I’d add that the victory in the Great Patriotic War, it is a great victory in the battle against fascism, but not winning the war against it. The battle with the nationalistic manifestations is still ongoing, and the activities of various activist organizations against neo – fascists serves us as a proof. Citizens of the world should be alert to such manifestations of the human mind, and stop them.

Marriage is an industry in our country: wedding facilities to conduct wedding ceremonies and wedding saloons for wedding parties with wedding singers, and even wedding palaces that have all of these functions under one roof. Weddings can also take place in and around cars (quite popular in Turkmenistan and Iran’s Turkmen Sahra) or in schools.

The wedding process goes like this: (1) the owner of the house or the head of the household calls together all of the aksakals, a gathering called “ýaşuly”. Then (2) they all pray to Allah, supplicating for blessings. Next (3) everyone shifts to a feast in front of the house, or to a restaurant. This latter part is really more intended for the young Turkmen, because the aksakals have spent the daylit hours praying and then go home to rest. Needless to say, stage three is when the fun begins — and make no mistake, Turkmen wedding parties are fun.

Although we’re a Muslim country, don’t be surprised to see copious amounts of alcohol at the party. The irony in this is that weddings are supposed to be about bringing people together in the context of a genuine emotional encounter. All that alcohol complicates things, gives a kind of an illusory perception of each other. For this and other reasons, people are becoming more conscientious about serving alcohol, or even having any at all, at their wedding parties.

Actually, in a way, weddings could be kind of like our post-Marxist opiate of the masses, because who doesn’t love to have fun? Certainly not the Turkmen. And as soon as there’s any kind of social hiccup, well, announce a gala wedding, with singers and all! Perhaps that’s why we have been rated one of the world’s happiest countries? But then, when the party’s over and reality sets back in, we quickly slip into our other status as also one of the world’s most miserable countries.

Still, the resultant music can sometimes be hilariously bad – badly mixed, badly lyricized, etc. Yet, again, sympathy’s in order: we should not forget the old maxim, “A rough diamond evolves into a polished diamond by getting trimmed and trimmed.” People learn by making mistakes; the successful are those who both survive and learn. Eventually, Turkmenistan shall have a full-fledged Pop scene; the question is when, not if.

I think there’s a temptation among our nation’s young to use the Eurovision song contest as a measure of whether a nation’s Pop scene has “emerged” and consolidated. This can be misleading. Turkmen singers have not been unsuccessful. If we look back to the Eighties, Atabay Charygulyyew’s albums were listened to and bought in Europe, and he won various competitions there (what’s particularly interesting about Charygulyyew is that he accomplished this by composing real Turkmen music, not by trying to be something he wasn’t, i.e., a Westerner). On the one hand, he’s an example of what our nation can eventually accomplish on a larger scale like the Eurovision; at the same time, on the other hand, he disproves the myth that Eurovision is the best marker of success.

To begin with, in Turkmenistan there’s a long tradition of respect of the young toward the old, and this is true in the music industry. There is a master-disciple (halypa-shagirt) relationship between the experienced and neophyte singer. Sometimes the discipleship can be figurative, i.e., if the aspirant singer models himself after one of our yesteryear greats, like Bally Hajy, Nurmuhammed Meredow, and Atabay Charygulyyew. Sometimes it’s literal, i.e., if the aspirant can link up with living greats like Akysh Sapar, Palawan Halmyradow, Hajy Yazmammedow, and Suwhan Orazberdiyew. These singers have many students.

There’s always been a reciprocal relationship between the young and the old: the young must learn and obey the old, but the old would do well to take into consideration the young’s desires and to help them become their own people. Although our politics these days rarely reflects this, our music industry does. Take for example Halmyradow: he began as a guitarist before shifting to Pop with orchestras, producing nine albums of guitar work until he realized that the young (his main customers) weren’t interested in that kind of music. Now he’s quite successful and has valuable insights to pass onto his disciples.

I wrote before about the crucial importance of public performances for our Pop singers’ income. They don’t receive commissions from their albums, and it’s difficult for them to have an okay side-job because the job market is so bad, and the real (as opposed to official) unemployment rate is so high in our country. Public performances, especially weddings, can be lucrative, but learning to be a singer, especially if one wants to master an instrument as well, can be expensive, prohibitively so. Additionally, this generation of singers is especially dependent upon their predecessors, but 20 years of gradual economic ruin means there are less predecessors to begin with, as most singers and musicians moved on to find other work.

Still, there is hope. There is in fact more music than ever before being made by my countrymen, especially as the outside world slowly trickles in and brings with it ideas, techniques and opportunities. I wouldn’t say we’re looking at a music renaissance, but the future is not dark.

Editor’s note: While Uzbekistan’s everyday citizens toil in the cotton fields, Gulnara Karimova has been hosting a festival of government-sponsored films to celebrate her country’s “talent”. NewEurasia’s Khayyam goes looking for Uzbekistan’s real talent, and finds them in a rival film festival in Bishkek.

We had a really, ahem, glorious film festival in Uzbekistan the last week: called “Golden Guepard”, it was organized by Gulnara Karimova as part of her Art Week, which is held annually in the country.

The pathos of the festival — to say nothing of Art Week itself– was completely out of place: it’s cotton harvesting time. So, while foreign visitors and Uzbekistan’s Zil-driving elite were enjoying films and fashion, regular citizens were slaving away on the cotton fields. Of course, there wasn’t a single film about this issue in the festival; only government-sponsored films were shown, and these tend to be standard, clean and harmless, made by directors who are often far removed from the people.

Contrast this situation with the nearly simultaneous “Reformat” festival in Bishkek. Uzbekistan had two really good representatives there, talented hard-edged directors who prefer to shoot only sharp independent films about real issues — neither of whom, by the way, were invited to participate in Googoosha’s spectacle. One of them even won the Grand Prix for Best Film!

That Grand Prix went to the documentary “The Angel … and two of her husband’s” Oleg Karpov and Umida Akhmedova, a notorious Uzbek director. In 2010, she was convicted in “Libel and insult of the Uzbek people” for her film, “The Burden of Virginity” (which you, dear reader, can watch on Vimeo here and here). In Karpov’swords,

“In this new movie, there is no politics. The film — about love and paradoxes of home life — focuses upon a woman who lives with her two husbands in the same apartment. The entire film is built on contrasts. All things in this film are very absurd. For example, one of the men of this woman is a Muslim who sings in the choir of the Russian Orthodox Church.”

He added, concerning “Reformat”,

The festival ‘Reformat’, as well as our own festival CAFIF, consist of films that are outside of the [regular] cinematic process: video art, documentaries, games, student films. The ideology is similar in both festivals, but in Kyrgyzstan there were cash prizes [i.e., real appreciation for our work]. It’s funny. [W]e won USD 700 with the Grand Prix; this is our the most successful film.

We [i.e., Central Asians] need more such festivals [...]. Previously, nothing similiar was happening in Uzbekistan or Kyrgyzstan. It’s a fresh move, and I hope that they will turn into something systematic, permanent.

Uzbekistan is a very rich country, and not just in terms of its natural resources. Its people can be supremely talented, but they too often get tossed aside for the glory of Googoosha.

Screen capture from "Generation of Port Wine" by Barkovsky

My impression — and not just mine, considering the awards given — is that Uzbek filmmakers represented in ‘Reformat’ looked very presentable. There seven Uzbek films shown [in total]. The film ‘Generation of Port Wine’ by Alexander Barkovsky, who received the third prize of the festival, was perceived as very personal, despite the fact that this movie is about Tashkent youth. [His] characters were familiar with the audience, they were recognizable. The film has a very serious energy.

Barkovsky is one of the most extraordinary video artists in Uzbekistan. His film, “The Generation of Port Wine”, is a documentary sketch of the life about street punks in Tashkent in 1998, full of existential nightmare. In his own words:

“The film was shot in 1998, when there was a a popular party-point called ‘Hitchhiking’ among punks in Tashkent, in the area of the last bus stop ‘Square’, which is now demolished [Ed.: For more information, check out NewEurasia's post on Tashkent's sudden physical transformation]. My friend from Moscow brought a video camera, and all summer I was with this camera, shooting different things. One day, I was in a cafe on the ‘Hitchhiking’ place where punks gathered. The footage laid in my house for ten years, [until] 2008, when I digitized it and spent two years editing it.

“It’s a human story of the generation of the Nineties, of which I was a member. At that time, the mass culture had not yet mixed all the people up in one heap. People were clearly divided into groups for ideological and aesthetic reasons.”

As for his motivations to film, Barkovsky remarked,

“I care about movies and life in general as a director, not for the sake of festivals. There are thousands of festivals in the world. I don’t care about ‘Golden Guepard’. [However,] I would like to participate, but for [obvious] reasons, none of my movies will work there. [T]hey did not even call me. [By contrast,] representatives from other festivals call sometimes.

Gulnara Karimova is notorious for her desire to get “big” in show business as “Googoosha”. She released her eponymous album earlier this year over the Internet. The songs were written by one of the best Russian producers, Max Fadeev. And now, we have the “world premiere” of the album’s lead single, “Round Run”.

The video is set in ancient Bukhara. According to witnesses and news agency Uznews.net, the entire historical city center was closed during the shooting process. Avi Cohen, a music video director from USA who has worked with Godsmack, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and other bands, directed the video. It also starred the world-renowned parkour runner Daniel Ilabaca. So, in a sense, this is a pretty big deal for Uzbekistan. But what was the actual end result?

Viewer reactions

YouTube viewers are split between their adoration for Ilabaca and their loathing for Googoosha. Hmmm interesting. For posterity’s sake, I’ve screen-captured the YouTube page for the video before the negative comments gets censored.

So, for example, one viewer writes,

клип не рыба не мясо у нее нету дара .. наверное в узбекистане слушают из за того что это песня везде играет и включают по телеэфирам

[Literal translation:] clip is not fish meat in her no gift .. probably listen in Uzbekistan due to the fact that this song is everywhere on television time and include

Another waxes sarcastic:

прекрасный клип и энергичная музыка, не зря наша леди вошла в пятерку на Hot Dance Hits в Америке … Ну что же, так или иначе, она знаменита!

[Literal translation:] excellent video and energetic music, no wonder our lady entered the top five on the Hot Dance Hits in America … Well, anyway, she is famous!

Googoosha definitely has her defenders, particularly one Islom Yusupov, who sees this as a public relations coup for Bukhara and Uzbekistan. Others praise her physical beauty, or just the fact that Uzbekistan has the resources (i.e., money) to produce something of “Western” quality.

Meanwhile, on the Uzbek analog of Youtube, Mover.uz, negative opinions on the video were surpassing positive ones — until comments were abruptly disabled (along with the Like/Dislike function). Surprise, surprise.

I AM GOOGOOSHA! HEAR ME ROAR! (But not you. You shut up.)

Professional reaction

NewEurasia asked one well-known European video producer about his/her impressions of the video from a professional point of view (unfortunately, he/she has asked not to be named, lest he/she have problems on future visits to Uzbekistan). Here are his/her remarks:

I don’t know how much this probably expensive director costs, but he’s not worth his money, that much is for sure. The best example is the beginning: the director fails at setting up the story. From the editing in this first part, you get a feeling that the guy is running away from the car, not that the two people actually want to meet. See the scenes and their symbolism:

- He looks over the city;
- A black car drives through;
- He slides down a wall;
- He jumps off some building;
- Frontal view of the black car;
- He runs.

The symbolics are clear: He’s fleeing from the car. The edit as well as the way places/items are shown, including the car, make that quite clear. Now, sure, you could say that it’s a game, haha, you know, they want you to believe this [running away] in the beginning, and then surprise you with a twist to the story when it turns out that they actually want to meet. But that’s rubbish. Firstly, this is a music video, not a 45 minute TV serial. Secondly, this revealing of the real story comes only at the very end, and if that is intentional, then sorry, it’s also badly done. It comes out of nowhere. All of a sudden. That’s just badly built: If you want such a surprise effect, you’d have to go through with it and implement hints during the story, too. That’s not happening.

There are plenty of small details, like toward the end when you see the guy climbing up the Arc (clearly diagonal walls), and somehow he ends up on the roof of a completely different building (with vertical walls). I mean, come on. They’re not even trying to hide the bad jump from one place to another. Likewise, around 0:28, where we play the bad old game of ‘quick cuts’, almost stop motion: Okay, the stylistics are already old-fashioned since years, but if you decide to use them, then… eh… why does for example the running guy (frontal view) make a step back all of a sudden? Now that can’t be on purpose, can it. Because it does nothing to help the story, or the aesthetics. It’s just a dumb cut.

I think it’s sad for an amazingly beautiful city like Bukhara if it looks so crap in a video. It’s not because of the camera, that was certainly expensive enough. The post-production however introduces sometimes these fast-moving clouds (okay, nothing fundamentally wrong with them); it somehow manipulates the colors but not to their advantage, i.e. the picture seems quite flat and at times even sterile. Toward the end (evening mood), it becomes entirely artificial. Additional details like these permanent lens flares don’t make it look better, too. I really feel sorry for Bukhara. It has all the visual magic, and then these folks have nothing better to do than turn it into some sort of plastic-fantastic landscape?

The camera is somewhat too hectic, even for a video of such speed. Speed is fine, but it needs to find a balance that allows to find into the rhythm, that carries us through. Here, my impression is that some of the moves are really just random. They create imbalances by e.g. not connecting to previous shots, abruptly changing directions, and the like.

Okay, matter of taste to some extent, I admit I’m not into disco-clubby-popsy stuff that all sounds almost exactly the same. But matters of taste aside: The singer clearly can’t sing. This is kind of the Scooter (or how this band was called) of cheesy clubby-popsy music. Hardly any voice, that lady. Besides that, the song is predictable; bases on elements we’ve heard a million times before; it’s cheap and shallow. The content motif (lyrics) is also cheap and silly — I mean, a 13 year old who’s in love writes better poetry than this.

Then, by my best knowledge, you shouldn’t climb around historic monuments. It’s either forbidden anyway, or it’s simply a bad idea because you damage ancient building substance. Isn’t this an UNESCO world heritage site or something? Is the Arc really in a condition that we should encourage people to run all over it? Hmm.

Ouch.

As for me, I also can’t figure out the symbolism of this black car. It’s a Soviet “ZIL” (Завод имени Лихачёва — ЗиЛ) that was created only for Communist Party top-level bosses. It’s a very rare car. Perhaps this is an allusion to the song of Boris Grebenshikov “Blue Light”, in which he sings, “My death driving black car with a blue flame”? Unfortunately, it brings to mind corrupt aristocracy, just as it used to in Soviet days…

“People would prefer to have gold or silver or platinum, some tangible asset that can preserve their wealth. So, while we’re sitting out in this isolated part of Central Asia and it seems unconnected to much of the rest of the world, this is obviously very central issue to what’s going on economically and financially right now in Europe and North America.” — Dr. Robert Moran, hydrologist/geologist

This past September, Bankwatch and I made a documentary about the Kumtor mine. You can view the video via YouTube. Some weeks later I was invited to join a State Commission which was visiting the Kumtor goldmine to do an environmental monitoring and take water samples. While we were out there, though, I also took a long series of photographs, originally posted by Bankwatch on Flickr but which I’m now re-posting with permission here to help spread the word about what’s happening in Kyrgyzstan’s mountains.

View of the Davidov Glacier with waste rock on it at the Kumtor goldmine.

Although the State Commission was visiting the mine with an official decree of then-Prime Minister Almazbek Atambajev we were  first denied acces to the mine. During the five hours we were waiting up there at the entrance I took this shot of the Davidov Glacier with mining waste sitting on top. The disposal of mining waste on top of the Davidov glacier as well as on the adjacent Lysie glacier increases the fast melting down of the glaciers and contributes to its destruction. In other parts of the world like in Latin America, the mining of glaciers would be considered as an extremely volatile environmental issue.

Lake Petrov from above with Petrov glacier

The next day, September 20th 2011 the commission was eventually granted access to the mine and was taking a series of water samples from different locations at the mine. We started at Lake Petrov, which sits above the mine at around 4000 meters above sea-level. Due to climate change the Petrov glaciers has been melting dramatically. This has increased the size of the Petrov lake enormously. International scientists like Dr. Robert Moran as well as Kyrgyz scientists like Dr. Isabek Torgojev fear that the  natural glacial moraine dam will become more and more unstable and could break if an earth quake occurs.

The report of Dr. Moran states:

“These conditions are extremely risky and could result in a catastrophic collapse of the Petrov Lake dam, which might also damage the Kumtor tailings impoundment. This might cause a rapid release of masses of contaminated water and sediments (the tailings) into the Kumtor River, endangering downstream people, facilities, downstream rivers, and would likely kill much of the mountain trout population and other aquatic organisms. Such a collapse could negatively-impact waters throughout much of the Naryn River basin, which flows into Uzbekistan.”

The Kumtor Operating company extracts 4.38 Billions litres from Petrov Lake a year. The report by Dr. Robert Moran states:

“Extraction of such vast quantities of water by Kumtor inevitably reduces the supplies available to downstream users for all their daily activities (agriculture, livestock, drinking, domestic, etc.), impacts fish populations–and increases the overall competition for water downstream. [...] The volume of water needed for Kumtor operations will likely increase as production increases. The Water Usage Permit allows KOC to draw 6.3 million cubic meters per year (about 6.3 billion liters per year) from Petrov Lake (p. 133). One assumes that KOC pays no price for the water itself.”

View on the pumping station at Lake Petrov

View on Lake Petrov from above and its fragile natural dam

State Commission taking water samples at Lake Petrov

Watersupply coming from Lake Petrov

View from Lake Petrov down to the Tailings pond in the background, which contains toxic solutions of the goldmining processing

Measuring PH-level, conductivity and temperature at Lake Petrov

View on one part of the tailings pond containing toxic residues. In the far background Petrov glacier and Lake Petrov

The new affixed tailings dam of the tailings pond at the Kumtor Goldmine

State Commission inspecting the tailings dam

Tailings dam and tailings pond showing the plastic layer at the bottom

The gold mining at the Kumtor site produces massive quantities of waste. About 89 million tons of toxic tailings till the end of 2010 are stored in this tailings pond. One of the main problems with this dam is that it has become unstable  and is slowly moving downhill with its shape deforming. The report of Dr. Robert Moran gives the following explanation for it`s instability:

“This instability is due partly to the factors discussed above, but is likely enhanced by the relatively high temperatures of the tailings when they come from the process plant (a highly contaminated mix of about 50% solids, 50% liquids) which would increase permafrost melting. Such deformation and movement of the tailings structure, combined with the partial melting of the permafrost raises concerns about a catastrophic failure of the tailings impoundment — especially if a severe earthquake were to occur.”

Tailings dam in the righthand background the leftovers of Davidov glacier with waste rock on top

Water pipe at the edge of the tailings pond with toxic residues

The highly contaminated mix of solids and liquids coming from the process plant of the mine is stored in the tailings pond and then treated at the treatment plant. After the treatment the water is released into the Kumtor river.

Treatment plant at the edge of the tailings pond where the toxic residues are treated

Pond with treated water

Water release from the tailings dam into the Kumtor river after the treatment

The Head of the State commission and member of the Kyrgyz parliament Erkingul Imankodjoeva (left side) with Dr. Kalia Moldogazieva and Security from Kumtor at the water release

Water release into the Kumtor River after treatment

Waste rock on Davidov Glacier

Waste rock on Davidov Glacier

Three rivers below Davidov glacier with waste rock on top, in the righthand side background the open pit

Samples from the open pit water

Water coming from the open pit

Waste Tires

Waste disposal at the Kumtor Goldmine

The analysis of the water samples indicate that there is water contamination of the rivers coming from the Kumtor goldmine flowing down the valley into the Naryn river basin. For further detailed information please review the report of Bankwatch and the NGO “Tree of life” .

I would like to close this report with some interesting questions Moran is posing in his report:

“There is a common myth that we can develop natural resources on a large scale without any significant impacts. This is untrue, and this myth continues in the daily information average Kyrgyz hear and read with respect to the Kumtor Mine. There is no ‘free lunch’. All such projects involve trade-offs: some economic benefits for significant long-term impacts and costs—often environmental and social. Several additional questions arise: Are these impacts acceptable to those impacted? Who will pay the long-term costs? Who decides?”

I expect the video will be interesting to outsiders for a few reasons. One is that it provides a window into our official culture and festivities surrounding political events, and shows how the president’s personality cult is at the center of everything. In an attempt to build a nation-state, like in other countries cultural traditions are adopted to legitimize a political process (2:12) (it’s ironic that the mere fact that an election was held on Turkmen soil is celebrated as a festivity) but take notice of the spiritualization of the voting ritual — and that’s what it’s become, an empty religious-like action — especially the chanting (3:43) and the creepy way officials speak in unison to the President and his father (4:02).

Another aspect is how the regime is willing to distort facts: near the end of the video (7:17) they claim that “international monitors observed the elections”, which is not exactly true. They are referring to the presence of so-called “monitors” from the CIS (including Belarus, that stalwart defender of the democratic process *cough). As is well-know, the OSCE and several other organizations didn’t even bother to attend.

Meanwhile, a report from RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service makes Ashgabat sound like a small war zone:

Heavy smoke was seen in Ashgabat and small fires were reported on a mountain behind the military base, which also has an air strip.