The internet is not sanitary: in the face of their government's obtuseness over the swine flu, Turkmens are turning to the internet for answers -- and for each other. Image by Flickr user larksflem (CC-usage).

Editor’s note: Has Turkmenistan come down with a bad case of the swine flu?  neweurasia’s Annasoltan investigates in this fourth part of a post series on Turkmen healthcare.  Previously, neweurasia’s Timur and Bakhrom debated whether the disease in Kyrgyzstan is a serious threat.  Read the rest of our ongoing coverage on the disease here.

Last week I reported on the Turkmen government’s faltering attempts to repress public reaction to the swine flu.  They have tried several bizaare and almost comical methods, but most of all, consistent with established practice, they have tried to simply deny the crisis into non-existence.  For example, on 5 November the Turkmen State News Agency proclaimed,

All services of the health system of Turkmenistan have every means to prevent infiltration of particularly dangerous infections from neighboring countries, as well as other countries. The Ashgabat International Airport and the seaport of Turkmenbashi have been fitted with thermo-scanners, and medical services have been put on alert.

I believe we have seen this process before.  In 2003, during the height of the avian flu outbreak, the Chinese government tried to cover up the disease.  Their attempts backfired and resulted in a domestic public relations disaster that still dogs the government.

Indeed, the outbreak took two forms — the disease itself, which spread rapidly, and the panicked reaction to it from the public — and it seemed to have a life of its own.  A key player in the crisis was the Chinese internet community, who, in the face of their government’s obtuseness, began a desperate hunt for information, trying to find out if the disease was truly a threat to human life.  Rumors rapidly spread via e-mails, quickly reaching the eyes of reporters and triggering what some academics now call the “Chinese Information Technology Revolution“.

Today, we are seeing something very similar in Turkmenistan, with a small but intrepid online community turning to the internet for answers.

Turkmenet, M.D.

Farid Tuhbatullin, head of the Vienna-based Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights, remarked to me,

Of course, there are not many people who can use the Internet. But whoever has access is reaching out to neighbors and friends and to share information and pass advice. They can obtain statistics which they can’t obtain from official sources. As during the Soviet years, people don’t have confidence in official media outlets.

The Turkmenet seems to be for the moment a small online community of urban, well-educated, and young Turkmens.  In the face of the swine flu crisis they have been trying to put together bits of information to make a picture of what’s going on.

This information exchange has been intense and is taking place primarily on debate forums where participants trade text, audio, and video files, many of which concern how to prevent or treat the disease.  Perhaps most importantly is that they are discussing the situation in other countries while translating material from sources in English, Russian, and Turkish into Turkmen for their countrymen who are not literate in the other languages.

In a matter of weeks, the Turkmenet has become the average Turkmen’s primary tool against the crisis and has brought many people closer together.

Inside the doctor’s office

Below are some quotes from the discussions going on in these forums.  I have made the screen names anonymous to protect the users’ identities.

Many are expressing alarm and dismay at the reaction of the government and official media:

Our news is more trustworthy than those of the media outlets in our country. Remember the scandal about a single cockroach leading to the firing of a TV journalist? This information was ours and it proved to be true.  – Forum User (A)

Swine flu has reached almost every country on earth. In other countries the media are informing the people, but not in ours. The government can’t be blamed for causing the outbreak but the government is to be blamed for denying it. – Forum User (B)

From swine flu more than 20 people have died in neighboring Iran and more than 50 in Afghanistan. How on earth it hasn’t happened in our country? – Forum User (C)

Others are trying be more more cautious:

We only hear rumors about deaths. What do we know for sure? I called home to my mother. She wouldn’t lie to me. She is a doctor and she told me that if there were such cases the doctors would know about it… This could be a seasonal flu…   – Forum User (D)

To this last user some responded by recalling the World Health Organization’s warning that swine flu is more dangerous than ordinary flu because of its ability to penetrate deeper into the lungs.

This user has besought God’s help:

For God’s sake I ask you to pray to Allah (God) the Almighty to safeguard our country and please pass my words on to as many people as possible. God save you. – Forum User (E)

Long-time observers of Turkmenistan will undoubtedly find the above examples quite shocking.  They’ll ask themselves, “Are these really Turkmens?”  Yes, yes they are!

In tomorrow’s post I will explore how the result of all this online discontent could be quite dangerous for the future of the present Turkmen government…