Anger Over Poverty Fueled Kyrgyz Uprising

[Shakespeare]

Don't say we weren't forewarned--if Bushco continues to get its way, this is what we'll be facing.

"The government made such a mess of things," said Aiymkan Baitasheva, the grandmother. "I wish that just once Akayev would have driven past here. Right now I am feeling so much anger. What can I do?"


The family lives in Dardoi, an impoverished market town just a 15-minute drive from the president's office. Their unheated home, with no gas or running water, is typical of conditions on the outskirts of Bishkek, the capital, where thousands migrated from the countryside hoping to cash in on post-Soviet capitalism but instead live in slums.


Before 1990, when Kyrgyzstan was still a communist republic, it offered free health care and housing, and even then it was one of the poorest Soviet regions, with 32 percent of its people living in poverty. Today the U.N. Development Program estimates that about 44 percent of Kyrgyzstan's 5 million people live in poverty.


The poor blame Akayev, who came to power in the Soviet era, for corruption, the collapse of the communist social safety net and the rise of cutthroat capitalism. They have seen Bishkek fill up with cell phones, Mercedes-Benz showrooms and ads for Versace sunglasses, while Baitasheva's 11-year-old granddaughter isn't in school because the family can't afford the $16 enrollment fee or the transport costs.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050328/ap_on_re_eu/kyrgyzstan_angry_poor

[burrowowl]

1. When

will America's poor and soon to be poor middle-class rise up?

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Do you ever get the feeling that all those Hummers are an indication

that someone in America thinks that day is coming soon?

[tabasco]

7. It could happen here.

Corrupt government - check.
Rich getting richer - check.
Poor getting poorer - check.
Economy in the crapper - check.

Those who would be kings never learn. Although they have gated compounds and security details, we have overwhelming numbers. Those who would oppress us and be our rulers will rue the day they put their boots on our necks !!

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. Personally, I'm in favor of calling them out for public ridicule.

Remember how they tried to drum up sympathy for Ken Lay after the Enron fiasco by saying how the poor man was down to his last four, million dollar houses? WTF? I say apply the bankruptcy law on the sumbitch and let's see him apply for welfare payments. Now THAT would be justice.

[RBHam]

2. US money and personnel behind Kyrgyzstan’s “Tulip Revolution”

http://wsws.org/articles/2005/mar2005/tulp-m28.shtml

[MisterP]

4. ah, so it'll only get even worse after this

[Up2Late]

3. That and the fact that Some how, several members of his...

...family ALSO were elected.

The Bushies know their limits, I think.:grr:

[gratuitous]

5. They blame corruption, collapse of the safety net and cutthroat capitalism

Well, if that isn't the Bush administration in a nutshell! Now, a wise man would look at Kyrgyzstan and take a lesson from the uprising there. I wonder what George Simpleton Bush will do???