Talking About A Revolution...

I have been reading some of the old emails I used to send out to update people about my life on the road.  Now that I've started keeping a blog account (and, frankly, I have no idea why I didn't do so when I first left the UK!?) I thought it would be kind of interesting to put my thoughts and adventures from days gone by on here.

The first thing that struck me was just how wrong I can be when it comes to making political predictions.  Another reason why I try not to dabble in politics and leave well alone!  Back in October 2008, I wrote about my time living in Kyrgyzstan:

"The big news of the moment is that it looks like the Kyrgyz people have become so apathetic towards politics that any chance of a revolution has been and gone.  After the last revolution in 2005, people have realised that it doesn't matter who's in charge - all politicians are only out for themselves.  In the meantime, the ineptitude at the top has resulted in power shortages for the last 6 weeks and will continue all through winter.  For some reason, the government sold off the electricity supply to neighbouring Uzbekistan and have left themselves short.  It means that for up to 10 hours every day we will have no power and we've already been forced to teach by candlelight on numerous occasions!!"

Well, as you may have noticed on the news recently, Kyrgyzstan did, in fact, have its second revolution and this one was far bloodier than the Tulip one that had preceded it.  With 84 killed (keep in mind that with a national population of just over 4 million, this is not a small number) and the uncountable cost of looting, arson and vandalism that has left the capital city, Bishkek, looking like the war-zone it was for that brief week.  The apathy that many had felt was pretty strong during my time there, but towards the end of my stay talk of protests was not uncommon.  While the 'middle-class' had seemingly given up, the poor underclass had decided enough was enough.  President Bakiev (himself, ironically, installed to head office because of the last uprising) found himself the target of an angry mob baying for a change.  Years of nepotism, skimming state funds and general incompetence had finally taken its toll on their collective patience.

 The Eternal Flame

The big undertaking for this former Soviet republic is to rebuild and finally emerge as the democratic nation it had hoped to become 5 years ago.  This is not an easy task, though, as the country has the unenviable position of being caught in the middle of Russia and the USA, as well as having no real exports of which to speak.  Eco-tourism is booming, but will people fork out for the adventure?  I've learnt my lesson and I'm going to stay well away from making predictions...