June 30, 2015
The Government Turns to Digits. 2
2015 year – The Year of Care for the Senior Generation.. 2
The Elderly Carry Kindness and Light 2
What is interesting for Louvre in the Art Museum of Uzbekistan. 5
TECHNOLOGIES
The Government Turns to Digits
The government of Uzbekistan jointly with the State Tax Committee (STC) has been working on a draft resolution on the creation of a single registration center for electronic digital signatures.
The document should introduce a new procedure: offering easy access to all kinds of services provided by the government and bodies of economic authorities, local authorities and commercial banks, digital signatures will be issued by a single center of registration of digital signature keys – the Research Information Center of New Technologies of the State Tax Committee.
The new center is planning to launch a Unified System of Identification and Authentication using digital signatures to ensure its smooth and trouble-free operation, as well as information security, by January 1, 2016.
(Source: «Uzbekistan Today» newspaper)
2015 year – The Year of Care for the Senior Generation
The Elderly Carry Kindness and Light
The enormous creative work in all areas of social life in Uzbekistan is aimed at protecting human interests, ensuring family welfare, and bringing up children as decent members of the society.
The declaration of 2015 as The Year of Attention and Care for the Senior Generation bears testimony to the attention lavished on everyone, all the people living next to us.
AS A NATIONAL PROVERB GOES: The house is reigned by kindness and light if it is inhabited by elderly people”. The level of cultural development of any society is primarily determined by the true concern for the older generation. Manifestation of respect and esteem in Uzbekistan is an integral part of spiritual life.
Indeed, the atmosphere of kindness and light, warmth and prosperity is common in the households where elders live, since the achievements of the present day are regarded as a huge merit of our parents and grandparents. Suffice it to recall how they defended their Motherland, our homeland from the horrors of the ‘brown plague’ during the war of 1941-1945, bravely worked behind enemy lines, showing unprecedented dedication, restored the republic, raised its economic, cultural and spiritual potential. We are all deeply indebted to them.
Uzbekistan is home to about 2.9 million people above 60. Close care for veterans, for every elderly person, enriching the lives of our loved ones, filling them with joy and happiness is our mission in the current year and for the future.
Since the first years of independence Uzbekistan has been pursuing a large-scale policy of development of the social sector, providing veterans with targeted support. For example, the May 30, 2011 Presidential Decree on additional measures for further intensification of social protection of the lonely elderly people, pensioners and people with disabilities for 2011-2015 has scaled up the efforts to raise the quality of life of older people, ensuring their welfare, and strengthening the logistical capacity of medical and social institutions. As of 2015, veterans of war and labor front of 1941-1945 are welcome to get free treatment at health resorts of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, Council of Federation of Trade Unions, government and economic authorities once a year and at optional time. Every year on the threshold of Remembrance and Honor Day, President Islam Karimov issues a Decree stipulating financial encouragement for participants and the disabled of the World War Two, which is financial, spiritual and psychological support for them. This year, every veteran received a one-off cash award of 700,000 soums (currency rates of CB RU from 30.06.2015 1$= 2555.60 soums).
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BROAD RANGE OF MEASURES on further raising the level and quality of life of the elderly people, extension of their financial and moral support, improvement of social, pension and health care was empowered by the national program of the Year of Attention and Care for the Senior Generation.
The document reinforces the targeted social protection and support of the elderly with the priority to the veterans of war and labor front of 1941-1945, expands the list of social and personal services for the elderly, especially the lonely elderly and people with disabilities.
For example, this year, each participant of the war of 1941-1945 is provided with free domestically produced TV and mobile phone, free 60 minutes of local and long-distance outgoing calls per month without a subscription fee. Veterans of war and labor front, heading for the health resorts, are entitled with a free railway travel once a year.
The elderly have received and are using the opportunity of free access to cinemas, theaters, museums, concert performances and other cultural and enlightenment events. ‘Asr Bilan Yuzma-Yuz’ (Face to Face with the Epoch) rallies and other initiatives honor the people aged 100 years or older.
The lonely elderly and those in need of social support are covered by the campaign that provides them with furniture and household items, clothing, fiction, and sets of table games.
Representatives of the older generation are also invited to tour historical sites in each region of the country, and to the regional contests like the ‘Best Mahalla’s Festive Area’, and the ‘Older Generation as a Family Support’.
The national program the Year of Attention and Care for the Senior Generation has invested a total of 2.25 trillion soums and $229.6 million of equivalent for the implementation of these noble deeds.
ONE OF THE PRIORITIES OF THE NATIONAL PROGRAM comes to raising the level and quality of health and social services for veterans and the elderly, expansion of preventive measures, enhancement of coverage and accessibility of modern methods of treatment.
The new year has started with the medical examination of the elderly in the rural health centers and family health centers across the country. It was carried out by general practitioners with the involvement of employees of central district clinics. Together with specialists from the leading republican specialized medical centers and medical institutes, general practitioners reached every one of 150,000 old people living in remote and inaccessible areas of the republic. The doctors examined the seniors domiciliary in case if they could not visit a hospital for health reasons. This way the veterans of war and labor front of 1941-1945, pensioners, the seniors with disabilities and the lonely elderly were fully covered with in-depth medical examination.
Treatment of the examined people is currently underway at medical institutions. Nearly 3,000 elderly patients with complicated diseases of the joints, eyes, cardiovascular and other diseases that require the high-tech treatment, have been forwarded to the republican hospitals. The patients with the most common diseases undergo treatment at regional multidisciplinary medical facilities. The Ministry of Health and republican medical institutions have been working on the introduction of advanced diagnostic and treatment technologies at regional medical centers. To date, they have already performed about 300 demonstration operations and over 100 master classes.
The state takes care of those who receive outpatient treatment. The procedure of preferential and free provision of medicines has been streamlined. The list of drugs provided to lonely pensioners and veterans of the war and labor front of 1941-1945 was replenished with modern drugs for treatment of various diseases.
As of 2015, war and labor veterans have received the opportunity to improve health once a year at the country’s best health resorts that provide special conditions for leisure with optimal use for health. Several thousand people have already used this opportunity.
Different kinds of social organizations have been contributing to the implementation of the national program. For instance, ‘Soghlom Avlod Uchun’ International Charity Fund organized mobile medical and social aid teams to conduct in-depth medical examination of the population, particularly veterans, women and children, at the place of their residence. The awareness raising campaigns on healthy lifestyles have been organized for the benefit of the population. As a result of such actions, more than 95,000 residents of Karakalpakstan, the regions and the Tashkent city were examined in five months of 2015.
ANOTHER IMPORTANT MISSION OF THE NATIONAL PROGRAM is to bring the organization of life and leisure of seniors up to a new level, establish communication centers, interest clubs and conditions for physical culture and sports for them in districts and local communities.
Recreation parks are in the spotlight. The program for 2015 schedules the construction of 29 new and reconstruction of 18 parks, six parks are overhauled and three are repaired. All the country’s 225 parks are currently arranging special areas for relaxation and comfort of the elderly, including conversation areas, grounds for playing chess and checkers, reading national and regional newspapers and magazines.
Culture and leisure centers have been streamlining their activities as well. The Ministry of Culture and Sport and its social partners focus on supporting the folklore and ethnographic groups that comprise veterans, as they contribute to the preservation of traditions and customs of the peoples of Uzbekistan. Such teams are assisted in organizing concerts, purchasing musical instruments and costumes, providing facilities and rooms for rehearsals and performances. Culture and leisure centers also offer communication and interest clubs, where the elderly can watch popular movies and listen to classical music.
A TEAHOUSE is turning into a kind of a unique center of attraction for the older generation under the national program. Elders come there to talk, share the latest news, and watch special television programs, plays and films, so their establishment has been intensified this year.
For example, a teahouse for seniors has been opened in the Akhmad Farghoni Park in Fergana. The comfortable place has become a nice gift for the veterans, because nothing can be compared with a heartfelt conversation over a cup of tea, playing chess, and watching TV with friends. Such teahouses are currently being built for elders in all districts and local communities of the region.
‘Golden Heritage’, a communication center for the elderly, has opened in Namangan. It was built by the regional office of the ‘Oltin Meros’ International Charity Fund with the support of sponsors. Occupying nearly a hectare, the buildings in the national architectural style and aiwans (verandas) around the fountain provide venerable mothers and fathers with nice conditions for relaxation and entertaining conversations. The rooms are equipped with a TV, a fridge and other accessories. The amateurs playing chess and checkers, reading newspapers and magazines, are offered separate rooms. There are tables for table tennis. Many fruit and decorative trees and the microclimate have caught the seniors’ fancy.
The authorities improve conditions for active lifestyles. This issue has been addressed not only through the organization of competitions among the elderly in various sports. Every citizens’ assembly at a local community runs permanent health groups for the elderly, the people with disabilities and other categories of the population on the basis of the nearby sports facilities, educational institutions, medical offices, physical culture rooms at family polyclinics, as well as special sports facilities in festivity areas and maintenance centers. Local communities have been actively involved in the implementation of objectives of the Year of Attention and Care for the Senior Generation throughout the country. For example, it has become a good tradition in Urikzor Mahalla of Yakkasaray district of Tashkent to organize trips to ancient cities and places of worship for the elderly, war and labor veterans. Respect and comprehensive support for the elderly, incorporation of their rich life experience in upbringing of the younger generation has been a priority.
Located on the territory of the local community, a small teahouse was fitted out with furniture, supplied with radio and periodicals. The Social Support Commission of the citizens’ assembly has been strongly supporting the lonely elderly citizens, veterans of war and labor, ensuring the timely payment of pensions, issuance of benefits and other social allowances. For instance, seriously ill elders Mrs. Sodikova, Mr. Mirrahimov and Mrs Umarova were assisted in timely payment of utility bills and treatment. Young men and women, the members of the Diligent Youth Club, regularly visit the elderly with no survivor care, help them with housekeeping.
The noble initiatives on assisting the older people have been carried out across the country. Respect for the elderly is a century-old feature of the Uzbek nation. It was preserved in the communities and has been developing and acquiring new dimensions.
The implementation of the national program the Year of Attention and Care for the Senior Generation has been gaining momentum. Each day brings positive news: a new festive area has been opened in a local community for the interesting leisure of elders, a meeting of two generations or a trip to Samarkand, an exhibition or competition. The unique document is designed not only for 2015, but for the years ahead, since all the attention and care of the dear veterans, embodiment of their noble features cannot by limited to any program or certain period of time, it will be in action forever, as long as life goes, families prosper, and the experience of the older generation is demanded in the upbringing of the youth. The feeling of deep satisfaction and gratitude for the attention and care is reflected in a peaceful and quiet life of people, and in their confidence in the future.
(Source: «Uzbekistan Today» newspaper)
Musuems
What is Interesting for Louvre in the Art Museum of Uzbekistan
The Louvre Museum has expressed interest in presenting the Paris public the sculpture of the Prince and Princess from Halchayan kept in the State Art Museum of Uzbekistan.
“These sculptures dating from the 1st century B.C. were found by a group of archeologists on the territory of Northern Bactria in the upper reaches of Surkhandarya River during the excavation of the rulers’ palace at the site of ancient settlement Halchayan in 1960-1963. They worked under the leadership of prominent archeologist Galina Pugachenkova,” says Vasila Fayziyeva, director of the museum.
The following information can be found in the works of well-known academician V.Masson about these masterpieces of fine art, “They were located in a gallery passing at the height of three meters and reflected the civic and religious nature of the art. The sculptures of a ruler, his spouse and a whole number of courtiers were lodged in the central part of the exposition. Divine deities Mira, Nike and an unknown bearded deity were placed over them. Remaining walls were decorated either with walking processions, or galloping horsemen, or scenes of Dionysian cult. The verve and expressiveness distinguish the Halchayan sculptures from other sculptures of the time. They hold different poses, free turn and have much resemblance with their portrait images.”
“These expositions enjoy tremendous popularity with art lovers,” says Vasila Fayziyeva, “since they represent the epoch of antiquity when two civilizations – local Central Asian and Hellenistic – fused together for the first time in Central Asia. That was the period when their creative interaction was more efficient and fruitful than ever. The sculptures of the Prince and the Princess are fruits of this historical process.”
(Source: «Uzbekistan Today» newspaper)
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