The Trader's Association

Lydia sells blankets. Blankets from Turkey, mostly, but also from the UAE, China and Korea. The blankets get to Kyrgyzstan via truck. It is quite a haul and one which crosses many frontiers. The transport doesn’t come cheap, it costs $1/kilo on the ground. In the rare event of an air delivery, the cost rises to $4/kilo.

 

Business for Lydia is not good right now. “It is the crisis.” According to Lydia, with less trade in Russia and Kazakhstan fewer people have business at the bazaar so fewer people come to the bazaar. Everyday she says, “today will be the day I make a sale.” But that did not occur over the course of the three days in which I stopped by to chat. When a couple of other leaders were leaving the bazaar she made conversation and with a grimace asked each in turn if they had made a sale. No one had today. Most made some sort joke or dour comment about the tough times. One such acquaintance said, “Why would I be leaving at 3[pm] if I had any business?” Lydia responded to each such comment with an upbeat chuckle that seemed to thinly disguise a rueful laugh, “Yeah, its really cold. You’re smart to get outta here. I’ll be right behind you.”

 

Though business is slow now, Lydia appears to have built up a decent business for herself. After a shipment arrives she fills four containers with storage in addition to the container she utilizes for retail sales. She is able to let the containers turn over to other merchants as her stock diminishes. With so much warehoused stock, and deliveries arriving every 3 months on average, it is likely that Lydia manages a small but sufficient wholesale business in addition to the everyday retail.

 

Sometimes shipments get caught up on their way to Kyrgyzstan as they cross the considerable number of obstacles and potential delays between Turkey and Kyrgyzstan. The most recent shipment arrived in December four months late. This is almost certainly a problem when you deal in warm felt blankets, an item people usually take care up in late autumn or early winter (Late October-November) here.

 

In addition to being a salesperson, Lydia is an activist or row leader for the traders’ union. The union is not a union in the sense of the United Auto Workers, but it does express grievances and concerns on behalf of the sellers and in moments of stress, coordinates collective action on the part of the sellers. It is a cooperative or trade association of sorts. There are not formal mechanisms or elections to decide who will represent sellers but in each row or section of the bazaar, the more outspoken and socially active sellers become active in the cooperative body, and in a way “represent” their fellow sellsers.

 

The organization negotiates with the administration and the government about issues relevant to doing business in the bazaar. For example, the organization successfully lobbied and negotiated with the administration for price differentiation for the containers. Now containers nearer to the center of the bazaar pay more than those on the periphery. Also, the organization recently negotiated with the government to reduce a tax/permit fee increase which traders have to pay to work. The government wanted to collect a licensing fee of 1500 som (about $35). This would have been a dramatic increase. The organization argued that the increase was excessive and would only prohibit trade and encourage corruption.

 

The traders’ association has also organized collective action, specifically security at the bazaar during the “Tulip Revolution,” which I will call a ‘power change’ because nothing about how government or society operates changed as a result of the “Revolution.” During the power change of 2004, Bishkek was quite unstable. Many townsfolk had journeyed to Bishkek in angry protest and the authorities were reluctant to defend the regime or risk the wrath of the mob by attempting to enforce the law. A great deal of vandalism and looting occurred during the power change. The lawlessness was confined to Bishkek and satellite towns but it was not limited to the very center of Bishkek where the capitol, parliament and central government administrations are located. Dordoi bazaar is somewhat removed from the city and in many ways its geography resembles a satellite town. But there was no looting at the bazaar. Traders established a system of 24 hour guard throughout the bazaar for the duration of the unrest. They protected their property collectively, and almost certainly prevented a massive loss in property and general destruction by doing so.

 

I asked Lydia pointedly about if the traders’ association held any political affiliations. She replied that the bazaar traders just do what they can to protect their interests. They took no side in the Tulip Revolution and do not support one party or another. Rather, the association negotiates with the administration or the government pursuant to their interests. Political parties in Kyrgyzstan are not ideological and most people view them as simply a stage for controlling influence and resources for the President and his allies. As such, the association has taken a pragmatic approach of opposing specific policies but never working to undermine specific politicians. This approach makes sense. The state has made moves that occasionally impinge upon profit or trade but on the whole but has not attempted to control trade flows or force people out of the bazaar. Were the bazaar traders to mobilize in some way they would risk severe backlash. Therefore it makes sense to pursue a more modest agenda of assuring no egregious changes to regulation of the bazaar. It is important to note however, that the bazaar is organized along the lines of self-interest and that it is capable of mobilizing both politically (for economic reasons) in order to negotiate with other powerful parties (such as the administration or the government) and physically, such as when they arranged for traders to guard the bazaar. It stands to reason then, that should the government, the administration or some other power threaten the fundamental interests of the bazaar that there is a strong possibility for the bazaar to mobilize more proactively.

 

Lydia is a card carrying Communist, “because of the ideals of the party.” Though not because she actual aims to bring Communism back to Kyrgyzstan. This sort of fond remembrance intermingles freely with the resignation that the old days of complete social, political and economic stability are not coming back.

 

I also discussed the mosque with Lydia. The mosque was funded by a collection put up by the traders in conjunction with the administration. Though she is herself Russian Orthodox, Lydia is happy to have the mosque active. She believes that people behave better when they believe in a higher power. The mosque serves as a madrassa as well. Students gather daily to learn the teachings of Islam and memorize verses in Arabic. Unprompted, Lydia offered that there were no fanatics at the mosque or in the bazaar. Though Kyrgyzstan has experienced very little in the way of Islamist extremism, the stigma of rigid reactionary interpretations of Islam weighs heavily on how people broach the subject. Often a Kyrgyz believer, when discussing women’s place in the religion, will phrase the point by stating, “Actually, Islam respects women,” despite the fact that no one made an assertion to the contrary.     

Shuttle Trade

A foot injury I sustained while climbing kept me away from the bazaar for the last month. Now I'm back at it and with improved language skills to match my eagerness to get the heck out of my place.

Erbolot is a shuttle trader. He buys goods, mostly clothes, and loads up a taxi to travel to Kazakhstan. There he stores the goods in a container bazaar near Almaty where he can sell the clothes at a healthy 80% profit margin. Erbolot makes the journey about once every 2-3 weeks, though lately the intervals have increased to closer to 4 weeks. The profit margins have decreased toboot, since November they’ve decreased steadily to the current profitability of around 60%. This is still good business but with overhead cost of transport steady at about $200 per trip the monthly rental dues for the container holding at about $70, Erbolot is worried about how his business will be in another couple months.

 

Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan, has established itself as a regional financial capital, partly out of necessity in order to lubricate foreign investment in developing Kazakhstan’s rich energy reserves. In recent years, Almaty enjoyed an almost meteoric rise as oil prices were high and global finances were hopefully exploring new markets. Prices in Almaty soared to levels akin to those found in Northern Europe or global city centers: a simple meal at a restaurant could not be found for less than $US 25. As a result of Almaty’s boom, the wholesale bazaar at Dordoi made brisk trade by arbitraging goods between China and Kazakhstan (and often onward to Russia). Affordable Chinese goods are imported to Kyrgyzstan relatively easily. Compared to its Northern neighbors, Kyrgyzstan has fairly workable tariff regime. The border guards are also corrupt at more reasonable than their Kazakh comrades according to many drivers and traders who make a living crossing the borders. As a result, goods arrive in Kyrgyzstan by the truckload from China. Their destination is very often Dordoi Bazaar, conveniently located near major roadways that cross into Kazakhstan and continue on to Almaty.

 

At Dordoi, very often small traders buy the goods in bulk from the Chinese massive wholesalers. These Shuttle traders then stuff a taxi chalk full of whatever goods they have elected to transit. A small industry of porters and clothes compacters earn a living by maximizing the efficient use of space on the part of the shuttle traders.

 

Erbolot manages his risk by only holding about one taxi load of goods at a time. He sells the goods himself to the customer, keeping him well informed about trends in demand and style. He does not own his own taxi. He stays with relatives while in Bishkek. He also has a relationship of mutual recognition with the Kazakh border guards. He provides them with a modest bribe to ease him through the often drawn out border crossing process. With so many small traders transiting the border, almost always with modest cargos, the border guards don’t find it worth their while to impinge trade. Larger transfers are more conspicuous in their flouting the tariff regime and attract more unwanted skepticism on the part of the guards. The gap between the law as written and the law as it is enforced, allows small traders like Erbolot to flourish while larger-scale wholesalers find difficulty. 

Entreprising Academics of the Bazaar

The open aired area near Indira's stall (pictures taken in September)

A self-contained standard container in the heart of the bazaar 

Indira sells everything you need for a comfy bed. She has the sheets, the linens, giant comfortable padding, and the pillows that you need to turn your futon/fold-out with a giant ridge down the center and a saggy middle into a viable vehicle for a good night's sleep. She is located right on a main open space of sorts in the bazaar, right between the mosque and an important transit-way. She works along side many other home-supply retailers that peddle in hard ware, kitchen utensils, bathroom necessities and a variety of other indoor bits, parts and tools. 

This location, though well traveled is less desireable than the initial rows of containers inside the alleyways of the bazaar. The containers are not as deep and the goods must be redisplayed every morning and stored each night as the stalls cannot simply be locked shut at night. They are not self-contained like the containers of the rest of the bazaar. 

Indira is originally from the Talas region, to the West of the capital city but she has lived in or around Bishkek since coming here for university in the 1980's. She graduated with a degree in social sciences and went on to pursue the rough equivalent of a masters. Education was very central to success during Soviet times. Being highly educated, Indira enjoyed a comfortable and challenging teaching position. But after Kyrgyzstan became independent, the prestige and economic viability of her skills crumbled. With a young family to feed and no income to speak of, Indira made a dramatic move. She quit her work as an educator and became a trader at the bazaar. Other traders I have spoke with for shorter spurts have also revealed that they used to have a job for which they had been trained and educated. Elementary school teachers, engineers, professors and dentists all now sell goods at the bazaar rather than ply their trade. It is somewhat ironic and distressing because undoubtedly many of these skills are in direly short supply in Kyrgyzstan. 

She also had to move her family from the relative luxury of a Soviet-built apartment to a self-made home near the bazaar in one of the novastroika (newly built) villages which surround the bazaar. Indira is clearly proud of having built her own house. She mentioned to me four times that she had built the home herself with help from her family. But the pride in being a self-supported and self-made mingles uncomfortably with frustration. Frustration with the geopolitical shifts that brought her plan for a stable but dynamic livelihood crashing down and frustration with the needless layers of adversity she had to overcome to achieve her modest autonomy.

"We don't live, we survive." Is how she put it. This struck me as a little dramatic. As a trader at a fairly central location in the bazaar for several years, Indira had an aire of self-confidence and shrewd manner that suggests she had succeeded in establishing herself above the realm of subsistence. Perhaps because of her former experience with apparent moderate prosperity, Indira is skeptical of her (apparent) economic stability. Even as she interrupts our conversation to bark orders to a helper or yell prices back and forth to her associates across the plaza, she describes herself as beseiged. She pays taxes but feel that she gets nothing in return... she made the money herself, what right does the government have to it. In this country official "corruption" is rife. (I put corruption in quotation marks because while it is real, there is no available alternative or "non-corrupt." Most dealings could be viewed as corrupt at some level so corruption here exists on a scale that should be measured differently than within a more unitary and autonomous state). To employ the model of one of my professors, society inhabits the states and coopts it for its own purposes. The state does little governing as an independent actor along the lines most people ideally envisage the state. So paying taxes and paying bribes and paying fees all begin to inhabit a much-overlapping gray area. And in that context, taxes make the least sense because the revenue is seen as going to the pockets of people that you never even see. Bribes result in tangible results as do fees.

Indira asked me if the government takes money that we make ourselves from us in USA. . It was a straightforward question but a simple yes or no would clearly leave the wrong impression. Of course, yes, I pay taxes. And while surely much of it could be better spent, I don't feel that my taxes simply subsidize the lifestyle of some powerful politician somewhere. I get good courts, fairly honest policing, and a number of services throughout my life. Her impression is clearly that this money is simply money lost. My yes, full of its implications of complete impropriety is not really accurate. But a no would have been equally misleading, we do pay taxes. I tried to explain some of the nuance but clearly I wasn't quite up to the full task.