#224: Georgia-Russia

South Osetia = Kosovo!
Georgia = Serbia!
US = Russia!
Were they justified?

#182: US Foreign Policy

Admiral William Fallon, the head of US Central Command, resigned reportedly for questioning possible military attack on Iran, although the Bush Administration denied change of policy. It will be a very big mistake if Bush decides in the last 10 months of his presidency to attack Iran, especially after all the lies and distortions of intelligence on Iraq' WMD, and leave the whole Middle East in turmoil. In addition, George Bush vetoed a bill prohibiting CIA from using techniques , such as waterboarding, while interrogating suspects.

Fueled by the anti-American rhetoric in the Russian media, sentiments in Kyrgyzstan have long turned against the U.S. policies around the world, especially we host an American airbase near Bishkek. Anti-Russian newspapers and groups could soon start rallying against the American presence.

#99: Parasitic Dependence, Blind Servility, Genuflection, Primitive Boot-licking, and Double Standards

First, President Bakiev is expected to address the country in his speech in the Parliament on September 19, 2007. Let's see if he has radically new thing to say.

Second, more and more people are painting a gloomy picture of the way Kyrgyzstan is heading. In an interview to weekly Obschestvenniy Reiting, opposition MP Kubatbek Baibolov characterized our society, especially the ruling elite, as being dominated by "parasitic dependence, blind servility, genuflection, primitive boot-licking, and double standards." He says that if we don't root these vices out, Kyrgyzstan will not go anywhere.*

This reminded me of the time couple of weeks ago when a friend of mine and I were having plov in Jalalabad Cafe and a man in his early 50's asked if he could join us on the tapchan, a wooden platform to dine on, because only two of us were occupying it, which could accommodate at least three more people. We agreed. He joined us and silently devoured his lagman as we ate and chatted about Kyrgyz politics. He then joined our discussions and defended the current way of doing politics. He said the president is a khan and as such he should act accordingly and people should obey him accordingly. It turned out that he worked on legal issues for President's Administration, as he confessed. Unfortunately, people like that man dominate the government.

Third, the situation in Iraq is worrying a lot of people, except extremists. The Economist's cartoon below depicts it well.
I guess you see people of such description not only in Kyrgyzstan, but everywhere around the world. For those who speak Russian, I decided to give what Baibolov said: "...пока в обществе господствует идеология иждивенчества, слепого чинопочитания и коленопреклонения, примитивного лизоблюдства и двойной морали, каких-либо серьезных сдвигов ожидать трудно, да и бессмысленно."

On that note, I read that the Constitutional Court declared that the November and December (current) constitutions are illegitimate because of the way they were passed. Ironically, judges of the CC were elected by the Parliament according to the December constitution, which makes them and their decision illegitimate as well. Anyways, this is a vicious circle of legal chaos that started in 2005, or as some say in 2000.

#87: Scramble For The Arctic

Another piece of untamed territory at the mercy of great powers.
The Economist this week wrote that "the boom in energy and commodity prices has changed the economics of difficult searches for oil, gas and minerals. The steady shrinkage of polar ice-caps, as a result of global warming, is making previously inaccessible deposits much easier to get at—and helping to open some formerly icebound shipping lanes."

Hillarious: "Still more eye-catching—even if some of the footage shown on Moscow television really came from the film “Titanic”—was a Kremlin-backed voyage, which led to the planting, by a minisub, of a titanium Russian tricolour on the seabed." Read the rest of the article.

More humor off the topic: Reverent Humor