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Archive for Kyrgyzstan
December 9, 2010 at 8:02 am · Filed under Commentaries, Kyrgyzstan, UK, US
Note to Tatiana Gfoeller, U.S. ambassador to Kyrgyzstan: If you ever tire of the Foreign Service — or get drummed out — there may be a reporting job for you. Gfoeller, a career diplomat who speaks six languages — seven, if you count English — is the author of a WikiLeak’d diplomatic cable about Britain’s Prince Andrew that made headlines in London because she said the conversation at a brunch the prince shared with diplomats in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, two years ago “verged on the rude.” Among the prince’s targets, Gfoeller reported, were the French, whose penchant for corruption, in the prince’s opinion, was nearly as great as the Kyrgyz government’s, and the Americans, whose ignorance of geography placed them in a category definitely inferior to his own countrymen. But it isn’t just the prince’s indiscretions that make Gfoeller’s account so worthy of notice; Andrew isn’t a diplomat, after all, and as the second son of Queen Elizabeth II he isn’t likely to be King of England, either. Rather, it’s the rollicking way Gfoeller tells the tale, filled with verbatim quotes, witty observations and attention to setting the scene. To wit: After one businessman complained to the prince about being “harassed and hounded by Kyrgyz tax authorities,” Gfoeller wrote, “The prince reacted with unmitigated patriotic fervor. … ‘A contract is a contract,’ he insisted. ‘You have to take the rough with the smooth.’” After other businessmen complained about having to pay bribes to Kyrgyzstan’s president’s son, “Prince Andrew took up the topic with gusto. … ‘All of this sounds exactly like France,’” she quoted the prince as saying, noting that “at this point the Duke of York laughed uproariously.”
http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/article_2cc31054-510c-5dc4-90c0-530f1940f291.html
June 15, 2010 at 3:37 pm · Filed under India, Kyrgyzstan
The Indian government claims it left no stone unturned to help Indians stranded in riot-hit Kyrgyzstan. The Indian embassy in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek may have helped the students but it perhaps needs a lesson in courtesy. A stranded Indian student made a phone call to the embassy, but an official refused to even listen to him and treated him rudely. The official rejected the man’s plea when he told him that stranded students had no place to sleep in Bishkek. The External Affairs Ministry denies allegations that it didn’t do enough to help Indians in Kyrgyzstan. “Every single student was provided dinner last night (Monday) and breakfast this morning by the Indian embassy,” it said in a statement. Agencies add 116 Indians evacuated trapped in the riot-hit former Soviet republic. The stranded Indians included 15 students in Jalalabad and 99 students, a professor and a businessman in Osh. In the worst ethnic violence in decades, at least 124 people have been killed and more than 1,685 wounded in southern Kyrgyzstan.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/stranded-indian-runs-into-rude-embassy-official/124389-2.html?from=trending
Commentary: WikiLeaks can be a great read
December 9, 2010 at 8:02 am · Filed under Commentaries, Kyrgyzstan, UK, US
Note to Tatiana Gfoeller, U.S. ambassador to Kyrgyzstan: If you ever tire of the Foreign Service — or get drummed out — there may be a reporting job for you. Gfoeller, a career diplomat who speaks six languages — seven, if you count English — is the author of a WikiLeak’d diplomatic cable about Britain’s Prince Andrew that made headlines in London because she said the conversation at a brunch the prince shared with diplomats in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, two years ago “verged on the rude.” Among the prince’s targets, Gfoeller reported, were the French, whose penchant for corruption, in the prince’s opinion, was nearly as great as the Kyrgyz government’s, and the Americans, whose ignorance of geography placed them in a category definitely inferior to his own countrymen. But it isn’t just the prince’s indiscretions that make Gfoeller’s account so worthy of notice; Andrew isn’t a diplomat, after all, and as the second son of Queen Elizabeth II he isn’t likely to be King of England, either. Rather, it’s the rollicking way Gfoeller tells the tale, filled with verbatim quotes, witty observations and attention to setting the scene. To wit: After one businessman complained to the prince about being “harassed and hounded by Kyrgyz tax authorities,” Gfoeller wrote, “The prince reacted with unmitigated patriotic fervor. … ‘A contract is a contract,’ he insisted. ‘You have to take the rough with the smooth.’” After other businessmen complained about having to pay bribes to Kyrgyzstan’s president’s son, “Prince Andrew took up the topic with gusto. … ‘All of this sounds exactly like France,’” she quoted the prince as saying, noting that “at this point the Duke of York laughed uproariously.”
http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/article_2cc31054-510c-5dc4-90c0-530f1940f291.html
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