Anniversary of June 2010

June 5, 2013

We are approaching the three year anniversary of the June 2010 riots and ethnic cleansing in Osh andJalalabad – or as Altynbek put it, “the war between the Kyrgyz and the Uzbeks.” I watched a TV “special” (all in Kyrgyz) on the events from three years ago. While I couldn’t understand most of what was said (as I speak very, very little Kyrgyz), the special showed a lot of archival footage from the events, most of which I hadn’t seen before. The special also inspired Altynbek to tell me in his broken Russian that “Все Узбек – хитрый” (‘All Uzbeks are sly/crafty/untrustworthy’). I asked him why he thought that. His answer was “I don’t know, but it’s true. They all are.” I really didn’t know what to say to that.

For the past few days there have been protests in Jalalabad (which closed the main through-road between Bishkek and Osh, causing massive traffic jams and delays in and around Jalalabad). As far as I could tell from the Kyrgyz language news, the protests were somehow connected to the June 2010 events, although unlike the events of three years ago, these protests were peaceful, and the road has since re-opened.

Curious to find out more, I emailed C, whom we had met in Jalalabad. I told her of Altynbek’s comments, and asked for her take on the events in Jalalabad. This was her reply:

I absolutely love your host-parents' take on current events in J-Bad. To be honest, most of my friends here have similar opinions- when I ask them about it, they mostly just disdainfully explain that it's politics, nothing unusual, typical meetings. Nobody really seems interested in it, and the city itself is calm, even if they had closed the road to Osh for a couple days. I don't think it's related to the anniversary of the 2010 events, though, or even to the "xitrie Uzbeks." I met with the [pro-democracy organization] in Bishkek this week, and they talked a great deal about the five vying political parties. Apparently, one politician suggested overthrowing the governor (they have a video of this, even). He's been arrested, and now there are just general protests/gatherings related to all this. Or there were- I think everything has pretty much passed for now. Never a dull moment in the south!

In which B. breaks my door, and Kyrgyzstan nullifies my vote.

October 27, 2008

Since technically my contract runs through October 31st, I purchased my ticket home for November 2nd. B was promised my apartment upon my departure, as the school needed to turn his apartment into classrooms. Unfortunately, when I bought my ticket I hadn’t realized that the last day of “October” classes was actually October 24th and that “November” classes began on October 27th. This meant that they needed B to move out on October 25th… and of course they were confused as to why I’d bought my ticket for such a late date. Yay, Kyrgyz logic. Luckily, B and I are good friends, so we don’t mind sharing an apartment for one week. Of course, I had five cats and he had one, so there are now two people and six cats in my apartment. Madness!

Monday I decided that while everyone else was at work (haha! unemployment is great!) I’d take the four cats that I’m taking home to the vet so they could be examined in order for the vet to complete the paperwork needed for customs. I can only carry two cats at a time, and I had just lugged Luball and Heelio into the vet’s office when I received a panicked phone call from B: Minsk had escaped and while he was in the process of re-capturing her, somehow the door to our apartment had broken and he was unable to get back inside. He’d shoved Minsk into K’s apartment (K, btw, is a dog person) and they were both teaching while various people tried to break down the door to our apartment. He wanted me to come home ASAP so that I could prevent the other cats from escaping once the door was opened – and so that I could get Minsk out of K’s apartment.

I figured that as I was already at the vet, I might as well do what I’d gone there to do. I explained what I needed, and nearly laughed when I learned that I hadn’t had to bring the cats with me; she was perfectly willing to complete the paperwork stating that all four were healthy without examining any of them! Meanwhile, on Thursday I have to take that paperwork to two different government offices to have various officials stamp them, thus further “proving” that my cats are healthy. Yay, more Kyrgyz logic.

I practically ran back to the school (doing so while lugging fat-ass Heelio was a feat in and of itself), only to discover that the school had called a locksmith who wouldn’t be there for an hour or so. I snagged K’s keys and spent a good three hours with three cats hanging out in her apartment. I was just about to fall asleep when I was roused by the sound of a drill. I went downstairs to discover a woman jackhammering the concrete doorjamb with a power drill. She did eventually get in and switch the locks, but by then I’d completely wasted most of my day.

Tuesday I decided to go to the central post office to ship home the wooden saddle that I’d bought for my mom ages and ages ago. I also figured that would be as good a time as any to mail my absentee ballot. I dragged the saddle all the way downtown and had the woman in the post office give me a quote as to how much it would cost to ship – nearly $100. I’d paid $14 for the thing. Grrr. I went across the street to change money and came back to discover the postal woman debating with some man whether or not I should be allowed to ship this antique saddle out of the country. On the one hand, it might very well be an antique. On the other hand, I paid $14 for it, so it couldn’t be *that* valuable, now could it? I told them that and they decided that I had a pretty good point and agreed to allow me to ship it.

It took more than an hour for the woman to package up the saddle. First she made a custom sized box out of cardboard. After taping it up around the saddle, she then sewed a custom fit cloth sleeve for the box, which she then hand-stitched shut and sealed with wax. She told me how much I owed, and I asked how much it would be to send my envelope (containing my absentee ballot) as well. Her response? “The envelope is in the box with the saddle. They’re going to the same address, right?” In the box? Are you kidding me? It had taken so long to package the damn saddle that I wasn’t about to make her do it again (although from the look on her face, she wouldn’t have agreed to do it even if I’d insisted), but dammit! This makes three presidential elections in a row that I’ve effectively been disenfranchised, although this is the first time that it has been the fault of someone in a foreign government! Now I have to print off the Federal Emergency Absentee Ballot and hope that it counts.

Politics and Pets

October 10, 2008

The other night I went to Justin’s house (Justin is my ten-year old Korean student), to tutor him in English and eat delicious bibimbap with him and his family. Over dinner we had quite an intelligent discussion – mixing English, Korean and Russian – about politics in the US and Kyrgyzstan. His father said that even though he knew very little about the policies of either Obama or McCain, if he were an American he would vote for Obama. His reasoning was that the election of a black man to the US presidency would prove that the US really is a nation of immigrants, a nation for everybody, a nation without prejudice. I heard so many racist comments against blacks when I was in South Korea, that this was a pleasant surprise.

With regards to politics in Kyrgyzstan, Justin’s parents were telling me about the similarities between Bakiev (Kyrgyzstan’s current president) and Akayev (the president who was ousted in Kyrgyzstan’s 2005 revolution). Nepotism was a huge problem under Akayev, with his children holding prominent places in the government. Apparently the situation under Bakiev is even worse, specifically with the power held by Bakiev’s son, Maxim:

There were local elections here in Bishkek this past Sunday. Very few of my students voted; they all fervently believed that there was no reason to vote as the results had already been pre-determined. It was consensus among my students that whoever could pay the President the most money would earn seats in local government, no matter who received the most votes, so why bother? Several students said that if they lived somewhere where their vote counted, “like the US or Russia” (!!!) they would vote, but here in Kyrgyzstan, there’s just no point.

This guy was one of the candidates:

Doesn't he look like Frodo with a mullet???

And speaking of voting... my ballot arrived! :-) Perhaps I can finally manage to *not* be disenfranchised in a presidential election. I was able to download the mp3 of the most recent debate between Obama and McCain (better late than never; at least I’m not completely out of touch), and while I continue to be amazed by the fact that the Republicans have an intelligent and articulate sounding candidate, I definitely think Obama won. I understand that repeating your message is something politicians do in order to drive their point home, but the way McCain repeated himself verbatim so many times made him seem to me like a doddering old man. And the whole “that one” thing? Sheesh. Also, citing working across the aisle with that party-traitor Joe Lieberman is hardly a good example!

On a totally different note, the theme of the module I’ve been teaching this past week in my advanced class was honesty and dishonesty, which of course meant we did a lot of talking about boyfriends/girlfriends and husbands/wives cheating on each other. Today one of my students said that all husbands will cheat, and that it’s a wife’s duty to ignore the cheating, and not to confront him, but to do her best to be the perfect wife in order to lure him back. Everyone else in the class agreed with her (and there were five women and men in that class). Depressing! (And given recent events, duly so.)

What else? Minsk, my new kitten, continues to have diarrhea. Instead of receiving medicine at the vet, my vet wrote down the name of a medication to buy at the pharmacy – as in the pharmacy where *humans* buy their meds – and instructed me to give the cat 1/6 of a pill twice a day. I hope it works. With the lack of the “good” cat litter at my pet store and five cats in my apartment, Minsk’s digestive problems are definitely raising the odor level in my home. Gross, huh? And of course, I can’t even begin to look for a home for the poor girl until she’s healthy and 100% litter box trained. She uses the box about 90% of the time, which is an improvement over 0%, but still not acceptable. Sigh. But on the plus side, she is incredibly sweet and snuggly – the others are quite jealous!