John CK Daly, a really good analyst on Former Soviet states and energy, has written a new article on the duality of Caspian oil negotiations, currently focused on the Kashagan field. One duality is that of environmental concerns over energy extraction. In April, Antoine Blua at RFE/RL reported Caspian seals dying in great numbers from unknown […]
I ran across this article on the Motley Fool's philanthropy site. Here is the first sentence: Across the world, a profound disaster is unfolding: Over the next 10 years, 1 billion young people in developing countries will be competing for about 300 million jobs. Okay, so these are the choices: create businesses, hire people, or […]
Last week, on December 16, Kyrgyzstani voters went to the polls for legislative elections. Those who have been following the politics in Kyrgyzstan this year will be unsurprised–but perhaps unhappy–to learn that the OSCE had harsh words about the election. Ferghana.ru reports on the OSCE report card, where officials are calling it a “missed opportunity”. […]
According to Interfax, Tajikistan's big hydropower plant in work, is delayed again. This time: no concrete deliveries. Therefore, the plant–scheduled for its ribbon-cutting ceremony on December 21 or 22–is delayed until “late December or early January”. Excerpt No. 1: Power to the People Tajikistan is rich in hydro resources, however, it lacks 3 – 3.5 billion […]
Over 2006 and 2007, Senlis, a European-based think tank with offices in Ottawa, Kandahar, and Lashkar Gul, has been documenting aid progress in Afghanistan–and saying that it's been inadequate. In a November 2007 report, the report stated: The depressing conclusion is that, despite the vast injections of international capital flowing into the country, and a universal […]
Well, that clanking sound you’re hearing in the background: it's the wheels of commerce in the dark. John Helmer over at Asia Times has written a fascinating article on Tajikistan's aluminum company, Talco and its relationship with Norway's Hydro: At current LME [London Metal Exchange] linked prices, the alumina is worth about $50 million; the metal […]
Next year the Great Decisions series at the Foreign Policy Association will have a blog on Russia, which will complement Central Asia reporting here–we are going to press onward. For the purposes of Central Asia reporting though, it's important to note that Russia's electoral process sends messages to Central Asia as well and suggests the […]
With a title like this, I had to write in: they finally filmed a mammal in the Gobi desert that, okay, my fellow tree-huggers, is a really cute cross between a mouse and a rabbit: a long-eared jerboa. BBC has pictures, a story, and a video. It is also an endangered species. We should look […]
Quick one: Since transparency continues to be an issue in Central Asia and elsewhere, I found this article of interest–and it uses the U.S. as an example, but the principles are perhaps universal. Over at How Stuff Works: how to launder money. Now don't go saying I told you what to do here! :-) The idea is […]
Gee, I hate when I’m wrong. I was rooting for Kazakhstan and OSCE chairmanship, but I didn't think they’d get the chance after Rakhat-gate blew into the stratosphere. But they have it, which, as I said, and against most of the reactions, I think is a good thing. As noted in a great backgrounder by […]
Gazprom agreed on November 27th to hike its price for Turkmenistan's gas: from USD 100 per cubic meter (cum) to USD 130 starting January of 2008. In July of 2008, Gazprom will start paying USD 150 per cum, through December, when the price will undoubtedly change again. This is a long overdue for Turkmenistan, and […]
Last week, Time published a story by Laura Blue based upon the findings of Spain's DARA on the Humanitarian Response Index, a new tool for discovering efficiency in international aid. Time's headline was “U.S. ranked low in HRI” , which gets that American competitiveness going. On the other hand, it's probably more important to see what […]
Yesterday, RFE/RL posted a great article on “Securing an Outcome” which explains a lot about how elections can be skewed and “unfree” by Western democratic standards. Most of them are reminiscent of Tammany Hall New York: the use of patronage to buy votes/ensure loyalty, stuffing ballot boxes, absentee votes, registering dead people as live voters, […]
UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon has designated 2008 as the Year of Water Sanitation, a worthy effort which dovetails into public health and climate change issues–and which Central Asian states could use to their benefit. According to the UN, investing $10 billion a year could halve the proportion of people without basic toilet facilities by 2015. This […]
Before NATO, there was Afghanistan's Taliban movement (you can't call it a government, because it offered no protection and no services to its people). And the new Taliban, neo-Taliban, or whatever we call them have the same, tawdry, consistent practice of gratuitous cruelty in this regard– Here's the whole story from AFP wire, as printed by the Pakistan […]