KZBlog is going down (2)
After some thought, I have decided not to renew KZBLog’s lease. As you may have noticed, I don’t do a lot of posting here anymore. I don’t have time to blog regularly. Thus I am taking the site down–it does generate some ad revenue but not as much as it costs to keep it up. […]
Culture
- Yurts Are High Fashion and Slum Fashion Too
2011-12-05 - Apples, Sure. But THC is from Kazakhstan too?
2011-10-05 - Naked Man Pot
2011-09-23
- Yurts Are High Fashion and Slum Fashion Too
Resources
- Oh, CNN
2012-07-21 - What Do You Know About Kazakhstan?
2012-07-19 - Books for Kazakh Students
2011-11-06
- Oh, CNN
Politics
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2011-07-28 - Sub Rosa Endorsement
2011-07-26 - The Naked Truth
2011-06-12
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News
- KZBlog is going down
2013-09-10 - Oh, CNN
2012-07-21 - Repentence
2012-07-15
- KZBlog is going down
Fun
- What Do You Know About Kazakhstan?
2012-07-19 - Yurts Are High Fashion and Slum Fashion Too
2011-12-05 - House Hunters Bishkek
2011-12-02
- What Do You Know About Kazakhstan?
Tourism
- Asian Games Torch
2011-01-12 - Wikitravel
2010-08-07 - ALZHIR, the Soviets and Democracy
2010-07-30
- Asian Games Torch
Life in KZ
- Photo Gallery: Almaty Subway
2011-12-07 - Healthcare and the Private Sector
2011-11-30 - Naked Man Pot
2011-09-23
- Photo Gallery: Almaty Subway
Redbubble
Voter Turnout by Region (4)
The Central Election Committee already has voter turnout by region up on their site. No big surprises. Total turnout is reported as 89.9%. The lowest turnout was in Almaty at 68.5% but surprisingly Astana, the capital, had the next lowest, with 69.1%. Every oblast except Pavlodar reported over 90%.
And reports are already out that exit polls show Nazarbayev winning with 94.82%. Gani Kasymov came in second with 2.17%. The Communist Party candidate, Zhambyl Akhmetbekov, had 1.57% and Mels Yeleusizov came in last 1.44 percent, according to the poll. It could have been 1.450001 if he had decided to vote for himself. The exit poll was conducted by the Association of Sociologists and Political Scientists of Kazakhstan. Official results are predicted to be coming in before noon today.
RT @Ericamarat: Kazakhstan soc… (Comments Off on RT @Ericamarat: Kazakhstan soc…)
RT @Ericamarat: Kazakhstan social media was surprisingly (or maybe not so) quiet on the day of presidential elections #sailau2011 #electkz
Technology for Education (Comments Off on Technology for Education)
One of the things I’ve been trying to do as an educational consultant here is teach teachers to use technology, but in a smart way. I’ve become less of a fan of Smartboards or Active whiteboards here because they’ve been implemented in most classrooms like slightly more convenient projectors. The ability to use pens to make notes or click on the board is being largely ignored by a lot of teachers. And forget about giving students the pens to work on the boards themselves. Administrators tend to hate that. Not to be too disparaging. There’s a lot of potential with the technology and a lot of teachers are trying.
One area that I think has a lot of potential is using smartphones in the classroom. A lot of teachers have smartphones, whether they know it or not. iPhones and Android or Windows phones are expensive here, although very popular, but Nokia dominates the market and a lot of people don’t realize that their $200-300 Nokia phone has tons of functionality. You can go paperless by putting lesson plans and readings on the phone. There’s options to record voice and video, or assign students to record themselves at home. And I’ve been looking into some optoma projectors that will let you project images from your phone to the screen. You don’t need a computer in class at all.
Any other good implementations of technology in the classrooms here?
Gift Giving (Comments Off on Gift Giving)
March is a crazy month in Kazakhstan for holidays, eating out and gift-giving. There’s the 8th of May, International Women’s Day. There’s Nauryz on the 22nd and 23rd. This year they gave us five days off so lots of chances to be invited and invite people to dinner. We’re coming off of the 23rd of February, which is not an official holiday, but many people remember it as Soviet Army Day or Men’s Day. And this year we of course had the elections, which many hospitable Kazakhs see as yet another excuse to make beshbarmak and invite a million guests over. I’m not complaining too much about a chance to eat til I explode and see friends and family. But it has been heavy on the wallet.
Giving gifts when you go over to someone’s house is almost mandatory, no matter how close you are to the person. And one problem is that while you can just give flowers or chocolate or vodka to the hosts, it’s best if you have a gift for everyone who’s going to be there–especially for Women’s Day or Men’s Day or similar holidays. Meaning that if unexpected guests show up, you sometimes have to hope you have enough cash in your wallet to cover everyone!
Empire Souvenirs has definitely dominated the expensive gifts market in Kazakhstan, to the point where most people we know already have anything they might want (within reason–the gold and gem-studded chessboards are a bit out of our reach). I stumbled on this site which does Personal Creations keychains and other similar personalized gifts. Not sure if they would be able to get things to Kazakhstan in a timely manner, but it’s nice that you can type in the names you want. A lot of personalized items aren’t up on Kazakh names. Try finding an Aigul necklace or bracelet outside Kazakhstan!
In any case, if anyone has suggestions for inexpensive gifts that will still be appreciated by the recipient, please do share. Because now we’re already saving up for the first of May.
RT @KarimMassimov: Люблю … (Comments Off on RT @KarimMassimov: Люблю …)
RT @KarimMassimov: Люблю тайский бокс. Сегодня был замечательный турнир на кубок Президента РК http://pm.kz/ru/blog/155
Boycott the Vote Campaign Expands (Comments Off on Boycott the Vote Campaign Expands)
In my earlier election wrap up post, I failed to mention any press covering the opposition’s campaign to get voters to boycott the vote. If there really was an 84% voter turnout, then the campaign clearly failed.
However the message did reach one unexpected constituency: puppies.
Elections Media Round Up (Comments Off on Elections Media Round Up)
The polls are closing in Kazakhstan’s snap Presidential election. According to Usen Zhetenov of the Central Election Committee voter turnout was around 84% [RU], compared to 74% in 2005 when Nazarbayev won with 91% of the votes.
According to Kairat Sazhanov, the Central Election Committee representative in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, turnout abroad was 44.2% [RU], significantly less. Voters outside the borders vote at the embassies, often several days before election day.
While the administration brags that young people and pensioners voted first, other see this as a sign of coercion.
The EU Parliament has already weighed in saying elections were much more transparent this time around: “‘If anyone expected me to criticize the elections, then I have to disappoint them,’ Latvian MP said at a press-briefing.”
Eurasianet has a nice article citing a number of voters if you want to get a feel for what the people think. A few revealing quotes:
“I voted for the leader. I don’t believe there to be any alternative candidates,” said Muslima, a businesswoman who gave only her first name. “He does a lot for the people, though there are minuses, to be honest.” Among them she named corruption scandals involving Nazarbayev’s relatives and a lack of political debate….
First-time voter Zhibek Iskhanova, 18, said she’d voted for Nazarbayev because there was “no worthy competition.” “We’re not developing badly from a financial and economic point of view,” she said. “I’m not interested in politics.”Another first-time voter, 20-year-old Almaz Mukashev, said he’d voted “for the leader.” Why? “I don’t know.”
Student Olzhas Smailov, also voting for the first time, said he wanted to vote against all candidates and had “a small shock” when he realized that the voting system didn’t allow that option. “I don’t think this was a real presidential race. There was no worthy opponent,” Smailov said after casting a blank voting slip into the ballot box in protest.
China’s Xhinhua has some nice photos of a voting station in Almaty.
And in my nomination for funniest item of the week, at least one candidate announced that he had voted for Nazarbayev, instead of himself. The Moscow Times quotes Mels Yeleusizov as saying: “He is the winner. It was kind of a sports event,…He has won, and I shake his hand.”
Preliminary results will be announced Monday morning.
Polls Are Open (Comments Off on Polls Are Open)
As the polls open for the snap Presidential election, Reuters has an interesting article surveying opinions in Aksu Ayuly, a village of 2000. Nice to hear what is being said outside of Almaty and Astana where journalists, local and international alike, often don’t bother to tread.
Meanwhile, the Central Election Committee promises to have preliminary results by tomorrow morning and final results by the 12th.
No reason to expect Nazarbayev not to win, so what commentators are looking at is the voter turnout. The opposition has been running a campaign to get people to boycott the vote and the administration in turn has been running a “get out the vote” style campaign.
Baikonur at Risk? (5)
Russia has announced that it is building a new spaceport in the Far East of Russia near the border with China. With the Plesetsk Cosmodrome located in the far north on the Arctic Sea, there might not be much demand for Baikanur in Kazakhstan, which has been the Russian (and Soviet) main spaceport since the space program began. In fact, The Voice of Russia is reporting that by 2020, Baikanur will only be used for 11% of Russia’s space launches. While the US and other countries also use Baikanur, this news can’t be good for Kazakhstan which gets a fair amount of income from renting the space port out.
On the other hand, if Kazakhstan builds up its education and training and there are enough skilled workers for all the tech jobs necessary to run a cosmodrome, this might be good news as Kazakhstan takes control of the infrastructure in its own territory instead of handing it over to a foreign power.
0.32 Percent (1)
A lot of press in Kazakhstan has been talking about Mels Yeleusizov, the presidential candidate for the Green Party, as if no one had ever heard of him. But in going over my archives, I discovered that Mr. Yeleusizov won 0.32% of the vote in 2005. So he’s not a complete unknown.
And according to a political science at Moscow University, Yeleusizov will take second place in this year’s elections.
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