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
Check out: http://twitthis.com… (Comments Off on Check out: http://twitthis.com…)
Check out: http://twitthis.com/pmaym7
Maybe Kalmykia Will Build the Next Alien Embassy (Comments Off on Maybe Kalmykia Will Build the Next Alien Embassy)
Apparently the President of Kalmykia, an autonomous republic in Russia, has made contact with aliens. And a member of Duma is asking 1) for his mental health to be investigated, because he must be crazy to think he met with aliens; but also 2) for a new policy on sharing classified information with aliens in case he really did!
Pork Pork Pork (Comments Off on Pork Pork Pork)
The Biotechnology Center of Kazakhstan has developed a test to tell if there is pork in your food so that Muslims can avoid eating pig inadvertently. Apparently, pork is cheaper than beef or lamb in Kazakhstan (we never buy it, so I don’t actually know) meaning that some restaurants or cafes, or maybe butchers, slip pork meat into hamburger or other meals.
Apparently it involves putting a special stick into a glass of water with some meat. If the stick changes color, it means there’s pork in your food. Since many Kazakhs do refrain from eating pork, even if they are not religious, it’s actually a pretty practical idea. And I could see it catching on among Muslims living in Western countries, where pork is used in all sorts of manufactured foods.
The new invention, which isn’t out on the market yet, has made the Odd news section, and it sounds sort of funny, but it’s actually a pretty practical idea and much more realistic than some other more ambitious projects that have been proposed such as reversing aging or nanotechnology computers.
I have to admit that I was surprised to learn recently that the sausage we had been buying at the market (April’s Doctor sausage), has pork in it. I had assumed that since so many Kazakhs don’t eat pork, that sausages would not have pork either. So I apologize to any guests who ate it without realizing they were eating pork. We didn’t know either! Of course, I didn’t need a test to find out; I just read the package.
Internet has been more or less… (Comments Off on Internet has been more or less…)
Internet has been more or less down all week. Hope they fix problems soon. Just enough time to tweet.
Unofficial (Comments Off on Unofficial)
This is just a heads-up because of all the noise regarding Americans adopting Russians. As you must surely have heard, an American woman adopted a 7-year old Russian boy and then after the boy allegedly revealed himself to be a danger to himself and others, she returned him by sitting him on a plane alone to Russia. I am certainly not in any way trying to defend this woman’s actions which were irresponsible. However some other cases are coming out of the woodwork in which adoption agencies lied about the health of the children. In one case I saw on CNN, the adoption agency claimed that a Russian doctor living in the US had personally examined the children. In fact, he had never done anything more than sign a piece of paper. This kind of lying to adoptive parents is also unconscionable. And let me be clear that I have yet to see anyone allege that the Russian government has lied about the health of children. The blame is being laid solely at the feet of adoption agencies.
It has taken me a few days to confirm this, but any one planning to adopt a child from Kazakhstan should be aware that there is an unofficial policy to give foreigners only children that are disabled in some way. I have confirmed this with a friend who works in the government. The idea is that such children will have a better life in the West than they will in Kazakhstan. This attitude is not uncommon in the former USSR either. So know that there is a good chance that if you are adopting a kid from Kazakhstan, he or she is mentally or physically handicapped.
Hopefully of course, orphanages and agencies are 100% honest and forthcoming if they are proposing to let someone adopt a disabled child, but forewarned is forearmed.
Government Should Control Use of Kazakh (2)
Stop insulting Kenyans says Irak Yelekeyev, a member of the lower house of Kazakhstan’s Parliament. He noticed that his tea from Kenya said, in Russian, “Black Tea from Kenya” but in Kazakh it said Kara Kenya Chayi or Tea from Black Kenya! According to sources who were there, Yelekeyev went on to say that this was an insult to Kenyans and to President Obama who is of Kenyan heritage and that to avoid these kinds of mistakes, the government must control the use of the Kazakh language on products and in official uses: “How can we talk about writing laws in the state language when we can’t even write food labels properly?!” he was quoted as saying by Interfax.kz
How to Write About Kazakhstan (2)
I am taking up a gauntlet here in response to a great post on Registan.net about How to Write About Afghanistan.
First, mention Borat. If the article is about some problem or something that seems funny then refer to Kazakhstan as “Boratland”, “the home of Borat”, or “Boratistan”. Otherwise, if the article is about say Presidential elections or an oil deal or just listing some economic indicators, just mention Borat and the fact that everyone knows Kazakhstan only because of Sascha Baron Cohen’s character. For extra points mention that the Kazakh government was opposed to Borat originally but that in fact the movie has increased interest in the country.
Always refer to the president as “strongman”, “tyrannical” or “authoritarian.” Invoke colorful cliches like “ruling over”, “keeping an iron fist over”, and “controlling” to describe Nazarbayev.
On the other hand, if you have ever been paid by an oil company or any branch of the government or work for a lobbying firm independent think tank, be sure to explain how there are no problems in Kazakhstan and anything that seems bad here is actually much worse in other Central Asian nations and therefore not a problem here at all. For example if you are reporting on alleged human rights abuses, mention that Karimov once ordered people boiled alive in oil, so everything in Kazakhstan is super duper a ok.
Mention that the country prides itself on being an ethnically and religiously tolerant country and then look for any signs of ethnic or religious unrest you can find. Even if it’s just some Russian on the street who says he doesn’t want to learn the Kazakh language. Or a grandfather who says he only speaks Kazakh. Imply that the government has failed to create any kind of harmony and do not go into any of the nuances or inherent difficulties in creating a peaceful multicultural society. Make sure to mention but then completely ignore exotic ethnic groups like Uighurs, Kalmyks and Djungars and their interests. Feel free to make up any number you want in terms of how many ethnic groups live here–don’t site any reports or source. 117 seems to be a popular number. Go with that.
If you are a normal Western journalist, be sure to mention that powerful clans do exist here, but not as much as in other Central Asian countries, but still they do exist here, but it’s not so bad, but it could it be bad here maybe, but right now everything is fine, but you never really know. Instead mention teams. Or that certain people are connected to other people. Report any rumors about political connections or government intrigue you hear as if they were 100% valid and true. When in doubt, just mention again that the President tightly controls everything.
Remember Astana is “futuristic” and Almaty is “more metropolitan”. Both are cities of striking contrasts between the haves and the have nots, or the rich and the poor, or the new generation and the post-Soviet generation.
Feel free to use Kazakh and Kazakhstan interchangably. There is only one culture here. If you are referring to anyone who is not Kazakh or Russian, make sure to mention that many people of their ethnicity were brought here forcibly by Stalin and now most have left. Make sure to give the impression that people are running away from Kazakhstan as fast as possible. Feel free to refer to anything from Kazakh, Russian or Soviet culture as “Kazakh”. But also feel free in the same article to mention the foreignness of Soviet culture as it was imposed on Kazakhs.
When you mention Russia in the context of Kazakhstan remember that they are evil and only want to recreate the Soviet Union. Everything Russia does is bad for the US and the West and for Kazakhstan. Especially when it’s Putin.
I’m sure I left a lot out. I just tried to hit my personal pet peeves. Of course the issue is that there’s a lot of oversimplification of the machinations of this region and everyone wants to seem to be “in the know”. So a lot of cliches get tossed around and a lot of rumors are repeated. Feel free to add more ideas in the comments or take up issue with what I wrote here.
Please Pay Your Bills (Comments Off on Please Pay Your Bills)
Chris Merriman has another suggestion for Kazakhstan that hits close to home. It’s understandable that the utilities company or the management of the building needs to do something to make sure people pay their bills. But shutting off heat or water to the entire apartment complex actually provides a motivation for people to stop paying the bills. Why should I pay if I don’t get service any way?
He also makes the point that some people don’t pay because they don’t live in the flat but 1) that means they aren’t using any utilities except heat (which usually can’t be shut off or isn’t billed by use) and 2) so what? You still have to pay even if you don’t live there. I’ll add number 3 which is that people who own more than one apartment are usually not poor. I think I can speak for both my apartment complex and Chris’ when I say that poor people do not live in either place. They have the disposable income to pay.
So please pay your bills so we can take hot showers again.
Great, cause paying 2 or 3x US… (Comments Off on Great, cause paying 2 or 3x US…)
Great, cause paying 2 or 3x US prices wasn’t enough RT @CentreAsia Tariffs for utilities in 2010 will rise by 12-14 in KZ http://18y5x.tk
Does Kaz.kz only search the .K… (3)
Does Kaz.kz only search the .KZ domain? If so, why is it better than Google or yahoo or some other search engine that searches all domains?
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