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 […]
Today the World Bank announced the approval of a new loan to Kazakhstan for developing better customs procedures. The total project cost is USD 62 million, with Kazakhstan committing 43.5 million and the World Bank 18.5 million to the effort. This is a fantastic step for the state, and it dovetails with many of the […]
Thirty or more pages out of eighty-five in a new report from swisspeace discusses private security contracting in Afghanistan. The report lists its methodologies, which is at least five steps up from the normal analysis. (links below). Due to its extensiveness and care, the report gives some bona-fide examination of the issues in regard to Afghanistan. Paramount to all the contracting arguments […]
A few months ago, I regretfully removed a Xinjiang news and analysis blog from the blogroll here at FPA Central Asia, as its site had disappeared. I’m happy to note that there is another new news blog for Xinjiang–we’ll be back up to two. The name of the blog is New Dominion, and it's looking good. […]
The moral high ground Today, the International Crisis Group has sent out a bunch of useful information on Central Asia, and I can't wait to read all of the in-depth work they’ve done on Pakistan. On Turkmenistan, ICG's Mr. Schutte at has also written a new op-ed, featured in the EU Observer, about clarifying the goals, aims, […]
For those of you and myself, who think I’m getting too much news from Ferghana.ru lately? Well, IWPR is gone now, as well as Mr. Saipov, what else can I do? Little by little, our eyes and ears are closed–the voices of Uzbekistan are silenced. In an earlier post, I said there wasn't much news […]
Recently there has been some new talk of energy cooperation out there in the international discourse: three energy groups, and one forgotten energy group. Stick with me, here: it's all good, and useful stuff for those of us contemplating small loaves of bread, higher gasoline and heating oil prices. International Energy Forum: Yesterday I attended […]
At least three aspects of life intertwine when discussing recent Uzbekistani news: these would be: a. elections, which are scheduled but we aren't hearing anything new; b. a lack of human rights, media freedoms, and whether or not the West's sanction regime is working; and c. life for Uzbekistanis, which right now seems to be […]
Yesterday and today, President of Turkmenistan Mr. Berdymukhamedov is in the home of the European Union, receiving what RFE/RL calls a “cautiously upbeat welcome“. Due to the uh, recently traditional privacy attendant to Turkmenistani activities, there will be no press conference afterward. This actually works out for the EU as well, since they are still waiting […]
In some ways, it's always better to think in terms of interlocking regions rather than states–and with Central Asia as a nexus of interlocked regions, it's most important. Right now, Pakistan is –depending on one's point of view–in more upheaval, or– determined to clamp down on upheaval for once and all. For Central Asia watchers, […]
This is a somewhat insouciant video, 8 minutes long, put out by Vice DVD, with maybe a little too much hipness for my taste (Can't believe I’d find something too hip, but there it is). If you object to casual cursing and the sound of people whooping as they shoot machine guns, then turn down […]
Right now, there's a wealth of events and things to do concerning Central Asia and its partners in the world: and I’m always looking for more, so send them via comment. Most of the ones I know about are in the U.S. northeast. If there's an event elsewhere, on this continent or any other, I would […]
Today at the United Nations, Uzbekistan's Permanent Representative Mr. Alisher Vakhidov warned the international community not to interfere in Uzbekistani affairs under the pretext of human rights concerns. According the the RFE/RL report, Mr. Vakhidov said that international cooperation must be based upon “equality, mutual respect, social and economic development, and historical and cultural traditions.” […]