Columbia Conspiracy

In the past 2 days, I have conducted 2 interviews, attended 1 lecture, 1 court hearing, and spent 2 hours at a bar. In the process, I have met a total of 11 Americans, of which 5 are in some way affiliated with Columbia University.

That's just weird.

I'm still trying to determine if I'm meeting them because of a Columbia connection, or if it is indeed as coincidental as it seems. Certainly, there are some linkages, though there's also enough randomness and other affiliations to problematize the theory of CU magnetism.

For example, my two interviews (bios below) are both Columbia profs. They didn't come over to Bishkek as part of a Columbia-affiliated program, but certainly one of the reasons I knew they were in town, and thus setup the interview, was because of common Columbia contacts.

Further afield are the long-term non-locals. Americans (even Columbians) who are living in Bishkek, usually on short assignments. It's not rare for 20- and early 30-somethings to take 1 year jobs abroad, but again, the prevalence of Columbians in these positions in shocking. For example, I met 3 reporters and 2 research scholars, of which 2 were Columbia Alum. Add the (CU) international investment advisor, and it's quite a squad.

Apparently, Bishkek is a small world. You go to one or two newsworthy events, and suddenly you're bumping into the same people - at least, it's true for western journalists and scholars.

Better yet, the journalists I did meet are the very same people who's reports I've been reading manically in an attempt to get caught up on current events in Kyrgyzstan & Central Asia.

see especially: Eurasianet.org

Unfortunately, I'm barely making sense with this blog as it is, and I don't presently have any wonderful images with which to illustrate it (and it's 7 pm on a Friday and I'm fried), I'm going to leave it at this:

I'm meeting a lot of Columbia people. It's nice to know people I can relate to, but frankly it's getting a little creepy. Like, I almost don't want to admit that I got to Columbia, just to feel less cultish.

Still not sure if CU just happens to have a stronger focus on Central Asia than other institutions (this does happen, certain colleges are really strong in SE Asia, Congo, etc.), or again, if it's all a tired story of who you know knows.

Either way, I need to tone down the "lion pride."

Then again, they've all been excellent contacts, not just for my work this summer, but really for any future questions/research/work I do on C.A.

I've never considered myself to be very good at the game of making connections, so swapping business cards with this many good contacts in this short a period is sort of staggering.

Anyway, I promised to keep this one brief, so I'll log it and call it a day.

sorry it isn't funnier. Blame Canada.

Weber (on the lamb)