Leaving Kyrgyzstan

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Sunday, June 13, 2010
12:33 am local time

Well, we are not sure if we need to, but we are leaving Kyrgyzstan early. We feel terrible about what is happening here and wish we could help in some way but there is no way we are helping by being here.

This morning started like yesterday. We got up and took a long walk throught the green parks that are everywhere in town. We passed the Lady Freedom who is in front of the "White House" where the revolution started on April 7. And we passed Lenin, who was moved from this place to a tucked away corner next to the National Historical Museum after the Soviets left. Then we came home, ate breakfast, I went to a spa, and then we were picke up by our local counterpart who had offered to take us to the Osj market where one can buy cheap artisinal crafts. But on the way there a police car blocked the way saying that "they are throwing things in the market." So we went to a department store instead and then had lunch at a café. Everything seemed normal. Children playing, tourists milling, people spending money. We were advised by local friends not to go out at night so we bought a bunch of food and a bottle of Moldavian wine and bunkered down in our hotel room, chatting and occasionally checking a local news website in Russian that is updated every 15 minutes. Unfortuately, what we read wasn't good. The fighting has started in Jalalabad, a town neighboring Osj. Even though this is still the Southern part of the country, it just all started feeling very unstable.

We are sorry to leave our friends in this struggling democracy and wish them good luck!!!

Signing out from Bishkek...

There is NOT a civil war going on here

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

June 12, 2010

12:22 am

Two months ago there was a revolution in Kyrgyzstan. The corrupt president fled the country and is likely hiding out in Belarus. The new interim president, Roza Otunbaeva, has created an interim government but there is no parliament yet. A referendum on the new constitution, which would reduce the power of the president, effectively making the country a parliamentary democracy, is scheduled for June 27. However, last night there were clashes between the Kyrgyz and Uzbek ethnic groups in the Southern town of Osj. Most people we talked to today were convinced that this was sponsored by the ex-president's thugs who are paying young, unemployed men to attack each other. Although this can hardly be called ethnic uprising, it has unfortunately caused 42 persons to die so far.

We were hoping that the Kyrgyz would all come to the same conclusion that this is an attempt at destabilization and ignore the provocations. However, tonight, after attending an amazing concert at the National Philharmonic Hall in memory of those who died in the April 7 revolution (classical concert sponsored by the U.S. and Swiss governments), as we were eating Chinese food
we heard gunshots. When we got home we discovered that there had been a couple of thousand young men milling around trying to get supportors to go down to Osj to defend their compatriots. The gunshots were blanks fired by the police to calm and disburse them. We think it worked because things are quiet now.

The crisis will test the interim president who was planning on holding the counry's first democratic parliamentary elections in September. We hope she will get the situation under control as an unstable situation may give Uzbekistan the excuse to move into the Ferghana Valley, which is where Osj is located, and which borders their country. If not, the Russians have offered to help...

We were supposed to be flying home on Wednesday but may re-evaluate the situation over the weekend.

Your correspondent in Bishkek...

Tajikistan - A struggling post-Soviet State

Tajikistan is a former Soviet State. This lives on in the form of language (Russian being one of the official languages), infrastructure (ah, that lovely Soviet architecture), and systems. But it clearly has its own Tajik identity, culture and poverty (unfortunately). Someone said today that when the Soviets came to Tajikistan the country went directly from being an agrarian society to a modern one, skipping the social and cultural changes that accompanied the industrialization phase in many other countries. So when the Soviets left, a lot of the reforms that had been made (in, for example, women's rights and education) were not prioritized, and the country has since begun to glide back into traditional values. Unfortunately, this has meant that girls are dropping out of school sooner than boys, a shift that goes against development achievements in neighboring countries and that will eventually have an effect on the health of their children and their own future economic empowerment.

Apparently, there is some nostalgia for the old Soviet system and its stability/predictability. Apparently, during the Soviet times people would go to the bakers and buy a half a loaf of bread in the morning because they knew there would be another half to buy freshly baked in the evening. Now they buy whole loaves at a time in the fear that they next time they go there won't be bread.

In essence, as one person told me today, the sovietization of Tajikistan really was a "europization" of the country, both in terms of social issues (like women's issues) but also infrastructure. Nowhere is this more clear apparently than on the border with Afghanistan where one sees power lines and roads up to the border and then nothing on the other side...

Back to the scene of the crime!

Starbucks at Istanbul airport

My friend and colleague, Susanna, and I are on our way back to Dushanbe. Back to the scene of the crime! In case you missed our adventures in Central Asia in 2008 (and I mean adventures. We were deported, she ended up in the hospital, and we almost got into a brawl with the hotel receptionist in Almaty over a crooked housekeeper's allegations), you can go back to 2008 on this blog and read it!

This time we are chronicalling (how DO you spell that word???) the Swedish Development Agency's work here for the last 14 years since they are leaving the region. Only going to Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan this time. I will be sorry to miss the Grand Bazaar in Tashkent (Uzbekistan).

I am content because I pulled a muscle in my back (doing sit-ups. How in the world???) and was in pain on the plane here. But we found one of those energy masseuses at the airport here and he fixed me up for the moment. Ah, the simple pleasures of life!