Stories about Uzbekistan from July, 2007
Uzbekistan: Soviet architecture
Joshua Kucera speculates why Tashkent features some of the best gems of Soviet architecture.
Uzbekistan: Digital boom?
Jamiyat translates an article which gives the impression that the use of internet and mobile telecommunication is growing rapidly in Uzbekistan.
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.
Uzbekistan: Domestic violence, a prison for Uzbek Paris Hiltons and “Iran, go home!”
This week on Uzbekstani blogs: The difficult role of women in society and domestic violence stand in stark contrast to the flamboyant life of the president's daughter. Also, a young Uzbek football player displays a "Iran Go Home" poster before a match, Uzbek civil society is under threat, and a special prison is being built for delinquent civil servants.
Uzbekistan: Social capital
Rowan Wagner sheds some light on the Uzbek “gap” – a (usually) gender-based group of people that meets up regularly to share experience, practical tips, and gossip.
Central Asia: Google Trends
Michael Hancock shares his experience of learning about the world's attention to Central Asia using Google Trends.
Uzbekistan: Pop-soda culture
Joshua Kucera is in Uzbekistan now and enjoys the culture of having a relaxed soda at the side of the street the local way.
Uzbekistan: HRW shut?
UzNGO says that by refusing to give accreditation to the next country director, the Uzbek authorities have effectively shut down Human Rights Watch.
Uzbekistan: Lyab-i-Hauz
Joshua Kucera finds that relaxing at Bukhara's central pond, the Lyab-i-Hauz, is a great introduction to Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan: Cyrillic confusion
Tolkun Umaraliev posts a funny picture showing the amount of confusion created by writing Russian words with Latin script in Uzbekistan.
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.
Uzbekistan: Cotton boycott
As the Uzbek cotton sector is often brought in connection with gross human rights violations, Craig Murray finds the first major retailer's boycott of Uzbekistan's cotton products commendable.
Uzbekistan: Special prison
Jamiyat writes that the Uzbek government has built a new prison especially designed for “delinquent” civil servants. They are not thrown into the dire facilities where normal inmates serve their sentence as the latter “might show no tolerance towards newcomers, who in fact, might have put them in these premises”.
Uzbekistan: Improbable headlines
Suffering from the heat in Tashkent, Rowan Wagner thinks of “headlines you will never see in Uzbekistan”.
Uzbekistan: Academic Exiles
On Registan.net, Kayumars Turkistan ponders the implications of Uzbekistan's isolation for the academic exchange with the country and finds that international researchers rather locate in the countries bordering Uzbekistan. Readers from Tashkent reply in the comments, however, that not all is really as bad as it seems.
Uzbekistan: A Story of Two Old Men
Beyond the River presents an excerpt from an unpublished novella by the acclaimed Uzbek author Hamid Ismailov called A Story of Two Old Men (Part 1 – 2 – 3 – 4).
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.
Uzbekistan: Power parallels
On neweurasia, Ali Said evaluates Uzbek president Karimov's options once the next presidential elections will have taken place in December.
Uzbekistan: Law and order
Rowan Wagner reports that, strangely, Tashkent's taxi drivers have suddenly become law-abiding traffic participants. Is the police finally doing its job?
Uzbekistan: Youth celebrations
Afisha posts a report along with pictures about recent youth celebrations outside Tashkent, Uzbekistan's capital. About 130 of the most active young folks from all corners of the country invaded a sanatorium usually inhabited by elderly people [RU].
