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
Bakiyev Resigns (Comments Off on Bakiyev Resigns)
“History made in #Kyrgyzstan: Roza @otunbayeva looks at #Bakiev resignation letter faxed from #Kazakhstan, #freekg”: from @Baisalov on Twitpic
Click on the pic for a larger view.
Neweurasia.net has another photo up from Twitpic and a scan of the letter itself, allegedly. The text in English, according to Neweurasia, reads:
Dear compatriots!
On April 7, 2010, there was a coup in the Kyrgyz Republic. As a result of an armed seizure of power, ordinary innocent citizens had to pay in blood [and] the image of the state was heavily battered. All responsibility lies with the members of the Provisional Government, who used them to seize power. I understand my responsibility too for past events. Therefore, I offer deepest condolences to all relatives and friends of the victims. In these tragic days for the Kyrgyz people, understanding the responsibility for the future of the Kyrgyz people, preserving the integrity of the state, of Kyrgyz statehood, in accordance with the Article 50 of the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic, I hand in my resignation.
Signed Bakiyev
They reports rumors that the pics of Otunbayeva and the letter itself are fake. However see my comment there: Gazeta.kz, which is basically a distributor of Kazakhstan Today, an official source of news, is reporting that Kazakhstan’s ambassador to Kazakhstan delivered a letter of resignation from Bakiyev today. Whether it is the exact same one in those photos, I cannot confirm.
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One more correction–news that Bakiyev LANDED in Taraz, which is in Zhambul oblast (province). No idea where he actually IS right now.
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I take that back–Not rumours but news that he and his family are in Taraz. Where next, who knows. http://ow.ly/1yR6E
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Rumours that #Bakiyev is in Zhambul, Kazakhstan. Official info definite that he has left #kyrgyzstan
Movie Review: Kairat – Champion. Virgin #1 (4)
We bought Kairat-Champion. Virgin #1 the other day and watched it. Off-hand it’s a decent movie that still needs a lot of work. Obviously it’s trying to be a teen movie with lots of sex jokes à la American Pie and it falls into the same traps those movies tend to. A series of funny situations but no jokes. Little attention to the plot or characters making it hard to follow what is going on, or much care. But overall, not a bad first effort with some fun moments.
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“NATO Invades Ukraine? The Latest War Of The Worlds Incident-RFE/RL”( http://twitthis.com/q4hmmf )
Kazakhstan Loves Opera (3)
According to Reuters, Opera 10 is the most popular browser in Kazakhstan with 32% of the market share. An even more significant way of looking at it is that in January Kazakhstan, with an estimated 2,300,000 Internet users (less than one-tenth of users in China or the US) was one of the top ten countries in the world by number of Opera 10 users!
Opera is an Internet browser that has always aimed at being faster and easier to use than other browsers, produced by a Norwegian company. But anecdotal evidence suggests that Kazakhstan is a country heavily penetrated by the Windows Operating system. Apple has only in the last few years made some inroads here and Linux is starting to be adopted as a free alternative for cost-conscious companies and government agencies. How did an outsider like Opera penetrate the Kazakhstan market?
The increase in usage of 60% in the last year indicates to some that Kazakhstan users like the new Turbo feature which compresses web pages on a remote server and then downloads the compressed sites to the user. While this feature speeds up browsing because you are downloading a compressed, smaller website, it also means that sites that are banned in Kazakhstan can be viewed on Opera 10 because the original request for the website comes from outside Kazakhstan.
As has been extensively reported, the state telecommunications company KazakhTeleCom has blocked access to Livejournal, Blogger and many opposition websites.
Asked about this use of Opera, a spokesperson for the company emailed to Reuters:
We link such growth to the release of several new versions of Opera 10.x within the last year that perform significantly better than our earlier products…As for accessing blocked resources — we do not comment on that.
Are there other explanations as to why Opera is so popular in Kazakhstan? One that occurred to me is that Opera Mobile has made inroads and I believe is coming pre-installed on some of the latest models of Nokia and Samsung mobile phones. Since smartphones are very popular in Kazakhstan, I wonder if that has something to do with these statistics. Maybe it’s just that people are getting Opera on their phones more.
So, dear Kazakhstani, do you use Opera? If so, why? Have you heard about this subversive use of it?
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Bakiyev willing to step down: http://m.npr.org/story/125894049 EDIT: Or was he just answering a hypothetical?
After the Flood (Comments Off on After the Flood)
A bit out of date now, but Global Voices Online had an interesting post up reviewing the Lack of state aid to flood victims after two dams burst in Almaty oblast.
Reports of party officials staying in nicer tents than the victims are sad, but not wholly unexpected. Reports that the temporary housing for villagers is not very nice also doesn’t particularly bother me. But claims that officials are delaying distributing aid are disturbing. Hopefully they aren’t planning to wait until the 6th of July!
Another interesting facet of this disaster is that suddenly Kazakhstan seems to have discovered solicitation of funds for disaster relief. For the first time, I have seen boxes at cash registers asking for aid for a particular disaster. Members of Parliament, province governments and ministries all made very public donations (after an act of government) and citizens are being urged to give. I even saw a truck with bullhorns on it announcing that NurOtan was taking donations. This includes donations for the people in East Kazakhstan who are victims of floods due to too much snow melting, not infrastructure fail.
I wonder why this solicitation is starting now. I don’t remember this much noise being made after the mining disasters in Temirtau or floods in East Kazakhstan last year or the sudden blizzard in South Kazakhstan that closed roads. Is Kazakhstan learning from Haiti disaster relief? Let’s hope this marks the start of public charitable giving.
Eyewitness Accounts from Americans (Comments Off on Eyewitness Accounts from Americans)
A couple of eyewitness accounts of the events in Kyrgyzstan from an American expat living there. If you want a narrative of one person’s day and what they saw on 7 April, check out Part I and Part II. Note that the author of the blog, Kazakh Nomad, is not the author of the narrative, in case that is confusing.
Really I haven’t seen a long in-depth post like this anywhere, without analysis. Simply stating what they saw and heard and what is was like to be in Bishek.
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