Stories about Central Asia & Caucasus from February, 2013
Kazakhstan to ‘Work Closely’ with Bloggers
Marat Tazhin, a senior government official in Kazakhstan ordered [ru] yesterday the creation of a database of the most popular bloggers and moderators of major social media networks in the country....
MDG Consultations Held in Tajikistan
Blogger Teocrat calls [ru] on Tajikistan's young people to contribute to public consultations on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The aim of the consultations is to review progress towards the MDGs...
Journalist's Stabbing a ‘Warning’ for Tajik Opposition
A Tajik journalist and critic of the regime is in hospital after being stabbed in Moscow. The netizens in Tajikistan have little doubt that the attack on the journalist was politically motivated and that it was a taste of things to come in the months leading to presidential elections due in November.
Videos from “One Billion Rising” Global Protests for Women's Rights
Every third woman falls victim to violence in her lifetime. On February 14, 2013 thousands of people all over the world protested against these daily acts of violence with dance.
Horse is ‘Normal Meat’ in Kazakhstan
Here in Kazakhstan, especially by Kazakhs, horse is considered to be a normal meat/edible flesh, in the same way as chicken, beef or fish is. Although horses bred for eating are treated very differently, and indeed look different, to those destined for racing or transport on the steppe, a horse is just another animal that serves a purpose.
Tajik Civil War ‘Will Continue’
Unless ALL the sides [that fought against each other in the 1990s] admit their fault and say, "Yes, we did kill, we did start the conflict," the civil war will continue... It looks like we are ashamed of admitting that we are all to blame for the bloodshed.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Turkmen Statistics
When it comes to statistics, the Turkmen government remains committed to the time-honored Soviet principles of book-cooking, data fudging and avoiding the uncomfortable truth at all costs. 'Good' statistics, such as the rising grain harvests, are triumphantly covered by state-run media, while bad news are never reported.
Praising Lenin in Tajik Poetry
Glorifying Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution, was a popular theme in Soviet literature. Kimiyoi Saodat (The Chemistry of Happiness) blog traces [tj] the Lenin-praising tradition in Tajik poetry,...
Open Access and the Complexity of Digital Rights
How do ways of thinking change through time and space? Today, this problem concerning the way the human intellect works is compounded by a new method of transmission - digital. Open Access are calling for free availabilty of digitised publications from publicly-funded scientific research.