Field Reports
UN WOMEN’S CONFERENCE FOCUSES ON PROGRESS AND OBSTACLES
By Beatrice Hogan, former Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan, graduate of Columbia University School o (6/21/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The United Nations General Assembly convened for a special session during the week of June 5-9 to discuss the status of women worldwide. More than ten thousand people--including official delegations and non-governmental organizations from Central Asia—participated in panels, workshops and special events throughout New
York City to evaluate progress made and obstacles remaining since the1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. At that conference, 189 governments signed the Beijing Platform of Action, a groundbreaking document that identifies twelve critical areas of concern for women, including poverty, education, health, violence, the economy, the environment, human rights and others.
BABUSHKA ADOPTION PROJECT: HELPING THE POOR ELDERLY IN KYRGYZSTAN
By Anna Kirey, Student, Department of Journalism, American University—Krygyzstan (6/21/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The NGO "Babushka Adoption Project" (BAP) was established in July 1999 with the help of a grant from the Swiss Federal Ministry of International Affairs. It supports seniors who live alone under desperate conditions. The way a government treats its elderly is an indicator of its economic and democratic development.
ECOCENTER INITIATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECTS IN KAZAKHSTAN
By Marat Yermukanov (7/5/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)
In early May, three tons of diesel fuel leaked into the Ishim River from the storage facilities of a state-owned enterprise located in the Northern Kazakhstan regional capital of Petropavlosk. Though the city government and environmental officials had repeatedly demanded that action be taken against the polluters, the functionaries did not budge. A few days later a huge fire broke out in the area that was thoroughly soaked with the fuel, devastating the grass and trees.
COMMUNIST EDUCATION STILL THRIVES IN UZBEKISTAN
By Jennifer Balfour, Long-term Educator in former Soviet Central Asia (7/5/2000 issue of the CACI Analyst)
According to directives from the Uzbek education department, all references to their communist past, including treatises on Lenin and Stalin, accounts of Party congresses and five year plans must be expunged from the pages of history and forcibly torn from school text books as if it never happened. While university and city library shelves now lie empty after evacuations by truck of all old-style dogma, some schools are struggling with the decimated tomes, desperately trying to fulfill language acquisition plans that had always inextricably linked modal verbs with Communist newspaper reports of Young Communist League marches on Washington and reports such as "America must know the truth!" Despite this former Soviet republic’s independence in 1991, the powerful Soviet propaganda machine is still grinding away in Uzbekistan, molding another generation of minds in the thousands of village schools throughout this remote desert land.
The school year always begins on September 1st with a celebration of National Knowledge Day and World Peace Day.
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Staff Publications
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, U.S. Policy in Central Asia through Central Asian Eyes, May 2023.
Analysis Svante E. Cornell, "Promise and Peril in the Caucasus," AFPC Insights, March 30, 2023.
Oped S. Frederick Starr, Putin's War In Ukraine and the Crimean War), 19fourtyfive, January 2, 2023
Oped S. Frederick Starr, Russia Needs Its Own Charles de Gaulle, Foreign Policy, July 21, 2022.
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, Rethinking Greater Central Asia: American and Western Stakes in the Region and How to Advance Them, June 2022
Oped Svante E. Cornell & Albert Barro, With referendum, Kazakh President pushes for reforms, Euractiv, June 3, 2022.
Oped Svante E. Cornell Russia's Southern Neighbors Take a Stand, The Hill, May 6, 2022.
Silk Road Paper Johan Engvall, Between Bandits and Bureaucrats: 30 Years of Parliamentary Development in Kyrgyzstan, January 2022.
Oped Svante E. Cornell, No, The War in Ukraine is not about NATO, The Hill, March 9, 2022.
Analysis Svante E. Cornell, Kazakhstan’s Crisis Calls for a Central Asia Policy Reboot, The National Interest, January 34, 2022.
Book S. Frederick Starr and Svante E. Cornell, Strong and Unique: Three Decades of U.S.-Kazakhstan Partnership, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, December 2021.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell, S. Frederick Starr & Albert Barro, Political and Economic Reforms in Kazakhstan Under President Tokayev, November 2021.