I regret that I haven't been writing recently on Afghanistan: especially since it's past time to write about trouble that aid workers are having in delivering food and services. Here are some aid statistics for the last ten months: — 34 aid workers have been killed. — Seventy-six have been abducted. –Fifty-five convoys have been attacked, by either […]
After writing on the untimely death–no, criminal assassination–of Mr. Alisher Saipov, I’m noticing the Return of a Theme: the continuing loss of a precariously-positioned free press in Central Asia. Here goes the round-up: Central Asia in General: One of the best English-language sources on Central Asia, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) , […]
According to UPI: after a tip, Interior Ministry police set up a roadblock to catch some armed criminals. They stopped a car with three opposition party officials instead. Shots were fired and uh, apologies made. Which brings me to the politics and elections currently up in Kyrgyzstan: Cruising for trouble: Ferghana.ru translated an ITAR-Tass editorial […]
It's making the rounds of the news: the death of another journalist in Central Asia. Mr. Alisher Saipov, an ethnic Uzbek journalist who lived in Kyrgyzstan, has been killed. He was 26 years old, and he was shot three times in the head and chest. Mr. Saipov had begun to print an independent newspaper in […]
Yesterday, I went to the Center for Strategic and International Studies to hear a talk from Steve LeVine, author of The Power and the Glory, about Caspian oil and pipelines–one of my favorite topics in the world, as I wrote my Master's thesis on it. Independently related, oil prices pushed to over USD 90 per barrel yesterday […]
I have this great book written by a Japanese thinker, R.G.H. Siu, and he says the following: “Ceremony without ulterior motive is amateur theatre.” Uzbekistan is having presidential elections soon–a year past the deadline. There are six candidates and five political parties. Each of the five political parties is expected to draft a candidate for […]
Mongolia recently received its Millenium Challenge Corporation grant from the United States. There was a ceremony and press conference on October 22 with President Enkhbayar of Mongolia and President Bush of the United States at the White House. These were some of President Enkhbayar's words, which well express the MCC aims of transparency, democracy, and poverty reduction: […]
International Community News: Since The World Bank (the affectionate name for the United Nations’ International Bank for Reconstruction & Development or IBRD) is having their annual meetings this month, there's a lot of development news out there. Central Asian governments who want to access the Bank's programs need to know what priorities the Bank is currently […]
Several times this year I have mentioned the burden that non-collection/non-publication of public health statistics places on neighbor states attempting to wrestle with epidemics. This is true for Central Asia in terms of at least two issues: HIV and Avian H5N1. Both Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have been working through big problems with medical care and […]
Yesterday, October 21, 2007, the Kyrgyzstani people went to the polls to vote on a new Constitution–for the fifth time. Previous referendums occurred under President Akaev in 1994, 1996, 1998, and 2003–the last one, combined with perceived/gigantic election fraud of 2005, sent Akaev into exile in the Russian Federation. This will be Mr. Bakiev's first […]
In the Central Asia Beat, I referred to the Akhal-Teke horse, and then I found some video footage. This horse show video shows a lot of the conformation, coloring, and other physical points of the breed–at its first European horse show in June of this year, in Luxembourg. There's no plot per se: it's a […]
I’m afraid the Central Asia Beat was beyond my poor capabilities while in Central America. There just wasn't good enough Internet access to do the research–and frankly, this “Foust Format” takes hours with a good connection. However, it's worth it: you get a really good sense of what's going on, yeah? Hope it's useful to more […]
Well, it's been going on for at least three years: a persistent damaging, punitive group of slights by the West to one of its best friends. This past week it's gone from insulting to abusive, so it's really past time to say something. These are the events: 1. Turkey, continually worried at the conflict pressures on their southern border, is poised to […]
According to Gundogar, that retrieved the news from Associated Press: Turkmenistan allows foreign investors to own companies, property The president adopted legislation allowing foreign investors to create companies and own property in Turkmenistan ‚ moving the natural gas-rich country further from the isolation imposed by his autocratic predecessor. An amended law on foreign investment, adopted […]
Every year a couple of stories come out about serf labor in the cotton fields of Central Asia, right about the time that the cotton crop gets harvested. That day has again arrived this year, but with new, tougher problems for Central Asia's agricultural laborers and for the state leaders that have made this choice. […]