There be dragons–or at least, living legends: swimming around in Scotland's Loch Ness and, as reported this week, in Lake Kanasi in Xinjiang Province. This definitely proves a theory that the initial uh, foundation for the species is somewhere in the vicinity of the, mmm, Barents Sea, but migrated south during the Ice Age–just ahead of those pesky […]
Over at Registan.net, Nathan is discussing a minor backlash in the blogosphere against Kazakhstan's potential investment in Westinghouse. Toshiba, which currently owns 77% of Westinghouse, will be selling this share for USD 486.3 million to Kazatomprom, the Kazakhstani nuclear agency. This is a good deal for the U.S.–protests notwithstanding–which is why the U.S. approved the sale. […]
Alisher Iminzhanov, a Kyrgyzstani leader of the outcast group Hizb-ut-Tahrir, was detained in Osh on July 17th. His arrest has been cast as a preventive measure for the festivities associated with the annual summer SCO summit, which starts on August 16th. Kyrgyzstan believes that at least 5,000 supporters of HuT within its borders. What is Hizb ut-Tahrir? Hizb-ut-Tahrir […]
The hazards of expertise–and listening to experts Articles like this, that call into question what I am doing in my life and in this venue, make me want to turn off the news and go to the closest July barbecue: I can be a witty guest, so please send invite immediately. In a 2005 review of Expert Political Judgement: […]
As I said in my earlier post today, Afghanistan seems to be the afterthought in the U.S. news last week– but not by those Afghanistan-watchers in the blogging community and around the Internet. Here's a round-up: and thanks to all who labor to bring us up to speed. Afghanistan: –At Afghanistan Watch, Tom Perriello gives […]
For those following the news lately in the U.S. at least, there has been a dearth of reporting on Afghanistan for months and maybe even years. This past week, with so much drama enacted in Washington DC over Iraq, even Iraq news from Iraq was sidelined in favor of who-voted-what and why in the air-conditioned halls of Congress. […]
I wanted to go back to a previous post of last week on Kyrgyzstan's potential hydropower development, because I couldn't consider all the dilemmas in one post. One dilemma I started to set up: much of the discussion concerns what kind of capacity would be needed in order to a. serve Kyrgyzstan; b. serve Central Asia's power needs and develop energy […]
Tajikistan, in partnership with the World Bank, is soliciting investment in its cotton enterprises, and international agricultural concerns have another two weeks to submit bids for investment. The forward, signed by Sharif Rahimov, the Chairman of the State Committee for Investments and State Property Management and attached to the call for bids, is beautifully-expressed: it asserts […]
I’ve been reading through poems lately, and found this one about Afghanistan. It was written by reporter Eliza Griswold, who has been a reporter in Afghanistan, Africa, and Guantanamo. She has a book out: Wideawake Field (2007), published by Farrar Straus & Giroux. Buying Rations in Kabul The Uzbek boys on Chicken Street have never had enough […]
Well, as many Central Asia watchers are aware, Uzbekistan's elections were supposed to take place this last December. Therefore, they are over six months overdue. Some vague announcements of elections this December instead were made. But, as recently noted, no election preparation seems to be forthcoming. At last, perhaps a glimmer of electioneering? Or just […]
At last According to Ferghana.ru, the bodies of the missing Nurbank managers, Mr. Joldas Timraliev and Mr. Albar Hasenov, have been found. They have been missing since January. According to the same report, DNA testing was used to verify identity. Both officials showed the marks of torture. Mr. Rakhat Aliev, former-son-in law of President Nursultan […]
Yesterday, C. J. Chivers wrote in the International Herald Tribune that Turkmenistan's heroin addiction rate is phenomenally high: but how high, no one knows for sure. Under the Turkmenbashi, medical care was decimated, census and other facts not gathered, and crime prevention agencies turned increasingly to profit. In this article, Chivers ties the increasing pall that heroin […]
IWPR is reporting that Darigha Nazarbaeva, recently divorced from Rakhat Aliev, will be standing down from Parliament. Her father's party, Nur-Otan, sees her as a liability in upcoming August 18 elections. Ms. Nazarbaeva's Asar Party merged into Nur-Otan in 2006. The elections follow a number of Constitutional amendments, previously most famous for introducing a loosening […]
The militarization of petroleum and natural gas. . . I found an interesting news item about Gazprom last week that to me further indicates bonding between the political and economic in Russia's energy front. I lifted this pretty much verbatim from Andrea Mihaelescu at UPI (emphasis added): Russian gas giant Gazprom now has a right […]
Kyrgyzstan's legislature and utility customers are rushing right into a dilemma that marks the plight of many transition states, and indeed, many developing states across the world. The issue at large concerns the development of energy capacity in Kyrgyzstan, for both domestic use and for export. The new energy developments show some of the pain […]