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
- Image
2011-07-28 - Sub Rosa Endorsement
2011-07-26 - The Naked Truth
2011-06-12
- Image
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
People’s Referendum (1)
Hope everyone had a nice New Year’s.
Following up on the referendum to allow Nazarbayev to remain in power until 2020, which requires 200 000 signatures to be approved, one group in Almaty reports that they already have 300,000 signatures in support of the referendum. However they will continue to collect signatures until 11 Jan and predict that they will have 2 million signatures by then.
Note that these signatures are just to hold the national referendum. Once the signatures are confirmed by the Central Election Committee, the President has the power to issue an edict to hold the referendum and the people will vote on the question of whether to extend the President’s term or not. From my reading of the Constitution of Kazakhstan, it is unclear whether the President must approve the referendum or whether he still has the power of veto.
I have heard from several people that signatures are being collected in the Ministries and other national companies as well as at schools with employees, teachers, and parents of students being told to sign the petition or suffer the consequences.
Meanwhile, members of opposition parties have condemned the measure as either unnecessary or undemocratic. The US Embassy in Astana also made a statement claiming the measure would be “a setback for democracy in Kazakhstan.”.
And interestingly, Yermukhamet Yertysbayev, the President’s political advisor believes the measure will intensify political rivalry rather than stabilizing it. Conventional wisdom might suggest that if Nazarbayev is to remain in power until 2020, rival political groups would stand down. Yertysbayev suggests that in fact the move will force the opposition to unite in order to gain some ground in Parliament at least.
However he supports the motion as a guarantee of stability, a stable Central Asia being good for the world.
Happy New Years! (Comments Off on Happy New Years!)
Still my favorite Kazakhstan New Year's decoration ever
Survey of Expats About Life in Kazakhstan (12)
Kazakhnomad has yet another interesting series of posts up on a survey she did of expats living in Kazakhstan. If you start from that post and go forward in time, you’ll be able to see all the questions and results.
I thought it might be fun to answer the questions myself as well, or at least the ones that she put up on her blog. I can really only give my impressions of life in Astana because this is the only part of Kazakhstan I have ever really lived in. I’ve also linked the questions to the post where Kazakhnomad talks about her results.
What is the most common question asked of you by Kazakhs?
Are you married? Is your family here or in the US? Are you a volunteer or do you work for the Embassy? Are you parents still alive? Is it cold in the US like in Astana?
Kazakhstan can be a challenging place to live, even for the locals, what bothers you as a foreigner the most?
The brusqueness of people on the street and lack of common courtesy, lack of customer service, things break all the time and fixing them is difficult, the cold weather, the constant changing as stores close or move to new locations, company and government policies change constantly so you never know what is going on. (more…)
President For Life, Or At Least Until 2020 (2)
As has been widely reported, a movement to keep Nazarbayev as President until 2020 is underway. The “Initiative Group For Conducting a National Referendum to Extend the Powers of the First President of Kazakhstan” met on December 23 Ust-Kamenogorsk and called for a referendum that would extend Nazarbayev’s term until 2020, in other words giving him another 7 year term. Currently, the next Presidential election should be held in 2012, although as RFE/RL points out, the previous two (and only) elections were both held early.
The initiative is supported by the Akim of Almaty Akhmetzhan Yesimov, and well known poet and linguist, Olzhas Suleymenov. The rationale appears to be that there is no other contender for the post and that everyone knows Nazarbayev will win anyway.
For the referendum, which has no precedent as far as I know, the group would need to be registered with the Central Election Committee and they would have to collect 200,000 signatures in support of their idea. Whether the people themselves would vote on this, or the Mashlikhats or who exactly, is unclear.
This initiative comes after this year’s amendments to the Constituion which among other things allow Nazarbayev to run for President without any term limits.
Interestingly at the moment, the people only vote directly for the Mashlikhats, which are local advisory bodies, and for the President. Local executive heads are appointed by the President. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President. Ministers are appointed by the Prime Minister. Senators are voted for by the lower house of Parliament and appointed by the President. The people do vote for parties now in the lower house of Parliament but not directly for the MPs themselves. So objectively it will reduce the people’s voice in the running of their government, for better or for worse.
Others have pointed out that in 2020, Nazarbayev will be 80 years old and have been in power since 1989, almost half of his life.
Commentators have also noted that this initiative came to the public after the OSCE summit, possibly to avoid embarrassing questions from foreign leaders and journalists. And it would be hard not to connect it to
Deputy Calls for Solution to Evolution/Creation Debate (1)
I never did get around to posting about the Kazakh student who beat up 2 men in the UK after hearing them make a joke about Borat.
I then failed to post about member of Parliament in Kazakhstan, Bekbolat Tleukhan’s reaction to the attack, mainly that he blames Sascha Baron Cohen because “our students abroad are hurting in their heart,” and believes that some kind of action against Borat should be taken. Many people noted that since the movie came out 5 years ago, it’s a bit late. Incidentally, within Kazakhstan Tleukhan is most famous for allegedly having four wives as per Muslim law. But that’s all just rumours.
Now, Tleukhan wants the education system of Kazakhstan to decide who is right, Darwin or religion. Classes in religion have recently been added to the Kazakhstan school curriculum and although many observers feel these classes are designed to keep students from becoming extremists, according to Tleukhan, they are confusing students who learn in religion class that man is created and then learn in biology that man is a product of evolution: “Let decide once and for all, are we descended from monkeys or made from clay. We either get rid of religious educations or abandon the teachings of Darwin.”
He has asked the Minister of Education to resolve the ages-old contentious debate once and for all. Personally, I am looking forward to hearing the answer from the Minister of Education. I assume if he choses evolution, everyone in the world will finally abandon religion and become scientists. If he choses religion, then we can give up on all secular education. One hopes that someone in the government will then solve the problem of which religion is the one true religion so we can get on with our lives.
The Eurasianet article lists a few of Tleukhan’s other contributions to the education debate such as why notebooks that students use in school have pictures of guns or Dima Bilan on them, and a call to ban a Russian literature book because some of the literary works propagate Christianity and paganism.
Merry Western Christmas (Comments Off on Merry Western Christmas)
For Christmas, a closeup of one of my favorite winter wallpapers. Although the designer, Vlad Gerasimov lives in Irkutsk, Russian and not Kazakhstan, the snow leopard is the official symbol of Astana and one unofficial symbol of the whole country.
So Merry Western American Christmas. May Santa Claus get you everything you want!
The President’s Speech at Nazarbayev University (2)
Besides the appeal to scientists to to stop the effects of aging, which made world news, Nazarbayev did have other things to say in his speech to students at Nazarbayev University last week.
Kazakhnomad has some of her notes up and it’s worth going through. I think the admissions that Kazakhstan is behind in the areas of education, innovation and scientific research are notable. I do think the general “pick-the-winner” strategy that Kazakhstan tries to follow in innovation, which the President hinted at in referring to the need for more practical science, is misguided. One never knows where the next practical breakthrough will come from so -you need basic research as well as commercial-minded research. But overall it’s nice to hear some criticism of Kazakhstan coming from up to.
Also, as someone involved in education in Kazakhstan, I was happy to hear reference to people learning problem-solving skills. I don’t know if it’s the Soviet-inherited mentality or Kazakh culture, but planning for the worst and having a back-up plan are not generally part of people’s or organizations’ skill sets here.
Things That Make Me Happy (2)
There’s been a number of small things that have recently become available in Astana that make life a bit easier or more pleasant for me and I suspect for a number of expats out there. I’ve been meaning to post on them, but they’ve tended to get forgotten. So I thought I’d just make one post on all of them.
Nice Things for Expats in Astana
in no particular order
- Guns and Roses Pub opened recently where Northwind used to be (at the bottom of Republic Avenue, near Ramstor). Good band, nice atmosphere, and burgers and sandwiches and bar/pub food for fairly reasonable prices. Waitresses even seem to speak good English so expats be not afraid.
- Tengri FM, 104.5 on your FM dial at least in Astana. This station has actually been broadcasting for a few months now but unlike other stations, it pretty much sticks to rock and roll, well over 50% of it being English-language bands. It’s also the only radio station I’ve heard yet here that has DJs who actually talk about the music they play. In the evenings, I often catch one DJ who discusses the meanings of the songs, their history and interesting facts about the bands.
- Chicken Filets and Nuggets! Suddenly back on the market after 3 or 4 years, you can get quality, yummy, chicken nuggets and filets in your grocer’s freezer. I’ve been buying Willma brand frozen chicken, and they are super yummy. The nuggets also come with cheese or with cheese and mushrooms (which are the best ones). And they appear to be actual hunks of meat instead of ground-up processed, shaped meat paste. Plus they are already cooked, so you don’t have to worry about undercooking them. Much thanks to Chris Merriman for introducing these to me.
- EDIT: Metro, which I failed to mention in my Shopping in Astana post, is another nice amenity for expats (and local people as well). For those out there who are comforted by mega-stores in the vein of Costco and Sam’s Club, Metro will make you feel at home. It’s nice to be able to buy a bunch of stuff from food to TVs to kitchen equipment in one place and if you buy in bulk, the prices are definitely lower than other stores (although often not by much). I am particularly fond of what I guess you would call the ethnic food aisle, which features Mexican food and Asian food, Shop Rite cake mix, and other things us Westerners enjoy. The variety of cuts of meat is a bit more varied there too and so is the selection of frozen foods. You can also get whole wheat pasta and stuff not available elsewhere. Metro doesn’t have everything I would want in a shop, but it has most things.
It is a bit hard to find, despite the signs about town. It’s outside the city, though not too far and unfortunately none of the Google maps seem to be updated to show it. But if you go out Ablai Khan Avenue (which goes on to become the Karaganda road, I believe), you’ll eventually see it on the right.
- EDIT 2: Podcasts! Podcasts obviously don’t have to do with life in Astana but as an expat, I love being able to listen to my favorite radio shows. I miss weekend mornings listening to Car Talk, Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me, and A Prairie Home Companion. And now I can listen to them even here on the harsh steppes of Kazakhstan. That definitely eases the homesickness.
That’s all I can remember for the moment. Anything else you have to add? What can you get in Kazakhstan that makes life more like home?
Make of This What You Will (5)
A child born at the end of November was named Summit in honor of the OSCE summit. I had heard of a child named Summitkhan so I wonder if this is the same child or if there’s another one out there.
Frankly, I would hate my parents (or in this case, my grandparents, since they’re the ones who gave the name to this child) if they gave me such an odd name. I wonder if 15 years from now, when he starts university, if anyone will remember the summit (or when it was). How often will he have to explain his name?
On the other hand, in communist times, he might have been named one of these Soviet Names, like: Dazdrasmygda short (relatively speaking for Da zdravstvuet smychka goroda i derevni (Glory to the ties between the city and the countryside) or Leundezh: Lenin umer, no delo ego zhivet (Lenin died but his work continues)!
Perhaps there is a Osprislak out there somewhere OBSE Sammit privoz slavu Kazakhstanu (The OSCE summit brought glory to Kazakhstan).
KazPad (5)
I had heard that Massimov asked the cabinet of Ministers to buy iPads but hadn’t realized it had started a mad trend.
While I don’t think it’s a bad idea for the government to embrace technology, the reason given (that he wants to send them messages at any time) doesn’t seem to justify the expense. Every one in Kazakhstan has a cellphone. All the higher government officials have the latest Nokia, and iPhone and probably an extra cellphone or two lying around. So they can be reached by email, text, and of course, phone calls 24 hours a day. So I’m not clear what the iPads add in terms of value.
A second issue is security. I know Blackberry’s come with heavy-duty encryption which is why Obama gets to have one. I don’t think iPads are so heavily encrypted. I won’t encourage any techies out there want to test my theory by setting something up near the government buildings but perhaps the KNB or KazSatNet should do some field testing first. Also you may remember this incident when 11400 iPad users may have been put at risk due to a security breach at Apple. Now one assumes that the government has already thought of this, and probably wouldn’t reveal any extra security precautions they might be taking.
Now, I know many people who work in government who would love to see more technology use and less paperwork. From what I hear, printing out memos and orders and graphs and databases for non-tech savy bosses, or because every document has to have a stamp and a signature on it, wastes a lot of paper and time. So if government start getting into the habit of sharing files electronically, it would cut way back on the ecological impact of the bureaucracy and increase efficiency. So let’s hope these reforms are moving in the direction of less paper and barriers and more free flows of information.
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