Stories about Tajikistan from July, 2007
Central Asia: Expert interview
James of neweurasia interviews Central Asia specialist Dr. Eric McGlinchey – the topics of the long conversation include radical Islam, Russian influence, the regime in Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan's development.
Tajikistan: Buzkashi
Men on horseback playing a football-like game with a goat carcass instead of a ball? Erik Petersson took some breathtaking photos during a Buzkashi game in Tajikistan.
Afghanistan: Soviet veterans
Two Soviet war veterans who served in Afghanistan are portayed on blogs: Afghanistanica looks at Captain Zakharov, an example of successful counter-insurgency; and Registan.net portrays the mysterious Mahmud Khudoberdiev, who went on to fight in the Tajik Civil War.
Tajikistan: Meet The New Changes
A new law is set to restrict the activities of all religious groups; an Indian airbase in the country feeds the imagination of Indian bloggers; the heroin trade has some devastating social consequences; a camera saves you from paying bribes; and different investment is needed in the cotton sector - find all that in this week's blog roundup from Tajikistan.
Eastern Europe: Swedish Blog Update 2007
In his comprehensive review, Vilhelm Konnander writes that, unfortunately, Swedish foreign minister is no longer blogging about Eastern European affairs, but otherwise, "the Swedish blogosphere on Eastern Europe is undergoing expansion and some of the necessary stabilisation to form the dynamic density needed for a blog community. [...] A disadvantage for the international audience is that blogs, with few exceptions, are in Swedish."
Tajikistan: Cotton investment
The world's fourth-largest cotton exporter – Tajikistan – is seeking to raise international investment in the sector. Bonnie Boyd comments on the government's tender which has official World Bank backing.
Central Asia: Evil ranking
BordersCA, a blog on borders in Central Asia, is reporting that Turkmenistan is slowly loosing its “Evil-Number-One” status to Uzbekistan. A sign of this are the small, yet continuous changes put in place by the new Turkmen president Berdymukhammedov, such as the removal of the arduous and omnipresent highway passport...
Central Asia: Clash of opinion
Josh Foust engages in an extremely interesting discussion with an Uzbek journalist (working for a Russian news agency) about Western promotion of democracy in Central Asia.
Tajikistan: Aga Khan
Ismaili Mail keeps track of all the attention given by media worldwide on the occasion of the Ismaili spiritual leader Aga Khan's 50th Jubilee Year.
Tajikistan: Threatened reptiles
Vadim says that a Chinese roadbuilding project in Tajikistan puts a threat to local reptiles. Snakes and turtles are being sold to Chinese cooks for as much as $10.
Tajikistan: Nuclear waste
nonpon says that it might take another few years before actions follow words in cleaning up Tajikistan's radioactive debris.
Central Asia: The week in the news
For all news junkies out there, Central Asia Now features a comprehensive roundup of last week's headlines.
Central Asia: Ask the expert
James of neweurasia asks regional expert Dr. Johannes Linn about economic development, regional geopolitics, human rights, and development prospects for Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
Tajikistan: Misguided perceptions
The wisdom of certain Western observers is being questioned in Tajikistan: Both a cartoonist and a journalist seem to have problems understanding the place properly, write Vadim and his readers on neweurasia.
