Azeri Traffic Police Caught Bribing Drivers

Radio Azadliq (RFE/RL) has released an amateur video of Azerbaijan traffic police bribing drivers - or a right word would be "racketeering" - just in front of the Ministry of Education, in almost downtown Baku.

Timing? On 31 December, the very same day when President Ilham Aliyev in his New Year address to the nation said that the government was fledging "a ruthless struggle" with corruption.

So what does police do in the video? They stop any car they deem "appropriate" and ask them to give money.

Azerbaijan to register all mobile phones, seriously

Big Brother is watching you!

While the world is absorbed by new Draconian Internet law in Belarus and Iran's attempts to create “halal Internet”, their kindred soul, the Azerbaijani government enacted another shameful and disgraced piece of communications regulation.

The Azerbaijani government will register all operational mobile phones in Azerbaijan – at least, this is what their intention is according to new “Rules regarding registration of mobile devices” adopted by the Council of Ministers just on the last working day of 2011.

Formally this measure is taken within framework of “Complex Action Plan Aimed at Prevention of False Information Regarding Terrorism” adopted in 2009.

So what are these new rules about?

New rules require all operational mobile devices (cell phones) in the territory of Azerbaijan to be registered at Mobile Devices Registration System (MDRS).

MDRS is not ready yet and is to be set up by the Ministry of Communication and IT. All cell phone carriers will have to connect their networks to MDRS.
 
Information required for the system will include cell phone's IMEI code, a number associated with that phone and serial number of the SIM card.

A cell phone will work only with a number associated with it and registered at MDRS. Otherwise, cell phone operators will have to block it.

In practice, it means the government will be able to switch off every phone in the country.

You think it is a dangerous and stupid thing? Then prepare for more – if you bring a cell phone from abroad for personal use, you have to go to special service centers and personally register your phone and number.

1984, no less than that.

The question is – which will be left unanswered – why such fundamental regulations are accepted bypassing the Parliament and why the public hears about it only now?!

Last Dictator Standing

A different kind of Nobel fever in Baku

The world just got over the occasional Nobel fever.

Questions of who will get what this year are no longer asked. Eco or Kundera didn't get the literature prize again; we discovered there is a noble poet called Tranströmer; and once again Nobel committee proved they were unforgivable slow, for another laureate died just before he could hear the news.

Nor the Arabs were awarded for their spring. Maybe next year if they manage to defeat Mubaraks and Gaddafis in themselves.

However, today Baku has a different kind of a Nobel fever.

Azerbaijani universities stuck in the bottom of global rankings have started a competition or rather coordinated effort to bring Nobel prize winners to Baku and decorate them with honorary doctor titles.

On 28 September, the State Economic University hosted three laureates of Nobel Prize in economics - Eric Maskin, Finn Kydland and Christopher Pissarides. The Nobel laureates made three academic presentations and then were made Honorary Doctors by the Scientific Council. The cost of operation was not disclosed.

V.S.Naipaul

On 10 October, Baku State University - my alma mater - hosted another ceremony with Ahmed Zewail, laureate of Nobel Prize in chemistry. He also was made a Honorary Doctor of the Baku State. Various media reports about the event had suspiciously the same mistakes which I guess could be traced to the official press release.

And today V.S.Naipaul himself was spotted at the University of Languages. He met some students and of course, got the Honorary Doctorate.

With the same logic, now we shall expect some laureates of the Nobel Prize in medicine to appear at the Medical University and some laureates of the Nobel Prize in physics - at the Oil Academy or the University of Technology.

And not to alienate the University of Architecture, I'd propose some Pritzker for them. For example - Zaha Hadid as she is already familiar with Azerbaijan and frequent guest here.

But the main question remains unanswered - what to do with the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize?

A Feline Trainspotter

Graeme the cat visits a Melbourne train station twice a day to drop off and pick up his owner (From HeraldSun.com.au)


Hat tip to A.

Silence of the Lambs, Noise of the Media

According to Tax Authority of Israel, an Azerbaijani cabinet minister has been left feeling sheepish after he was caught trying to smuggle 50 kg of lamb meat into Israel.

The meat was found in the minister's luggage during a routine inspection at Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport. Israel requires permits for importing more than 1 kg of meat, therefore the meat was confiscated by customs officials and later destroyed, according to protocol.

Israel's Haaretz paper reported that the minister's aides were embarrassed by the incident. They told the paper the meat was intended for the minister's meals during his visit to Israel.

Media doesn't name the minister and unfortunately, Wikileaks doesn't have the answer.

Frequent plane crashes - another huge problem for Russia

Photo from Yaroslavl Lokomotiv's official website

One of Russia's top hockey teams - Yaroslavl Lokomotiv was killed in a plane crash yesterday. The accident obliterated most of Russia's prominent hockey players along with the captain of Slovakian national team and several NHL veterans.

Alas, this is not a single plane crash - Russia has become notorious for its tragic plane crashes that either take away lives of its nuclear experts, or almost kills members of its famous pop-group.

In my humble opinion, frequent and fatal plane crashes are become another of the biggest problems for Russia besides alcohol and demographics. If alcohol decimates the Russians and demographics doesn't replace population loss, these crashes threaten to take away all cream of the society.

The Last Kankan of Nakhchivan

The Last Kankan of Nakhchivan - an interesting documentary by the International Organization for Migration about restoring traditional irrigation systems in rural Azerbaijan.

My new article: Republic of Facebook vs. Republic of Azerbaijan

The Eastern Partnership Community website run by the Warsaw-based Centre for Eastern Studies has asked me to write an article on use of the Internet and social media by political activists in Azerbaijan. Here is a resume:

Under authoritarian rule of President Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan has turned to the Internet and social media as a new remedy for democratization. As the government have closed streets and squares, universities and TV channels for any kind of dissent and activism, liberal youth groups and following their steps, other civic and political movements have moved online in an effort to escape government control and reach wider audiences.

Azerbaijan's youth activists and opposition politicians have increasingly turned to the Internet and social media also as a potential tool for political change. Exiled from public space and daily life, political dissent is flourishing in blogs and social networks, especially in Facebook. This situation has led to some activists to suggest that there is a free Republic of Facebook in parallel to the authoritarian Republic of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani government desperately attempts to find ways and means to control Internet, but hasn't come up with any permanent solution yet. Opposition or independent websites are sometimes hacked and filtered, while online dissidents get assaulted and detained and receive harsh prison sentences. Despite government’s crackdown on online activism, Azerbaijan's cyber-dissidents continue their unequal struggle for their rights and freedoms. However, lack of adequate infrastructure and low infiltration of the Internet in the country limit ability of opposition, civil society and youth groups to have broader influence over the society in general.

You can read the full article, following this link to the EAPCommunity website. 

How I stopped drinking bottled water

I was in the toilet of the Deutsche Oper, courtesy of the German Foreign Ministry - well, I know that you shouldn't start a story like this. It raises a lot of questions like what I was doing in a Deutsche Oper toilet and why the German Foreign Ministry had sent me there and what it all has to do with not drinking bottled water.

However, readers are cruel and they always have double standards. No one asked or will ask Kafka how in the world Gregor Samsa was transformed into an insect, for Kafka was a genius and great writer, but they will surely be eager to ask an unknown blogger what he was doing in a Deutsche Oper toilet.

Anyway, I went to the toilet during intermission - I was at Die Liebe der Danae by Richard Strauss and the German Foreign Ministry was generous enough to pay for my ticket - and then, a guy entered the toilet, opened a tap, started to fill his drinking bottle with tap water and left. The canteen was less than 50 meters away if he wanted to buy a new bottle of water.

I see no point to accent how clean the tap water was in that toilet - it was more clean than in kitchens in the most parts of the world - it didn't surprise me. However, I was positively surprised to see how environmentally and economically responsible were the people in Germany - this was not surely the only incident I placed my judgment upon.

Just a few days before that encounter, in one session about new media, I saw a US-made video that truly shocked me. That video together with above-mentioned episode in the Deutsche Oper toilet - they changed something significant about my behaviour: I've stopped drinking bottled water unless I can't otherwise.

Another step to become more environmentally responsible. Below is the video you can't afford to miss it.

Return of the Prodigal Son

Photo by Aziz Karimov

Azerbaijan's first President Ayaz Mutallibov returns from 19-year exile to attend the funeral of his son who died from cancer. Deposed in a coup by the Popular Front in 1992, he was living in Moscow and couldn't return to Azerbaijan because of a criminal case opened against him and inherited by all consecutive governments. In order to attend the funeral, he was granted special immunity by President Ilham Aliyev.

More historic buildings being destroyed in downtown Baku - PHOTOS

This small mansion could decorate a back street in any European capital,
but someone decided it is not fit for their vision of new Baku

Almost a year has passed since the city authorities evicted residents from a historic neighborhood between Fuzuli and Badalbayli streets in Baku and razed it to the ground.

Located on the edge of Baku's historic Jewish quarter, the area was known as Basin [BAH-sin] and its loss was a huge anthropological and ethnographic tragedy for Baku.

As for architectural losses, Fuzuli street lost the House No 58 - a solid structure with a character; and 11 historic monuments were razed in Badalbayli street, including Melikov mansion, a slim structure with a grace.

Speaking in a language of metaphors, if the House No 58 was a rough and coarse oil magnate of XIX century Baku, Melikov mansion was a coquettish mademoiselle walking along the city promenade every evening.

However, the modern Vandals haven't finished their work apparently - without much scandal, they have started to demolish the other side of the Badalbayli street - which wasn't in the initial plan. I wouldn't notice it myself, if one day I didn't spot empty windows in a mansion that I was thinking was safe.

I have taken some photos from the area recently and here present them to you. Unfortunately, those structures in the photos will be gone in upcoming months.

Click Read more to see the photos.

Paul Goble the Mathematician

Photo from FreeMediaOnline.org

"I once had occasion to tell the former president of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, that the best thing that could happen to Azerbaijan was his reelection with 60 percent of the vote, because if he got 60 percent of the vote that would mean there would be other people who got 40 percent.  But he came out of a society which thought that elections are referenda and therefore 90 percent plus is the only possible answer." -- Paul Goble to US Helsinki Commission