Adventures of the ‘Uzbek Princess’, or I’ll pay more to co-chair
Politics and Society, Uzbekistan11 Comments
Sharon Stone, Gulnara Karimova, Elton John and Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele, Vice-president of Chopard at Elton John’s AIDS Foundation charity evening, 2009. If Elton knew that homosexuality is illegal in Uzbekistan I doubt that he would really wish to take a picture with Googoosha. Photo Gulnarakarimova.com
Our fabulous “Uzbek Princess” uses every single oppotunity to become more popular using her power, money and title of “Her Excellency Ambassador.” In the end of May she made another step in popularizing herself — popular actors, singers, designers, film directors were not surprised to see her again. Glnara Karimova’s passion for glamourous events says it all.
May 20 was Gulnara Karimova’s Day of Glory: she finally attended the Cinema Against AIDS event at the Cannes Film Festival and co-chaired the event which was hosted by the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmfAR). I’m saying ‘finally’ because her supporters made everything possible to keep her on the list of honorary participants.
The fight over a moral legitimacy of her participation has been taking place since an anti-AIDS activist Maksim had been jailed in Uzbekistan for his campaign for healthy way of life which was amoral for the government of Uzbekistan.
“And this happens in a country that has one of the world’s fastest-rising HIV infection rates?!” you would say. And would be correct in your madness.
As Guardian notes, about 16,000 cases of HIV were reported in 2009 – more than an 11-fold increase from 1,400 cases in 2001.
“Reporters Without Borders, an international organisation for the defence of journalists, is astonished to note the presence among you at this 7th annual event of Gulnara Karimova. The organisation recognises the evening’s valid and admirable character, but questions the appropriateness of the participation of the daughter of the Uzbek president, Islam Karimov, central Asia’s “outstanding” dictator.”
Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) letter to AmfAR.
RSF also pointed out that AmfAR headed by Liz Taylor, recently signed a petition to the US and the UN asking them to put pressure on the Uzbek government to release Popov. What a nice example of double standards, huh?
“We find it unconscionable that the donors who supported his vision and funded his work have abandoned him, and we are calling for concerted diplomatic efforts to secure his immediate release. The bilateral agencies, international donors, and NGOs that encouraged Mr. Popov’s work should take all possible steps to protect him and win his amnesty. The international fight against AIDS cannot succeed if local partners are forsaken when the political winds shift.”
Excerpt from an Open letter calling on international agencies
to support the release of Maksim Popov.
In response to the media rights group’s demands that Karimova should condemn the conviction of Maksim Popov and 11 journalists in Uzbekistan or leave the event in Cannes, AmfAR Executive Director Kevin Robert Frost said that Karimova had agreed “to take steps to clarify the situation and to work with AmfAR on the matter,” AFP reported.
Uznews says that that was “[...] where amfAR’s involvement in the fate of Popov who was jailed for seven years for fighting HIV/AIDS in Uzbekistan, ends.”
I wonder how long will it take AmfAR to forget about its values and promises of Gulnara Karimova to “take steps” and help jailed activist? Will we get the same explanations through the year until another Cinema Against AIDS event will take place? I hope my intuition works bad these days and Maksim will enjoy his freedom soon.
To join the International Committee for the Release of Maksim Popov kindly follow this link.
To read neweurasia’s Worst Daughter in the World? kindly follow this link.
To find out how Karimova sisters rent world stars make sure you follow this link.
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ani Wandaryan, Central Asia news and Eurasian Transition, neweurasia.net. neweurasia.net said: Adventures of the ‘Uzbek Princess’, or I’ll pay more to co-chair: Gulnara Karimova has once again proved that mone… http://bit.ly/9pEFd9 [...]
Yes it remains a question whether these collaborating jetset personalities are just imbeciles, disconnected from reality or hypocrite to the extreme. Probably varying degrees of combinations.
OK Julio Iglesias is a crooner-businessman who’s doing his thing and at least never *pretended* to be the conscience of humanity. But these others: barf.
For the rest, I would not be surprised if GooGoosha pushes for the liberalisation of homosexualism for image reasons in the West, and to humiliate both Islam and Uzbekistan’s population even more.
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i personally don’t c any problems with of the legalization of the homosexuality. i don’t think she’ll make this step, firstly because our political elite and society ain’t ready. but that’d definitely add her some points and open more doors of the elite ‘parties’
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Im sorry do u think our people will accept the society of homosexuals? I dont hate them but wont want my children to b one of them. Allah save our culture from gays!
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and central asia slides ever more slowly into the backwaters of basketcase kleptocracies, known in the west for strange and extravagant spending habits of its ruling families, the poverty and deprivation of those who harvest and dig up its natural resources, and the occasional acts of terror by its citizens on foreign soil. To think that, 18 years ago, I wrote a senior thesis “prospects for democracy in former soviet central asia”. Ha!
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uzbek in excile Reply:
June 7th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
@AJY, we all put expectations when became ‘independent’. seems like only kg have been having its shot
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AJY Reply:
June 8th, 2010 at 4:00 am
@uzbek in excile, amazing, and kind of sad, to realize that men who came of age as young pioneers and komsomol leaders in the 1970s, who knew Brezhnev as their great leader, still hold power in the largest republics of CA, and probably will until the end of their days. That was the question in those years, whether the pull of the past, the institutions and habits of the soviet union, would be too strong for even the most enthusiastic reformers. I remember talking to a man who served in the first freely elected Kazak senate several years after his tenure in Almaty, when Nazarbaev had begun to consolidate power. Moscow, he claimed, would follow CA. Nonsense, I replied, CA would follow Russia’s lead; Russia was moving to democracy, a true parliament, independant regional governments.
Moscow followed CA. Who would’ve guessed? He did, my friend from Uralsk.
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[...] Вы возразите: «И это происходит в стране с чуть ли не самым высоким ростом ВИЧ-инфекции в мире?!» – и будете совершенно правы. Как сообщает газета Guardian, число инфекций в 2009 составило 16 000, что более чем в 11 раз выше показателя на 2001 (1 400). —Abulfazal [...]
[...] Cracks Down at Home but Puts on Show at Cannes” – was published on May 20th 2010 during the Cinema against AIDS event, which was co-chaired by sister Gulnara Karimova. But even though Karimova-Tillyaeva is seeing to [...]
[...] anything she desires just because she wants so. She can be a serious person with a PhD degree and a co-chairwoman of the world-known Cannes Film Festival-affiliated event; or run a think-tank and shine as a glamorous designer at New York Fashion Week and other fancy [...]
[...] Popov was released from prison where he had been serving his term since 2009. He was reportedly an object of negotiations between international rights activists and Gulnara Karimova on behalf of the Uzbek government, who [...]