Azerbaijan Now

2011-02-15T23:59:00.001+01:00

WELCOME

The reason why I create this additional blog is first and foremost the ambition to describe, to whom it may concern, the internship I will carry out the following seven-month period in Baku, Azerbaijan. During the introductory phase of the internship I have experienced some difficulties to gather and get hold of accurate information, on both historical and present Azeri events. Thus, the blog will also serve as an attempt to provide updated information on key Azeri occurrences. My aim is to contribute as much objectivity as possible to the updated events I will bring up. However, I am completely aware of the difficulty to fulfil this aim.

NB! I decided to end my internship on the 29th of October in order to write my bachelor thesis on the possible impacts of foreign aid on Azerbaijan's sustainable development process and to carry out an internship for the Swedish based organization Social Entrepreneurship Forum (SE Forum) that promotes social entrepreneurship as a way of solving social and environmental problems while at the same time earning a profit. My overall impression of the internship was that - despite the organizational problems and sometimes deficient performance - it was very much fruitful and my experiences from the Republic of Azerbaijan invaluable. I will truly miss the people I got to know, the things I did and the daily life in this highly interesting country. As a promise to myself and to many people involved in this program I will keep on updating the blog, both on everyday experiences (thesis and SE Forum internship) and on current Azeri events.

2011-02-14T23:54:00.001+01:00

Azerbaijan: Geography

Azerbaijan belongs, together with Georgia and Armenia, to the South Caucasian region. The region is separated from the North Caucasus by the Caucasus Mountains at the northern border of Georgia. To the east, the country is bounded by the Caspian Sea and with neighbours such as Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Iran and Turkey, Azerbaijan is at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Azerbaijan is considered as a part of Eurasia though in some occasions it may be mentioned as part of Asia. The capital of Azerbaijan is Baku (Baki) with a population of 2.1 million. The total azerbaijani population is about 8,7 million. (Detailed information on the internationally unrecognized region of Nagorno-Karabakh and the exclave of Nakhichevan will be provided when available.)

2010-08-15T18:11:00.001+02:00

Azadliq (2/5)

2010-05-27T16:00:00.003+02:00

Drip drop

Tonight both Sweden and Azerbaijan are competing with their songs in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. Like mentioned in previous blog entries, years ago Azerbaijan and Sweden were connected mainly though the Nobel brothers living and working in the oil-rich country. Nowadays my impression is that Sweden has a very reduced relation to Azerbaijan. Surprisingly, when it comes to the Eurovision Song Contest things are different ant the oil contacts seem to have been transformed into music contacts.

Last year Arash (that currently lives in Sweden), together with Azerbaijani singer Aysel, represented Azerbaijan and ended up at a third place with the song "Always". Well, tonight it's time again and this year the Swedish song writers Anders Bagge, Stefan Örn and Sandra Bjurman are the people behind Azerbaijan's song. However, in a few hours the hope will be 100% in the hands of seventeen year old Safura Alizadeh.

All the best for Azerbaijan this night!

2010-04-28T16:26:00.004+02:00

Covering Azerbaijan Inside and Outside?

Today.Az is one of the biggest Azerbaijani news portals directed primarily to English speaking readers. The portal works both as a newspaper, magazine and analytical information agency. Based on the information I got from the time spent in Azerbaijan I would say that it's up to the reader to decide to which extent you can trust this communication channel, just like all other channels giving information on key Azeri events.

When surfing around the Today.Az website I realize that the youth activists, bloggers and freedom fighters Emin Milli and Adnan Hajidzade did end up in jail - despite all the efforts made by other youth activists, non-governmental organizations and international human rights fighters to prevent this from happening. Two years and six months and two years respectively. Based on what? 'Deliberately inflicting less serious bodily harm' and 'hooliganism'. I get amazed and ask myself how to trust communication channels when you can't trust the legal system? Just before leaving Azerbaijan and the day before the first trial against the bloggers my colleague and I were lucky to get some minutes together with Adnan's father, a little but extremely strong man fighting for the rights of his son, Emin and Azerbaijan. Read more about our meeting here.

To conclude today's entry I would like to share an ad with you showing how Today.Az promotes Azerbaijan. Flat screens, boats, champagne, great cars and blond women. Believe it or not.

2010-04-27T15:02:00.003+02:00

Azadliq (1/5)

When watching a clip of a political demonstration held by the opposition in Azerbaijan, recently recorded in Baku by one of my fellow teachers and posted at Eurasiastudies, I dedicated some time to find similar clips on YouTube. It turns out that there is plenty of information on the Azerbaijani opposition which comes as a happy surprise since 4 months in the country rather than showing me opposition teached me how people in Azerbaijan simply stops believing in democracy.

'Azadliq' is the Azerbaijani word for freedom. The next two weeks my aim will be to publish all of the five documentaries on this urgent topic. Keep in mind that this first documentary was produced two months before the criticized presidential elections in 2008 when Ilham Aliyev was re-elected president, while the video posted at Eurasiastudies is from April this year. Consequently, it seems like the 'democratic revolution' is yet to come.

Check out the videos and learn more about Azerbaijan, its oppostion and political situation.

2010-04-15T09:35:00.002+02:00

"The Garbage of the House Should Stay in the House"
- Azerbaijani student expelled from The Oil Academy because of his article

During my time in Azerbaijan I was (un)lucky to, in many occasions, face the widespread corruption. I was also lucky to attend a training on how to reduce the corruption in higher education, organized by the local NGO I worked for, held for university students and financed by USAID. Particularly, I remember the moment when every participant had to give an example of the corruption they face in school. The young Azerbaijani man sitting in front of me studied at the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy and expressed that there is no educational step you could ever pass without bribing a teacher or an university adminstrative. Considering that you, in addition, pay for every year you study, the liquidity of the universities must be incredibly high...

And this morning I find a new video on the internet showing that nothing has changed and that students that claim their rights still are excluded by the system. Although you might not be interested in the specific situation of Azerbaijan, do have a look. Human rights is something that should concern all of us, no matter if we have access to them or not.

2010-04-08T14:21:00.002+02:00

Achieving Sustainable Development in Azerbaijan - Possible Impacts of Foreign Aid

After months of hard work, writing and above all - thinking, my thesis is finally done and below you find the resuming abstract. For those of you that would like to read the complete report, feel free to contact me on e-mail. Important! Although the thesis merely concerns the development process of Azerbaijan, it is still useful for any kind of study regarding the links between economics, foreign aid and sustainable development. Best regards to all my readers!

2010-02-22T12:20:00.004+01:00

Baku with love
Photographer Gueorgui Pinkhassov, originally from Russia, exhibits in London at Moscow House of Photography from February 16. Check it out here.

2010-02-19T08:14:00.005+01:00

Azerbaijani First Lady Given Prestigous French Award

Today I read at the blog "Eurasia Studies" that Mehriban Aliyeva [AliyevA for the woman Aliyev for the man], First Lady of Azerbaijan, has received another award ready to be added to her already long list.

The subject of receiving awards in Azerbaijan is something that has been discussed among many of my international friends living and working in Azerbaijan. Since you generally never hear about the process, the planning or the criteria for being awarded it's not strange that you get surprised everytime someone is awarded. On the other hand, you are not surprised when it happens over and over again. And to the same person. Of course people should be awarded for their struggle, achievements and efforts no matter which part of the world they come from. However, to award the same person [the woman being married to the actual President of Azerbaijan] over and over again might seem a little bit strange. I am totally sure that there are plenty of women worthy enough to be given such an award. But of course, they never get the chance.

Feel free to visit the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan to read more about The First Lady of Azerbaijan, her very own website is namely connected to that of the Ministry.

2010-01-20T18:41:00.003+01:00

Black January

Today, 20th of January 2010, it's exactly twenty years since the January massacre ocurred in Azerbaijan. In the dying days of the Soviet Union 26 000 Russian troops were sent to Baku by the then President Mikhail Gorbachev that had proclaimed the city state of emergency. The aim was to alliviate the violent situation between Azerbaijanis and Armenians that was growing bigger over the territory of Nagorno Karabakh. The violence had been going on for various years but in 1990 on January 13 the situation became untenable. Both Armenians and Azerbaijanis were killed in mutual fights and by the time the troops reached Baku the situation had calmed down considerably and most Armenians had fled over the borders. However, the impact of the Russian troops was huge and at least 130 Azerbaijani people were killed and some 700 injured. Despite the tragedy the black January left Azerbaijan with a strong will of creating, securing and maintaining a national identity and people are still wondering why Moscow's power chose to react so late. Today it's believed that it was due to Moscow's unwillingness to let Azerbaijan become an independent state as it also became one year later.

(Currently I am concluding the analysis of my thesis and as soon as time permits I will be back. Huge apology for my absence. However, on a day like this I make an exception.

2010-01-15T23:58:00.001+01:00

YUVA HUMANITARIAN CENTER

From the 14th of june until the 15th of january of 2010 I will, together with another Swedish student, carry out an internship in Yuva Humanitarian Center financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). While being in Azerbaijan I will represent the Swedish NGO Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation that mainly works with women in conflict areas. Kvinna till Kvinna started to cooperate with Azeri NGO's in 2004 and one year later the cooperation also included YUVA. Until now, the activity of Kvinna till Kvinna in the caucasian area (Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia) is coordinated from Tbilisi, capital of Georgia.

Yuva Humanitarian Center (YUVA), with main office in Baku, was founded in 1997 by two Azerbaijani women and is a non-governmental and non-profit organization. In 1999 the organization was registered in the Ministry of Justice and works since then as an umbrella organization that encourages young Azeri women to take an active interest in shaping their own lives. By actively empowering women through group discussions, national seminars and educational programs in leadership and democracy, the long-term goal of YUVA is to improve the civil rights of the female population of Azerbaijan.

2010-01-15T23:57:00.003+01:00

Mission: Participate in self-realization of women, children and youth in building a civil society in Azerbaijan and to assist them to realize natural human rights and main values of humanity.

Objective: Develop educational initiatives in the field of civil society, conflict resolution, human rights and peace-building, to promote intercultural relations in Azerbaijan society.

For any additional information to the website, for personal opinions or interest in collaboration do not hesitate to contact me!

E-mail: Karin Larsson

2009-12-12T14:14:00.002+01:00

Reality gaps

This morning I had a long Skype-call with Azerbaijan and as always it was so nice to be able to see my lovely landlady and colleague still working in Baku. Thank you Internet and thank you Skype for helping people to communicate albeit the distance! It makes me sad though that the moment my colleague leaves Azerbaijan at the end of this month I won't be able to communicate with the lady of the house via Internet since she has no computer or Internet.

It's strange how it can be a bit of a challenge to start writing letters again but good in a way since it gives me a chance to start communicate also with the people I met on Cuba last year. Although Azerbaijan is no island isolated from most parts of the world I still got reminded of Cuba a lot when living in Azerbaijan. Lack of transparency and freedom of expression, hidden anger, sadness and agression. Economy in transition with enormous gaps and a little bit more opportunities or planned economy with smaller gaps but fewer opportunities. What would you choose?

It is now time for me to keep on writing. Meanwhile I share with you a video on the lack of transparency in Azerbaijan. Before watching it I recommend you to first watch the interview with IIham Aliyev that I posted yesterday regarding sustainability. Even for those of you that haven't been in Azerbaijan it is not hard to see the contrasts between what is stated by the President and what actually is.

2009-12-11T14:36:00.002+01:00

'Future is not linked to oil and gas'

Azeri president IIham Aliyev talks about the future of his country and about how sustainable development can be achieved in Azerbaijan. Definitely worth listening to. I also suggest you to take a look at the comments that are posted beneath the video to see the different opinions people have about this powerful man.

2009-12-10T21:18:00.002+01:00

The real Azerbaijan

I just got a new follower on Twitter, Ali S. Novruzov from Azerbaijan. Every time Internet actually fulfills its objective to bring people closer to eachother I get truly happy. Today I wrote about human rights in Azerbaijan, the same day Ali adds me on Twitter and I can enter his blog for the first time. And there it is, the Blog post from the Stone Age telling the story of today's Azerbaijan and it's true down to every single word.

2009-12-10T12:41:00.006+01:00

Human Rights Day, 10th of Dec.

On a day like this Azerbaijan is definitely in my mind. It's special to live in a country where you have limited rights to speak your mind, give an opinion or to simply say 'no' or 'yes'. And the same thing goes for people from abroad living in Azerbaijan, you are simply cautious when it comes to sharing your opinion (if you share it at all). I've tried to explain it to people here how it is when you choose to close your mouth instead of expressing what you wouldn't even think about not expressing in for example Sweden. The same time I've tried to explain in Azerbaijan how it feels to never worry about what comes out of your mouth. It's just words and people that choose to listen to those words can do what ever they want with them - everything but punish the person that expressed them in the first place.

When my colleague and I held a lecture at the Azerbaijan University of Languages regarding our stay in Azerbaijan and the work we were carrying out on female rights we ended up talking about being a woman in the Scandinavian countries (this was a lecture for students studying at the Scandinavian centre). I especially remember one young girl that chose to tell us about how she experienced it to visit a country like Norway. 'I never felt that free in my entire life', she expressed.

As a Swedish citizen I believe that the Swedes are 'top consumers' of human rights. However, don't let us forget about the principal thing here namely the universal right to actually enjoy the human rights.

And for those of you who know Swedish and would like to get more information about the status of Human Rights in Azerbaijan I recommend you to read the report that the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote on this topic in 2007. You find it here.

2009-12-09T18:38:00.005+01:00

Petromania

During my short study break I took a chance to watch the latest episode of the Swedish TV program Kobra that introduces the viewer to all kind of possible and impossible art forms, stars and latest cultural trends. When it comes to Swedish television, Kobra is one of my absolute favourites and today it was even better since Norway and Norwegian oil industry was the topic. Consequently, what was supposed to be a study break turned out to be a 'study research' where I got more inspiration for my thesis regarding how to achieve sustainable development in Azerbaijan through foreign aid versus social entrepreneurship. The discussion of a possible 'petromania' in Norway due to the access to black gold definitely reminded me of Azerbaijan. Before me I saw the pompous buildings all around Baku, the Norwegian people that worked for StatoilHydro, the sometimes egoistical approach of those in the lead and the Caspian Sea, the biggest lake in the world painted as a magnificant rainbow by the leaking oil. Seemingly, black gold always comes with a price and according to Kobra, Norway is no exception.

When it comes to oil and gas in Azerbaijan it would be able to write a whole serie of books but when time is limited like today I will only say that until now the natural resources of Azerbaijan have been more a curse than a blessing (more on this on my blog and in my future thesis). However, with the right policies and institutional frames, I do believe in turning opportunities into something positive.

Today I added Petromania to my christmas wishlist, a book based on the travels made by the Norwegian journalist Simen Sætre to some of the richest oil nations around the world. Aim? To see how money changes people.

2009-12-05T17:38:00.002+01:00

New inspiration!

A discussion this morning about the need of money no matter if you are a company, a non-profit or not-for-profit organization made me pay more attention to the financing of social enterprises and this afternoon an entire world opened up before me. New inspiration is always great and especially now when I spend most of my time writing about social entrepreneurship.

However, this weekend, after 40 hours of thesis, research for SE Forum is my top priority and my aim is to publish a text about exactly the things mentioned above namely how social entrepreneurs finance their activities. For a social entrepreneur, no matter if it's Muhammad Yunus eradicating poverty in Bangladesh or a company like Better World Books that sells used books in order to improve the literacy around the globe, there is a need for capital. Muhammad Yunus decided to open the Grameen Bank while Better World Books turned to the investment firm Good Capital that offers growth capital to social enterprises. Gradually, several private initiatives for the empowerment, promotion and financing of social entrepreneurs are emerging which is both extremely positive and encouraging for all us that are devoted to this specific development field of the economy.

While still being in Germany I try to keep my eyes open for German social entrepreneurial initiatives and today I came across Bon Venture, a German fund and foundation for social responsibility. Angela Lawaldt is Investment Manager for Social Businesses and works both for Ashoka Germany and Bon Venture. In April this year Lawaldt held a presentation at the Social Entrepreneurship Seminar at the European Parliament concerning the financing of social entrepreneurs in Europe. The presentation, that gives a hint of how Bon Venture finances social entrepreneurs and what positive outcomes there would be if the U.E. would invest further in this group, is concluded here. Young and inspiring as Lawaldt is, below I also add a short interview with her representing Ashoka. I hope you enjoy!

2009-11-30T09:39:00.004+01:00

A coin has always two sides

In Azerbaijan many women don't know their rights not only as women but in many cases even not as human beings. It doesn't matter what kind of woman you meet, whether she studied at the university, came from a rich or poor family, is alone or married, IDP or housewife, after a while you get to hear many different stories that all indicate the same thing - lack of equality and human rights!

Like I've been writing before it can be as simple things as stopping doing sports or going to the swimming pool after you get married because your husband doesn't like the thought of "his" woman out there in swimming suit or tight aerobic-pant. Or the woman I met at least once a week that told me it was so boring that she since she got married wasn't allowed to wear leggings (that is, the normal elastic tights that are as long as normal pants just that they are tight). For a person like me, that has been growing up in one of the world's most democratic countries and is used to see young girls dressed up as middle aged business women or popstars and older married women dressed like their teenage daughters, the Azeri way of seeing things is the totally opposite from what I am used to at home. However, the more you travel and the more countries you visit you can find clear similarities when it comes to the unequal structures in the society why in some cases you - unfortunately - don't even get surprised when you have to face them. In other cases it's hard to see the unequalities between woman and man because as a Swedish woman in Azerbaijan you aren't considered to be like the Azeri women anyway. Consequently, how much you even try to be like them as a way to understand their real situation, you can't.

The reason why I have this discussion now, besides the simple fact that you can't have it too many times and that the current situation of Azeri women is worth mentioning every day, is due to a Swedish article I read a few days ago about violence against women. The article named "Invest more in young men" reminded me about the application we did at YUVA this autumn for a project on reproductive health. Me and my colleague wanted to include both young girls and boys in the project but in the beginning there was a clear resistance from the organization's side. Why should we include boys if they already get everything in this country? we were asked. Well, for me the reason was simple. We can empower women as much as we want but if the men aren't aware of the same rights of these women we'll soon find ourselves in an impasse. I'm certainly not an expert when it comes to gender related topics but in order to solve many situations I do believe in including both sides of the "unequality problem", that is - both men and women.

For those of you intersted in reading more, you find the whole article of RFSU (the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education) here.

2009-11-26T11:45:00.004+01:00

Work goes on

And my thesis just took a new turn! Finally I will include Azerbaijan in the empirical study which makes much more sense than bringing up different positive and negative international examples of foreign aid and social entrepreneurship. To include Azerbaijan makes me feel much more confident that things will turn out well since my four months in the country and all the experience that comes with it, in one way or the other will be part of my study. Consequently, I could also say that I got the most out of my Azerbaijani internship!

As every day, the research part of my SE Forum internship plus all the necessary research for the thesis is highly rewarding, Internet is amazing when it comes to information so why not keep on promoting social entrepreneurship? Below you have an inspiring e-book that I found at change.org, a very well-designed and clever social forum with more than 40 000 members that I can really recommend for those of you that are interested in the latest when it comes to social problems, innovation and entrepreneurial challenges!

Startup & Change the World: Guide for Young Social Entrepreneurs

2009-11-21T15:38:00.004+01:00

Beyond good intentions

I have now been working with the thesis for three weeks. The thought that only seven weeks of writing remain is very stressing since the work until now goes extremely slow. Only the task of defining 'social entrepreneurship' has been of great struggle and I am still working with this part. The next step will be to define international aid. Whether I will be able to write the whole thesis in a period of ten weeks I don't know, until now the biggest challenge has been to combine the writing with the job I do for SE Forum and UF Linköping. Although all the work tasks I am having at the moment are related to similar issues they all deserve their own specific attention - which requires many hours a week.

However, the best thing with doing many things at the same time is that the possibility of finding new and interesting things out there increases. When trying to give a fair description of what actually is social and entrepreneurial in 'social entrepreneurship' I found the video-based website Beyond Good Intentions. From different countries in the world BGI's offers ten film series with principal aim to investigate the effectiveness of international aid. Below you can see the 10th episode from South Africa investigating and giving examples of what they in this case choose to define as aid - namely social entrepreneurship. Although it's a quite simple description of the meaning of SE it makes it easier to understand what it's all about.

Furthermore, I have now started to create the project team that will be responsible for the carrying out of workshops at UFS's convention in March 2010. Check my latest blog entry for further information. There is still plenty of room for those of you who would like to be part of the team or simply give a helping hand!

2009-11-17T15:38:00.003+01:00

Directly from Azerbaijan

I am listening to SR Kristianstad and in a few minutes my colleague that is still in Azerbaijan will be talking about the internship so far. For those of you that know Swedish and would like to get the latest news from Baku please listen here.

2009-11-16T17:30:00.003+01:00

Poverty eradication, development and aid

It was quite a while since my last update. The toothache is now gone and I'm back to work - 120% at least! Last week a new project of mine came into the picture, namely a national event on poverty eradication, development and aid organized by Utrikespolitiska föreningen Sverige (UFS). UFS is the Federation of Swedish foreign affairs associations and works to spread knowledge and promote debate about foreign policy, international and global issues. The conventions held by UFS are considered Sweden's main forum for international debate and next convention will be held during three days in March 2010. UFS convention is a unique meeting place for those in power and young people, for discussion and exchange of knowledge on international issues.

UF Linköping is member organization of the UFS and will be responsible for the workshops held at the convention. Nine different worskhops will be given and different relevant organizations will be responsible for the discussions during each workshop. The organizations are still to be selected from the list and it comes as no surprise that many of them I already know and some of them I even had previous working experience from. The workshops will be on nine different topics; among others democracy and development, environment and poverty, female issues and development, health and security. My role, as a member of UF Linköping and generally interested in issues concerning development, will be as project manager. A functioning project team will be formed during the next two months and together we will carry out this project that will take place next year. I'm very motivated by this task and excited to put together a dynamic team, plan the workshops and see how the good discussions eventually will take shape.

Are you interested in international questions concerning poverty eradiction, development and aid? Then being part of the project team responsible for the workshops at UFS's convention next year will be the perfect thing for you!
Contact me here.

I will end this blog entry with a video from Utpost.org (UFS's web newspaper on foreign affairs) showing an interview from 25th of February 2009 by Tamuz Hidir with Azerbaijani Ambassador on the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. After more than four months in Azerbaijan it's intersting to compare what is said about the country abroad (in this case, especially about the strong relation between Azeri energy revenues and social development) and what actually is in the reality.

2009-11-10T14:08:00.004+01:00

Toothache
After a few weeks of Azeri cousine one of my molar tooths started to ache. Don't ask me how it came that it started to ache exactly there, probably it was just the path of time although some part of me assumes that it was due to too much salt and mineral water. Anyway, in Azerbaijan an EVS (European Voluntary Service) volunteer and Polish friend of me once said that the only persons you really have to trust in life is your hairdresser and dentist and I totally agree - at least when it comes to the dentist. Although we are talking about two totally different things it's true that both hair and teeth is important and since most Azerbaijani people walk around with at least one or two gold teeth in their mouth I chose to trust the European dentists.

Consequently, I didn't go to the dentist until today - about one and a half year since the last time, four months after feeling the first pain and three weeks after leaving Baku. I'm not totally sure how the procedure went because now I am sitting here with even worse toothache than before. And the funny thing with this whole story is that although I chose to go to a German dentist in Germany she turned out to be from Kazakhstan. However, she had no golden teeth (although it could be that this way of showing wealth only occurs on the western side of the Caspian Sea). This whole tooth story reminds me of that I last week put my trust in the fingers of a German hairdresser. Well, pretty soon I understood that the hairdresser was Italian and my haircut turned out really well. I hope the same goes for my tooth even if in this very moment hurts like never before. If not - maybe the pain from my 5th rabies vaccination reduces the pain from my caries tooth.

2009-11-06T10:01:00.004+01:00

Pişik (3)
This amazingly cute cat seems to have his home in İçəri Şəhər, the Old City of Baku. We met him on a walk when we crossed the Old City from wall to wall. İçəri Şəhər is namely surrounded by an old wall dated as far back as to the 12th century although it was repaired between 1807 and 1811.

The Old City of Baku was the first place in Azerbaijan that was classified as a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO and includes both the Maiden Tower and the Palace of the Shirvanshahs. When strolling around inside the great walls where no sound of cars or stressed people can be heard, it definitely feels like you are in a different world. The İçəri Şəhər has an ancient history and the mere thought that Baku used to be actually nothing more than the city inside the wall and nothing beyond, is pretty amazing. During the Russian empire, İçəri Şəhər had about 7 000 inhabitants and was considered the only neighbourhood of Baku. Not until 1809 the city began to spread also outside the walls and the outer city of Baku became Bayır Şəhər.

"Baku was divided into two sections: Ichari Shahar and Bayir Shahar. The Inner City was the main part. Those who lived in the Inner City were considered natives of Baku. They were in close proximity to everything: the bazaar, craftsmen's workshops and mosques. There was even a church there, as well as a military barracks built during the Russian occupation. Residents who lived inside the walls considered themselves to be superior to those outside and often referred to them as the "barefooted people of the Outer City" (Huseyngulu Sarabski)

Today Baku is too big and too many people from the regions have migrated to the capital to actually say whether people is superior inisde or outside of the walls. Like everywhere else there will always be people that consider themselves to be superior and Baku is definitely not an exception. However, what differences there may be among people the inhabitants of Baku at least have one thing in common: they are 100% proud of what's inside the walls of İçəri Şəhər. And it's no lie that everything inside the city walls is beautiful - even the cats.

2009-11-05T10:04:00.005+01:00

New projects

Lately I've been in contact with my contact person from Sweden, the same person that visited Baku some days and that now is in Georgia to visit the other interns, on the launch of a new blog for internships in the Caucasian area. I believe it is a really good initiative to highlight the economic, social and cultural importance of this extremely interesting region. Personally I am happy that I can be a part of the launching of this new blog to keep on writing and researching about Caucasus although my internship is already over.

As it looks now, the blog will look a little like mine but its principally aim won't just be to promote the region but also the on-going internships in order to make more people choose Caucasus for their professional and cultural experiences. During the first time of launching, the blog will first and foremost offer information on Azerbaijan and Georgia since those are the places where we hold internships at the moment. However, in the future I guess that Armenia will be added to the list since Kvinna till Kvinna has partner organizations in the country and would probably appreciate Swedish interns also there.

The new blog will also highlight the recently accepted exchange programme that Österlen's Folkhögskola will carry out from January next year; a programme where two girls from each country (Azerbaijan and Georgia) will be able to study four months in Sweden with full scholarship from Sida. This is a totally new programme and I hope that it will be carried out in a good way in order to further strenghten the relations between Sweden and South Caucasus but above all to offer these four girls a great experience abroad. More information on this double exchange programme will be given soon.

When doing some research for the new internship blog I found a German blog that has managed to cover several topics and research areas for Caucasus. I am not sure whether all pages are written in English but the blog is very complete and discusses plenty of relevant areas. The blog also covers a high number of interesting sources why I highly recommend you to visit "Georgia & South Caucasus" for further information on Azerbaijan and the other countries in the Caucasian region. You can also find the same blog under "Links" on the left side of the blog.

2009-11-04T10:26:00.007+01:00

On my way home

Recently I am working with my thesis and for SE Forum. Still I haven't finished my first study plan but slowly I am advancing although I tend to get nervous when the phrame isn't yet set. This morning I've been looking through my last photos from Azerbaijan and picked out two for you that I find particularly descriptive for my daily life in Azerbaijan. Both of the photos show the small path I walked every night just before reaching our apartment. It's hard to capture the light of my Azeri nights but I do believe that the second photo gives you a hint: mild, yellow and "thousand and one night-alike".

The latest news from Azerbaijan here in Germany is that the Azeri Muslim community is upset due to the government's decision of not letting the imams that are educated outside Azerbaijan practice their profession. The expressed reason for the decision is first and foremost that the Azeri government wants to conserve a national Muslim faith without international influences, but it also expresses the fear of fundamentalism. However, the imams that now see their mosques being shut down (due to them having acquired their education abroad) claim that the real reason is that the Azerbaijani government wants to prevent a possible increase of the freedom of expression.

2009-11-01T21:23:00.003+01:00

Weekend in Weilheim

It's been one week since I came to Germany and I am slowly getting used to a different life although I many times a day think of Azerbaijan and the months I was lucky to spend there. In general, many thoughts and daily discussions I have are related to Azerbaijan and as I wrote some months ago it's still my aim to keep on updating Azerbaijannow on key Azeri events although I am now in a different part of the world. However, I still have "direct contact" with this other world since I practically every day hear from my colleague that will stay in Baku until january 2010. Today we had a telephone meeting together with our Swedish contact person that is on visit in Baku. Everything went well and Skype is an amazing invention! First and foremost we talked about a future exchange programme that, if everything goes as planned, will be implemented next year. More information on this when available.

Incidentally, I can add that I was right about the Azeri diet - it made me lose as much as seven kilos. Not a good thing for someone like me! But since I got my vaccination against rabies, will be in Germany for two months and christmas ("full-of-food") is around the corner, hopefully I will re-gain my lost kilos easily.

Tomorrow I will start the writing of my thesis on aid versus social entrepreneurship. As soon as the preliminary plan for it is ready and approved you'll find more information about it, together with the latest from Azerbaijan and SE Forum, here at Azerbaijannow.

2009-10-27T16:00:00.006+01:00

Summary Internship
For those of you who haven't followed me from the start or that, with all the changes along the way, lost part of the information on the general meaning of my internship in Azerbaijan I give you the opportunity to look through the report me and my colleague wrote some months ago with information on the general situation of Azeri NGO's and the organizational structure and development needs of Yuva Humanitarian Center.

2009-10-26T14:52:00.004+01:00

"It" bit me

I was supposed to leave Azerbaijan the 29th of October but as I wrote in a previous blog entry I got bit by an ownerless dog on our excursion last week. This little fellow, together with a terrible cramp in my left leg, made me go to one of the many private hospitals in Baku where they recommended me to immediately start with anti-rabies vaccination. Somewhat hypochondriac as I am, this meant something similar to death and when the doctor two days later explained that the hospitals in Azerbaijan don't have the short term vaccine HRIG that you have to take the latest seven days after the first vaccination, I decided to leave Azerbaijan earlier.

Thus, four and a half month ended in a moment and I must confess that it wasn't an easy thing to do, emotionally or practically. In one and a half day I managed to invite our lovely landlady to Lebanese dinner, say "see you later" to most of the people I've met in Azerbaijan, give a lecture at Azerbaijan University of Languages and a final English lesson in Yasamal community. And of course, pack my 30 kilos in less than two hours. It was a tired Karin that arrived to Stuttgart airport about 24 hours later just to go directly to the hospital.

First impressions: 1) relief of having the hospital and the right substances against rabies right around the corner. 2) Guilt of living such an "easy" life in Europe with low levels of corruption, stable political system, clean environment, no need to bribe or bargain, constant access to electricity, water and information. 3) Gratitude of having been in a country as amazing and complex as Azerbaijan. 4) Desire to work with the Eurasian countries also in the future.

("It" = dog in Azeri)

2009-10-21T07:50:00.005+02:00

Baku and Bollywood

Although Azerbaijan and Baku mostly strive to emulate Europe, there is evidence that culturally Azerbaijan is much more than that. The reason I say this is that there is not a single day without Bollywood-movies on the TV and it doesn't matter if the channel is TV1000 or a Russian TV channel - India is always present.

For those of you who haven't had the chance to see a Bollywood film yet I would describe them as India's equivalent of the musicals, full of love intrigues, colorful saris, and the whitest Indian girls with biggest blue eyes you could possibly find in India. In short, a high dose of medieval vision of what love is and should be and all wrapped up with Indian music and tonnes of rice and curry. It's interesting to see how Azerbaijani women appreciate these kind of movies and even if the Indian colors and artistic expressions aren't represented in the Azeri society, Baku is still a city full of glitter, gold and romantic views of what love should be.

When I take this discussion a little bit further I understand that Europe isn't that much better where young girls and boys instead are impregnated by the American perception of what love should look like. A perception with which you either have to go through an extreme makeover or be the "girl next door" in order to "get" the unattainable boy. When it comes to love and movies it seems like the Europeans choose to look to the West while Azerbaijan looks to the East, or at least most of the time. To me, what's maybe most interesting is why noone ever seems to look South.

(The photo shows the Nizami Museum of Azerbaijan Literature, located in the very centre of Baku and named after the famous national poet Nizami Ganjavi.)

2009-10-19T18:57:00.006+02:00

A weekend outside Baku

This weekend we finally managed to leave Baku. It was time to see something new and since it seems to be extremely hard to make a decision in this country (whether it's about choosing between Turkish or Azeri paxlava or to change the political system) it tends to take some time before things actually happen. However, this saturday immediately after the English class at Yasamal we took the bus to Lənkəran, the biggest town in southern Azerbaijan. Along the way, the landscape changed from desert to green vegetation and the building complexes gave way to trees, cows and small farmers' houses. The air also changed and about 150 kilometres south of Baku you could actually feel that there was a sea just around the corner, something you normally don't feel in Baku due to the high level of pollution.

After about five hours on occasionally very bumpy roads we arrived to Lənkəran and could leave the shabby but somehow also cosy old american bus. My first impression was that it was a cute little town although quite sleepy and the fact that Lənkəran is considered the largest city in southern Azerbaijan says quite a lot about the size of the cities in this country. Lənkəran is famous for its flowers, tea and citrus fruits. It can also be interesting to know that during his young years as a revolutionary Stalin was held prisoner in Lənkəran.

The centre of the town is located around the train station and the Dosa Park in which information is given about the Khojaly genocide. We were lucky to meet a group of local women when having a walk through the city centre. All generations were represented and the oldest in the group expressed her gratitude for us visiting the city. It was a shame that we didn't asked this toothless woman with kerchief about her age since the Lənkəran people are famous for getting really old (sometimes even up to 120 years!).

The Caspian Sea is located along with the town and the water is much cleaner than in Baku. However, in some areas it was hard to reach the seaside due to ruined building parts that remain from the old Soviet promenade that got swept away as the Caspian rose. In the morning we had a promenade in the warm sunshine along with the sea and on our way back to the hotel we took the chance to make some photos. It was a pleasant surprise to see dogs in Lənkəran since Baku only advocates cats. Like I wrote in a previous blog entry it was a conscious choice of the President to get rid of all stray dogs. Well, since the only dog I saw in Lənkəran decided to try to bite off my left leg I have to confess that the President might have been right about this one. Thanks to God I wore jeans and not skirt and thanks to the same God I didn't have to pay the price of my non-vaccination against rabies.

Our weekend ended in the small village of Ərçivan, just next to the northern border of Iran, where we could see and drink of the Yanar Bulağ "burning spring". The water is full of methane why it burns when lightening it with matches or a lighter. For the locals, that come to collect the water to their houses, it didn't seem to be that kind of interesting but for us Scanians, used only to a lot of calcium oxide in our water making it white, this burning water was quite startling. And probably the most interesting thing: no matter if you go five hours south of Baku you still get inspired of the incredible amount of natural resources (the state of) Azerbaijan possesses.

2009-10-16T21:02:00.002+02:00

First and last excursion

After the English class tomorrow morning, we will be off to Lankaran, a city close to the border of Iran. I hope that this will be an opportunity to take new photos and experience different things than the every day life in Baku. You never know with Azerbaijan. See you all at the beginning of next week!

2009-10-15T07:19:00.005+02:00

The skeleton

It is said that Azeri people eat a lot and especially meat. Some people compare the Azeri cusine with the Spanish and the truth is that they are quite similar (you could almost say that the Azeri food is Mediterranean although we are closer to the Caspian Sea than to the Mediterranean), however in Spain the possibilities you get during the day to actually sit down and eat are more. Since people in Azerbaijan put all their effort into the dinner the day seems extremely large if you choose to adopt their way of eating. A breakfast full of white bread and tea, a lunch that can be anything from nothing to a fast food kebap or simply tea and some sweets such as the Azeri paxlava. And the dinner is what everyone here lives for, the only time when you can actually eat (and that is normally thanks to all the Azerbaijani women that stays at home cooking during the afternoon) and eat plenty. The dinners are normally based on meat, cow or chicken, and are combined with different types of stews, salads and sometimes you add potatoes or rice. The meat is always prepared in different ways, sometimes with tomatoes other times with garlic, greens or nuts. However, what never differs is the bread. All food comes with white bread and this is also used as a knife or to "support" the food with the right hand when eating.

When talking about all this food it might seem like people eat a lot but the truth is that their way of eating doesn't work for my dilute silhouette. To eat three times a day (although I would say that it's actually two times) and that much bread makes me loose weight, at least in times of intense work. You could even say that close to Halloween I already wear my bony costume of skeleton. However, when walking around the streets of Baku you meet a lot of overweight people and there isn't a day when you don't meet someone that is on diet. When it comes to food the balance seems to be disordered in Azerbaijan.

In about five hours me an my colleague we'll take the bus up to Yasamal community. This week we've decided to put a theme to the English classes namely "Food and Health" based on the food circle (due to the political system they have in this country I personally believe that the food triangles would be misleading). The pupils already told us that they don't know the bodyparts nor the human internal organs so we found this perfect opportunity to link that part to the meaning of eating right in order to be and stay healthy. Since the pupils appreciate the alternative way of learning English I think this one can work out quite well.

2009-10-14T09:32:00.006+02:00

When will it ever stop?

This morning, like many other mornings, the first thing I read in Today.Az is another news reporting on how Armenian Armed Forces break ceasefire. Literally the following is written: On Oct. 13, the Armenian Armed Forces opened fire at Azerbaijani troops from areas outside the Khojavand region at 21:00-21:30 and from an area outside the Ashagi Abdulrahmanli in the Fuzuli region at 21:50-22:10, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said. The Azerbaijani troops answered their fire. No causalities were reported.

During my four months in Azerbaijan I can't recall all the times I read news like these and every time it gets more frustrating not knowing what is actually happening along the borders of Nagorno Karabakh. The reason why I say this is that Azerbaijani news channels are not considered to be totally independent why I as a Swedish citizen choose not to believe in everything I hear, see or read. For more information on this specific topic please visit Amnesty's statement from June 29 on how Europe shows support for Azerbaijan's threatened independent media.

What I do try to believe are the stories I hear from the young IDP (internally displaced people) women when I teach English in Yasamal community. Unlike what I first assumed, these young girls are very reluctant to talk about their situation and about what they remember from the years they lived in Nagorno Karabakh. So, whenever we talk about nationalities, origin, beautiful places or dreams they directly mention the nationalites they don't like (Russian, Armenian, American), their origins (always Nagorno Karabakh no matter if they in reality were born in Baku), their regions and cities as the most beautiful places on earth and the dream of some day be able to move back with their big families to the place where they belong. You meet these lovely kids and what they tell you is anything but pleasant. And then you try to understand how it would feel to be forced to leave your home and your past to be placed in a settlement where you will stay for more than ten years.

Yasamal is one of those places where the people (I don't like calling them IDP's) had no other choice but to stay there and bring up a new generation - a generation that in one way or another will grow up without a true home. I am sincerely grateful to have the chance to meet this people three times a week. It is highly rewarding and gives you a true and at times hard image of how life actually is affected by these kind of territorial conflicts. When I stand there in the classroom and they tell me their stories about how they had to leave their hometowns in order to survive, Sweden weighs heavily on my shoulders and I ask myself - when will it ever stop?

Yesterday was the 16th anniversary of Khojali Tragedy (January 25, 1992) and I promised the students that are from this specific region of Karabakh that I was going to write about this tragical event from the Nagorno Karabakh War on my blog. Please read the following text on the massacre in Khojali.

2009-10-13T15:34:00.007+02:00

Martes 13

In Spain the day of bad luck is unlike many other countries not Friday 13 but Tuesday 13. Well, since a quite big part of my heart considers itself to be Spanish, Tuesday 13 tends to mean more than the fridays with same date. The years I choose to believe in this nonsense, things actually turn out quite bad and for those of you who don't know, today is Tuesday 13. I started my day with headache and some job for SE Forum before the planned meeting I had with Aqroinvest Credit Union.

Down here you can still stroll around with t-shirt and no socks but like I wrote in a previous blog entry the autumn is slowly coming to Azerbaijan. Autumn means colder weather and thus higher energy consumption in the Azeri homes. Despite the huge amount of energy resources Azerbaijan is extracting from its territory every day, the electricity is expensive for the population and many people decide simply not to pay the bills or pay less (there are some tricks of how to do this) by pretending they are consuming less electricity than they actually do. However, there seem to be other ways of getting electricity without paying and that is to cheat link your cables to the cables of your neighbour which is done with the help of the water system. Don't ask me exactly how it's done but I can tell you how it feels to get constant electric shocks when having a shower. This was something I noted long time ago but not until the electrician came and told our landlady that she is crazy having showers with electricity running in the water, she understood the gravity of the whole situation. So now every day starts with the boiling of water in buckets and saucepans in order to have a decent shower. And before all this we had to disconnect the whole gas system since there apparently was a hole in the pipe and gas was leaking out. At least that alternative was better than the first: sleeping with open window and crossed fingers to actually wake up again in the morning.

This morning I had one of these relatively complicated showers (and I crossed my fingers that there would still be gas in the kitchen to boil the water) and as ready as I could be I headed to the meeting with the micro credit association. Two taxis trying to find their way, two phone calls and about 10 euros and 40 minutes later I understood that I wouldn't reach the meeting since no one could find the office. Definitely not a good first impression but definitely a typical Tuesday 13, at least in Azerbaijan.

2009-10-12T18:37:00.004+02:00

Azerbaijan Micro-Finance Association

This morning I had a meeting with Jhale Hajiyeva, Executive Director of Azerbaijan Micro-Finance Association (AMFA). A happy surprise was that AMFA's office was situated in Caspian Plaza Business Centre, the very same place me and my colleague went to a few weeks ago to listen to a lecture on the results from an Azerbaijani-German excavation in the prehistoric site of Kamiltepe. When meeting new people it's definetely an advantage to feel at home from the very beginning. However, for a little bit more than two hours we sat down and discussed the micro-finance activities of AMFA in Azerbaijan, how it all started and what the strategic plan of AMFA will be for the next three years. I also took the chance to talk about SE Forum's view of social entrepreneurship and how it's possible to do good and still earn money. My impressions from this specific meeting are many and I hope that some of them can be reflected in the thesis I will write on Aid vs. Social Entrepreneurship. Although I would like to share as much as possible from this meeting on Azerbaijannow I still want to wait a little until I have had my other meetings with people from the same branch. However, today I can tell you that:

- AMFA is a major association within the field of microcredits and one of the biggest networks in Europe/Central Asia;

- AMFA has 31 member organizations of which 12 are internationally established. 50% of the members are banks and 50% non-commercial organizations;

- 70% of the association's costs are covered by member dues. Members with a micro-credit loan portfolio bigger than 5 million USD pays a member fee of 3500 AZN (appr. 3400 euros) per annum while members with a portfolio that is smaller than 5 million USD pays 1500 AZN;

- A highly interesting up-coming project of AMFA is a Financial Education Programme for low-income families accordingly to the survey the Azerbaijani Central Bank is carrying out on financial literacy.

2009-10-11T12:04:00.002+02:00

Pişik (2)

We've been following this little black gangster with teeth as sharp as stilettos since he was a small kitten. Back then he used to live with his mom and two brothers in a ventilator space close to our apartment and sometimes I still see his mom walking around the streets nearby. However, since I came back from Germany with tasty pepper sausages this little black, and definetely not innocent, cat seems to have moved out and now lives on his own just next to our window. Every morning he begs for attention (food) and stresses himself seductively against the mosquito net. I wonder who is guilty of this...

2009-10-11T08:29:00.009+02:00

Where do I start?
My aim this week was to keep you updated every two days but as most of you know it's been almost a week since I last made a blog entry. The reason: this last week has probably been the busiest week so far. In order to remember everything that is worth mentioning here on the blog I've made a small checklist that I hopefully will have time to resume in blog entries before I leave Azerbaijan at the end of this month. The checklist looks as follows:

- Lecture on Norwegian/Azeri oil and CSR at Azerbaijan University of Languages

- Microcredits in Azerbaijan

- How a decision is (or isn't) made in Azerbaijan

- IDP English classes at Yasamal community

- University thesis on Aid vs. Social Entrepreneurship

- More pişiks (cats)

Now then, today it's sunday and it's time for me to do all those things I haven't had time to do during the week and first priority is of course Azerbaijannow. As usual I've been working quite a lot with SE Forum and what is supposed to be three days à week tend to be so much more. That's the thing when you do something that inspires you, you work with no time or energy limits. The update of the website and its layout is going forward and since I get a lot of space for doing my own decisions on things the work suits me perfectly. What is most fascinating with SE Forum is that both the organization and its board members actually live as they learn. Among other things, this is something I see in the everyday contact with my co-workers that all, in their own special way, are social entrepreneurs. It's both inspiring, innovative and above all - sustainable and something worth aiming for in other organizations as well.

In my daily work in Azerbaijan I often relate to the things I do for SE Forum and as far as possible I am trying to do things with another approach down here. I also try to inform as many people as possible about my new internship and how this way of doing business can be applied also to Azerbaijan. In my latest blog entry regarding meeting microcredit institutions in Azerbaijan, you can read more about my thoughts on different branches.

Yesterday I had a meeting with Trond Langen, director of Viator Micro Credit Azerbaijan (VMCA). VMCA is a micro credit limited liability company that lends money to small scale entrepreneurs (mostly farmers) in western Azerbaijan to increase their income. The company was founded as a development project under Norwegian Humanitarian Enterprise (NHE) in 1999 but is today self-propelled and its gross loan portfolio of 5,7 millions (USD) goes to about 11 000 active borrowers. Tomorrow I have another meeting, this time with Azerbaijan Microfinance Association (AMFA) that is an association that unites all the microcredit institutions in the Republic of Azerbaijan and on Tuesday I'm meeting Aqroinvest Credit Union that works with financial services in rural areas. More information on the research I am carrying out on Azerbaijani microcredit activity will probably be available at SE Forum's website soon. For your information I can also inform that it's now possible to visit us on both www.se-forum.se and www.socialentrepreneurshipforum.org. Different domains but same content.

2009-10-06T16:28:00.004+02:00

Another branch

Today I've been doing some research for SE Forum on Microfinance Institutions in Azerbaijan. This work reminds me quite a bit of the similar research I did on female non-governmental organizations in the middle of June. However, the results of this second research seem to be different beginning with the very first e-mail contact. Out of a list of about 25 enterprises, 5 have an e-mail that doesn't work and out of the 20 enterprises that remain more or less 5 give you a direct answer. Now then, when it comes to the female NGO:s you can find at least 30 of them just in the area of Baku. However, not more than 10 have an e-mail that actually works and of those you can feel lucky if you get an answer (within a month or three) from one or two organizations.

What I am trying to say is that there seems to be a great difference on how different branches work and act in Azerbaijan. Whether this is about their situation in the context (Azerbaijan) or their approach towards international people/representatives (me) I don't know. What I do know is that the activities of female non-governmental organizations are always threatened (as long as the NGO actually stays non-governmental) whilst the banks or financial institutions can work untouched. Well, today I've been in contact with another branch than the one I've been in contact with the last months and I got quick answers and in my agenda I already noted several meetings. Now it's time to see if this branch actually has something to do with social entrepreneurship. And I repeat what every Azerbaijani says at least once a day: inshallah.

2009-10-05T06:50:00.003+02:00

Maiden towers

This weekend on a party I had the chance to talk with a quite interesting person. He was not only studying management (always intersting for an economics student like me to compare my own study programme with similar ones in other countries) but he was also an expert in Azerbaijani history and culture. People tend to talk pretty much here if you let them which is great since listen to people is a really good way of actually getting to know and understand the things that surround you.

Among other things, we talked about the real age of the "Maiden Tower", the special brick tower that is seen as the symbol of Baku and said to be constructed in the 12th century although it could be as old as 2 500 years. There are many legends around this tower, about the father that fell in love with his own daughter which made him construct the tower in order to lock her in there or about the maiden that was madly in love with a boy but wasn't allowed to see him why her father locked her in. However, the daughter chose to climb the many stairs up to the top of the high tower and throw herself to her death in the waves that back then were just beneath the tower.

For well traveled readers it will be no surprise that Turkey, the country that Azerbaijan normally compares itself to, also has a Maiden's Tower that dates back to 408 BC. The Maiden's Tower of Istanbul is just like the Maiden Tower of Baku a subject of legends. However, the interesting thing with the Maiden Tower in Baku is that no one knows why it was actually built or given its peculiar name. Besides the many legends, some scientists believe that it was once a Watch Tower and the fact that it was never taken by force gave it the name of a Maiden Tower. In June me an my colleague climbed the many stairs up to the top of the tower and on our way up we tried to figure out the real reason of building it. Between every staircase there is a rounded room and there is plenty of staircases on the way up. Maybe the most intersting thing is that the stairs that take you up to the first room is newly constructed. However, whether there actually were original stairs to climb up the tower the story doesn't tell.

This saturday ended with another interesting conversation. The person I met namely told me he was a Jew and that he visits his mom in Israel every summer. His mother was Jew and his father Muslim since he was born Azerbaijani. Hence, I asked him whether he considered himself to be Jewish or Muslim (since you are normally considered to be Jewish if your mother is a jew). Then he answered me: in Israel I am jew but in Azerbaijan I am muslim since the patriarchy makes my father the head of the family. On my question if he faces any kind of problems from being muslim in Israel he answered that it was never a problem because no one had to know and about the political situation between Israel and Palestine he didn't care. Does you mother care? I asked him. Well, my mother is Jewish so that's another situation, he answered me.

The photo shows the view from the top of Maiden Tower.

2009-10-01T06:55:00.004+02:00

Trial

Today at 3 pm Azeri time the trial against youth activists and bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade will be held. On July 8 of this year they were both beaten by two men when having dinner at an Azeri restaurant and instead of getting help by the police they were arrested and charged with hooliganism. They have since then been innocently imprisoned in a prison about 20 kilometres outside Baku. More information on this can be found among some of my older blog entries.

Yesterday night we met with the father of Adnan, Hikmat Hajizade. He was a very outspoken and charismatic man, little to his size but generous and strong in his body language. On our walk through the city he tried to define the meaning of home, the meaning of being a free citizen and how we can see our stay in Azerbaijan as an extreme form of tourism. He compared with Africa and expressed that there isn't that much difference, sometimes you see a panther sometimes a tiger and other times a bit of corruption.

Hikmat was Azerbaijan's ambassador to Russia from 92-93 and works now as a human rights activist. Despite the tense situation he didn't seem to bother walking around freely in the streets talking about the current situation of his country. Every now and then young people stopped him to give him a kiss, a handshake or some encouraging words. Most importantly we talked about his son and Emin and their situation in the prison outside Baku. Hikmat explained to us that this specific prison had been constructed accordingly to U.E. standards and politics why it wasn't such a bad place to be in. Moreover, the political prisoners were always treaten with respect (unlike the criminal prisoners) both among prisoners and among the people working at the prison. To me it sounded absurd that they were respected inside the walls of the prison but not on the outside. It made no sense. Hikmat also told us that because of this "respect" there was no torturing going on and apparently the prison guards don't take bribes from relatives of political prisoners that want to bring food to the imprisoned. Which was really good Hikmat added, because he would be ruined if he had to bribe every time he brought food to his son and Emin.

Today at 3 pm the trial against Emin and Adnan will be held. The court room is "open" to the public although enough space can't be guaranteed. I will hold my fingers crossed although Hikmat Hajizade chooses to put it this way: in Azerbaijan we have no courts, and it is clear to everyone. Somewhere 'above' a decision is made."

2009-09-28T18:49:00.004+02:00

Make up

Statistically it is said that the Azerbaijani population spends more or less the same amount (in US millions) every year on cosmetics as on soft drinks. It would be easy to argue that the cosmetics are much more expensive than the soft drinks but the truth is that in Azerbaijan I've been able to buy, among other things, nailpolish for the insignificant price of 0.4 euros. And the result of this? Well, a make up and a physical approach that is anything but natural. The woman of the photo was waiting for the bus at the same spot as the cat I presented in my last blog entry. You can say what you want about the M in her forehead, this woman is still not only indicating the truth of the Azerbaijani statistics on cosmetics but also perfectly promoting Mc Donalds.

2009-09-27T21:18:00.003+02:00

Pişik (I)

Baku is full of cats and for those of you that don't appreciate dogs this is definitely the right place to be since the President some time ago decided to get rid of all homeless dogs in the centre of the city. After about four months living here I can tell you that he succeeded and whenever I see a dog it feels like I've seen a monkey or something as rare as a lemure. Well, the thing is that I love cats and as a Swedish interior designer said: whenever there is a cat in a room there is no more job to be done for the designer. And the same goes for Baku.

To honor all these lovable cats I meet every day on my way to the office, the English classes or on our excursions I will during my last month in Azerbaijan give you a serie of photos of just cats (pişiks). The first one out is one of my favourites, a strong little fellow that I meet every week when waiting for the bus that goes to the Yasamal settlements. Sleeping of course.

2009-09-26T15:26:00.006+02:00

How to not have a siesta

Although I don't have that much siestas anymore (like I usually had when living in the south of Spain) there may be times when you are in real need of one. This afternoon was exactly one of those times after a morning of lectures at the Azerbaijan University of Languages (AUL). The lectures were organized by the Center of Scandinavian Studies. More information on these lectures and the study center will be given in the coming entry.

However, when I come home about 3 pm with a headache that is worse than the pain a house might feel when it's under consturction in Baku, I go directly to bed to try to get some sleep. When I am gradually getting used to the hammering of the construction workers outside of my window I am almost falling asleep. But in nothing I am awake again wondering how it comes that our landlady vacuums what seem to be the entire apartment. I realize that there will be no siesta and that the best thing to do instead is to eat. She keeps on vacuuming and I am surprised by the enormous sound coming out from that little vacuum cleaner that I use every now and then too. Well, when I come out to the living room it's not her vacuuming but a young man and of course he's not hired to clean our department but to sell vacuum cleaners. The living room floor is covered by round filters full of dust and dirt from cleaning the bed, the carpet, the floor, furnitures and as if that wasn't enough, our landlady is now cleaning the kitchen Venetian blind. She is amazed, looks at me with a smile and expresses - look Karin how clean it gets! And of course it's just because of the new vacuum cleaner (that seems to be strong enough to swallow a piece of iron as big as a September apple) and not because it was actually dirty from the beginning and no one ever seemed to care. Until this vacuum cleaner designed from heaven came into the house.

I find it hard that there is money enough to buy such a thing and I find it even harder that it will actually be used when bought. However, it has been more than one hour since the salesman entered the apartment and he is still vacuuming. Although I guess there will be no agreement today, at least the apartment will be clean. Even if I will have to have my siesta some other day.

2009-09-25T08:56:00.002+02:00

Monthly newsletter

For those of you who knows Swedish there is now a new newsletter from our internship available. Drop by and have a look!

2009-09-25T07:08:00.010+02:00

Autumn

It's getting colder in Azerbaijan and yesterday I broke my sunglasses which I choose to see as a sign. The autumn is here and what was supposed to be a warm September turned out to be a quite delightful and cool month. After three long months of summer and constantly sunny weather it's appreciated to see something new. Although I normally love sunny days it can be too much of it in a place you don't have the chance to go to the beach. Even if I've tried, the Caspian Sea isn't too attractive to swim in. Well, now it's getting colder and the light is changing which opens up for good photos. My last five weeks in Azerbaijan will hopefully give fruit to some photos worth publishing here at Azerbaijannow.

Yesterday turned out to be a long day. Planning of English lessons, carrying out of them, a meeting that seemed to go on forever about a possible excursion this weekend and later a short meeting over Skype with my new colleagues from SE Forum. Suddenly a lot of things are going on and I haven't even had time to sit down and make a plan of what will be my thesis. The principal idea will be on aid versus social entrepreneurship in order to show the positive consequences of activating people instead of sending money. We will see what happens with this.

Today I will start planning today's and tomorrow's English lessons and later I will be off to the office. It's quite calm there at the moment since most of the activist girls from YUVA are in Macedonia for a meeting related to the anti-corruption project. I am aware of that lately it's been a lot of information on my working days. However, my aim is to give you a less subjective entry on Azerbaijan in the next few days.

2009-09-22T14:51:00.006+02:00

I wanted more work and excursions

Some weeks ago I was climbing the walls when I had a constant feeling of not doing anything. Well, now I have plenty of work to be done - all the time! It feels great although the feeling is a little bit nerv wrecking too. I am used to do several things at the same time but when it goes from almost nothing to almost everything the change is too unexpected. The most interesting thing going on right now is my internship at Social Entrepreneurship Forum. For more information about this Swedish organization, visit SE Forum. I have a great feeling about SE Forum and I truly appreciate to be a part of them and get a chance to see how they promote social entrepreneurship. I hope this internship will give me enough knowledge to be able to work as a social entrepreneur of my own or even work as a consultant for people that want to learn more about this field. For those of you who would like to be involved in an organization like SE Forum they are actually looking for new people. Get more information here.

When it comes to Azerbaijan and YUVA I decided to work from home today although I will go to the office tomorrow. Too much time at home tends to drive you crazy, especially when you don't live alone. The main things I am doing now is the planning of this week's English lessons and since the girls have different levels of English it takes quite a lot of effort to find the right teaching methods. This week we will follow up the lessons we had last time when the topic was "my family". Hopefully we can make something fun out of it. When it comes to languages I believe in hard work and tonnes of creativity.

I can also tell you that we went on excursion yesterday together with two Azerbaijani friends. This time we decided to go about one hour south of Baku to Qobustan. On our way we passed the stunning Bibi Heybat mosque. The original mosque was built at the exact same spot to honor the sister of the 7th Shiite Imam. However, during the period of Stalin it was destroyed and at the same time legends arose about a woman dressed in white that fell into the sea and that were supposed to return when times got better. The mosque as it looks today was built in July 1998. Next to the mosque you find the large James Bond Oil Field, famous not only for its oil but also for featuring the opening scenes of The world is not enough. I've talked about the Azeri oil fields in many occasions why I don't have to repeat how impressed I am by these kind of panoramas.

Qobustan city turned out to be practically nothing but the reason we went there was luckily not the city but the nearby mud volcanoes and petroglyphs. We "hired" a taxi for the whole excursion and payed about 25 euros for the four of us. The taxi driver (Lada of course) promised he would take us to the places we agreed on but due to the rain the day before it turned out to be quite difficult to reach the volcanoes. There was mud all around and after this refreshing experience I must say: don't underestimate the strength of a Lada from the Soviet period! Although I more than once thought we would slide into the muddy ditch this specific Lada turned out to be as powerful as a range rover and the whole experience was delightful. We reached the "moon-alike" volcanoes by foot but we were unlucky. The hard rain the day before turned the normally bubbling mud volcanoes into silent mud mountains and there was no activity what so ever. However, we did have the car trip back home which was almost funnier than our first trip. When we finally left the muddy road we met three kids running around in the mud with bathing suits. The same moment my colleague states that she would prefer living like them, out in the mud and in bathing suit, the taxi driver practically pushes us out of the car in order to clean it. You can get an image of how he did it by watching the upper photo.

Last stop on our excursion was the stunning Qobustan Petroglyph Reserve with about 6 000 ancient engravings from the Stone Age. The sight over the Caspian Sea was amazing and in my life I have never seen that amount of engravings at the same time or place. Most common themes were livestock, wild animals and human figures and it was a great experience to walk around along the caves and stones to discern the different figures. The fee for both museum and engravings was 1 manat. When I tried to ask the girl inside the museum the age of the engravings she made clear that in order to answer that question I had to pay the total guide price of 6 manats (appr. 5 euros). As you understand I consulted Google instead, 6 manats to get one answer is a little bit too expensive even for me.

2009-09-20T11:01:00.006+02:00

The woman and the jeep
Today it's sunday in Azerbaijani-land and since we didn't have chance to go on excursion we use the day as a well-deserved rehab-day. It's been an extremely long week and suddenly things are starting to happen which comes as a big surprise after many weeks of planning and waiting for something that seemed too far away. The latest weeks have been quite full of negative feelings and criticism because of lacking communication with the organization. However, last week a meeting was held that sorted out most of the current problems. It is now said that I will leave Azerbaijan at the end of October and until then I will put all my efforts into the planning and carrying out of the English classes. So far it's been a small success and the two groups that come to our English classes twice a week are getting bigger and bigger. What started with about eight people was at the end of the week a group of twenty girls of different age interested in learning English. More information on how things work at the Yasamal settlement and at the English classes will be given bit by bit.

Now then, what is the whole story about the woman and the jeep? Well, it turns out that on my way home from the settlement yesterday afternoon I walked behind a young dark haired girl. She wore tight jeans, golden flats and a stylish grey turtle-neck sweater combined with a grey striped cardigan. I remember that I thought that her style didn't really fit in to the Azeri standards, in some way she was too well combined, too little glitter and gold, too little details and especially too low heels. She was drinking a Nestea while she was walking at a rapid pace with her nose up in the air. The image she radiated made me wish that I didn't radiate the same image when I walked alone, it was too posh, too unfriendly. However, I got stunned to see a girl radiating that kind of image in Baku. Every day you see women that are dressed like they are supposed to go to a party, high heels, lots of makeup and crazy haircuts (although always long and never short hair) but the facade normally fools you. The outside has nothing to do with the inside or with the reality for that matter. What you see is not what you get and it's interesting how tourists seem to fall for the image that Azerbaijani women send out. Women may have power on the outside but generally they are not empowered on the inside. To radiate power is not the same as being empowered. But here comes the big surprise: while walking beside this young women on my way to the metro I was sure that we both were talking the same way. However, the same moment I passed her she stopped just next to a black jeep (size extremely big), jumped in and drove away. I was amazed. And I was even more amazed by reacting so strongly to see a girl driving a car, and it was not only because she drove the car but also that she drove a big black car - a jeep!

The point by telling this story is that I've been less than four months in Baku and I am already influenced by the strong patriarchal structures of this country. I get surprised and in some way even offended when I see a girl driving a car that normally only a man would drive (and in this specific case I directly asked myself whether this girl actually came from Azerbaijan or it she in the reality was the daugther of some Russian diplomats). The same way I get surprised when I see a girl wearing a skirt that is too short altough I wouldn't even react if I would be in Sweden. The patriarchate puts the standards for what is accepted and not accepted in this country. A woman that drives a black jeep might be accepted but still we stood there at the pavement, me and two men, watching her with big eyes while she jumped into the car and drove away.

2009-09-18T07:54:00.005+02:00

Friday

Yesterday we held our first English classes. It was a happy surprise that the man that is responsible of making this happen actually had cleaned out the room they one week ago used to store all possible things. The reason why the room turned out to be like that in the beginning is that most families in this settlement share only one room. Taking into consideration that most families are actually families with both mom, dad and children one room turns out to be nothing. Well, the room was now neat and clean and it was a great surprise that they offered us a board. Even if our internship is financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) we don't have any extra money to invest in specific projects or events why it's always appreciated when people helps us this way instead. The English classes are for girls only but we made an exception for a little boy, brother to one of the girls attending. To let him stay was an active choice in order to make the girl stay as well because it tend to be the men (no matter what age they are) that set the rules. Another example of this is the kid that was sent to kindergarden together with his sister for first time yesterday. Well, this morning he is at home again while his sister is back in kindergarden. The reason? The grandfather thinks it's best that way. What we call discrimination at home is simply patriarchal rules or tradition over here.

However, yesterday each English class lasted for one and a half hour and the result was extremely positive. Despite the language barriers (I know just few words of Azeri and Russian) it wasn't much more difficult to teach these kids than to teach high school kids in Sweden. I feel lucky that I have some experience of teaching foreigners in Sweden as well and especially youngsters with background from conflict areas. With this I am not trying to compare the refugees that come to Sweden with the internally displaced people in Azerbaijan but as a person with no personal experience what so ever from conflicts (I consider Sweden to be a peaceful country) it still helps to have been involved with these groups of people before.

Yesterday was a tough but very positive day. The evening ended with a two hours long meeting over the telephone with Social Entrepeneurship Forum, the Swedish organization I will be working for the next coming months. I am thrilled about this chance I get to be a part of their organization that represents practically all I believe in when it comes to business and social development. For those of you that want to know more about the benefits of social entrepreneurship, please visit SE Forum. When I find the time I will sit down and give you a longer presentation of the internship I will carry out at SE Forum and how this can be related to Azerbaijan. However, now it is time to work out a new English class for this afternoon. The topic will be "families" and as far as I concern it will be a perfect topic here in Azerbaijan. Wish me good luck!

(The photo shows one of the many streets in the centre of Baku, close to the Norwegian embassy and to the bars where some people choose to go instead of integrating with the locals.)

2009-09-16T20:18:00.009+02:00

Another day in Baku

Today has been a long day and a lot of things are going on at the moment. Right now we are finishing an organizational development report for YUVA. The report is an assignment that probably will be used for future internships in Azerbaijan - at least I would have loved to get a report like that in my hands before leaving Sweden. Hopefully next years interns will find it useful.

Yesterday the Azerbaijani kids and youth started school for another school year and suddenly the streets were full of people dressed in black and white. Girls with black skirt and white blouse and boys with black trousers and white shirt. The 15th of September seems to be the crucial date when the city turns into something more organized and when people stop strolling around without direction. Sometimes you even see someone reading a book in the metro which tends to be extremely uncommon. The summer holidays are over and it's time go back to what's serious in life. This is when I ask myself how it feels to go back to a school where the most normal thing is to bribe the teachers and where the easiest way to get a good grade is by paying and not studying. A school that is open for everyone but a school that might be too expensive for the girl in the family. For internally displaced people university is free while you have to pay for primary school no matter where you come from. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Tomorrow my colleague and I we'll go to Yasamal settlement and teach English for every girl that is free and has the time to participate. That is, no expense more than the time they dedicate to that one and a half hour it takes us to give them Lesson 1 for beginners. What we've also learnt today is that a fairly good kindergarden charges you 400 manat (appr. 400 euros) for every child and month. For those of you that remember, the average salary in Azerbaijan is about 160 euros which makes it easy to understand why most women stay at home. More on this topic soon.

2009-09-15T08:24:00.002+02:00

My mornings

I wake up every morning to construction-orchestra (hammering, sawing, screaming). Baku seems to be a new Dubai or at least on the surface. I must say it's not too pleasant.

Follow me on Twitter to get the latest on both Azerbaijan, my thesis and new internship at Social Entrepreneurship Forum (SE-Forum). You are very welcome!

2009-09-14T19:42:00.006+02:00

Darnagul

Not very far from Baku centre and a stone's throw away from the Migration Office you find Darnagul, a settlement for IDP's (internally displaced people). Today we were lucky to go to this specific settlement together with two polish EVS volunteers that have been organizing activities for some of the many childrens a few times before. Since YUVA doesn't work that much with kids anymore we haven't got the chance to do these kind of activities before why it was truly appreciated to be able to accompany our friends this early afternoon. The settlements look more or less like any other shabby buildings in Baku but after some months here you learn how to discern them by the people going in and out or the children playing together in the yards. We were very well welcomed today by an energetic group of kids with big curious eyes, dark hair and friendly small hands willing to say "salam" to every person that entered the settlement. In the open area between the two long and about four-floored houses the men, probably fathers and grandfathers of the children, sat down playing table games and every now and then a woman passed by. However, the two hours it took to get permission for 11 kids to follow us to Baku Zoo I only got the chance to talk with boys, all aged 5 to 20 years.

Now then, how do you manage to communicate with ten young Azerbaijani boys? Some words of Azeri, a little bit of Russian, mix in a word or two of Spanish and then Primary School English and you are almost there. A whole lot of gestures, some smiles and most important: the right topic. And in moments like these I thank myself that I like football even if I don't know how to play because both Barça, Milan, Celtic, Manchester United... Eto'o, Figo, Zlatan and all the others are names that make you discuss forever. And if football isn't your thing you can always talk about maktab (school), family or the countries you've been to. One of the oldest boys in the group even mentioned the real reason for them being in Darnagul. Together we figured out that his was 3 years old when his family had to leave Nagorno-Karabakh in order to find safety and has since 1993 been living in Darnagul community. This boy is now studying tourism in a small university in Baku and since he seemed really inspired I encouraged him to keep on improving his English skills and the tourism sector of Azerbaijan. My conversations with the boys seemed to keep on forever, they were all full of questions, energy and will to understand my English but when we got the approval for the 11 kids that were lucky to go on excursion this time, unfortunately we had to leave the other boys behind. So, today we spend the afternoon at Baku Zoo with 11 great kids that enjoyed walking around looking at the animals, playing and taking photos with my camera. Even if we had to see a poor turtle laying upside down fighting for his life, two beers fighting in a way too small cage and feed the amazingly beautiful but dehydrated monkeys with about 1 litre of water each, the day was really successful. Today the children had the starring role and it was a real pleasure to share that moment with them. And the most interesting thing when you look back on situations like this, is when you realize that it actually worked. Despite the language barriers it was so easy to communicate just by using some positive energy, time for fun and games, a smile or something as simple as a hug or a warm hand. Today was a great day.

2009-09-11T12:23:00.005+02:00

A mobile world?

It's not too often you hear something about Sweden down here. However, every week you cross international people in the streets, mostly British and Norwegian, and normally you recognize them by their black suites and a height a little bit higher than the Azerbaijani average. The principal activity of these international business men tend to be related to the oil- and gasindustry.

Since the time of the Nobel brothers, Sweden has been practically invisible in Azerbaijan. However, on 10th of September the executive Vice President of Ericsson, Hans Westberg, visited the Republic of Azerbaijan and had a personal meeting, organized by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, with the Azerbaijani President. The meeting included different topics and among others a project of a national broadband network, the establishment of a government network system to control the oil pipelines, and an e-Health systems to strengthen and diversify service delivery in health and social welfare. Further on the successful activities of Ericsson in the country were stressed and an expanding of the business between Ericsson and Azerbaijan confirmed.

2009-09-10T11:40:00.004+02:00

Young Women's Network

Last week young female activists from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Abchazia, South Ossetia and Georgia met in Stockholm, Sweden, for a joint training on how to improve the current relations in the Caucasian region. The training that lasted for several days ended with a manifestation in the centre of the Swedish capital where the girls danced together to their respective national folk music. Irina Khevsuriani, one of the girls we've been lucky to meet at Gaenati organization in Georgia, came up with the idea to name the manifestation "Despite war we are together". Pervana Mammadova founder of YUVA and initiator of Young Women's Network also participated in last week's training and expressed that these kind of events, separated from all kind of nationalistic propaganda, are perfect to empower the women and encourage them to work for a change across the national borders.

If you are interested to read more about this event please visit Kvinna till Kvinnas website (this specific information only in Swedish language).

2009-09-09T21:34:00.003+02:00

The hole

Yesterday on our way to the News from the field lecture we passed a hole in the middle of the pavement. The hole was big enough to swallow two normal sized feet and about 50 centimetres deep. Well, the interesting thing with this hole situated more or less in the very centre of Baku was the red-hot fire burning within. First of all we were happy that we didn't walk right into the hole, second amazed by the heat coming out. Two taxi drivers on a tea break looked at us like this burning hole was the most normal thing ever. However, I've decided that I must go back soon to see if it's still burning, take a photo and check if it's actually another leak of natural gas. It's a wonder that people still smoke in this city taking into consideration that you never know when the place will blow into pieces. To me these kind of sites are truly fascinating and as an economist I would say that the best thing would be to open up a small hotdog/marshmallow business just around that little fascinating hole. At least it would be something to add to the Lonely Planet.

2009-09-08T19:19:00.008+02:00

News from the field
Sometimes you are just lucky! Few days ago I wrote that the biggest challenge of this week would be to offer you updated information on current Azerbaijani events. Well, today I got probably the most updated information this far. Yesterday midnight Barbara Helwing and Tavakkul Aliyev, both archaeologists, came back from a joint Azerbaijan-German excavation in the prehistoric site of Kamiltepe, Mil Steppe and this afternoon they held a lecture at Caspian Plaza. The lecture was held in English and the event was co-sponsored by the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC) and the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC). Due to the freshness of the news Helwing was just able to show preliminary topografic maps and photos of the site known since the 50's and now working as a nature reserve. What the archaeological team managed to find this summer was more than amazing and in their invitation letter they express that "it came as a big surprise that the site turned out to consist in large parts of a massive mudbrick platform, preserved to a height of 13 layers of brick. Apparently, life in the fifth millennium BC took place aroundand possibly on top of this platform". Since I didn't read the invitation letter too carefuly it came as a surprise even for me. To see the photos from this place, defined as half desert and just beside the Kura river, of something that has possibly been a meeting point more than 2000 years ago was astonishing. The first hypothesis of the team was that the mudbricks had been placed at this place, carved out in the middle of nowhere, in the Middle Ages but when observing the structure of the bricks and the many kilos of conserved pottery, with similarities to Central Asia/Turkmenistan rather than to Mesopotamia, the initial hypothesis took a new turn. It was now understood that the site dated much beyond the first supposition. However, still there are no one that actually knows the age of the excavation site why we will have to wait for the results from the radiocarbon dating in order to get an answer.

Today's lecture ended with Helwing stating that the excavation shows that South Caucasia is a region that unites cultures, not only by connecting north and south but also west with east.

2009-09-05T15:16:00.011+02:00

Intensive days

It's been quite a while since I last updated Azerbaijannow but the truth is that it's been very intense the last couple days. YUVA's office is almost empty since some of the girls left to Sweden for a network meeting. Meanwhile me and my colleague try to keep up the good work which has been somehow difficult. The second part of the gender training has been postponed to next saturday since we don't have access to venue but the positive thing about this whole story is that my colleague will get some extra time to find new participants and hopefully the training will reach out to more young people.

The last week has been full of stress and few hours of sleep since I've been worried about the decision of ending the internship before the intended time. For some of you this might come as a surprise but the truth is that for many days I've been in contact with the people involved and since I came up with a good solution to the problem I now made the final decision to leave Azerbaijan at the end of October. The principal reason for this is that in order to feel good and at ease the everyday challenges are extremely important for me. I need to keep my brain working and too long time doing too little gives me a stress that can't be compared to any stress I get from doing too much. However, my decision will not make me work any less with or towards Azerbaijan since I will spend my time writing a thesis for my Swedish university. A presentation of the main arguments and objectives of the thesis will be given as soon as they are better defined, I am still in the initial phase and waiting for the blessing from some people that will help me in the process. What I do want to emphasize is that my blog will still be working until middle of January 2010, predetermined month of ending the internship, and the main topics will obviously still be related to Azerbaijan, my internship and whatever I choose to write in the thesis concerning the situation of this country.

Other news this week is that we are still waiting for the final decision on whether we get the grant for the project on Reproductive Health or not. Since IPPF's day for granting was yesterday I'm not too hopeful. Our representative from Kvinna till Kvinna has also been on visit in Baku which was extremely important for the evaluation of the time we've been at YUVA so far but also my decision to leave Azerbaijan about two months earlier than agreed on. The last week we also got the chance to make a first visit to the IDP settlements in Baku city. It was a quick visit to discuss the possibility of giving English classes and trainings in gender (even if we never mention the latter since it would mean a clear and direct "no" from the chairman). We are still waiting to kick off and personally I keep my fingers crossed that we can have a first meeting with the girls next week. Things tend to take long time to put into practice here in Azerbaijan and somehow there are always things that get in the way. I can't recall one single time something went smoothly, I guess that's part of the challenge even if it gets frustrating every now and then.

My challenge for the next week will be to offer you objective information about the current situation in Azerbaijan, I hope you can understand my subjectivity for now. The photos are from my first football game in Baku (Qarabag - Tvente). I was probably, together with some dutch football wives, the only woman at the stadium and I think I never seen that much militaries in my entire life. Unfortunately the game didn't turn out as needed for Qarabag but I was happy to see it from the inside (the section of the journalists and UEFA-reporters).

2009-09-01T20:02:00.006+02:00

1st of September (subjective)

Today has been a special day, a day that I would call quite Azeri at least from a foreigners point of view. The day started with "full house". With a newly operated land lady the house seems to be full of people at all time and what in Europe is considered to be a time for rest and rehab is here a time for family reunion and catch up. This morning, after a far too short night, I could "only" count to four people (my land landy and my colleague not included) and after a quick breakfast we left the house. 50 euros and one hour later we were, like many times before, back at the Migration Office to hand in the last receipts for our permit for temporary stay in the Republic of Azerbaijan. A "process" of handing in four receipts in order to get two plastic id-cards took us about three hours and two rounds of discussion and negotiation. Finally we could leave the office with two permits and no bribe paid. A real success! The working day ended in the office where we met a group of students and teachers from the Azerbaijan University of Languages. The responsible was a Norwegian woman and I must say it was strange talking Swedish again. Sometimes it feels like we live in a bubble down here (taking into consideration that we are only 3 Swedish people living in Azerbaijan).

Lately is seems like the weather is getting warmer again and after a long day in the street we came home sweaty to a house full of new people from the extended family of our land lady. And of course, no water. While trying to Skype for 10 minutes before having dinner (that we tried to cook with the whole kitchen full of dishes) I somehow managed to talk with four people at the same time (not including the person I was talking to on Skype). However, what I am trying to say is that the house was full of people, a kind of house I probably never will experience in my life in Sweden. People laughing, talking, cooking, screaming, playing... After a quick dinner I watched some cartoons with the children and suddenly the father came and in no time the house was almost empty and the silence came almost as a surprise. The water came back and I jumped into the "shower" and five minutes after coming out they called me for a second dinner. Even if I was exhausted it's not every day you get a chance to eat Azerbaijani fish from the Caspian Sea why I sat down to have some. While sitting there with two lovely ladies, all of us eating with our hands, I see a mouse running around all confused over the kitchen floor and that was the reason my second dinner was more surprising than the first one. (And with this I am not saying that the first one wasn't surprising...).

Despite of being a really long and tough day, I must say that these kind of days are pretty fantastic. When I some minutes ago sneaked my way into my room with a cold Azerbaijani beer I did it with a big smile. Now it's almost twelve a clock and it's still quiet here why I will try to enjoy it a little bit more. Tomorrow is a new day in Azerbaijan.

2009-08-30T08:58:00.012+02:00

It's all about feminism

Yesterday's training was a new experience not only for my Swedish colleague but also for me. We sometimes talk about the impact the NGO's are having here in Azerbaijan and if it's actually possible to reach out to all groups of the society, especially those that are in greater need. A common way of reaching out to people here is simply by mouth to mouth, young people spreading the news to eachother about trainings, events and everyday happenings in the different NGO's and Youth Organizations. The marketing tools are mostly informal and through social media such as Yahoo and Facebook groups, and in a country like Azerbaijan probably also the easiest way to reach out to a big number of people. In this country there is also a wish of not growing too fast as a non-governmental organization since this is a threat to the existence of the own organization. "Too big" tends to mean suspicious (and in this connection I would like to mention that the youth activists Emin and Adnan are still imprisoned).

However, it is still easier to reach out to the academic youth, an already privileged group of the society and in some way also the middle class of Azerbaijan (even if it under the current circumstances is both wrong and misleading using words as "privileged" and "middle class"). What I am trying to say is that you can only reach Facebook and Yahoo by having a computer, an Internet connection and the knowledge of how to create an account. Hence, I ask myself: how do you reach the people that doesn't have this access or knowledge? Well, what I've seen so far is that it's still about mouth to mouth, about finding the people. It might sound like an easy thing to do but with social structures, cultural traditions and governmental influence getting in the way it is easier said than done. More on this topic soon.

The training yesterday was open for everyone and both women and men assisted. Out of approximately 25 people, 20% were male and 10% international volunteers (Sweden, Poland and Italy) and the age of the participants varied between 18 and 25+. The participants were all academics which probably influenced the contents of the discussions and made the group quite homogeneous. Even if the discussion only reached out to what we sometimes misleadingly choose to call "privileged" people, there was a great need of having this training. To talk about gender, gender perspective and feminism is a great challenge wherever you go but in a country like Azerbaijan, with strong patriarchal structures, it gets even more challenging. The discussions went on for a long time and both men and women got questioned. The social norms and traditional values of Azerbaijan were questioned not once but many times and there were different opinions about whether its polite, unpolite, respectful or unrespectful to be a man and stand up in order to let a woman sit down in the metro. Some of the participants had a deeper knowledge about gender and refused to confuse Azerbaijani cultural traditions with gender or feminism, for others you couldn't be a feminist and at the same time agree on standing up in the metro or giving an international day to the male population. As having this feminist/not feminist discussion, one statement was particularly worth remembering: "it's because of feminism we loose our traditions in Azerbaijan, that's why I'm not a feminist". The interesting thing with this specific statement is that it came from a girl. I ask myself whether it is the traditions of the whole Azerbaijani people she is loosing or the traditions created by men for men.

To participate in this training was a great opportunity to see how the new academics of Azerbaijan think when it comes to gender and feminism. Regardless this training will open up for new discussions or not at least we see it as an attempt and what we do know is that twenty years ago these kind of trainings didn't even exist in Azerbaijan. (The photo is taken in Stuttgart, Germany, about two weeks ago and shows special parking places dedicated for women only. The places are situated at the first floors and closer to the elevator/stairs.)

2009-08-29T08:49:00.003+02:00

Gender training

Today, saturday 29 of August, I will go to a gender training at AEGEE-Baki (European Students' Forum Baku Public Union), organized by two of my colleagues from YUVA Humanitarian Center. During four hours we are supposed to talk about gender and gender perspective. My Swedish colleague is a gender graduate so this is the perfect project for her and a good source of inspiration. If the interest for the training will be as expected, the gender trainings will be given forthcoming saturdays too.

Since the knowledge of this specific topic is practically none in Azerbaijan the training today will focus mainly on the basic parts of the topic and through lectures and smaller group exercises the participants (both Azerbaijani women and men) are supposed to improve their understanding of gender. The training will be held in English and is open for everyone regardless sex, age or nationality. I wish my colleagues all the best and a really successful training!

2009-08-28T10:44:00.008+02:00

Nagorno-Karabakh

"On Aug. 27, the Armenian Armed Forces opened fire at Azerbaijani troops in the Jafarli village of the Gazakh region at 10:00-10:05. The shots were fired from the Azatamut village in Armenia's Ijevan region.The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported the Armenian soldiers fired at Azerbaijani troops from an area outside the Marzili village in the Agdam region at 09:00-09:15, from near Azerbaijan's Gazakh region at 10:05-10:10, from Khojavand region at 09:00-09;15 and 13:30-13:40 and from areas outside the Gulustan village in Azerbaijan's Goranboy region at 19:10-19:35."

It's not the first time I bring up topics concerning Armenian Armed Forces breaking cease-fire or opening fire at Azerbaijani troops and long time ago it was in my interest to write about the conflict between the two neighbouring countries. Intentionally I waited to bring up the subject in order to get a fairer picture of the circumstances. However, after three months in the Republic of Azerbaijan I don't know whether my perspective on the problem has got any larger. It's hard not to get influenced by things you see or hear, every day conversations with people or impressions when observing how people behave in certain situations. Although I promised to give you a detailed description of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh I've decided to put this on hold a little bit longer. However, the main arguments are as follows:

Armenia claims that Azerbaijan should recognize Nagorno-Karabkh as an autonomous state while Azerbaijan claims that Armenia has occupied 20% of the Azerbaijani territory. Internationally Nagorno-Karabakh is considered a de facto state and is not recognized as an independent state nor as part of Armenia. The Armenians form majority in Nagorno-Karabakh, approximately 140 000 people.

While being here I try to remember as much as possible of what people tell me, and whenever it comes to the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh I try to listen more carefully. Below are listed a few things I've heard the last three months:

"It's good that the army of Azerbaijan is getting stronger, that way we can take back Nagorno-Karabakh"

"Stop Armenia's agression towards Azerbaijan"

"I have no problem with the Armenians, during the Soviet Period there was no problem and we all lived together in peace"

"Nagorno-Karabakh is a way of Russia to keep on controlling our territory"

"You shouldn't buy Lonely Planet, they present Nagorno-Karabakh as a separate chapter and not as a part of Azerbaijan. Who pays for that book anyway, probably Armenia"

2009-08-24T10:47:00.007+02:00

Azerbaijani trade 2009

Today the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee has released national trade figures for January-July 2009. About 90% of all Azerbaijani export comes from the primary sector (mostly oil and gas) why it's interesting to analyse these figures stating the current trade partnerships, dependence and reliance. Whether the charts show the right numbers I can't tell, I just know that I got surprised when finding Italy in the highest rank. It is clear that the world crisis is affecting Azerbaijan that in its bi-annual report stated a decrease in the export operations of almost 80% compared to the same period last year. Also the imports dropped by a little bit more than 17%. Today I will spend the day trying to figure out what's the relationship between Italy and Azerbaijan. It might be interesting or something as simple as oil. See the bi-annual trade figures of Azerbaijan here.

For those of you who are interested in the business and trade area I recommend you to read about the trade facilitation idea of a Single Window System. According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Azerbaijan has already adopted a Presidential decree on establishing a Single Window and the commission now questions whether this is the right way to go for South Caucasus and other Eastern economies in transition. UNECE defines the Single Window as "a facility that allows parties involved in trade and transport to lodge standardized information and documents with a single entry point to fulfill all import, export, and transit-related regulatory requirements. If information is electronic then individual data elements should only be submitted once". One positive outcome of a Single Window is a reduction in the level of corruption.

If you want to know more about the Single Window System read the following information.

2009-08-22T19:13:00.014+02:00

At the bazar

Yesterday, early afternoon I had my debut on the local market for vegetables and fruit. Together with my landlady and colleauge I went there ready to carry loads of stuff on our way back home. It doesn't matter what country you go to, markets are always interesting and gives you a gleam of the life of the locals that bring life to the big cities. In Azerbaijan it gets a little bit harder though because of the language barrier but still you can make an idea by watching people, their ways and approaches. This specific market in Baku was more or less the size of two football fields and nearly as green too, or at least the one that was filled with green pepper, figs, apples, cucumbers, herbs and huge watermelons. Yesterday the price for the latter was 20 gopik à kilo (in euro approximataley 20 cents). I know it's just water but still its cheap and especially if you take into consideration that Azerbaijan is famous for its delicious watermelons that are at their best in august. The health standards at the market might not be like we are used to at home but I can assure that I never been sick by eating anything here (despite that waving away the insisting flies is the only preventive measure when it comes to protecting the naked chickens from the steaming heat of summer). The only time I got sick was when eating chicken at a Turkish restaurant in central Baku why I've learnt that it's more about having a good eye and nose than judging the standars of the place the chicken comes from. The same thing goes for the greens. In Azerbaijan they all have different size (unlike the "plastic surgery" greens within the borders of the European Union) but they taste amazingly. It was a pleasure to come back from Germany and put tomatoes and cucumber on the sandwich. And why not try a bit of that white cheese you buy for less then 2 euros à kilo? For someone that studies international economy it's highly interesting to see how different it can be shopping outside the European Union. However, I want to point out that even if it's a lot more cheaper here that doesn't mean that the prices are stable. They go up and down every day and you never know what the price might be when you wake up. Easy to handle maybe in a country like Sweden but with an average salary of about 160 euros per month the prices at the bazar are a little bit more than just figures.

2009-08-21T13:54:00.003+02:00

Internship update

For those of you who speak Swedish you are able to follow me and my colleague at Österlen Folkhögskolas website where we make a brief internship update every month. Feel free to visit us here!

2009-08-21T10:33:00.004+02:00

Ramadan

The holy Month of Ramadan will begin tomorrow, August 22, in Azerbaijan. The date was announced by Caucasian Muslims Office official Haji Fuad Nurulla. The Ramadan is carried out every year as a memory to when the prophet Muhammad, nearly 1400 years ago, got revelations from Allah. These revelations later became part of the holy Koran. For 29 or 30 days the muslim people don't drink, eat, smoke or make love during the time between sunset and sunrise. However, sick people, pregnant women, babies and some professionals don't have to take part of this holy tradition. Other people simply "buy" their way out of the fasting by giving money to the poor or to charity. In Sweden about 150.000 people do the fast every year, in Azerbaijan that is seen as partly secularised we will see what the impact will be. I am very aware that I live with a lady that speaks both Russian and eats pig (and is a diabetic as well) why I guess the eating will go on as always. However, I got one muslim friend that doesn't eat or drink while standing up just according to the muslim beliefs and maybe he can give me some inside information on how this month is carried out in Azerbaijan.

For more details on this topic: Ramadan Information

2009-08-21T08:39:00.001+02:00

Today.az

"On Aug. 20, the Armenian Armed Forces opened fire at Azerbaijani troops from an areas in the Chilaburt village in the Terter region at 12:50-13:15 and from near the Kuropatkino village and Khojavand region at 13:15-13:25, 17:25-17:35 and 17:30-17:45.The shots were also fired from areas near the Tapgaragoyunlu village at 14:25-14:35, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said.The Azerbaijani troops answered their fire. No causalities were reported."

That's the latest information we got here.

2009-08-19T14:40:00.004+02:00

Latvia - Azerbaijan

And while sitting in the capital of Latvia why don't mention that President Valdis Zatlers made an official visit to Azerbaijan last week in order to develop the relations between the two countries. Ilham Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan, stated that "there are good prospects for economic co-operation between the two countries and significant success have been made with this respect". Read more on this topic at Today.az.

2009-08-19T13:08:00.008+02:00

8 hours at Riga Airport

My week in Germany is over and after a night of travelling I am now sitting at Riga Airport. It's not the first time and certainly not the last. Who would know anyway that this would be, together with Stuttgart Airport, my most visited airport 2009? However, here I am trying to spend 8 long hours and at the same time recall the last two months in Azerbaijan. It is now time for me to fly back to Baku and start working with reloaded batteries. After two hours sleeping in a really uncomfortable sofa I insvested in some Internet-money with the hope that the investment will make the time go by a little bit faster.

I will come back to Azerbaijan not only with more energy but also with some English and Spanish material that can help me when preparing the classes I will hold in september. My colleague and I we are hoping that many of the young girls from the settlements will be interested in our courses and we are really aware that everything depends on them. The next two weeks I will put all my effort into the planning of the lectures and also try to arrange some meetings with other organizations and new volunteers in Baku. Apart from the books I am bringing with me from Germany I also come loaded with food and technical items such as a water heater, USB flash drives and a bra size "huge". Some things can't simply be found in Azerbaijan and if they can, they are way too expensive. Maybe that's the reason why many Azerbaijani people go to Dubai to shop tax-free. Just like the Cubans go to Belize or the Swedes escape to Monaco.

It's now 3PM and that means only two

hours left of waiting. I just read The Economist and of course I found some information on Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. I take the chance to upload one of KAL's cartoons related to the current situation between Russia and Caucasus. I don't know if I was blind before or if things simply changed. Nowadays it seems like everything has to do with Azerbaijan or South Caucasus. It will be great to return again, time to keep on learning, time to keep on working!

2009-08-14T11:30:00.007+02:00

Abroad

At the beginning of the week I left Azerbaijan. In the early morning I went in a black Lada, version "older but extremely well-preserved" to Heydar Aliyev International Airport. On my way I passed semi-constructed buildings, a tea-shop that was already open despite the early hour and a man slaughting a huge black ram just according to the muslim halal rules. We drove on Heydar Aliyev Avenue, perfectly built and with the oil fields hidden on the other side of the temporary walls. One perfect line of buildings, all enlightened to look their best but when looking a little bit closer they look pretty much like the shoddy building next to our house that never got finished since the owner prefered taking the money and go some other place. The morning smelled surprisingly fresh, and it's true that it normally doesn't rain in august, but when we come close to the airport you can still sense the oil that leaks out from the dry ground. Azerbaijan is special and even if I understood it before I now understand it better, the distance helps me. Everything went smoothe at the airport although I had to meet this man with big family, important handshake and white suit. I wasn't surprised when he didn't respect the queue but the corruption still hurts the same. It hurts every time and somehow even more when it appears in Azerbaijan.

25 hours later I am in Germany and I ask myself if I in the reality actually went somewhere else (to the other side of the world maybe) but no, here I am even if it took me quite a while. It's fresh, clean and quiet and at night the dew falls. It's always a strange feeling to begin the day in a country like Azerbaijan and end it in a country like Germany. I try to give the best image of Azerbaijan while being here, people ask a lot and it's always a risk that you somehow feel like an expert after just two months living in Azerbaijan. At the same time it's almost impossible to avoid since most people in Europe has not a clue about Azerbaijan, this special Eurasian country that links the Eastern world with the Western. But I try to do my best to give a fair picture of the circumstances. At least there has been a lot of chances to talk about football since Germany (ever famous football nation) played against Azerbaijan last wednesday. It was a pretty amazing experience to sit in Germany and watch the game and at the same time knowing that I will be back working in Azerabaijan in less than a week. The image came and went while watching the game and I couldn't help thinking that it probably was due to the Azerbaijani electricity supply and yes, later it was said that the German telecast relied on the Azerbaijani. Just a simple thing like that makes me understand why I went to Azerbaijan in the first place, that and a man with important handshake and white suit at the airport.

2009-08-09T07:29:00.008+02:00

It's raining!

The first day we ever plan to go to the beach outside Baku it is actually raining which is so much more refreshing than any bath in the Caspian Sea. Since we first came to Baku, two months ago, it hasn't rained one single day so I wasn't surprised when I woke up smiling at 5AM this night. Now the flat is full of wet clothes that hopefully will dry until tomorrow since I will be off to Germany for about one week. If I get the chance I will try to visit a mother center located in Stuttgart in order to get some new contacts for YUVA. Apart from leisure time I will also try to get some material for the spanish lessons I'm planning to hold at the organisation.

Yesterday we went to Baku Jazz Center to see a great concert with Stanley Jordan, an amazingly talented american that definitely knows how to play the guitar in all ways possible (even with the side of his cheek!). The concert was organised by the embassy of the United States of America and was very welcomed in Baku, a city that actually is quite famous for its jazz events and festivals. Yesterday we were really lucky to see this different side of the city, meeting some new friends and enjoy this amazing music created by Jordan and his guest musicians. The final song was Jimmy Page's well-known "Stairways to Heaven", a real masterpiece.

Baku Jazz Center is located next to Azerbaijan State Oil Academy and I took a chance to ask about the school shooting they experienced last April this year when twelve students were killed. We didn't hear that much about the motives for this massacre in Europe, the only thing said was that the shooter was from Georgia. However, yesterday I was told that most probably the shooting was planned by neighbouring countries as a protest against the Nabucco-affair that will definitely affect Russia's monopoly on gas. It's interesting what you (don't) hear in Europe and what you get to hear here.

2009-08-07T11:01:00.007+02:00

Neighbours

Today it's exactly one year since the war broke out between Russia and Georgia about the region of South Ossetia and the Georgian people will hold ceremonies and a minute of silence to remember the people that died in the conflict. The situation is still not solved between the countries and when we visited Georgia this spring we got several chances to talk with politicians that made it quite clear that there is still plenty to be done in order to improve the current situation. Today I send my best regards to the people I know in Georgia, the political active, activists and our two swedish colleauges at Gaenati organisation in Zugdidi. The photo shows the settlements for internal displaced people that were constructed about 20 kilometres outside Tbilisi as a consequence of the five-day war.

2009-08-07T09:27:00.003+02:00

Bullshit with big Bu (subjective)

A new month just begun in Azerbaijan and the last week has been kind of busy first and foremost because of our registration process as foreign citizens. Even if we now have our 3-months visa it is still said that we have to get registrated in the country to proof that we actually are living and working here. This process is quite familiar to me since I experienced something very similar during the two years I worked in Spain, something I also remember as a highly frustrating process taking into consideration that I had to fight in order to work in the European Union, which actually contradicts the whole meaning of having this union.

Consequently, now it was time for another bureaucratic registration process and I must say that it came as no surprise that we would have to struggle. Apart from health certificate (with or without actual health control), legal representative, letters from ministries, photos with red background, application papers and a lot more documents, you will need to be extremely patient and at the same time ready to fight. After our first visit to the migration office we were sent back home with all the papers and asked to come back with more copies, photos and a legal stamp on one of the originals. Well, one night later we were back to what my colleague usually refers to as "the patriarchal hell". After some queueing I got to enter probably one of the most exciting rooms in this country. A room full of men trying to get rid of people that try to solve their matters of prolonging visa, registration or getting a work permit. Just like I expected I now got totally different information than the day before and I tried to play out my new handling officer with the one I had met before. When my handling officer tried to convince me that the law of volunteers (that I insisted we are not) had changed over the night (taking into consideration that he personally had told me that the law changed on July 22 just ten minutes before) he passed my limit of trust and I heard myself saying "that's bullshit, bullshit with big Bu". In that moment something changed and he disappeared with my papers and in half an hour the application was done. In thirty days we will go back to the ministry, pay our 70 dollars each and see if it actually worked.

2009-08-03T09:07:00.006+02:00

Sightseeing

Our weekly excursions go on and although Lonely Planet keep on recommending us little, I personally think there are a lot of interesting things to see in Azerbaijan. In the moment we leave the city centre it seems like we are the only tourists around and we get plenty of chances to get to know Azerbaijan from an unexploited view. We are still lucky to travel with our local friend which is a great opportunity due to the lack of language skills among the locals and especially in the places out in the middle of nowhere. Our last weekend trips have all been around the Abşeron Peninsula. It seems natural to visit the places nearby the capital in order to get acquainted with the history of this special region we live in.

Last sunday we decided to visit Nardaran, a small town 25 kilometres north of Baku. The town is famous for being the center of conservative Islam of Azerbaijan (that normally is considered quite secularized) and the heart of this small town of 8 300 inhabitants is the great shia Rehime Khanim mosque. The mosque is built over the tomb of Rahima Khanim, sister of Imam Reza, the seventh descendant of prophet Muhammad, and is for that reason seen as a highly sacred place where you can even see the believers kiss its walls. The photo is taken of a smaller religious building just next to the Rehime Khanim mosque.

We ended our weekend in the spectacular place Yanar Dağ (fire mountain), located in a small village north of Baku. No one exactly knows when this place was first discovered but historical writers such as Marco Polo have mentioned the phenomenon of fire coming out from the hillside. Today there are only a few fire mountains left in the world and most of them are located in oil-rich Azerbaijan. In Yanar Dağ you find a 10-metre long wall of fire and it's even possible to come close enough to feel the burning heat and smell the gas coming out of the hill. Locals claim that it was a shepherd that dropped a cigarette to this "natural gas oven" in the 50's and that the fire has been burning ever since. The place is easy to find with help from the locals and the bus stops only 1 kilometre from the hill. Definitely worth a visit.

2009-07-31T21:27:00.004+02:00

The man outside the mosque
- Mərdəkan 26 July

2009-07-30T17:54:00.006+02:00

Patriarchy

"I used to go to the swimming pool before but since I got married my husband got really crazy and now he doesn't let me." Azerbaijani woman ~ 30 years old

2009-07-30T14:49:00.003+02:00

Pir Həsən

The mosque is located in the small city of Mərdəkan and right next to it you find a beautiful white egg-shaped pavilion where Baku's old oil baron Haji Zeyalabdin Tagiyev is buried. After just a few days in Baku you will definetely be introduced to this historical man, famous not only for achieving a great fortune from his investments in the oil business but also for contributing to the social development of Azerbaijan and for founding the first school for muslim girls as early as in 1905. The old apartment of Tagiyev, a fifty-room mansion in the very center of Baku, was left when the Red Army forced him to escape the city and works now as Historical Museum. Tagiyev then chose to spend his last years together with his beloved Sona and seven children in his twenty-room villa close in Mərdəkan, a resort himself had founded years before close to the Caspian seaside.

2009-07-29T07:58:00.003+02:00

The struggle for survival...

GONGO - Government-operated Non-governmental organization

BINGO - Business-operated Non-governmental organization

CONGO - Computer-operated Non-governmental organization

MONGO - My own Non-governmental organization

NGO - Non-governmental organization

2009-07-28T09:53:00.008+02:00

BP with the breakfast

"A new era is about to begin in Azerbaijan. Some of the world’s largest oil and gas projects are coming to fruition here which can bring huge economic and social benefits – and BP is one of the organizations making it happen"

BP (British Petroleum) has been active in Azerbaijan since 1992 and is the third largest energy company in the world with headquarter in London. The oil giant operates in the Caspian Sea and extracts both oil and gas. BP is also involved in the construction of pipelines from this area to Turkey (see earlier Nabucco blog entry). BP made its major business break in Azerbaijan in 1994 when signing the "Contract of the Century" together with a consortium of foreign oil companies of a 30-year joint development contract for the extraction of oil and gas in the Caspian area. The Azerbaijani main office is located in Baku and half of the working force of around 2 300 people is from Azerbaijan. At the beginning of this week BP appointed a new chairman that will take over after Peter Sutherland in January 2010. Specialists state that this will be an extremely hard assignment to manage, particularly in times of crisis. Carl-Henric Svanberg has many years of experience as chief executive in Ericsson and if that's not enough he can always gaze back on the Nobel brothers, former Swedes of Baku. Today most Azerbaijani people know more about BP than about the Nobel brothers and when living and working in this country people often ask you, out of curiosity, what you are doing in their country. We always try to take into consideration who we are talking to when answering this question in order to give the "right" answer. Usually it doesn't matter what the answer is because in almost every case it is already presupposed that we work for BP or some other oil company. In a way you are meant to work with "neft" (oil in Azeri) if you are a foreigner in Azerbaijan and especially Baku. With that, the NGO sector seems quite far away every time someone asks us what we are doing in Azerbaijan.

For someone that studies economy it's impossible not wanting to know more about this oil system that emerged more than 100 years ago and every morning when having my coffee I get reminded. When walking the streets of Baku you can actually see that most of the city is still about business and again the current situation of the NGO's becomes evident. From what we have seen from the inside it's a constant struggle to keep the activity going, to reach out and to accomplish an improvement in the civic society. Yesterday we met with a women that said: "not until the last drop of oil runs out, we will have democracy in this country".

2009-07-27T12:15:00.003+02:00

Leisure leisure time

Days pass by and we are still working really independently here at YUVA's office. However, a way of working you might truly appreciate in one place may become highly irritating in another. Azerbaijan is rather "activity un-friendly" and with this I mean a country that doesn't encourage much more activities apart from having walks along the seaside, drinking tea or hanging out with the family. Maybe I am a bit harsh or little inventive (comparing to my colleague that just dropped the idea of renting e-books through a Swedish library) but the lack of activities for women older than marriage, average age 23 in Azerbaijan, is obvious. If you are used to being extremely active it gets somehow difficult in this new environment and the idea of going to boxing classes was eliminated long time ago. I got to buy some Russian language books in the English book shop and if I can only keep up the motivation I might have some knowledge of Russian when I am back in Sweden. However, my point is that it's extremely hard to keep up the energy (that is, working independently) in a country that doesn't encourage an active leisure time.

So, what do we do then to keep up with the motivation? Weekend activities are now sightseeing, starting with the areas around Baku which can actually be really interesting. We are lucky to have a great friend that speaks azeri which makes our excursions a whole lot easier. It's cheap travelling in Azerbaijan and you never know what you will experience when leaving Baku for the simple reason that there are hardly any tourists which makes you attractive as a traveller. Reading Lonely Planet makes little sense since it in mosts cases advises you not going to places it descibes as "ugly" or "not worthy". However, for some reason it becomes funny to go exactly to the places they bother to mention - despite their ugliness. Last weekend we went to Suraxani and experienced both oil fields and the old Ateshgah Zoroastrian temple built over a pocket of natural gas. It was a great experience and the lost motivation was found again, at least it lasted for this blog entry.

2009-07-23T10:40:00.010+02:00

"Armenian Armed Forces break ceasefire"

This morning the following can be read at TODAY.AZ website: On July 22, the Armenian Armed Forces opened fire at Azerbaijani troops located in Gazakh (Kazakh) region at 19:30-19:40. The shots were fired from Armenia's Noyembryan region, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said. The Azerbaijani troops answered their fire. No causalities were reported.

The map shows Azerbaijani borders with Armenia and Gazakh region in the northwest.

2009-07-22T10:39:00.007+02:00

Pressing market by pressing juice

Jalə is one of many trademarks within the Gilan Holdings company and is specialized in producing fruit juices, fruit juice concentrate, and non alcoholic beverages. Jalə juice can be found in any place, shape or taste and is fairly cheap although its quality may not be as good as the more expensive brands on the market. For a juice-loving person like me there is a big difference between juice and "juice-alike" products and according to my personal taste, Jalə belongs to the latter.

Jalə was established in 2007 and at its website it says that: "JALE" trademark has been occupying the top positions at the market from the first day of exposition up to nowadays due to its original taste and qualities. The product is exported to Russia, U.S.A., Canada, Greece, Czech Republic, Estonia, Byelorussia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Ukraine. When entering the website of Gilan Holdings it is easy to get an idea, through the number of activities the company possesses, of how extensive this major enterprise actually is. However, through the website and other Internet resources it is almost impossible getting any kind of organizational information about this apparently huge Azerbaijani company.

During our first month in Baku we drank Jalə-produced juice every morning, mostly because it was cheap and because we were already familiarized with the brand from the journey made to Georgia earlier this year. What we didn't know was that the juice we bought, pratically every day, was produced by a non-natural monopoly (only supplier) and monopsony (only demander) enterprise. When knowing this, the lack of organizational information on the website together with the statement of occupying the top positions at the market from day one weren't that surprising. Last week we stopped drinking and buying Jalə juice. Fair enough, according to me.

2009-07-21T08:31:00.003+02:00

Babushka
Close to Sahil (seaside) metro station there is a quite small but relaxing park with big fountains, green areas and high trees. At night, especially in summer and on sundays, the park fills up with families with playing children, strolling couples, and old ladies and gentlemen having discussions about the latest. Since most of our time outside the office (if not going on excursion or sightseeing) is spent together with our middle-aged landlady it is always a pleasure observing other azerbaijani ladies, making up scenarios about the life they might have been living. It is also said that we carry out an internship in a NGO that works mostly with youth and women so in some way I extend my working hours when familiarizing myself with these women that, just by their presence, tell me so much about the history of Azerbaijan.

Two nights ago we had a walk through the eastern part of the city, along the seaside, passing what will become the new business center of Baku, and when heading Sahil metro we passed exactly this park. Of course I got a chance to get a gleam (and even a photo) of my azerbaijani ladies when chatting on a wodden bench and they were certainly real babushkas (grandmother or "old lady") as our Russian speaking landlady would have called them. Countries like Azerbaijan, with highly patriarchal structures, definitely makes you worship these strong, hardworking women. The reason why I make this quite subjective statement is the simple fact that we live with one at home and she is anything but weak.

2009-07-19T11:51:00.005+02:00

The oil and the glory

"As the twentieth century dawned, Baku was a truly cosmopolitan city. Its streets pulsed with a dazzling mix of people - turbaned Azeris with red hennaed beards, Dagestanis in long robes, water merchants on donkey carts, Russians in fur-lined caps, and Swedes and Germans in stylish suits. Its electric service was more advanced than almost any city of comparable size anywhere in the world. Other municipal services lagged, according to one gloomy account that called Baku "the worst managed city in the world", its "horse-tram service pitiable, the sanitary arrangements appalling." Calouste Gulbenkian, the Turkish Armenian oil trader, fretted over the failure of the oil-line barons to adopt good conservation practices. While the Nobel Brothers Petroleum Company made sure that its wells were properly capped, its competitors made the Caspian "black with wasted crude oil," Gulbenkian wrote. "Products which are worth their weight in gold today are dumped into the sea."

This is what Steve LeVine, previously correspondent for Central Asia and the Caucasus for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times , writes in his book "The oil and the glory - the pursuit of empire and fortune on the Caspian See" that was published in october 2007. The photo is taken on July 18 on a boattrip along Baku seaside. Although it might look like a painting of Claude Monet, unfortunately it's not.

2009-07-16T15:39:00.006+02:00

The art of cleaning

Some days every week we are awakened at 7 am by women in yellow vests cleaning the yard outside our window. They have their own style and the special "home made" brooms they are using don't look anything like the rest of the fancy items in Baku. However, they manage to sweep away almost anything while making an incredible sound when not lifting up the empty plastic bottles that seem to cover most yards and hidden corners of this town.

In Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty a new image of Bakus "cleaning ladies" is given. The scene is captured when young activists are gathered outside the police station showing their support some days after Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizadas July 9 arrests. I tried to embed the video but somehow it seems like it's restricted. Please visit the direct link abóve to Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty instead.

2009-07-16T12:09:00.006+02:00

Internship update

It's been one month since we came to Azerbaijan and yesterday we "solved" the bureaucratic visa-problem and managed to prolong our first one month to another three months. It was expensive. Next time the visa-application will be started much earlier in order to make it right and be able to stay for the whole period until january 2010. No azerbaijani visa, no internship. It is as simple as that.

The last two weeks we've been busy with the planning of the educational modules we will carry out in the IDP settlemens. I didn't know how hard it can be to plan four months of english courses for beginners. The other day at the English bookshop I was lucky to find, in second hand version, Oxford University Press three books on presenting a new language. The books include instructions how to teach grammar, reading and writing as well as beginners exercises and activities. I can highly recommend them for any person that would like to teach english as a second language. Together with supplementary internet activities I believe I managed to get the right structure for my course. Now, the biggest challenge will be to actually put it into practice - in azeri/russian. Inshallah (if God wills).

2009-07-14T14:46:00.008+02:00

How to stay in a country

It is extremely complicated to stay in Azerbaijan more than one month. When arriving the first time, as tourist or worker, it is possible to get a 1-month VISA with single or double entry at the airport. However, for people that will work in the country a letter of invitation is also requested together with a former presentation of passport documents to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The cost of the VISA is usually 70 dollars although this may vary from time to time. Personally we didn't have that much problem when getting our first VISA at Heydar Aliyev international airport that early morning of june. More or less two hours in a queue, a stamp in the passport, and a payment. That was all. However, that was the first time.

When applying for VISA the second time it's still to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs you turn to. Most probably you will be outside the ministry waiting in the hot sun for about an hour or more. The office is small and until now I never had a real chance to see it (I was waiting in the street together with georgians, russians and a few french people) and I guess I never will as long as I don't get the right contacts. One visit to the ministry is usually not enough while you always should be ready to return with more additional documents, photos with the right colour or a different contact. Today, the 14th of July, the ministry tells us that the law for VISA has changed (and a whole bunch of new documents are required) and it seems like we will have to take the night train to Georgia in order to get a new VISA. This means in other words: another long process to get that highly attractive 3-months VISA with double entry. How hard can it be to be an intern in Azerbaijan? The photo shows the border between Azerbaijan and Georgia (just next to Davit Gareja) and was taken on a trip I made to Georgia in may 2009. For more photos from Georgia please visit Mynationalpark.

2009-07-13T08:26:00.016+02:00

Landmark pipeline deal to be signed

In Ankara this monday 13th of July the major Nabucco pipeline project will be signed off by EU countries and Turkey. The transit agreements will be signed by Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania. The name of the pipeline comes from Giuseppe Verdi's well-known opera that was listened to after the first cooperation agreement between the five countries. The pipeline will transport about 31 billion cubic metres of gas a day from the Caspian Sea to Austria passing both Turkey and the Balkans and bypassing Russia. The main source of the pipeline's supply will come from the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz natural gas field, located approximately 70 kilometres from Baku's coast. Most probably also Turkmenistan will provide gas and in the long run Kazakhstan may supply gas from the northern part of the Caspian sea, together with resources from Iraq, Iran and Egypt. However, the gas supply isn't guaranteed and it still remains a lot to be agreed on. Since the signing of the deal came as a surprise it is unclear what the final agreement will actually be.

In Europe it is said that the project will reduce Europe's reliance on Russian gas. Today Russia already meets 30% of Europe's gas needs. The project is planned to be finished by 2014 and whatever the Nabucco pipeline will bring to Europe it will surely make a huge difference for Azerbaijan. Every day there seems to be a new construction boom in Baku and I can't help thinking of Dubai. Where there is oil and gas there should be money. Hilton hotel is already half constructed and last week we passed a major hotel complex close to the old oil fields. What will come next I don't know - there's still a lot to be agreed on.

2009-07-12T10:51:00.009+02:00

Water problems

This sunday morning I woke up at 8 am to have a shower and while enjoying the water in a calm moment of stillness I counted the hours that had passed by since the last time I actually had a real shower. A "real shower" is (according to my azerbaijani experience) a shower standing up and letting the whole body get wet and clean for more than 2 minutes while using both shampoo and shower gel. I came to the conclusion: 36 hours. Since we didn't know whether the water would come back today, tomorrow or next week, it was a happy surprise having one hour of this undervalued fluid. Now, the bathtub is filled again and we wait paciently until tonight. Maybe we're lucky again to experience that "water hour" when everything seems to work and it's even possible to flush the toilet.

I've experienced water problems like these before when living in the south of Spain, especially in summer, but then it wasn't a public water distribution problem but a private lack of water. In Azerbaijan the water issue is handled by a large numbers of public enterprises with state monopoly. At present we're talking about approximately ten different organizations dealing with issues concerning water resources and the principal supervisor of the development of the azeri water resources is SCAWE (The State Committee for Amelioration and Water Economy). Dr. Ibrahim Mammadzadeh, country representative for the Global Water Partnership for Caucasus talks about Azerbaijan's major problems in water management and in his country report on water resources management in the republic of Azerbaijan he summarizes them as follows:

1. Water Supplying of the National Economy
Dam safety and control
Modernization of main water systems
Rehabilitation of water distribution system on the local and household levels
Rehabilitation of the on-farm irrigation and drainage systems

2. Water Resources Conservation
Drinking water safety
Water pollution and quality
Water losses reducing
Salinization of irrigated areas

3. Flood Control
Mud flow control and protection
Coastal area protection from Caspian Sea level rising

2009-07-10T16:37:00.003+02:00

Youth activists detained

On 8 of July the two youth activists Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizada, famous for being active in social networks and promoting azerbaijani youth and human rights, were beaten and arrested in a restaurant in Baku when having a political conversation that seems to have offended two other restaurant guests. The two activists still remain detained and although they now have the right to a lawyer they cannot receive visits from any family members. The occurrence has not been mentioned in the official news channels but some information can be found at the Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty website. According to this source, the U.S., German, and Norwegian embassies in Azerbaijan have expressed their concern and hope that the government will take measures in this matter and release Milli and Hajizada.

2009-07-09T12:18:00.014+02:00

The Oil

Azerbaijan is the oldest oil producing country in the world and had its first oil boom in the early 20th century. Before this, back in the 19th century the oil was just a few metres above the ground and could easily be extracted. Today the old oil fields of Baku are left abandoned and most oil is extracted way out in the Caspian Sea. It is in the late 19th century when the link between Scandinavia (Sweden) and Azerbaijan is created. Robert and Ludvig Nobel, brothers of Alfred Nobel, decide to invest in the oil industry of Baku. Robert takes the leading part and in 1876 he founds Branobel, (The Petroleum Production Company Nobel Brothers, Limited) with Ludvig and Alfred as principal shareholders. The oil company soon becomes the second largest in the world. However, with the Russian Revolution and the Bolsheviks gaining power Branobel is nationalized in 1920. The company was formally dissolved in 1959. More information on today's oil and gas production in Azerbaijan will be available soon.

On our way back home last weekend we passed the former oil fields of Baku. The sight is amazingly impressive although environmentally shocking. Not far away from the old oil cranes, that still moves up and down with the wind, children were playing. However, when you see the scale of these old fields it's easy to understand why Baku, in the days of the Nobel Brothers, was one of the most important oil cities in the world. Today, Azerbaijan is still called the "Land of fire" but the statistics of the World Bank speak for themselves:

"130 years of oil production has led to 33 000 hectares of oil-contaminated lands corresponding about 700 million barrels of oil."

2009-07-06T14:16:00.010+02:00

Nəriman Nərimanov

Every day we go by metro to the office of YUVA and our metro station is Nəriman Nərimanov (Nariman Narimanov). The special letter 'ə' is a letter derived from the Latin alphabet and was originally written 'ä' (and is still pronounced exactly the same way as the Swedish 'ä' for those of you who have knowledge in scandinavian languages). Although it seems almost impossible to get a printed map of the metro, the metro of Baku is extremely cheap (approx. €0,05) and is actually working really well why there's no reason to take the bus or a taxi instead. I'm a fan of metros not just because they're environmentally friendly but also because they are good sources of information. Every metro station has something to tell about the world above and Nəriman Nərimanov is no exception.

Nəriman Nərimanov was a revolutionary leader of the Soviet azerbaijani government (Soviet Communist Party of Azerbaijan) in the beginning of the 1900s and also writer, publicist, politician and statesman. Nərimanov followed the Marxism-Leninism ideology and was sometimes refered to as the "Lenin of the East" although he always gave priority to the Azerbaijan SSR. In Azerbaijan Nərimanov is admired for his struggle to keep Nagorno Karabakh a part of Azerbaijan SSR in favor of allocating Karabakh to the newly created Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia. More info on the Armenia - Azerbaijan conflict will be given soon. Now it's time for me to leave the office and Nəriman Nərimanov will be my next stop.

2009-07-06T09:50:00.004+02:00

TEN - Transparent Education Network

TEN is a network that brings together regional organizations and individuals with the desire to promote transparency in schools and education systems. The network is financed by U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and one of the implementing organizations is YUVA. This weekend a first kick-off training was held for the core group on the reasons and effects of corruption in higher education. The core group consists of approximately 25 youth students from Bakus five most well-known universities, among others Azerbaijan State Oil Academy, Baku State University and Azerbaijan Technical University.

The core group will meet in several occasions to discuss the role of corruption in Azerbaijani school system and YUVA will try to strengthen the students so that they can work as key elements and multipliers for transparency in their respective universities. The project, that will be finished in december this year, will fall into two categories; awareness raising and capacity building/development of codes of conduct. If needed, the code of conduct will be developed using examples from Swedish universities and the Swedish law for Higher Education.

2009-07-02T13:02:00.010+02:00

Preliminary distribution of projects

It has been almost three weeks since we came to Azerbaijan and step by step things are being settled. From former experiencies I know that it usually takes some time to integrate in a new organisation and particularly if it's an non-profit one like YUVA. With some help from the founders, previous project proposals, and through informal discussions with volunteers from YUVA and other NGO's the image of the organisation is getting a bit clearer every day.

A preliminary distribution of projects has been done and I got to make my own proposals after consultation with the other team members. As it seems now I will mainly work with the preparation, and implementation of English language courses for young IDP (Internally Displaced People) girls living in the Baku region Yasamal. Continuously I will also be looking for opportunities for future cooperation or/and fundraising with other international organziations. Another project that will be followed up during our time in YUVA will be to make young azerbaijani girls blog about everyday violence issues and gender based violence. We need to get their voices heard and if everything goes as we've planned, their stories will be published in Kvinna till Kvinnas' exhibition Pushing the limits, where activists in conflict areas describes their situation.

Before we initiate our projects we will need to wait for the approval from the chairman of the IDP settlements. Hopefully we'll get a final decision next week so a visit to the settlements can be arranged. Empirical information on the situation of IDP's in Azerbaijan will be given in future blog entries. For those of you who are interested in this topic I highly recommend UNIFEM's report The Status of IDP Women in Azerbaijan - A Rapid Assessment from 2006.

2009-06-30T17:39:00.006+02:00

Israeli state visit to Baku

When passing the Government House of Azerbaijan on sunday 29 of this month, the main street was closed for a couple of minutes until a cortège of about twenty black cars with israeli flags had passed by. State visits are always highly interesting because, apart from those seated at the bargaining table, noone ever knows what will be the result of the visit. Israel's Shimon Peres was travelling with more than 60 representatives of the Israeli government and private companies with primary aim of "strengthening and expanding Israel's strategic, diplomatic and economic ties". The state visit will last four days and will also include Kazakhstan. For further information on the main reasons for this state visit, please read personal interview with Peres: Israel Wants Stronger Economic Ties With Azerbaijan

2009-06-26T12:38:00.000+02:00

Changes to the Law on NGO:s
On june 9 the Legal Policy Committee of Azerbaijan proposed new changes to the Law on NGO:s that aroused strong concern among the people dedicated to the non-governmental sector. Many human rights organisations dread that if the new proposal will be approved, it will be harder for the non-governmental organisations to function due to further governmental restrictions and limitations.

In its website, Kvinna till Kvinna expresses that the proposal is a threat to azerbaijani civil society and will affect, among others, the NGO:s that get financial help from international donors. One of the proposed changes is namely that the azerbaijani state can invalidate those non-governmental organisations that receive more than 50 percent of their funds from international donors. Another requirement settled in the new law is that to work as an NGO it is necessary to set branches in one third of all azerbaijani regions. Many of the affected people doesn't know what the Legal Policy Committee refers to when talking about "branches" which makes the issue even more complicated. Here in Baku and at the office of YUVA we will wait anxiously for the outcome of the new changes to the NGO law if, and whenever it will be approved.

To read more about this topic:

Det civila samhället hotas av nytt lagförslag i Azerbajdzjan

Azerbaijan: Proposed amendments to NGO law will eliminate NGOs

2009-06-19T13:11:00.003+02:00

City of Winds

When waking up in Baku you never know whether the wind will blow or not. Five days have passed since we came here and I can't recall one single day without winds. Normally the wind rises towards the end of the day and subsides some time during the night. The wind is reflected in the name of Baku ( بادکوبه ), originally derived from Persian, and literally meaning "pounding winds". The winds also take place in azerbaijani mythology with Khazri and Gilavar, the cold and the mild wind, representing the struggle between the Good and the Evil. Apart from all the magical explanations there might be for these winds, their purifying effect on this oil city is evident.

Following the Neftçilar avenue part of the "fancy" Baku can be discovered although turning the head from the city center, in same direction as the airport, the massive industrial cranes pile up. The view from the sea is pretty amazing with both ancient and new architecture. In this specific photo you can among other things see the impressive Government House (Dorn Soviet) and part of the construction of the new Hilton Hotel.