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
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I just unlocked the “Newbie” badge on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/apvLFI
ALZHIR, the Soviets and Democracy (Comments Off on ALZHIR, the Soviets and Democracy)
I put up a post on ALZHIR, a museum at the site of a labor camp for women near Astana. I definitely would put it on my list of things for people to do around Astana. I did notice two posts about ALZHIR from Kazakh Nomad after her trip on the 4th of July: Why We Love the US Part II and
Why We Love the US Part III. Both are great reads not only to get an idea of what is in the ALZHIR museum, but also as meditation on democracy and the suffering that Stalin inflicted on the Soviet people. Overall, Kazakh Nomad is an interesting read and I recommend adding it to any list of Kazakhstan blogs, particularly as there are a number of thoughtful essays about what it means to be an expat here.
Shumenov Holds Title (Comments Off on Shumenov Holds Title)
Another great moment for Kazakh sports. Beibut Shumenov beat challenger Viacheslav Uzelkov to defend his light-heavyweight title for the first time so far. Shumenov (9-1) beat Uzelkov (22-1) by points: 118-108 on two of the scorecards and 117-109 on the other. The first round belonged to Uzelkov and he managed to drop Shumenov but the rest of the fight was in the control of the Kazakhstany fighter who knocked the challenger down himself in round three.
Commentators seem to agree that Shumenov still has a lot to learn (In general, US trainers say that Kazakh fighters hit well but need to work on dodging and weaving), but he is a contender and well on his way to being a world champion.
Shumenov also holds the advantage over Contador and Golubev of being a born-and-bred Kazakhstany!
1 Sept Still First Day of School (Comments Off on 1 Sept Still First Day of School)
Despite the fact that next winter the Asian Winter Games will be held in Kazakhstan, Almaty education officials say the school year will start on 1 Sept as always. Rumors that the school year would start early so that winter vacation would coincide with the games (or so that pupil would have a longer winter break) are just that: rumors, apparently. I also like the side rumor that the reason schoolchildren need to be out of school during the games is so that they can work during the games.
Could you imagine being an athlete coming to Kazakhstan for the first time and being handed an 8th grader as your translator/guide? That would do more than Borat ever could to spoil the image of Kazakhstan.
So, dear parents, while it is good to be prepared early, you didn’t have to buy the uniforms or books yet. So far. Unless the akimat changes it’s mind.
Congratulations Contador and Golubev! (Comments Off on Congratulations Contador and Golubev!)
from http://www.letourdefrance.com
As everyone knows by now, Alberto Contador won the Tour de France! It was a great race between him and Andy Schleck. And teammate Alexandre Vinokourov won the 13th stage, so it was a great Tour de France for Kazakhstan! Also, for all the talk about how Armstrong was 38 years old and therefore we couldn’t expect a great performance from him, Vinokourov is 36 and he came in 16th overall! Not bad.
In other Kazakhstan sports news, Andrey Golubev recently won the ATP Hamburg tennis tournament, beating Davydenko who won it last year and was seeded at #1. Personally I think that our athletes are the best way to promote the brand image of Kazakhstan. Granted, we sort of bought Contador and Golubev, but our own Kazakhstany trainers and athletes and managers were part of that victory and hopefully, these champions are teaching our own boys how to win.
Second Grader Sues Ministry of Education (2)
According to Zakon.kz, a boy in second grade is suing the Ministry of Education for psychological damage because his textbook on road safety contains many grammatical and spelling mistakes as well as useless or confusing information. Alikhan Zhumanov of Astana has filed a suit for 100 million tenge for moral and mental damage. The father, Nariman Yesimbekov initiated the suit on his son’s behalf after watching Alikhan and his friends try to figure out the meaning of the textbook, Rules of the Road for 1-2nd Year Students. The suit reads in part:
After reading this book, I had a sense of confusion and psychological distress due to my attempts to understand this tutorial. Because the book is not written well, with a large number of mistakes and colloquial expressions, which themselves contain stylistic and grammatical errors, it is impossible to understand … This textbook, affecting my mind and causing confusion in my brain, directly distorts and disfigures the expression of my thoughts, which are transmitted to the understanding of society through the expression of my words. It forces me to be presented in front of society as an idiot who cannot express his thoughts beautifully, reasonably and culturedly.translation mine
While the lawsuit may seem frivolous and the sum of money obviously extreme, it does draw attention to some serious problems in Kazakhstan education. Zakon.kz lists many of the grammatical and spelling errors [RU] and there are quite a few. Obviously those don’t translate well so I won’t reprint them here.
But some of the material is clearly inappropriate for young students too. From page 25 of the textbook: “If the wound is visible then you should try to apply first aid yourself.” Shouldn’t first and second graders be taught to always get an adult if they are hurt, rather than try to evaluate the seriousness of an injury themselves? From page 24, “First, you must ascertain which vein or artery is bleeding.” Not that you should figure out where the blood is coming from, but you must memorize the names of all blood vessels and decide which one the blood is coming from? First? Before, say applying pressure to the wound? Or checking to see if you arm is broken? Another gem describes a traffic police officer’s baton and whistle as “weapons of his work”. That is preceded by the Zen riddle: “The traffic controller is the controller of traffic police”
I would say that this points to a larger problem: Why is traffic safety being taught to small children with a textbook at all? It seems to me that this is an area in which theory plays absolutely no role and children would learn better by seeing videos or having teachers demonstrate dangers on the board. Have kids memorize, “Look left and right before you cross” and monitor them when they come to school to make sure they follow these rules. Generally the emphasis on theoretical education and ‘objective’ measurements of knowledge in Kazakhstan fails to prepare students for real life. And traffic safety is a perfect example of an area where students need real life knowledge and no theory at all.
So hopefully this suit, which will surely be thrown out of court for lack of evidence, will shame the Ministry enough that they review their textbook writing procedures and look at what is actually being taught in schools.
We Think We Know Around How Much the Beach Might Cost (2)
I am amused that one the top stories on Zakon.kz is about the prices of the beaches at Khan Shatyr. Even though the young woman guarding the beach last week told us how much it would cost to go there, it turns out that the decision hasn’t yet been made and is going to take them a long time.
Zakon.kz cites the administrator of Khan Shatyr as saying that the beaches will open in 2 weeks, maybe a month. It appears that the decision on the prices of going to the beach is the major obstacle to it being open to the public. However, it seems like the prices I was given are more or less in the ballpark: around 7,000 tenge on weekdays and 9,000 tenge on weekends. Meaning probably more than your average citizen of Kazakhstan will want or be able to pay. So why is this making such big news?
Octopus Is Economic Threat (Comments Off on Octopus Is Economic Threat)
According to The Daily Telegraph and Kazakhstan’s Liter, the Kazakhstan Association of Bookmakers blames Paul the Octopus for a bad take from this year’s World Cup. Out of 10 billion tenge (almost $67 million) put down on World Cup matches in Kazakhstan, bookmakers only made 150 million tenge profit ($1 million), or 1.5%. They had hoped to make twice as much money.
So what happened? Apparently the blame lies on Paul who steered betters clear of making bad bets. Whether the octopus will be sued in the International Criminal Court for intention to defraud bookmakers and harm the economy of Kazakhstan has yet to be decided.
By the way, not sure what passion for sushi the Telegraph article is talking about here.
Khan Shatyr (3)
Finally made it to Khan Shatyr, which opened two weeks during the Astana Day festivities. Overall, I was disappointed that it is mainly another shopping mall. We have so many shopping malls now in Astana, and all of them are right next to each other. I really don’t see the point of having Norman Foster design another one, or what the big deal is with the temperature inside being +30C even in the winter. Our other shopping centers are plenty warm in the winter and I don’t want to go shopping in such an environment. I will say that it is a huge and very pretty shopping center. And it is jam packed with stores and fast food stands and cafes and video arcades. But the only part I really liked was the beach on the top floor. While painfully small, it did look pretty cool and the idea of swimming on the 4th or 5th floor of a giant tent is pretty cool. If I remember correctly, it will cost 10 000 tenge for adults and 8 000 tenge for children to use the beach, pool, sauna, water slide and wading pool. Which if you spend all day, isn’t too bad. It does look pretty nice. However, I had been under the impression that the beach was the whole point of this thing. For shopping, I’ll stick to Mega or Republic Street, thanks very much.
Anyway, I took some photos of the inside and outside for your viewing pleasure:
What to Expect (1)
One Peace Corps Volunteer put up a series of posts on what to bring to Kazakhstan, what you need to know, and other advice. Now these are targeted for PC volunteers so they may not apply to tourists or diplomats planning to come live in Kazakhstan, but they are an interesting point of view so I thought I’d link to them here.
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