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Yelena Tsarevskaya |
#СOVID19
Good afternoon. It has been a long time since I recorded a video. Please
do not mind me, as they say, the more time I spend at home, the less homely I
look.
Today I would like to address our esteemed President, Shavkat
Miromonovich.
Dear Mr. President,
I have watched so many video messages
addressed to you, but I do not have any anger, I do not have angry addresses,
or wishes and so on for you. The only thing I want to ask you is that either
you take a fresh look at your entire, so called, inner circle and remove all
corrupt officials from it, or in the near future, Uzbekistan simply will not
have any future left, because you should pay attention at what is happening in
our Republic now.
No more people are dying of Covid or
pneumonia than of hunger. I hope you appreciate that at the moment people have
no money to just sit at home without work, and employers have no money to just
pay.
It has to be said that you have
allocated a certain amount of money, however, you have not announced when it
will be paid, in September, October, November, this year, at all or not?
Therefore, now people are simply
storming the mahalla committees asking for help.
What are they being told by the
mahalla? – There is no money, no money. Well, where is it? Where did the money
go? Were the funds plundered before they reached the mahalla? At the Khokimiyat?
Or even higher up? Please, explain it to us.
The people are simply terrified right
now. I am failing to find the words to describe it. I do not know what to do.
People try to reach out to the mahalla asking for help, and the mahalla
replies: “but you have a refrigerator, you have a TV, sell them and live on the
proceeds”. The thing is that no one is willing to buy a refrigerator or a TV, no
one needs it. People need food or money. Where do I store the food if I sell my
refrigerator? And how can I distract the children in quarantine if I do not
have TV? What to do? This is some kind of vicious circle. Do you understand?
Why don't you appoint certain people
who would check the mahalla committees? Even when there was help of 1197, the
mahalla brazenly stole food: chickens, milk, eggs. In other words, some people simply
received torn packages or boxes from which certain products were missing. They were
told lies to their faces: "it was missing, that is the end of it."
You have huge embezzlement,
misappropriation of state funds going on. So many of your officials have stolen
money, but you are not doing anything about it. Khokims only know how to
apologise. I do not know what to make of it, is this some kind of new trend in
Uzbekistan? Have you stolen? Apologise! Have you made people kneel in the
water, locked them in the bus in the heat? Apologise. Well, what do we get out
of your khokims’ apologies? Nothing.
You understand that now the people
will just get up and go. People will die of hunger. Looting will start over a
can of tinned meat. Because there is nothing to feed the children.
Currently, you are locking down people
at their homes for two days. With all due respect, they are free to go anywhere
for five days a week, and who can guarantee that they will not get infected
during those five days? And the fact that they are under a lockdown at home for
two days and the bazaars are closed does not mean anything. Absolutely. I do
not understand what this is. Who invented this? What kind of moronism is this?
People walk on foot. Public transport
is not available. Cars are not allowed at certain times. And what if a family,
a person has only one car? And if he leaves early in the morning and returns late
in the evening. When are they supposed to go to the bazaars? Where are they
supposed to shop? I can say from my own experience that I walk three kilometres
to get to the bazaar, to buy cheaper greens, dairy products. I am ashamed to
admit, but I bargain for a hundred soums, because money is short. And I am not
alone, there are many people like me in Tashkent, in Uzbekistan - in Nukus, in
Khorezm, anywhere. There are many people like me. I hope you appreciate the
situation. What are you doing about it?
People have been writing a petition seeking
the resignation of the Minister of Health, because he failed. There are no
ambulances. Ambulances arrive only after three and a half hours, because they
have to go through block-posts, bypass concrete fences that have been placed on
the roads. Can you please explain to us what these are for? The ambulance either
does not show up, or arrives in three and a half hours, by which time it is too
late for person seeking the help. The ambulances are not taking patients to
hospitals, because they say that hospitals are closed - there are no beds. But
if you have "tanish-bilish" (if you know the right people in the right
places - Editor's note), you can get a hospital bed. How come?
And you say that you are fighting
corruption? No. It is the people who are fighting it. They are somehow trying
to upload videos and everything else. Please help us. Please explain to us. How
we, the people, should live?
Now, let's say, someone gets paid benefits,
a certain amount for each family. If there are two people in the family, they
will get somewhere in the region of five hundred thousand soums. But, excuse
me, out of these five hundred thousand they must also pay for the
"communal services". You could at least provide for easing of some of
the payment requirements so that utilities would not be charged. For
electricity, for gas, for the Internet. Well, the Internet, it seems to me, is
no longer as interesting as simply hot water, heating, electricity, gas. You
are not even providing for the easing of the payments for the people. And how
should the people live? What on? Should they go beg? If so, almost half of the
population of Uzbekistan will be on the streets doing just that. Please explain
to us, what should we do. How should we live on?
Now we need to get the children to
school - there is no money. Will online teaching be provided? We are going to
have a generation of uneducated children. I am telling you, we will have an
uneducated generation. Because online teaching is utter rubbish. And some may wave
their hands and says: “Oh, this is so great” - yes, maybe it is great that the
child is at home, but you know that he is at home, but you also know that he is
not learning. He needs control, he needs to be explained thirty-three times.
What will happen next? Now majority of Universities will teach online. What
kind of education will the Universities be providing? What should be done? Please
explain this to the people.
Make some sort of normal decision.
Take matters into your own hands. Make sure no one steals. Help people. You did
not declare this an emergency. Because even people already know that if you
declare it an emergency, you must pay a certain amount of money. But there is
no money. But you are borrowing funds. And who will pay them back? People
again? And this money has already been plundered along the way. The funds have been
siphoned off even before they were received.
Shavkat Miromonovich, please help
your people. The people are indeed requesting it. They are requesting, asking.
What will happen next? Please help us.
I know that many people wrote to you
- both by posting video messages and angry posts.
I have no negative attitude towards
you. I have a negative attitude, probably, towards our Khokims, ministers.
Sometimes what they voice and say on the air, as they say, it is all taken out
of context. It feels like they all went to the same school and graduated from
the same institute. Because, I do not know how much brains power one should
have to say such nonsense, to make it up.
So what are we going to do? What
should the people do? Please help, because as soon as the first flights open,
it seems to me that several million people will be missing. Maybe even half of
the population of Uzbekistan, because many will leave, they do not see a future
here - neither for themselves, nor for their children.
No future. You promise us a peaceful
sky overhead. Well, yes - blue sky. And then what?
People have nothing to eat. Look what
is happening in the regions. People have no money, and you impose fines. No
mask? Fined. Did you go by car? Fined. A bike? Fined. Where should people get
their money from?
You want to lock us down at home.
This is awful. We cannot do it, nor can our children stay at home for a long
time. Especially those with small children. They need walks. Parks are closed, they
can only walk near their homes, where patrolling cars drive around.
So what should the people do? Shavkat
Miromonovich, please help us. Because, I cannot be sure, but this is probably
the last straw for the people. Our patience is running out. Please take some
drastic action. Please help us.
I would like to thank you for the
fact that, probably, someone will bring this to your attention, and you will
see it and draw a conclusion for yourself.
Thank you all and goodbye.
