At least, they've been uneventful in the Weber World of Bishkek. The same cannot be said for Tehran, which if you haven't been following it on an hour-by-hour basis as I have, let me assure you is an important event you should at least be familiar with.
Interestingly, my lack of blogs have been tied intimately to my Iran news-hounding. I have been able to keep abreast of the Iran election situation through about a dozen news sites (NYTimes, CNN, EurasiaNet, RFE/RL, al-Jazeera, PressTV, UK Telegraph, UK Guardian, BBC, & NPR) only because I haven't had a single RFE assignment all week, and consequently don't have anything particularly interesting to write a blog about.
This week my intern co-ordinator was out of town working with some other visiting professors, and apparently forgot to give me any assignments before departing. Since she's the only person in Kyrgyzstan who is responsible for my internship, in her absence the rest of the staff has been very polite, generally busy, and had no suggestions for what I could be doing.
I am desperately hopeful that she will return to the office by Monday. If not, I may just get on a bus for Osh and spend the week as a tourist.
In fact, in the past 5 days I can point to exactly five items of interest, though at first glance none really seem worthy of even their own uncharacteristically-short blog post. They are presented here, in serial summation:
On wednesday I had dinner with a small cadre of other Americans in Bishkek - a fulbright scholar I met last week who's studying US-Russian relations in Kyrgyzstan while she hones her Russian and Kyrgyz, and some friends she invited along - another Fulbrighter (who's Russian is awesome) who is investigating perceptions of ethnicity in Central Asia (it's a big field), and an English language instructor trainer who's been in-country for several years.
It's a good crew, and I got along with them great. Very smart, very casual, and very interesting. We had a giant plate of Shashlyk (Kyrzy version of Shishkebab, but instead of veggies, the meat is separated by grilled gristle - which you are expected to eat... a post devoted to Kyrgyz Cuisine is long overdue...), and admittedly more vodka than was necessary.
How much vodka is ever, "necessary" you ask? Good question. I have no answer, but I'm sure that whatever amount it is, would be measured in grams, rather than "shots," as the glasses here are all a little less than double US-size.
Thursday the Kyrgyz Presidential election campaign officially opened. And nothing happened. A few opposition leaders were arrested, almost as an afterthought, and nothing else. No slogans, no posters, no demonstrations. Nothing. Tehran this is not.
Apparently, when the press refer to the lead candidates as "incumbent Bakiev and his strongest opponent, Atambaev," they leave out that even the "strongest" opponent has zero chance of victory. In fact, the pervading thought in Bishkek, when considering the Iran case, is how their government could have been so lazy as to let people think they had a choice in the first place.
Prof. Lincoln Mitchell said something interesting when I interviewed him last week. He said that the first 1-2 elections of a new state are a chance for Democracy to become more or less strong. But after a few more, say by election #5, the semi-democratic government in power has had enough time to consolidate its position and figure out how to control elections. The result is that elections, rather than becoming a tool of democracy, become a tool of the state - they are actively used to Prevent democracy by giving it a false-forum with a controlled outcome.
Interesting stuff.
Thursday night I watched the US futbol team get destroyed by Brazil - luckily I opted to go home and watch by myself rather than a bar, which would have been even more depresssing.
Friday I was invited out by the daughter of a co-worker and a friend of hers from the American University of Central Asia. I think it was part hospitality, part English practice. The fulbright Americans, who are here largely to improve their Russian, expressed their frustration with college-age Kyrgyz who insisted on speaking with them in English - as good practice - since in fact the Fullbrighters wanted to converse in Russian or Kygyz for the same reason.
I have no such reservations. Since I don't speak anything but English, and when traveling I am -oddly- very talkative, I'm quite happy to trade my services as an English talk-buddy for a little social time. If that social time involves German beer (and more Shashlyk), all the better.
Today (Saturday) I forced myself to do something worthwhile, so I did laundry and visited the "National Historical Museum" which is, honestly, pretty cool. I'll try to think it over a little more and get a post up in the next few days.
Wow - I guess it hasn't been that much of a lunar-landscape of a week. Sitting at an office desk with nothing to do but read news, facebook, and twiddle my thumbs for 8 hours every day made it seem pretty rough. I don't do "unbusy" very well.
Funny how last week, in the face of not-so-much to do, I wrote a ton, and this week - when I apparently do have a few things to write about - I wrote nothing.
What can I say - the Lamb is not a creature of habit.
Of course, the Holy Order of Nuns for Jesus would disagree.
Weber (on the lamb)
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