This is written on the website of a mining company that operates in Central Asia:
"The Tien Shan Gold Belt is one of the most prolific gold belts in the World extending from Uzbekistan in the west into China and Mongolia to the east. The Tien Shan Gold belt is host to one of the world's largest concentrations of multi million ounce gold and silver deposits in the world."A lot of companies looking for possibilities to dig gold in Kyrgyzstan.
Thanks to the excellent Registan, I came to appreciate the Japanese rendition of geopolitics of Central Asia. Enjoy! 
Armenian elections results showed that leaders of ex-Soviet republics have complete disregard for democracy as a process. Democracy has become such a hackneyed word that it has lost meaning to most people, especially to the leaders, in Central Asia. In fact, the word democracy has come to mean instability, corruption, moral degradation, and all the negative consequences of "transition."
Look at the last elections in Central Asia. In Kazakhstan, president's Nur-Otan party won all the seats in the parliament. Nazarbaev also changed the constitution to stay as long as he wishes. In Uzbekistan, Karimov won in an election where two of his opponents actually said that Karimov should remain the president and voted for him. Of course, the fact that the Uzbek constitution had a limit of only 2 terms for one person did not matter. In Kyrgyzstan, president's Ak-Jol party won most of the seats in the parliament, but nobody, even the Central Election Commission, can explain how it happened. Two months passed since the December 16 election, but the results have still not been published. In Tajikistan, the situation is similar. Turkmenistan is a separate case. And, all the presidents claimed elections were democratic.
If you think that your blog is the best and you deserve a prize for for all the time and effort you put into it, apply here. Good luck!
Thanks to a very good friend, I got hold of Lee Kwan Yew's The Singapore Story. Although I am not even half way through the book, Lee Kwan Yew's economic and political policies in making Singapore South-East Asia's financial center is very similar to Nursultan Nazarbaev's policies of making Kazakhstan a first-world country by 2030. Policy similarities, especially the rhetoric of putting economic developing and stability as priority and arguing for the Asiatic way in democracy building, are striking.
Also, while looking through The Economist's list of books of the year 2007, I came across Swedish economist Anders Aslund's new book titled How Capitalism Was Built: The Transformation of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia. He was the adviser to Kyrgyzstan's first President Askar Akaev, who fled the country following the March 2005 events. It would be very interesting to read what he has to say about Central Asia. In an article to MSNBC in October 2006, he said: "One can say that half a billion to $1 billion was probably what the [Akaevs] family amassed."
RFE/RL also reports that another prisoner on charges of Islamic extremism reportedly died after being tortured. It just adds up more fuel to the fire.
Prominent journalist killed in southern Kyrgyzstan
Committee to Protect Journalists
New York, October 24, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today’s murder in southern Kyrgyzstan of Alisher Saipov, editor of the independent Uzbek-language weekly Siyosat (Politics) and contributor to several regional news outlets. Saipov was shot three times at a close range at around 7 p.m. in downtown Osh, a city bordering Uzbekistan, by an unknown gunman using a silencer, according to CPJ sources in the region. He died at the scene.
Saipov, 26, covered Uzbekistan’s political and social issues for Radio Free Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Voice of America, and the Central Asia news Web site Ferghana. He had interviewed members of the banned Islamic groups Hizb-ut Tahrir and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, according to local CPJ sources. Exiled opposition activist Shakhida Yakub, who was close to Saipov, told The Associated Press that the journalist had recently become politically involved with Uzbek opposition groups.
“We are shocked and saddened by the brutal murder of Alisher Saipov and send our condolences to his family and friends,” CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said. “Saipov reported extensively on repression in neighboring Uzbekistan and criticized Uzbek President Islam Karimov. The authorities in Kyrgyzstan must now launch a thorough and timely investigation into our colleague’s murder and bring those responsible to justice.”
An ethnic Uzbek, Saipov lived in and reported from the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh, just across the border from the Uzbek city of Andijan. Saipov covered the aftermath of mass killings in Andijan in May 2005, when government troops shot at crowds of civilians protesting Karimov’s regime. He reported on Uzbek refugees who fled and resettled in Kyrgyzstan. The Uzbek government put the Andijan death toll at 187; human rights groups say more than 700 were killed.
Prior to his murder, Saipov had received anonymous threats warning him to stop his press and political activities, a local source close to the journalist told CPJ. A state television channel in the Uzbek city of Namangan recently aired a program smearing Saipov as a provocateur who tried to destabilize Uzbekistan with his reporting. Several state publications ran similar articles, the same source told CPJ.
Following the Andijan killings, Uzbekistan has moved aggressively to expel, drive into exile, imprison, and harass independent jouranlsits, human rights defenders, opposition activists, representatives of international nongovernmental groups, and witnesses. Many found refuge in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, but Uzbek security services have infiltrated the area and continue harassing them there, according to human rights groups and local news reports. According to local press reports, Uzbek security agents have been spotted in the heavily ethnic-Uzbek city of Osh.
Saipov had helped scores of Uzbek refugees in southern Kyryzstan, assisting them with lodging and linking them with resettlement agencies, the AP said. He had also reported on the fate of Uzbek refugees in Iran for Ferghana, the news site said.
The Library of Congress scanned and posted on their website all the images from Turkestanskii Al'bom, which "provides a visual survey of Central Asia from the perspective of the Russian imperial government that took control of the area in the 1850s and 1860s. About 1,200 photographs, with some architectural plans, watercolor drawings, and maps, are arranged in four parts."
The collection includes pictures of historical sites, faces of Central Asian people living at that time, their clothes, traditions, holidays and celebrations, trades, maps (even the siege of Tashkent), and just everyday life. Since it presents things from Tsarist Russia's perspective, viewers should pay attention to the way pictures are taken (after all Russia was a colonizing power in a "backward region") and captions to them.
Another note. The Kazakhs in the pictures are described as "Kirgiz-Kazakhs," while the Kyrgyz are "Karakirgiz." Russians called the Kazakhs as Kyrgyz not to mistaken them for Cossacks, because words "Kazakh" and "Cossack" are pronounced very similarly in Russian, and the Kyrgyz became Karakirgiz, which means "Black Kyrgyz."
Here are some pictures of the Kyrgyz people from 1850s.
Jolbors (Yul Bars)
Dresses of Kyrgyz women
The Library of Congress did a truly great job. These pictures could help the Central Asians to learn more their history (and present). The Kyrgyz government could borrow, copy, or even bring this collection and organize a big exhibition.
Update: Russian version of the post is here.
Eurasia Group and PricewaterhouseCoopers and released Political Stability Index in the world. According to the ranking based on country's capacity to withstand shocks and crises (political, security, and economic), Kyrgyzstan is in the low stability category. Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, which actually ended up in the Asia map, is doing better on political stability, while Turkmenistan is the doing worse than us. Uzbekistan is unstable as we are. 
Transparency International also released its Corruption Perception Index for 2007. Kyrgyzstan shares 150th place along with Kazakhstan and Tajikistan (142nd in 2006). Turkmenistan rolled down from 142 in 2006 to 162nd this year. Uzbekistan is 175th, down from 151st. As usual, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Singapore (where I want to go to study), and Sweden top the transparency chart. Uzbekistan, Haiti, Iraq, Myanmar, and Somalia are on the bottom.
PS. It suddenly became really cold today. Have to wear a jacket or overcoat.
My week-long journey to Kazakhstan was full of mixed impressions. It started with the traffic jams in Almaty, where four lines of cars crammed on two-lane roads; we stood for two hours on a hot day with an old Kamaz near us puffing out smoke right into our van. (If you decide to fly to Astana, do so from Taraz. Don't go near Almaty!) Because of the traffic jams, we missed our lunch and barely made to the flight. To my surprise, Air Astana had a full course meal on a 1.5-hour-flight to Astana, which saved me from starvation.
Astana is... well, is a BRAND NEW city. Bishkek's construction "boom" is nothing compared to that of Astana. Bayterek (tower with a ball on top in the picture above) presents a view over a futuristic city - though tawdry in many places - in the middle of the Kazakh steppes. I can imagine a Kazakh standing on top of Bayterek and being proud of seeing surreal buildings springing up on a barren land. Billions of petrodollars is being poured into it. And it is only half ready.
Prices in Astana are a bit steep for a Kyrgyz guy like me. Everything is expensive. But some things never change. Our hotel, Abay, an old Soviet hotel Intourist, still had Soviet smell in the halls and bathrooms, a system of turning keys to an administrator, whose only job is to manage keys on the floor, and a horrible cafeteria with pale scrampled eggs and kompot for breakfast. And they charged $80 per night. However, if you had $350 you could stay at other better hotels.
Water, rather the smell of sulfur in the water as in Teplie Klyuchi, is the only thing that I remember from Karaganda. While trying to brush my teeth with the water at the hotel, I realized how much I miss Bishkek.
On the election, I have nothing else to add to what has already been written.
P.S. Photo courtesy of Kondor Tour. I did not have my camera.
I am in Temirtau, Kazakhstan, on an election monitoring mission. Temirtau, Nursultan Nazarbaev's hometown, 30 km north of Karaganda, is a dilapidated mining town of 150 000 people. Half of its working-age population is employed by Mittal Steel, world's biggest steel company. As you approach the town, you can see black, white, orange, brown, and green smoke coming out a dozen of chimneys of Temirtau's steel plants and melting in the air above the Kazakh steppes.
Today we roamed around to locate polling stations in smoke-filled town, where we will observe the voting process tomorrow. As we were looking for one in Aktau, Temirtau's satellite, we stopped and asked an ethnic Russian lady where schools #32 was. She the pointed in the direction of the school and said: "The Mongol-language school is right around the corner down the road." An ethnic Kazakh woman was passing by and with frustration corrected her: "Not Mongol, Kazakh!" to which the first lady responded: "What is the difference!" I guess foreigners would confuse Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and Mongols, but you would not expect Russians born and living in Central Asia make such a slip up! Sad! Very sad! And it applies both to Russians and Kyrgyz. See my older post.
All alcohol (from beer to vodka) was banned from stores and public places in downtown Bishkek. Yesterday I went into Narodniy store on Manas/Chu to check if they had any alcohol, all the fridges and shelves were empty. Our government is going hard-core as it prepare to host the SCO summit.
Thanks God, I will be out of Bishkek during the summit. Will be traveling to Astana for the Parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan to observe how Nur Otan, Nazarbaev's party, easily wins in the race. I am hoping that I will be deployed in eastern or western Kazakhstan, where I have never been.
Update: Just had lunch at an Italian restaurant on Chui street. They were told not to sell alcohol for the whole week. All the cafes and restaurants, stores and kiosk, pubs and discos along the Chui and Manas streets were ordered not to serve alcohol. Absurdistan!
Last night I went to sleep at around 5 am reading The Kite Runner, which I had for since last August, but never had the determination to start reading. I went to bed at around 11pm, but for some reason, despite my exhaustion, I could not fall asleep, so I took the book from shelve and started reading. Today, sleepy and tired at work, I realized that Afghanistan is of the main topics in the list of books, both fiction and non-fiction, that I've been reading lately. It all started with the The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia about a year ago.
No country in the world has experienced such a violent history with extreme changes as Afghanistan. Its people have suffered from British, Russian, and now U.S. interferences causing its government change from monarchy to communist rule to fanatic Taleban to the current tribal warlord rule.
These books below are fascinating sociologically and historically. The Soviet rule in 5 Central Asian republics cut off ties with Afghanistan and erased many cultural similarities between us. Some customs and believes, for example the hole concept of dignity, are still shared by many rural Kyrgyz (or other Central Asian people) and Afghans. Over the last 100 years we have drifted away: ex-Soviet Central Central towards Russia, while Afghanistan towards Pakistan, Iran, India. Once it was one cultural, religious, historical, political region.
1. Karl Meyer. Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Asia
2. Peter Hopkirk. The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia
3. Asne Seierstad. The Bookseller of Kabul,
4. Khaled Hosseini. The Kite Runner
Any other suggestions?
The Kyrgyz government is obsessed with the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit. It will be hosted Kyrgyzstan in mid-August. AKIpress posted a number of pictures on new and refurbished old buildings that are being prepared to welcome presidents of China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, and Turkmenistan, the last two being only observers.
The Mayor of Bishkek, as the main implementer, has done "incredible" things: whitewashing trees and facades of buildings on the road from the Manas Airport to Bishkek and the main streets in Bishkek. As with buildings' being painted only on frontal sides, so are the trees, as you can see from the morrire's picture below. If only these changes were regular and less superficial, we would be living in another country.
What a hell is going on? It was confirmed today that 14 people in Nookat district (my father was born there) were infected by HIV/AIDS because of doctor's negligence. Kazakhstan had a similar incident last year when 80 people, mostly children, were accidentally infected in a hospital in Shymkent. Kazakhstan then jailed a bunch of doctors (although senior health officials were not imprisoned) in connection with this case.
Update: This breaking news was not even #1 news on the Kyrgyz National TV. First they showed President Bakiev meeting with the Iranian Ambassador, then PM Atambaev's visit to Aksy, and only then it was mentioned, but in the context of the Health Minister "reprimanding" health workers and firing several of them.
Yesterday South Africa's ex-president Nelson Mandela turned 89. About a year ago I read his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, which I recommend everyone to read. An excellent book depicting the difficulties faced by the anti-apartheid movement, which was led by Nelson Mandela and his colleagues. Having spend 27 years in prison and leading the charge against an oppressive and racist regime, he continues to inspire many people and drive change in many areas. He is a person of immense internal strength and integrity.
Photo courtesy of The Guardian.
A couple of western organizations (for example Hivos-backed blog and TOL's project) entered the Kyrgyz blogosphere with cases of money to "stimulate" people to be more involved in the new media. What they are doing makes complete sense, but on the other hand, why pay people who are already writing blogs for free. The money creates a distorted marketplace while encouraging short-term entrants (amateurs?) dominate the blogosphere. I might be wrong, though.
Thinking of going to Astana, think again. Astana, as many other town in the region, is being affected by sand storms. Here is a picture of yesterday's sand storm that killed at least 2 people.
By the way, Russia's Channel 1 is advertising "elite" housing in Astana. Come to Bishkek. We don't get these sand storms and you can see stars at night, unlike in Almaty.
On weekends I downloaded Borat! Cultura Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Well, the move actually makes fun of Americans and their ignorance of the world. Kazakhstan and Kazakhs should not be upset at all. In fact, no country in the world likes the way it is represented abroad. It is the cheapest advertisement for Kazakhstan. In five years everyone will forget Borat, but the name "Kazakhstan" (and Azamat, Borat's friend in the movie...) will stick.
In general, the movie is worth downloading off the internet, but does not worth paying for it.
