Gulnara Karimova has got interest in blogging?
Media and Internet, Uzbekistan11 Comments
Last week Tashkent hosted a gala-concert of Yangi Avlod (Uzbek, New generation) festival organized and presented by Fund Forum and Kamalak (Uzbek, Rainbow; sister organization of Kamolot) with the support of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
This time’s VIP zone was represented by Cesaria Evora, a world-famous Capo Verdean ‘barefoot diva’, Samuel Eto’o of Internazionale. Both of them have been to Uzbekistan before but with different reasons. Today’s post is not about honorariums of these stars President’s daughters adore to invite and pay randomly. These famous foreigners are a visible part of the event. What I’m going to write about is the invisible side of it: an interesting information regarding PR efforts by international company called Atlas International Partners, and its vice president Chris Stone may surprise you.
The thing is President’s daughter found another field she wants to spend money to in order to raise popularity of her Fund Forum and, of course, herself.
Ken Silverstein of Harper’s says:
‘Now Gulnara [Karimova] has hired an American firm to bring bloggers to “a gala event in Tashkent,” to quote an email that Chris Stone, [...], has been sending to invitees. The email says that the event will “showcase the work of young Uzbek artists” and is being sponsored by the Forum of Culture and Arts of Uzbekistan Foundation, which is chaired by Gulnara Karimova.’
Wow, as I could understand Googoosha (her scenic name) decided to count on citizen journalism to form public opinion of appreciation from bloggers perspective.
Check out the content of emails sent with conditions:
‘The Foundation [Fund Forum] wants to bring a couple of well-known bloggers over to Tashkent to live-blog the event — and it would like at least one to be a public policy or foreign affairs blogger, undoubtedly because Ms. Karimova is a political figure in Uzbekistan in her own right. That said, the live blogging would involve talking about the cultural and artistic aspects of the event, and your touristic impressions of Uzbekistan; it should not be overtly political…We believe that the Foundation’s primary aim is to get people talking about Uzbekistan as a cultural destination, like Egypt, rather than a place people think about only when there is a crisis in Central Asia.
We can offer you $1,000 in compensation, and would cover business-class airfare from the US to Tashkent [...], your stay in the Intercontinental Hotel in Tashkent (btw, the most expensive and fabulous hotel in Uzbekistan), and incidentals such as meals and visa fees.
Finally, I should emphasize that I am making this inquiry on a preliminary basis; the Foundation has to approve our proposal. I understand that Ms. Karimova is reviewing the proposal personally and will get back to us within the next 24 hours, which would be necessary to get your visa processed on Friday. Our feeling is that she is likely to give us a green light, so I am assembling a team of bloggers now.’
Wait… We have lots of talented bloggers to participate. What’s the matter Ms.Karimova? Here comes the answer:
‘If you are interested, it would be helpful if you can let me know as soon possible. It would also be helpful to know how many hits per day your blog receives and whether you would be interested in writing about the event in any of the print media to which you contribute.’
Taking into consideration that we are banned in Uzbekistan that means that even if some of our bright bloggers expressed their will to write about it on neweurasia very few would be able to read about wonderful things which took place at the gala-event.
By now I failed to find any posts in the internet to say if somebody desired to come to Uzbekistan and enjoy ‘first daughter’s’ company and appreciation. Nobody? Well, I’d love to use that opportunity to visit my country but… would feel like an asshole spending the money of taxes payed by my countrymen.
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Is it just me, or do Karimova’s series of posh society events remind Pahlavi’s grotesque Persepolis celebrations in 1971?
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Musafirbek Reply:
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:54 am
@Turgai Sangar, to provide some info on what Turgai has mentioned.
Iran to Rebuild Spectacular Tent City at Persepolis. The Guardian, 2008. http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/9-21-2005-77276.asp
few pics available here http://www.angelfire.com/empire/imperialiran/conclusion.html
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Turgai Sangar Reply:
November 23rd, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Rahmet Musafir.
The Persepolis festivities discredited the Pahlavi monarchy and its American and European protectors for good among large swaths of the Iranian population. This contributed to the run-up to the revolution of 1979 which -contrary to what certain neocon-Zionist twats and Iranian exile groups may tell- did enjoyed large popular support.
This is not to pretend that Uzbekistan will go through the same scenario of an Islamic revolution as that in Iran. I don’t think so. I do say that Karimova’s decadent stints are similarly seen as a provocation and a humiliation – not only by Uzbekistan’s population but also parts of the elites – and make her as well as the regime ever more detested and despised.
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I think we, as bloggers, should unite and do something about those PR efforts of Gulnara. Fortunately, Internet is the place when rich and not-that-rich can compete on the same playing field. I noticed that Gulnara invests a lot in keeping her reputation online. I won’t be surprised if there are some IT guys who are responsible for correcting wikipedia entries for Gulnara, monitoring blogs that mention her name, forums, etc.
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Nickle Reply:
October 18th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Yes, let´s do this. Internet is a great tool: for example it helped Obama´s supporters, and we can do something to disclose this surrogate designer/”Harvard graduate/”an uzbek princess” – this is the image she is trying to create. No way! Who are you kidding?
Rapacious, famous for her cruelty, a real good daughter of her dad.
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Erik Reply:
October 19th, 2010 at 11:54 am
Craig Murray, former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, said: ‘This woman is not just the daughter of one of the most violent tyrants on Earth, she is also directly implicated in atrocities and the major beneficiary of the looting of the Uzbek state.
Those of you who read russian, can enjoy reading articles and comments on Yadgor Norbutaev site: just to understand what the Uzbeks think of Gugusha Karimova: http://ydgrnrbtv.ucoz.ru/
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Martin Reply:
November 12th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
I agree, it is very interesting, but don´t be surprised when it says: infected by virus; they say it is not, but I would use an antivirus protection anyway.
The authorities are obviously trying destroy this site.
Martin Reply:
November 19th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
The website (http://ydgrnrbtv.ucoz.ru/)
is now functioning smoothly, no spams or viruses. I enjoyed reading it, but it is in Russian.
Hey guys, i am one of grantholders of gulnaras’ foundation. No i am enterpreneur. She helps people in uzbekistan. She is very talented, clever and beatyful. We, uzbek people see, how she is trying to help people.
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Alvin Klein Reply:
August 31st, 2010 at 9:09 pm
Gulnara Karimova, so-called princess of Uzbeks is probably the most hated and despised woman in this country (excepting her few “grantholders”). She is playing princess Diana now, without her class or charm. Vulgar, ugly (there is something primitive and cruel in her brazen face), she steals, or rather robs people of Uzbekistan. They say she steals the works and ideas of students in jewelry design… Celebrities take her money but ridicule her, it is obvious.
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Gulnara Karimova is ridiculed in the West but she is a real pest, a sort of racketeer in Uzbekistan.
First time I visited Uzbekistan some years ago. Since then I took interest in this country, in the Family/la Famiglia, like in Sicily (The Karimovs) and Gulnara Karimova as a personality. I am fortunate to speak Russian.
My first impression was: it´s like the fairy tale about the Puss in Boots. When I asked people, who was the owner of fuel tanks, buildings, virtually everything I came across, the answer was: the Daughter (Dochka in Russian). This is one of the nicknames of Gulnara Karimova, or Gugusha, or G-njusha (I was told that this is not nice but very appropriate nickname for her).
She decalred herself the princess of Uzbeks (never heard her speaking Uzbek though, only Russian or English with the Russian accent). It became a cliché to describe her as a beautiful and intelligent woman, sometimes even by her opponents, like that French journalist, obviously in order to make a contrast between her look and cruel false personality. About her beauty, I saw her once not from the distance: artificial blond with cruel cunning face, not my cup of tea.
She claims that she is a Harvard graduate. I´ve got so curious, and contacted Harvard, but they could not find hear among the graduates, maybe because they don´t consider a one-year post-graduate course (she had it after Tashkent university) as such.
Her management is very simple. If she likes somebody´s property, she just appropriates it, through her father (with all these SNB/Uzbek KGB). If the owners protest, they are in prison, declared criminals, terrorist, etc.
Another example of Gulnara Karimova´s management is her company Zeromax, through which she successfully looted the country for years (you can read about it elsewhere). La Famiglia made it bankrupt recently, and the state of Uzbekistan took over. Now western companies are requiting their money from the state of Uzbekistan. And guess who is going to pay for this!
Of course not the Gugusha´s /Family´s company, receiving billions from the Americans for providing logisctics in Afgan war.
As for the child labour, everybody knows about it; you can read more on the Fergana.ru and other sites that tell about the fatal cases, abuse, suicide (of children as well) in the cotton fields of Uzbekistan.
My conclusion is: nobody believs Gulnara Karimova´s words about her love to Uzbekistan; in fact, Gulnara Karimova/ the Family and their associates despise and hate their own people.
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