After half a year of preparation, we are proud to announce the first issue for the new online magazine Thinking-East.Net. You are witnessing the birth of a fresh, pioneering project for bringing together young academics from around the world to reflect upon issues pertaining to North Africa, the Near and Middle East and Central Asia. It is the dream and hope of this website that by offering these young thinkers space to publish their ideas, unrestrained from the agendas of established publishers, bit by bit we can effect positive changes in our troubled era.

This month in Thinking-East.Net:

Perceptions of Identity - Luli in Uzbekistan
Nafisa Hasanova (22, from Uzbekistan ) dares to violate taboo: she visits the Luli, Central Asian Romas, whose community has been marginalised in her hometown of Samarkand . However, in a tragic irony, the Luli themselves have a distorted perception of their own identity, and are on the verge of losing a century-old tradition. If communication within their own community and with the larger society surrounding them does not improve, says Nafisa, their future is bleak

Resources and Conflict - Water in Central Asia
With water becoming scarcer each passing year, the regional security of Central Asia is increasingly endangered. Aidar Amanzhulov (20, from Kazakhstan ) sets the stage for understanding a complex issue with wide-reaching implications for future global stability.

Uzbekistan: 90 percent voter turnout guaranteed
Olesya Ryzhova (19, from Uzbekistan ) draws a grim picture of the upcoming elections in Uzbekistan . Beyond usual complaints of ‘elections falling short of international standards’, Olesa sheds light on the diabolical details in the election code that will prevent free and fair elections from taking place.

The Mosque and the State in Tajikistan
Daler Rahimov (23, from Tajikistan ) reports from Dushanbe , where after an unprecedented blossoming of unregistered mosques, the government tries hard to regain control over the religious infrastructure. But, the remedy to this problem does not lie in bans from on high, says Daler.

Elections in Central Asia : A Question of Choice
Ahead of a wider Thinking-East.Net series on elections in Central Asia , Benjamin Paarmann (23, from Germany ) asks whether recent events in the Ukraine and in Georgia could have an impact on democratic processes in Central Asia .

Israel-Palestine - Yasser Arafat
Christopher Schwartz (23, from the United States , based in Israel-Palestine) travels physically and spiritually to Ramallah to witness the burial of the man he calls “ Palestine ’s David Ben-Gurion.” In an erudite editorial, he ponders the philosophical essence of the current Palestinian resistance movement, and comes to a controversial conclusion.

Thinking-East.Net is eternally seeking new contributors, both guest writers and permanent columnists. If you know anyone that might be interested in joining our project, please let them know about us.

In the meantime, please send us feedback—compliments, criticisms, condemnations, suggestions, sources and resources, newsworthy tidbits—and keep your eyes peeled for the next issue of Thinking-East.Net in January 2005.

Sincerely,
Benjamin Paarmann and Christopher Schwartz
Editors
Thinking-East.Net