November 29, 2011 – the day when Kyrgyzstan first made an unfortunate "appearance" in the entire Russian-speaking world. This happened at the AKIpress agency, where the famous phrase "Winter will not come" was uttered, which later brought fame to Kyrgyz public figure Arstanbek Abdildaev and analyst Mirlan Asakeev. The video published on YouTube was viewed over a million times, and one of the popular internet shows "This is Good" harshly mocked the heroes of the internet meme (over 2 million views). Of course, this news event was an individual disgrace for several people, but the indelible impression of Kyrgyzstan remained in the minds of hundreds of thousands of internet users.
"Well, what can I say... there are idiots in every country, and when they get in front of the camera, they disgrace the whole nation," one user wrote directly in the comments to the video. And there is a grain of truth in this.
Recently, a friend of mine returned from Turkey. She told me about a Russian tourist who was shocked by the pure Russian language of our compatriot.
"I have never heard such pure pronunciation of the Russian language anywhere else" - she couldn't believe that in Kyrgyzstan people could speak Russian just like in Russia. Where does such an opinion come from? Read the very first paragraph of the article again; the answers are there.
Remember the Boom graffiti that delighted our tourists? As a result, some unclear pseudo-patriots scattered their interviews across all publications and completely filled the information space; articles even appeared in Russian publications. What will the Russian reader think? Nothing good. And was the public against it? No, everyone liked the graffiti; the activists were criticized. We simply couldn't organize ourselves properly and speak out against it.
We went along with it, and readers from different countries thought that Kyrgyzstan was like in the Middle Ages. Just like with chuchuk, only we can take and "lock" a person in the police station because of an "offensive post," which for some reason caused unprecedented hype. Arresting a person for this is abnormal, and for the rest of the world, it's barbarism. However, now we have played ourselves; for many, the association of chuchuk will be linked to a real "horse penis." It's laughable and shameful, but it harms the image of our society. This concerns me and you, the reader.
He really didn't act very well, but we should respond in kind. As they say, you need to speak the language of the cattle – let's release special hashtags and pictures, the meaning of which is outrage at Makfit's actions. In the UK, the hashtag "You are not a Muslim, brother" became one of the most popular after a video in which a London police officer uses a taser on a knife-wielding suspect in a terrorist attack at a subway station, while a witness, who is not visible in the frame, shouts at him: "You are not a Muslim, brother!".
In our case - why even be offended by a fool? He just needs to be released, because chuchuk is just chuchuk, and if our dignity is tied to this, then I feel sorry for us, guys.
Respectfully, Kairat Bekmambetov.