This project was designed as a temporary measure.
The idea is that each village should set up a separate, self-sustaining community foundation
to meet
community needs.
After a few years, they should be able to carry on without Soros money.
From the very first as the project, and every time we've seen the school directors over
the last five years
we've repeated to them that they had to establish these foundations.
Here in Daut, their community foundation applied for a grant to buy these computers.
But it was local people themselves who came up with the know-how needed to out up a newspaper
to serve the school and village.
I read some books,
got some software and looked on the internet, and reprogrammed it for our needs.
This renewed spirit of community activism will now take the lead in Daut.
It's been enormously hard work. First and foremost, by the director Altynshash,
who brought the community together and created this collective. And you know with my every
visit,
I see changes on the faces.
On the faces of the children, on the faces of the teachers.
This is Kazakhstan's national day of independence,
and everyone has turned out in their national costume to celebrate.
Over the last four years, Daut school has received a total of $16,000
from the Soros Foundation.
But this is the last year they'll get a grant.
Now the community's own foundation will take over.
You know, I feel that I haven't lived my
life in vain.
The fact that this village has come back to life again with the help of the school. And
I feel I've
been a part of it. A tiny part of it.
I'm terribly proud of it.
In Kazakhstan, the post-Soviet economic crisis should soon come to an end.
Far away from Daut, there are vast oil fields being developed.
George Soros has set new priorities for the Central Asian Foundations, not least seeing
that
oil money helps people in villages like this.
We can't change
conditions underground everywhere.
I mean, take a country like Kazakhstan.
It's going to get richer as the oil fields are developed.
So I feel that we can probably make a bigger contribution in,
in helping the government to spend that money
the right way,
in the right fields.
Like education,
healthcare, small business development,
and so on.
Soros-funded programs, aimed at changing government policy,
don't make him universally popular with Central Asian governments.
Some say his Foundations are secretly planning revolutions.
I am not
an advocate or believer of revolutions. Revolutions are basically destructive. It is only when
conditions deteriorate
to such an extent that people will
not put up with it, that revolutions occur. --In March 2005, just such a
deterioration took place in the neighboring
Republic of Kyrgyzstan.
Demonstrations protesting
rigged parliamentary elections spiraled into revolution.
An angry crowd stormed Kyrgyzstan's White House, the seat of government.
The Soros Foundation had been working hard for over a year with
Kyrgyzstan's government,
trying to help them become more open, and thus prevent a violent upheaval.
I think it's much better if one can
improve government
gradually. And if
the government doesn't regard the opposition as if they were devils,
and neither does the opposition regard the government as if they were devils.
The Soros Foundation and the government don't really know what each other is up to. People
always suspect
their neighbors are up to no good, so they begin to think we must be corrupt.
It's a dialogue of the deaf.
So, let's work together, a concrete plan, deadlines and real decisions.
Two months before the revolution, the then-Deputy Prime Minister of Kyrgystan, Jomat Ottobiath,
was on his way to a television studio, to take part in a Soros-funded television
talk-show.
It's a forum where government ministers and outside experts can debate and help draft
new laws to reform government.
It's good to work in an atmosphere of openness and discussion. Today there's going to be
government representatives,
business, NGOs, and parliamentarians.
It was the first time the Deputy Prime Minister had been to the Soros televisions studios.
They've built them on the site of an old industrial park.
What is this place?
Looks like a vodka factory!
>>> Everybody smile! You like me, you like the guests, you like the program. And,
one minute of applause, please.
Good evening. Welcome to 'Open Kyrgyzstan,' a program of
the Soros Foundation and the Consultative Council for Good Governance.
Over a year ago, Soros Foundation Kyrgyzstan's Head of Economic Reform,
Cholpon Nogobiaeva,
came up with a new method to bring outside experts to the way that governments drafted
laws.
We were tired. And we thought we needed to take a drive out of town,
and sit in the sun.
And when we were sitting there, everything we'd been working on and thinking about for
the
last couple of years,
came together. And we understood that what we needed
was this project.
They called it 'Open Kyrgyzstan,' a talk-show where government,
experts and the general public could meet.
They entered a partnership with the government body,
the Council for Good Governance.
We discussed it with business leaders,
then we took it to the Prime Minister and the Head of State.
And they all agreed. This partnership makes it possible to get government ministers
on every show.
Work on this episode began over a week ago.
The 'Open Kyrgyzstan' production team gathered to thrash out the questions they wanted answered.
>>> Registering is just part of the problem. You've got to be able
to shut business down, too.
The Deputy Prime Minister was going to face questions about a draft law
to streamline the registration of new businesses.
>>> Phrase the question so the Deputy Prime Minister can talk about the concept of deregulation.
It's important to phrase the question in such a way that it's tailored uniquely for
that one person, because the answer they give will be interesting for many people.
>>> So, the question is,
'according to world standards,' no that's not right.
What are the world standards?
>>> My first question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. Why is it necessary
to reform the system of business regulation?
First of all,
this all fits into our larger program of economic deregulation.