KZBlog

One of Chris Merriman’s Suggestions for Kazakhstan is on seat belts and making kids at least wear seat belts in the back seat as well.

This has led me to a question that has bothered me since I came to Kazakhstan. To the Western eye, people in Kazakhstan are remarkably unconcerned with safety. People don’t take what to me seem like very basic precautions.

For example, seat belts. Until the law on seat belts in the front seat was rigorously enforced, no one wore seat belts. Many drivers ripped the seat belts out of their cars and even the car dealer that sold us the car told us how to attach the seat belts and sit on them so that the alarm wouldn’t ring but we wouldn’t have to suffer wearing a seat belt.

We’ve had several electricians come to our house and work without shutting off the fuses. Sometimes they get shocked. They swear and go back to working. It would take them (or me) 1 second to switch off the power to the house. I even have the fuses marked. Workmen in general often work without gloves, or safety goggles. Every day I see someone holding down a pipe with a foot while it’s being cut or even two guys holding a piece of wood in the air in their hands while a third person uses an electric saw on it.

As for basic traffic safety, I am shocked when people stop their cars on busy highways and open the traffic side door without looking. Or stand in the middle of the road talking to someone. People jaywalk with their baby strollers pushed in front of them. I see people walking down busy streets in Astana, next to the sidewalk.

I could list a million examples where basic safety is ignored for as best I can tell, no reason except that either 1) they can’t be bothered or 2) they think only cowards worry about safety. Now I am looking at this through Western eyes which is why I pose this question in an open forum. Am I totally insane to see this as a trend? Is there some reason for this behavior?