Front pages and back pages...

Not many further developments in the Saipov murder investigation, word has it the Osh chief of police knew his father very well, and he promised a thorough investigation. But I was pleased to see an article written by a student I know posted on the Ferghana.ru website, an independent news site for Central Asia. Using a pseudonym for fear of getting harrassed or worse by the Kyrgyz authorities, he shares his perspective as a volunteer election observer of the recent referendum vote. Quite well-written, and quite sad to feel his cynicism about the future of democracy in his country. Hopefully by the time his generation is running the show these old Soviet bozos cannibalizing the country will have died off in vast numbers. anyway, read on:
read it here.

Speaking of journalism... Last weekend I played in a charity soccer match in the crowning jewel of Kyrgyzstan's sports venues, Spartak Stadium (capacity 8-10,000 maybe...). I played for the expat team, or ROW (rest of the world) as it was named in the papers (I had no idea we had a name) and we took on a team of local guys, mostly current or former students from the American University. For a full month we scrimmaged against them and generally kicked their asses. All in good fun of course, after all, the ticket and baked good revenues from game day were to be donated to an orphanage in the impoverished Batken province. But our sure-footed Italian, Serbian, Spanish, German and British contingent brought us a serious European style of control and attack, while the local guys, though much faster than us old farts, were a bit too undisciplined. Well maybe the Kyrgyz national soccer team's thumping of Jordan the week before inspired the home side, because on that gorgeous late October day they gave the sparse crowd at Spartak much to cheer for once again when they absolutely annihilated us, 4-1. I mean they really made us look like we had concrete in our shoes, heck one of our guys even had to be hauled off in an ambulance due to a dislocated kneecap. Rather emblematic of our side, our collective minds were dislocated from our bodies... Anyhoo, it was for a good cause, and it was damn nice to slide around on real grass, which is exactly what I was doing when a photog for the local English language weekly Times of Central Asia caught me slide tackling an opponent. Yes it was a clean slide, a breakaway stopper, and it felt great. That used to be my favorite move way back in my footie hey day. So, here I am on the cover of the weekend edition... my third newspaper appearance in Bishkek!