Americans examine Kyrgyzstan
lack of technology, wealth show Communist mindset stays, they say
CAPITALISM from page 1
“They haven’t gone very far to
ward capitalism,” Avery said.
“There is just an enormous amount
of work to be done, but they have
aspirations.”
Breaking out of the habits of a
centrally planned economy has
proven hardest for the society, he
said.
In Kyrgyzstan, a country of
about 4.5 million, the effects of
communism linger over every as
pect of life, Avery said. The agri
cultural-based economy is poo- and
has sparse manufacturing plants,
private industry, or foreign ex
change, he said.
. A_1_1 __
l uc euuuuy uos uu ucuuuiig sys
tem, legal system or well-developed
idea of credit and finance to sup
port a free market, Avery said.
The government—the people’s
only hope — is infiltrated with
former party leaders and elites who
now rule under the nationalist label,
he said.
“The communist party may not
exist,” Avery said, “but essentially,
the same people are in power. They
just aren’t ruling in the name of the
communist party anymore.”
So the people are left in the same
place as before the 1989 frill of the
USSR, he said. Many are commu
nal farmers, and others work far the
state. They have no private enter
prise and little-to-no accumulated
wealth. .>
Kyrgyzstan farmers are typically
seen driving horse-drawn carts.
Only a handful own rundown trac
tors and old, Russian-made cars,
Avery said.
The most visible and lasting ef
fects of communist rule are in the
old Stalinist architecture with its
drab, gray structures towering and
crumbling over the city, Avery said.
“All the buildings look the
same,” he said. “They have the lode
of a country that doesn’t have
enough money to maintain what
they have built.”
Though Kyrgyzstan, like the
other former Soviet republics, is
rich and history and culture, Avery
said, that too is crumbling.
“It was interesting to be on the
Silk Road, a major trade route used
by Marco Polo, and to see how little
progress had been made,” Avery
said. “It was depressing ”
Not everything about the profes
sors’ trip was depressing, he said.
In fact, he said, most of it was en
joyable.
visitors were treated to a stay at
a mountain resort formerly used by
party elites, Avery said. They also
enjoyed numerous banquets and
vodka toasts at all hours of the day
—including breakfast.
“(The vodka toast) was very,
very Russian,” Avery said, “but for
breakfast, it’s not my favorite way
to start the day.”
The group got another taste of
Russian culture ata five-finger feast
—so-called because a fatted calf is
eaten by tearing the meat off the
bones without using utensils, he
said.
At the end of the meal, a local
dignitary was presented with a
boiled sheep head, and proceeded
to pluck the eyeballs from the sock
ets. He sliced the eyeballs in por
tions to allow everyone at the table
a taste.
“I ate it,” Avery said. “My wife
asked me what it tasted like, and I
said it tasted like vodka, because I
chased it with a shot of vodka.”
Accommodations in the former
communist country were not so en
joyable, Avery said. Lack of hot
water, broken toilet seats, bumed
out light bulbs and uneven floors
created an uncomfortable experi
ence, he said.
Avery said even the best hotel
in Bishkek “was not up to the stan
dards of a rundown Holiday Inn.”
Raising those standards is the
goal of the Regional Organization
of Central Asian Republics, Avery
said. The countries that are mem
bers want to develop trade and pri
vate industry, he said.
“They want to develop capital
ism, but they don’t have the slight
est idea of how to go about it,” he
said.
At the conference, Avery, Fritz
and Sozouz taught the organization
about time and quality management
and international trade and devel
opment.
Aveiy iuiu me i ou kwwui rep
resentatives they needed to to cre
ate manufacturing capabilities to
support trade and private industry.
Fritz said that the country's situ
ation extended into the roots of its
economy.
Formerly, Russian manufactur
ing was done in almost all parts of
the country, Fritz said. But all manu
factured goods were made part by
part ih different regions of the coun
try.
No good was manufactured
from start to finish in a single re
gion, she said
Kyrgyzstan was a part of this
manufacturing network, that dis
solved with the Soviet Union, she
said, ami now Kyrgyzstan could rely
only on itself to create a manufac
turing base of its own.
Avery said foreign investors
have expressed interest in develop- .
ing manufacturing plants in
Kyrgyzstan, but there have been no
final announcements.
“It's going to take Kyrgyzstan
many decades to rebuild.” ■■=•>«*
Work of Mad Dads tough,
rewarded with better city
MAD DADS from page!
C.F. Simmons, a sophomore gen
eral studies major at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, said the inconve
nience was a small price to pay.
; “It’s all about sacrifice really,"
Simmons said, “whether it be your time
or your body”
Simmons said that someone could
turn around tomorrow and deface the
concrete he was painting, but for now,
the work of Mad Dads would serve as
a deterrent and a beautification project,
Don Coleman, president ol
Lincoln’s Mad Dads chapter, said the
group paints twice a year, usually once
before Easter and once before football
season.
“We were going to do it before this
football season, but there was no graf
fiti to clean up at the time,” Colemar
said.
Coleman said painting ova* graffiti
now would make the city lode good
for the Star City Holiday Parade and
the Christmas season.
The belated event also ensured that
six special guests from the Mad Dads
chapter in Buffalo, N.Y., could partici
pate.
The guests came to Lincoln after
visiting the Omaha chapter of Mad
Dads. They were accompanied by
Eddie Staton, the organization’s co
founder.
Before the painting began, Staton
praised the Lincoln Mad Dads chapter
and the message it carried.
“It doesn’t matter what color your
skin is or how much money you make,”
I Staton said. “The one thing we all have
in common is that we care about our
children.”
Hagel plans for Senate committees
HAGEL from page 1
he said. “I don’t want judges that leg
islate from the bench.
“I don’t want case workers or so
cial workers. I want real judges.”
Hagel is to be sworn in Jan. 7. He
says Sen. Hagel won’t be different from
candidate Hagel.
“The Chuck Hagel you’ve known
all along, no matter how long you have
known me, is the Chuck Hagel that you
are going to be dealing with for the next
six years.”
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