Tag Archives: society

Georgians learn to love their US fast food

TBILISI/Georgia, JULY 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — US fast-food chain Wendy’s has just opened its sixth restaurant in Georgia, Dunkin’ Donuts its eighth. Despite a general economic downturn, the fast-food scene in Georgia has exploded over the past year or so.

The lone McDonald’s in central Tbilisi had since the 1990s been the only US fast-food restaurant in the country. Now locals can choose between Wendy’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Burger King, KFC, Subway and Domino’s Pizza.

And Georgians, whose culture hinges around long meals with friends and family, have turned the fast-food sector into a social scene of their own.

The fast food restaurants in Tbilisi are often filled with women dressed in high heels and their best dresses, men in buttoned-up shirts, young children in their Sunday clothes and teenagers sporting the latest fashion.

“We come here every Saturday,” Nitsa, 13, said as she started to tuck into her burger at a Wendy’s restaurant in central Tbilisi. “We like the food a lot, but we also just love to sit here and talk for hours.”

Families come for a day out and young couples for a romantic dinner. Most are also looking for a change from Georgian food.

Tamuna Mosidze, who was pregnant, had another reason for choosing to eat in one of McDonald’s fast-food restaurants.

“It’s the best service in town and you know the ingredients are quality,” she said.

And the US fast-food restaurants appear to have noticed this distinctive Georgian feel about their restaurants.

Sophie Chogovadze, head Marketing Wendy’s and Dunkin Donuts, said: “We wanted to make it about the experience, to make it more than just tasty food.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Mudslides hit rural Tajikistan

JULY 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Landslides in eastern Tajikistan have killed at least seven people and destroyed 50 homes, media reported quoting local officials.

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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Turkmenistan has lowest smoker rate

JULY 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has the lowest number of smokers per capita in the world, according to World Health Organisation’s director general, Margaret Chan, during a trip to Ashgabat.

Ms Chan was visiting Turkmenistan to attend a health conference.

“Recently a WHO overview showed that in Turkmenistan only 8% of the population smokes,” the AFP news agency quoted Ms Chan telling Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov.

“This is the lowest national indicator in the world. I congratulate you on this achievement.”

But not only is it an achievement for the country, it is also an accolade of sorts for Turkmenistan’s authoritarian tendencies.

It was Mr Berdymukhamedhov’s predecessor Saparmurat Niyazov who pushed for a strict mass anti-smoking campaign.

He was a reformed heavy smoker who grew to hate the habit and pushed several campaigns to eradicate it. These were effective, much like his other, rather eccentric mass campaigns, such as outlawing ballet and banning men from having long hair.

Mr Berdymukhamedov is perhaps more restrained in his public campaigns but he too is considered an authoritarian leader.

Earlier this year officials in Ashgabat unveiled a golden statue of Mr Berdymukhamedov riding a horse. They said it symbolised his role as the protector and leader of the nation.

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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Protesters challenge Kyrgyz labour law changes

JULY 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – BISHKEK — Dozens of people protested in central Bishkek against proposed changes to labour laws which they say will reduce the rights of temporary workers.

The main proposed changes focus on making it easier for foreign companies to hire and fire workers.

The government has argued that it needs to update labour laws to crackdown on the “shadow economy” where employers hire people for short periods but do not pay tax.

Protesters said the amendments would help foreign companies dodge paying social security and over-time.

The mood at the protest, which wound its way through central Bishkek under a cloudless blue sky, was angry but calm.

“We are against slavery,” one of the protesters’ banners said.

Many of the protesters were representatives of workers’ unions attached to mines, including the Kumtor mine in the east of the country owned by Toronto-based Centerra Gold. Kumtor is Kyrgyzstan’s single biggest industrial asset.

After the protest, the government said they would set up a working group to look at the demonstrators’ concerns.

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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)

Mine blasts in Uzbekistan

JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A blast at a gold mine around 90km southeast of Tashkent has killed 25 people, local media reported. The blast occurred on July 13 at the village of Kochbulak. Reports said the blast was linked to a ownership dispute.

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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)

Armenians continue to protest against electricity price rise

JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Hundreds of people continued to protest in central Yerevan against a potential price rise for electricity, although a Bulletin correspondent at the demonstration said that the numbers and the intensity have dropped off.

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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)

Salaries raise in Turkmenistan

JULY 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ever the populist, Turkmen leader Kurbanguly Berydmukhamedov increased salaries and pensions for people working in government funded companies by 10%, official media reported. In May, Mr Berdymukhamedov increased salaries of state officials by 9.5%. The Central Bank devalued the Turkmen manat by 30% on Jan. 1

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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)

Soviet monkey colony bristles with life in Georgian region

SUKHUMI/Georgia, JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The hilltops surrounding Sukhumi, the capital of the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia, holds a disturbing Soviet legacy.

This is where, in 1927, the Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Pathology and Therapy opened. It was the first primate-testing centre in the world. Its pioneering medical and behavioural experiments set it at the forefront of revolutionary scientific discoveries, such as the creation of a polio vaccine in 1961.

And in the frenzied years of the Space Race the institute became directly involved with the training of cosmonaut monkeys. Six of the institute’s primates made it into orbit.

Then came Perestroika and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Since then the Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Pathology and Therapy has become known instead as the Monkey Colony. It’s as if the monkeys have taken over the asylum.

A war between forces loyal to Georgia’s central government in Tbilisi and Abkhazian separatists took a heavy toll on the institute and its inhabitants. Scientists left, wages were simply discontinued and most of the monkeys either died of cold and malnutrition or managed to escape and try their luck in the lush Abkhaz forests.

Stories even popped up in newspapers of monkeys attacking pensioners as they scavenged for food.

Nowadays the institute’s cages have been slowly repopulated with sad-looking ill-nourished chimps and baboons. Past the decrepit entrance and surrounded by the crumbling buildings of abandoned laboratories a Soviet-era statue, a proud metal figure of a giant baboon, appears to be the only reminder of the institute’s former glory.

A bronze plaque lists the groundbreaking scientific achievements of the institutes. The count stopped in 1986.

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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)

Kazakhstan introduces visa-free regime

JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A new visa-free regime came into effect in Kazakhstan for citizens of Australia, Belgium, Hungary, Finland, Monaco, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. They join nine countries which already have a visa-free arrangement with Kazakhstan.

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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)

Top managers resign from Kazakhstan EXPO-2017

JULY 14/15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Two top managers resigned from Astana EXPO-2017, the company charged with delivering President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s extravaganza. Both ex-managing director Saltanat Rakhimbekova and ex-deputy chairman Vera Kobalia left their positions voluntarily. An embezzlement case has dented progress on EXPO-2017.

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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)