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…

* * *

The media situation in Uzbekistan is at such a low point that no self-respecting journalist decides to work for the public, or any other kind of mass media there.  The reason is because working in these sectors just won’t allow them to grow professionally.

A colleague who is a former employee of a metropolitan newspaper wrote the following to me in a recent e-mail.  For security reasons, I cannot disclose his identity.

My salary was only 120 thousand soum [approximately 65 USD] – and I was not a rookie.

My editor obliged me to write nothing that included reasonable criticism of the President or the government; no analysis of social policy; not a negative word about the President’s family (indeed, don’t say nothing at all unless it’s about his famous daughter, Gulnara); and God be with you if dare report on the activities of opposition parties.  Do otherwise and  you’ll get fired for a long time.

Actually, from what I have seen myself, if journalists are critical about anything in the country, not just the government and its policies, then, first, their article will be immediately rejected by the editor, and second, they will be denounced as a parvenu, or worse, blacklisted.  Blacklisting in Uzbekistan is very serious: the journalist becomes deemed an “enemy of the state” and their families are shunned from normal community life.

So, any sane employee of the Uzbek media will write laudatory articles, submitting himself to official “guidance”.  Yet, praise for articles that are considered “good” isn’t given to the journalists who write them, but to only one man, the president himself!  It’s crazy: journalists must endure humiliation and poverty but cannot even enjoy the simplest joy of reporting — the byline.

Uzbek media gives the impression that the country is a veritable paradise on earth. So, it’s a supreme irony of the situation is that life is hell for the journalists who slave away to present this illusion.

So it’s not surprising that the Uzbek media is having a “brain drain”. My colleague writes,

I left as soon as I felt that I was wasting my time there: every employee of the Uzbek media degrades rather than gains experience to report as a real professional and to write on the issues he/she wants.

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.

As Ferghana.ru informs, the passports of people, working for ministries, authorities and institutions and going abroad or residing outside of the country will be exchanged during 2010. This category of people also includes the citizens, picking up their passports at lawful age or other basis, assumed by the law. Other citizens are of the country are going to receive their passports at the second phase (2011-2015).

Besides, the government is planning to establish special State personalization center under the Cabinet council for centralized production and accounting of biometric passports and their time provision to the population. It will be located at the territory of the biometric passports producer – Davlat belgisi (State Emblem) Production Company, owned by Central Bank.

Among other problems Uzbek citizens may face the main one is the situation with remaining corrupted officers of OVIR of the interior ministry: nobodu can guarantee that this time they are out of their everyday business. On the other hand, the government has 5-6 years to spread its control over that division of the ministry to finally ensure citizen that we are building crruption-free and laws-in-action society.

Today, the passports with biometric data, produced with the use of modern technologies, are introduced in more than 100 countries of the world, including Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.

***
The application of biometric passports is recommended by Chicago convention on international civil aviation (December of 1944) and decision (resolution) of Montreal Assembly of International civil aviation organization (ICAO), dated 2004. The ICAO member states should organize the distribution of civil passports, containing electronic information on personal biometric data and setup data of their owners and having high security level.

To see the Uzbek passport follow here please.

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.

THE WORST OUT OF HOW MANY COUNTRIES?

The reports are excerpted from Freedom in the World 2009, which surveys the state of freedom in 193 countries and 16 select territories. The ratings and accompanying essays are based on events from January 1, 2008 through December 31, 2008. The 17 countries and 4 territories profiled in this report are drawn from the total of 42 countries and 9 territories that are considered to be Not Free and whose citizens endure systematic and pervasive human rights violations.

Included in this report are eight countries judged to have the worst human rights records: Burma, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Also included are two territories, Chechnya and Tibet, whose inhabitants suffer intense repression. These states and territories received the Freedom House survey’s lowest ratings: 7 for political rights and 7 for civil liberties (based on a 1 to 7 scale, with 1 representing the most free and 7 the least free). Within these entities, state control over daily life is pervasive and wide-ranging, independent organizations and political opposition are banned or suppressed, and fear of retribution for independent thought and action is part of daily life.

The report also includes nine additional countries near the bottom of Freedom House’s list of the most repressive: Belarus, Chad, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Laos, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Zimbabwe. The two territories of South Ossetia and Western Sahara are also included in this group. These countries and territories—all of which received ratings 7 for political rights and 6 for civil liberties—offer very limited scope for private discussion while severely suppressing opposition political activity, impeding independent organizing, and censoring or punishing criticism of the state.

WHY NOT KAZAKHSTAN, KYRGYZSTAN and TAJIKISTAN?

Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan have 7 and 7 ratings both for political rights and civil liberties. Here are the ratings for other Central Asian -STAN’s:

KAZAKHSTAN - 6 and 5
KYRGYZSTAN - 5 and 4
TAJIKISTAN - 6 and 5

And if KAZ and TAJ, as UZB and TRM are also considered as Not Free, KYR is a leading democracy among all five Central Asian states.

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.

On June 14 at 3 p.m., they will play with local musicians at the Jazz Club in the Tashkent Photography House, which regularly hosts jazz concerts on Sundays.

On June 15, the Brian Horton Quartet will lead master music classes at the Niyaziy Tashkent State Music College and at the Uspenskiy Republican Academic Specialized Music Lyceum.

They will travel to Samarkand on June 16 for a performance at 6 p.m. at the El Merosi Concert Hall, and on June 17 the will play at 12:30 p.m. at the Information Resource Center Building in Guliston.

The Rhythm Road program sends bands that play American roots music such as jazz, blues, bluegrass and country music on overseas tours. In the last three years, groups have toured 89 countries from Brazil to the Republic of Congo and the Pacific Island nation of Fiji.

The program descends from the Jazz Ambassadors program, which started in the 1950s and included tours by such jazz legends as Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Dave Brubeck.

Alina Romanowski, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Professional and Cultural Exchanges, said the connections made by touring musicians and the countries they visit emphasize nations’ similarities while celebrating their differences.

“Cultural diplomacy allows artists and audiences to share in a common experience that reaches beyond differences in culture, religion, language and generations, and to connect as people without borders,” she said. “That is what The Rhythm Road is all about.”

THE BRIAN HORTON QUARTET is from Durham, North Carolina, has a sound rooted in blues and jazz sounds as they explore multi-cultural rhythms and improvisation. Saxophonist and composer Brian Horton, drummer Jaimeo Brown, bass player Ameem Saleem and pianist Ernest Turner have played with jazz greats like Branford Marsalis to American popular music icons Stevie Wonder and Carlos Santana.

According to press-center of Border Service of Kyrgyzstan, last Sunday unidentified young man of Uzbek nationality asked taxi driver to take him to the Sura-Tash village. On the way there, the passenger requested to stop the car. After that he illegally crossed the border with Uzbekistan, avoiding the checkpoint.

The driver says he suddenly heard some noise and “Stop!” command. Few seconds later he heard the shots. At the same time, the taxi driver got surrounded by Uzbek body guards and they made him freeze. The driver witnessed how Uzbek body guards took young man inside Uzbek territory. In the opinion of driver, shot man was not able to move independently.

Today, the employees of regional department of State Kyrgyz Security Service and public prosecutor’s office of Kara-Suu rayon of Kyrgyzstan are working on the investigation of this accident. Preliminary data says that the detained person was delivered to resuscitation department of Dustlik settlement in Uzbekistan, where he died as a result of gunshot wound.

Uzbekistan rejects any invitation of Kyrgyz officials to find out the details of the accident: just after it took place the Head of Osh border unit demanded the meeting of Border Service agencies. The Administration of Border Service of Kyrgyzstan asked for details from Uzbek side through diplomatic and governmental channels.

Let me remind that the situation at Uzbek-Kyrgyz border has been remaining tense since long time ago. According to unofficial data, Uzbek border guards unilaterally set the crash gate in the village of Chek that splits Kyrgyz and Uzbek territory. There are over two dozens of Kyrgyz citizen families residing in the Uzbek part of the village that also contest the legitimacy of Uzbek territory. The conflict in this village started once Uzbek border guards ran the inspection in the homes of Kyrgyz citizens.

After series of terrorist attacks on May 26 in Uzbek city of Khanabad Uzbek-Kyrgyz border was closed. It was opened only at the end of the last week. Uzbekistan declared that, possibly, people, participating in the Khanabad events, entered Uzbek territory from neighboring Kyrgyzstan.

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.

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 and they will decide that Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan are the same and that we have common traditions! And they will laugh at me because they will also think that I don’t know what lavatory pan is! How should I explain them that it was just a parody and making fun of one particular country??”

And this is a real problem. Only a few Swiss know about Central Asia and this movie creates a picture about the region for ordinary people of Switzerland. And now everybody associates Borat with any country which ends with “-stan”.

On the other hand, we can’t just prohibit the movie because it will bring us late back to the times when the government prohibited watching and reading whatever we wanted; when we were not allowed to come up with our own conclusions, points of view; when we were under somebody’s influence… In the meantime my countrymen wrote me that he liked the movie and he thought it was a good parody of old conservative traditions. I decided not to argue against because it was true.

As I know, today Borat is not allowed for airing in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. But I would argue about its airing in Central Asia to let people know how others make them out a fool; to let them see everyday greed, arrogance; efforts to give fantasy out to be real. I’d argue about that to urge Central Asians on making the World know them from better sight.

Maybe Borat is a character who personifies not one particular state but that group of fools representing any of Central Asian states abroad. While I was watching a movie images of different people [of Uzbek political elite] had been appearing in my mind, such as Abdulaziz Kamilov – former Minister of foreign affairs of Uzbekistan and current ambassador to the U.S.; Ostanakul Mirzayev – representative of Uzbekistan in the CIS; Shokasim Shoislamov – Uzbek ambassador to Tajikistan. Maybe Borat is just a right personage for these people representing the state and doing nothing for strengthening cooperation with other ones? In terms of this the movie is essential. So, let’s just don’t be strict to Sacha Cohen – he just did his job [as an actor].

After watching the movie my daughter decided she would always introduce herself as from Russia: it’d be easier to explain her accent in German. And not to let anybody think Borat was one of her relatives.

Actually, Borat is a relative to many people in Ok-Saroy (the Uzbek White House) and in Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan. Especially of those who cover somebody’s name in mud while “discussing” articles on some web-sites…

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?

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.

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?