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.

For more information

Is Gulnara Karimova beloved by international community? Find out here.