“Citrus” state
The data came from the report of 2006, which states that in the past year there have been 726 unsanctioned and unregistered rallies that were staged in the country. 24.kg has produced some calculations, and it turned out, that every day of the year in Kyrgyzstan was marked by at least 2 rallies.
We all remember that those “expressions of public will ” were quite disturbing for the regular pace of life in Kyrgyzstan .
It was very fashionable to rally, no matter what. But it was not only fashion, it was also about getting profits. Those, who wouldn’t normally go on pickets, were wondering, how people during their work hours were able to spend days, just protesting on the streets of different towns and villages.
This perplexity, though, didn’t last long. After a while, it became evident, that “professional” picketers were making more money per day comparing to their law-abiding and hard-working compatriots. Based on that, I have a theoretical question to pose to political scientists: are all coup’s and would-be-coup’s participants from different “banana” republics well-paid or their turbulent behavior is only dictated by pure intentions to have some “fun” again and again. Once I know the answer, I’ll be able to tell whether we can be qualified as a full -fledged “banana” republic.
Law -enforcement officials also went public with more stats that can make average people really concerned. It turned out, that in 2006 23 false reports about explosive devices were submitted to the Kyrgyz police on the terms of anonymity. As a matter of fact, no one of those “jokers” was detained. My real concern here, is that our law-enforcement bodies once again proved to be inefficient, when it comes to maintaining law and order. They could, of course, have a number of explanations. One of those could be that they didn’t have time to deal with small fry. But who, than, is really in charge of adressing the question ” What is small and what is big?”. Will those, who are supposed to be on guard, be able to recognize a real danger when it comes?
For now it’s more about questions. And about saying Happy New Year to my compatriots again. It seems that it has been proved again that we live in a terribly funny country. Have a wild guess which of those components (terror or fun) tends to prevail nowadays.
on January 10th, 2007 at 10:08 pm
726 unsactioned and unregistered(???) rallies.
According to our legislation (and practice!) - we have freedom of meetings and assembly. Let’s be proud of that fact.
No reason to over-dramatize. We had less then a dozen large rallies (in April, May, November by opposition), HIPC in December. One rally on March 30 by Akmatbaev. Not too many. I think by your methodology such capitals as London, Paris, New York also qualify as banana republics. Btw, Yulia, is banana a citrus?
Your frequent allegations that all participants attend rallies for payment is not, first of all, accurate and insulting to many thousands of your ‘compatriots’, Yulia.
on January 10th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
Edil, I normally find your comments appealing and refreshing. You are right, we are all entitled to the freedom of expression. The only thing I don’t quite understand, is your manner of picking on words. It’s not my intention to be absolutely academically and politically correct (so please don’t be bothered by my fruit’s and veges’ classification). I believe you, yourself are also far from that perfection.
I would also like to point out to you that in my post I never made allegations against ALL people attending rallies in Kyrgyzstan. If you read it carefully you’ll see that I was talking about “professional picketers”. And I believe, we both know what I meant.