KZBlog

I apologize for not posting more often. Mainly I’m just busier with other things. Normally I don’t like just posting links and summaries of big stories. I prefer to post stories when I have some more in-depth information or some angle or information I don’t see covered elsewhere. Or something I have a strong opinion on.

That being said, there has been a lot of news these past week or two and while I can’t editorialize on all of them, or spend hours doing research, I wanted to bring them to people’s attention, if you haven’t already gotten it anywhere else:

• Oralgaisha Omarshanova, a reporter for the newspaper Law and Justice, has been missing for three weeks. Besides the fact that she reports on corruption in business, she was also apparently investigating the Chechen family who was attacked on the 17th of March in Malovodnoye near Almaty. As has been reported, it is illegal to call events ethnic or religious conflict and reporters were very clearly reminded of this fact at the briefing about the event in Malovodnoye.
  
• Another story picked up by neweurasia is that trial by jury is being implemented in Kazakhstan. Previously, trials were presided over only by judges and there was a great deal of criticism of the justice system, particularly corruption. It is said that bribing of judges is extremely common, as well as intimidation by powerful people. At the very least a jury means more people which means more bribes or intimidation. Instituting “trial by a jury of peers” may also be seen as a step forward in democratic reform.
  
• Also, as Chris Merriman pointed out, Projects to save the Aral Sea go ahead, with Kazakhstan receiving a loan from the World Bank to focus on the northern part of the sea.
  
• However on the downside, the Caspian Sea is proving to be an environmental problem. RFE/RL reports on the 363 dead seals who washed up on Kazakhstan’s shores. There is debate whether the deaths are caused by pollutants or by warmer water which doesn’t allow ice floes to form. However it would be odd not to at least investigate the possibility that the oil industry is to blame. Interestingly, the article claims that dead seals wash up in large numbers yearly. I have never heard anything about that and neither have my friends–is that true, and if so, why is it coming out now?
  
• And finally, on the lighter side, as many blogs noted, Martha Stewart came to Kazakhstan to see her friend Charles Simonyi become the latest space tourist. Stewart participated in some of the training and apparently designed a meal for the astronauts to have in space, but she did not take into account Kazakh food when planning. Many might also remember that Martha Stewart was on the Jay Leno show with Borat a year or so ago, trying to teach him how to make a bed—and presumably trying to show she was a good sport and get the public back on her side after her legal difficulties.