Category: reporting

Radio broadcast [in German] of September 5 for Deutschlandfunk, including quotes from Tim Epkenhans, Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Freiburg, and Muhiddin Kabiri, Chairman of the Islamic Renaissance Party.

Here’s an additional quote from Tim Epkenhans:

The economic shock caused by COVID-19 will be severe in Tajikistan. If migrant workers’ remittances are missed for long periods of time, this is likely to put Tajik society under a great deal of stress. And this in turn can lead to forms of political and social protest, which is actually the greater danger I see at the moment.

My tribute to Charlie Parker on the occasion of his 100th birthday on August 29, published in the newspaper “taz”.

https://taz.de/100-Geburtstag-von-Charlie-Parker/!5704605/

Title image
Gottlieb, William P. Portrait of Charlie Parker, Carnegie Hall, New York, N.Y. United States, 1947. , Monographic. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/gottlieb.06901/.

Listen to the 16 seconds of Charlie Parker’s solo in the orchestra of Jay McShann in 1942, which I describe at the beginning of my article

From October to December 2019 I stayed in Dushanbe/Tajikistan, supported by the Institute for Foreign Relations (ifa). I stuck to my writing practice there and did extensive research.
The texts are written from a personal perspective, not with a journalistic approach. The selection was edited in August 2020.

Cultural memory in Tajikistan is in a very vulnerable state. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the independence in 1992 and the end of the civil war in 1997, there is something like a state doctrine to consolidate a “national identity”. But what exactly this identity should contain, what historical backgrounds and traditions it can refer to, and how it should be carried to the outside world, seems to be completely up in the air and dependent on arbitrary decisions of the respective rulers. What should the many young people who were born in the 1990s onwards learn about their country?

Continue reading “Observations on Tajikistan. Culture”

From October to December 2019 I stayed in Dushanbe/Tajikistan, supported by the Institute for Foreign Relations (ifa). I stuck to my writing practice there and did extensive research.
The texts are written from a personal perspective, not with a journalistic approach. The selection was edited in August 2020.

One day I happen to walk across Dushanbe’s sports ground, here the football stadium, there the tennis stadium, and oh, what kind of building is that? I had seen this in a video months ago but then an acquaintance said no, zurkhaneh would not really exist in Dushanbe. This building was financed by Iran and inaugurated in 2006, the International Zurkhaneh Sports Federation is in charge of the associations in other countries. Zurkhaneh, which translates as House of Strength, is a sports ritual from Iran which, unfortunately, is reserved for men until this day.

Continue reading “Observations on Tajikistan. Iran”

From October to December 2019 I stayed in Dushanbe/Tajikistan, supported by the Institute for Foreign Relations (ifa). I stuck to my writing practice there and did extensive research.
The texts are written from a personal perspective, not with a journalistic approach. The selection was edited in August 2020.

In offices
It would be euphemistic to talk of hardliners when referring to this mixture of stubbornness, open refusal of work, masked as hyperactivity, the reluctance to cooperate and the insistence on endlessly long chains of commands and stiff hierarchies.

Continue reading “Observations on Tajikistan. Men – Women – Children”

From October to December 2019 I stayed in Dushanbe/Tajikistan, supported by the Institute for Foreign Relations (ifa). I stuck to my writing practice there and did extensive research.
The texts are written from a personal perspective, not with a journalistic approach. The selection was edited in August 2020.

I
In order to dig a little deeper into the nexus between political power and industry that unfolds against the backdrop of Tajikistan’s relations with China and with the EU, here’s a chronology of certain events in 2019:

Continue reading “Observations on Tajikistan. China – EU”

From October to December 2019 I stayed in Dushanbe/Tajikistan, supported by the Institute for Foreign Relations (ifa). I stuck to my writing practice there and did extensive research.
The texts are written from a personal perspective, not with a journalistic approach. The selection was edited in August 2020.

The parks in Dushanbe are brightly lit in the evening, with colorful garlands, steles and LED installations. It would be obvious that all this stuff comes from China, but I don’t know exactly.
Lighting can be a form of surveillance and if the social pressure would not infiltrate emerging relationships already from the start, the lighting does the rest to prevent couples from romantic meetings in the shade.

Continue reading “Observations on Tajikistan. Dushanbe”

Radio broadcast for SWR about the albums “Electric Mud” and “After the Rain” by blues icon Muddy Waters

https://www.swr.de/swr2/musik-jazz-und-pop/my-favorite-discs-mit-aufnahmen-von-muddy-waters-swr2-jazz-session-2020-07-14-100.html

Photo by Victor Srebneski (1929 – 2020) for the album cover of “After the Rain”