t commented on that fact.

During their tour The Quartet jams plan to play a series of jazz concerts and conduct master music classes during their tour of Tashkent, Samarkand and Guliston.

The Quartet’s visit of Uzbekistan is a part the Rhythm Road Music Abroad Program, which is organized by Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York and the U.S. State Department. Within the Program the band visited Kazakhstan, Turkey and Azerbaijan. Read the full story »

As Ferghana.ru information agency reports, at the dawn of June 7 around 5 a.m. another lethal incident took place at the border of Uzbekistan. As neweurasia reported the last lethal accident happened at Tajik-Uzbek border. This time it reached bordering areas between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Read the full story »

Translation of post (RUS) by the author.

[inspic=143,left,250]Last week the British Guardian published a country profile on Uzbekistan where underlined that “President Islam Karimov is the harshest dictator in the former Soviet region.”

As popoular tabloid reminds, “political opponents of his regime have been murdered, tortured or committed to psychiatric institutions. Hundreds of protesters are thought to have been killed in a massacre at Andijan in 2005.” (To find out more about Andijan massacre, please follow here, here and here.

The above information is placed at the very beginning of the profile along with country’s history. Thus, millions of its readers first will find about dictatorship regime in our country and only after that will explore our rich culture, traditions, bnational cuisine and other achievements. Just for this we should express mentioned above person our gratitude…

p.s. If I were a reader of the Guardian I would immediately change the page for more positive story.

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Translation of post (RUS) by Alisher Taksanov.

Yesterday, May 3, RTL German TV-channel aired Borat movie. And we, people in Switzerland, could also “enjoy” it because the channel airs for our country too. As soon as my daughter saw the movie she exclaimed: “Ohhh, now everybody in my school will laugh at me!”

My wife asked her why she thinks so about just a comedy and how it is connected to her.

My wife didn’t like the movie neither: there were too much immoral scenes, for instance, when Borat washes his face in lavatory pan, takes a pee on the street, runs across the New-York streets with a hen in his hands; when he kisses his sister who is number 4 prostitute in Kazakhstan; when asks serious ladies how to use a toilet paper; when his partner-producer [Azamat] shows his sexual habits, etc. Although, it is not about Uzbekistan, it touches whole Turkic nationality and the whole region of Central Asia.

And then my daughter responded: “Mom, my classmates don’t know about Uzbekistan Read the full story »

… would say Omar Khayyam commenting on the following news.

According to the article at Drinks Media Wire, soon Russian Standard Vodka (RSV) will appear in the alcohol market in Uzbekistan. RSV is a well known brand of vodka thats famous for its quality. The article also says that the Uzbek alcohol market is among top 10 in the world! And its still expanding! Its very hard to believe, as Tashkent, a capital of Uzbekistan, had been declared a World Islamic Cultural Center Capital  in 2007. Plus, all those statistics of security agencies on increasing religious extremism and radicalism do not fit in this context, as Islam bans alcohol.

Maybe Omar Khayyam, a famous Persian poet and philosopher, was right when he said that alcohol helps people to forget the reality and live in dreams. Todays socio-economic situation in Uzbekistan is not that good. Migrant workers are coming back from Russia and Kazakhstan, because they cannot find jobs. The world economic crisis hit even peasants in the most rural places of the country. Maybe people are finding their “chicken soup for the soul” in alcohol?

While preparing to celebrate 2200-anniversary of Tashkent our President decreed to reward veterans of WWII beforehand. Everything would be fine if not a childish amount of the reward:

1. Determine one-time money reward to the participants and invalids of WWII with amount of 120,000.00 (One hundred twenty thousand) Soums.

From “President decree on rewarding veterans”

Just to remind: by official exchange rate it is equivalent to 83 USD, and by “black” market’s rate it is 67 USD.

As President’s Press-service informs, the Ministry of finance, the Central bank, the Ministry of labor and social protection, the Ministry of interior and the National security service have been entrusted with organizing the solemn rewarding ceremonies.

Recently Uzbek authorities made another severe step on the way of showing it’s people that “Children are responsible for their parents” - a rule which was the essence of Stalin’s regime.

This time a five-year-old child became a victim of current regime - a prominent Uzbek human rights activist’s son suffered a beating at the hands of an unidentified youth that required a visit to a hospital emergency room, Eurasianet.org informs.

Muhammad Mashurov, the son of rights activist Elena Urlaeva, required medical treatment for head injuries after a teenager battered him with a stick. The boy reportedly suffered a concussion and lacerations, the CA-News service reported. The incident occurred in a courtyard outside the family’s apartment in Tashkent on April 22, the opposition website Uznews.net reported.

Urlaeva, a member of the Human Rights Alliance of Uzbekistan, was assaulted near her home on April 15 as she took her son to school. She was punched, kicked and threatened with a knife by attackers demanding to know why she had not left the country already. Human Rights Watch say the April 15 confrontation is linked to Urlaeva’s activism. She continues to receive daily death-threats by phone, Uznews.net reported.

Logic conclusion: authorities are using all means to prevent activists from doingn their job…their business of life for the welfare of Uzbekistan. How long they should wait to act without fear?