Sean-Paul at the Agonist has been directing his keen eye towards Kyrgyzstan this week.
Some things you should know about Kyrgyzstan is part essay, part notes at the moment but, unlike many - including me - writing about Kyrgyzstan at the moment, Sean-Paul’s actually been there.
This new revolution got a
lot of its momentum from the originating protests in the south. It is a
serious situation that bears watching. The south of Kyrgystan isn’t an
idyllic mountain paradise like the north is. It’s a gritty, hot and
flat economic wasteland at the far end of the Ferghana valley–it is
much like the Uzbek and Tajik Ferghana. The Ferghana may pretend to be
Uzbekistan’s breadbasket but I think it’s an economic basketcase for
Kyrgyzstan. Rumors of weapons caches abound for the inevitable Islamic
revolution. (Just rumors, I guess.)
Anyhow, were I a
policymaker I’d be watching the south for first moves. Cotton
monoculture. Wahhabist relief organizations. The non-violent
Hizb-ut-Tahrir in the ascendant. Violent splinter group emergent.
Sean-Paul also takes a closer look at the different hats Kyrgyz and Uzbek protestors in Osh are wearing. Osh is in Kyrgyzstan, of course, but the majority of its population is Uzbek. Sounds a pretty bizarre thing to investigate, but not at all:
"Why is headwear
important," you ask? Well, it is another one of those ways that humans
define themselves versus "the other." And I felt it was important to
point out in the context of the Kyrgyz revolution that began in Osh and
Jalalabad.
- What next?
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