Winter Camp

February 12, 2009

Winter Camp

I spent the week of February 2^nd with 18 vivacious 9^th Form students from School #9 in Talas.  (See photo)  In an effort to keep us busy during the two-month winter break, Peace Corps secured grant money from PEPFAR, President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (or something close to that).  It's about the only good thing I can think of W doing in 8 years.  Anyway, along with my friend Gauhar (the young lady on the far left) and with the support of the school director (older woman, far left), we held a workshop covering HIV/AIDS prevention and life skills.  Two women from the local chapter of the Red Cross came one morning to give a presentation.  The other mornings we discussed self-esteem, time management, bride kidnapping, the 5 Languages of Love and decision making.  We ended each day with a one-hour English lesson.  Oh, and I also made sure our grant money included a hot lunch each day.  A few of the girls spoke English, and the rest spoke Kyrgyz.  Gauhar, who speaks English as well as anybody I've met here, did a great job as my translator.  Even though I know these young ladies have a better handle on life skills and safe sexual practices, I won't be here to see the results.  But, their friends and family will be and that's what really matters.

In the book: more details about the camp, a profile of Gauhar and her family and why our friendship didn't last (it wasn't our decision).

The Politics of War - The Afghan War

February 6, 2009

The Controversial US Air Base in Kyrgyzstan

Here's a story from the New York Times about the country where I'm
living right now.
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/world/europe/05kyrgyz.html?ref=world&pagewanted=all
 
 
Dispute Mounts Over Key U.S. Base in Kyrgyzstan
 
By ELLEN BARRY and MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
Published: February 4, 2009
 
MOSCOW — A day after the president of Kyrgyzstan announced plans to
close a key U.S. military base in his country, potentially
jeopardizing NATO supply lines to Afghanistan, American diplomats and
military officials in the region said Wednesday the base was still
operating and negotiations on its future were continuing.
Enlarge This Image
 
Vyacheslav Oseledko/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
 
An American at an entrance to the air base in Manas, which
Kyrgyzstan's president said Tuesday he would order shut.

But the Kyrgyz government said it has already approved a law to end
its cooperation with Washington, arguing that the American mission in
Afghanistan has outlasted its original goals. It said it had decided
to shut the base because Afghanistan has a stable government and the
terrorist threat has been removed. It also said NATO air strikes have
caused an unacceptable rise in civilian casualties.
 
President Kurmanbek Bakiyev announced the decision to close the
facility on Tuesday during a visit to Moscow to seek financial
support. The American base at Manas has served as an air hub and
refueling and transit point for NATO efforts in Afghanistan, and U.S.
officials have several times intervened when Kyrgyz officials
considered shutting it.
 
In a statement on Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy in Bishkek, the capital
of Kyrgyzstan, said: "We have been in touch with Kyrgyz authorities on
the future of Manas air base. These discussions will continue."
 
"At this point we have not received formal notification of a decision
by Kyrgyzstan to close the base," the statement said.
 
Maj. Damien Pickart, a spokesman for the Manas base, said in a
statement on Wednesday: "Until we have been directed to adjust course,
we are going to continue to perform our mission here. The aerial
refueling mission, the tankers that we fly to Afghanistan have been
flying today, and coalition personnel processing in and out of
Afghanistan are continuing to pass through Manas."
 
Mr. Bakiyev arrived in Moscow under pressure to ease economic troubles
in Kyrgyzstan, which is heavily in debt to Russia and dependent on
remittances from migrant workers. President Dmitri A. Medvedev said
Russia would extend a $2 billion loan and $150 million in aid to
Kyrgyzstan, which Mr. Bakiyev hailed as "serious and important
support."
At a press conference, Mr. Bakiyev said the U.S. had not paid
Kyrgyzstan enough in return for the use of the base — and expressed
anger over a 2006 case in which an American serviceman shot and killed
a Kyrgyz truck driver on the base. The American left the country,
against official protest.
 
"How can we speak of independence and sovereignty if we cannot enforce
the law on the territory of our own country?" he said, at a press
conference. "All this has given rise to a negative attitude to the
base in Manas. And that is why the government has made such a
decision."
 
Mr. Bakiyev's announcement represented a blunt challenge to President
Obama's highest foreign policy priority: the war in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan has also been seen as a jumping-off point for cooperation
between the United States and Russia, which is wary of the spread of
Islamic extremism.
 
"It's an extremely serious point, because the premise of American
policy is that there is a common interest here," said Stephen
Sestanovich, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations,
which is based in New York. "If they're trying to tell us otherwise,
that message will get through."
 
The question of supply lines to NATO and American forces in
Afghanistan has become increasingly acute with attacks on the
centuries-old route from Pakistan over the Khyber Pass.
 
On Tuesday, Taliban militants blew up a bridge, forcing the suspension
of road shipments. According to The Associated Press on Wednesday,
militants then torched 10 trucks stranded in Pakistan as a result of
the destruction of the bridge.
 
The uncertainties surrounding the supply lines has added urgency to
American and NATO efforts to secure alternative supply lines through
Central Asia.
 
Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, on Tuesday called the
Manas facility in Kyrgyzstan "a hugely important" air base for the
United States.
 
During negotiations this summer, State Department spokesman Sean
McCormack said the U.S. would pay more than $150 million in assistance
and compensation for the base. At the time, a government statement
said the United States had contributed more than $850 million to
support democracy, economic development, aid projects and security in
the Kyrgyz Republic since its independence from the Soviet Union.
 
NATO's special representative to the area, Robert Simmons, spent
Monday and Tuesday meeting with officials in Bishkek, telling
reporters the site was "vital."

At the press conference, Mr. Bakiyev said Washington had ignored
requests for more money.
 
"Eight years have passed," he said. "We have repeatedly raised with
the United States the matter of economic compensation for the
existence of the base in Kyrgyzstan, but we have not been understood."
 
The base was opened in 2001 with Moscow's blessing, but Russian
leaders were increasingly irritated by the continuing presence of
American troops there. It was not clear whether Russian officials had
pressed Bishkek to end the agreement.
 
To Russians, the longstanding U.S. presence at Manas suggested
ambitions "to strengthen its position in this region" — against
Moscow's and Beijing's interests, said Andronik Migranyan, an analyst
at the Institute of Democracy and Cooperation, a Russian think-tank
based in New York.
 
"The American government is involved in many things that Russia does
not like, and this is something of a bargaining chip," he said.
 
Mr. Migranyan said friction over the air base will "become a
serious impediment to Russian-American relations" if Mr. Obama follows
through on his plans to beef up the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. He
added, however, that there was likely room to negotiate.
 
"If President Obama halts the construction of elements of a missile
defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland; if there are broader
discussions on global security, if negotiations start on START I; and
many other issues, then Russia will support the United States in
Afghanistan," he said.
 
Kyrgyzstan's close relations with the United States have long
unsettled Russia and China, which both have military interests in the
region.
 
In 2005, the country appeared to move further into Washington's orbit
after a popular uprising, supported in part by the United States,
toppled the corrupt and increasingly authoritarian government of Askar
A. Akayev, sending the president fleeing across the border. The
bloodless coup was part of a wave of popular revolts, known as colored
revolutions, that remain a source of anger and suspicion among Russian
officials, who consider them Washington-hatched schemes meant to
undermine Russia's influence in the region.
 
Similar uprisings in Georgia and Ukraine ushered in governments that
quickly sought to shut out Moscow's influence in favor of stronger
ties with the West. Kyrgyzstan, however, has often sought to strike a
balance among Washington, Moscow and Beijing. The government has
allowed Russia to maintain a military base on Kyrgyz soil and is a
member, along with China, Russia and three other Central Asian
countries, of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a security
alliance.
 
Upon his election in 2005, Mr. Bakiyev vowed to pursue an independent
foreign policy, saying that Kyrgyzstan would not be "a place for the
fulfillment of someone else's geopolitical interests."

 
Alan Cowell contributed from London.

 I knew almost nothing about the Manas Air Base (MAB) until April 2010 when it became my home for a few weeks. That’s where the Peace Corps stashed us after the revolution that overthrew the government. Much more on that later in the book.

MAB was a golden goose for President Bakiyev.

Also in the book: more on the corrupt family of President Bakiyev and a link to an article about an American who somehow secured a $3 billion contract at the airbase. 

The Journey is More Interesting Than the Destination

February 3, 2009

From the “That Only Happens in the Movies” Department

Almost every trip I take to Bishkek includes some kind of drama.  I've told you most of them, but here's another from a while back.  In November, on my way to Bishkek for a meeting with AUCA folks, my taxi was at the apex of one of the mountain ranges when I felt the front tires shimmy.  Now, I don't know a piston from a petunia, but I knew this didn't feel right.  In order for the shimmying to stop we had to slow down to about 5 mph. I envisioned my 4 hour trip extending to two days.  After stops and starts with this malfunction, I determined we weren't going to make it to Bishkek unless the wheels or axle or something was fixed.  But, where?  We were 10,000 feet above sea level, not exactly a place with a service station around every hairpin turn.  Resigned to whatever the universe had in store, I returned to reading my book.  About ten minutes later, after traveling what seemed like a hundred feet, our driver pulled into what looked like an abandoned maintenance facility from the Soviet era. And that's exactly what it was.  I didn't know if he knew it was there or not and I didn't care.  (He probably did.)  The fact that it existed was amazing enough.  I mean we were literally in the middle of nowhere. And to top it off, of the four bays in the garage, the one on the far right was an oil change bay.  We pulled in.  The driver took the only wrench in his little tool kit and proceeded to walk under the car where he began tightening all things loose.  Twenty minutes later we were back on the road, zooming around every bend like a Grand Prix race car.  What are the odds we find an oil change bay in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan to fix our car?  Maybe better than I thought, but it still seemed like something out a movie to me. 

Most drunk taxi drivers made city runs. I know because I saw them drinking and playing cards while waiting for fares. Talas is not a big city and many people walked instead of opting for a taxi unless they had bags to carry or the weather was poor, so the drivers had a LOT of downtime. These city runs started at the bazaar and ended at the vauxhall, the long distance bus station, but with sedans and minivans instead. The trip took less than two minutes and cost twenty-five cents (10 soms). Most of the ride took place on the main road of the city, which was a residential highway through town, not a shopping district, and the drivers treated it like a drag strip. My favorite saying was, “They’re all in a big hurry to go nowhere.” I heard a little girl was run over a year before I arrived.

Also in the book: more information on long distance drivers; Sasha, the driver who would shop for you in Bishkek.