From Your Own Correspondent

The BBC caught up with me yesterday. “From Our Own Correspondent” on Radio 4 featured Jamie Coomarasamay reporting from Tajikistan. I feel the hot breath of state subsidised competition on the neck of my – and your – exclusive news service!

I’d like to undermine this upstart by pointing out all the inaccuracies in the feature but it was a pretty fair representation of some of the idiosyncracies of life in Dushanbe. There is a building boom here, with construction by the ever enveloping Chinese and financing from who knows where. Many feel they know exactly “where” and there are furtive nods and whispered asides to a great selection of conspiracy theories. But surely even gangsters and traffickers have more sense than to invest in rickety tower blocks in an earthquake zone where the economy is struggling and rents are low? The one theory I haven’t heard is that it’s a reborn Royal Bank of Scotland amassing another property portfolio. I might try and start that rumour myself…

Before

The greatest pity is that robust, quite stylish, Soviet 1930s buildings in beautiful, shady avenues are being replaced by glass and breeze-block towers on deforested highways. There’s an interesting article on this on the Eurasianet service http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67493 if you want to feel really fed up. (Ha, Mr Coomarasamay, one up on you there).

After

I have not – as yet – been to an early morning circumcision party in the Choikhona as Jamie recommends. I’m too afraid I might be invited but not as an observer… It could be another way to make me feel more at home. I have, though, roamed the Kafkaesque corridors of the National Library where you take books in on loan rather than take them out. And, of course, I have marvelled at the world’s tallest flagpole, the erection and maintenance of which is not as easy as it sounds. Just try beating 165 metres with a few poles tied together in your backyard.

The Flagpole

I have eaten the Plov and the Mantu mentioned as well as my favourite, a noodle dish called Laghmon. As with everything, done well, they’re all great. With no Michelin Guide here to the eateries I’ve had to trust to instinct in choosing where to eat. So that’s another potential career – food guide and writer – struck off my list. Given some regrettable choices I can only say that sometimes one’s best instincts seem to take a holiday.

Laghmon

The Presidential election is in November. If William Hill is prepared to take my house, my family and even my old model railway set, I’m prepared to bet everything on the result. This may sound rash but I have a pretty good idea who is going to win. I’m not going to tell you though as it will weaken the odds.

Whilst I hesitate to recommend the broadcasting competition I realise that, without listening to Jamie Coomarasamay’s despatch, the foregoing must appear more unintelligible than usual. It’s available on the BBC i-player (From Our Own Correspondent, Radio 4, 28^th September 2013) and downloadable as a podcast if you have the app. You can probably get it in Urdu and braille as well and free at participating stores etc. What it is to have rich backers.

We do, though, have our own You Tube site for VSO in Tajikistan which I have been asked to advertise and where you can find all that the state broadcaster fails to show - well, perhaps not all - including this feature on tourism in the country with some very unknown and inexpensive presenters; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zHIE_ofFPQ.

As I am advertising VSO I should add the disclaimer that the views expressed in this blog are completely personal and do not represent the views of VSO. Neither are they the views of the BBC – though I’m open to offers on that one.