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
Would the Koran Have Been Approved by the Government? (6)
I’ve been meaning to post on the new religion law which just passed the Senate in Kazakhstan leaving it up to the president to sign. The Huffington Post has nice breakdown of the law, what it says and where it sits in historical context. And a link to a nice review of the law!
As with so many other things, a huge part if why thus law is offensive us that Kazakhstsn continues to claim to be the home of religious tolerance. One wonders if many religions that send representatives to the World Religion Congress will be legal in Kazakhstsn soon. There can’t be that many Zen Buddhists in Kazakhstan, for example, or Shintoists. How could Kazakhstan invite leaders of those churches to Astana if they declared those same religions illegal?
So the real problem with this bill is that not only will churches be judged by arbitrary criteria like how many people belong to the church ( Jesus and his 13 apostles would be SOL as would Mohammed and his wife and daughters), but that previously approved churches will gave to be reregistered. And that religious literature will gave to be approved by the government. What kind of education prepares a government official to judge all religious documents?
But the real problem here is that none of these provisions seem like they will do much to prevent terrorism or violent crime, the purported aim of this law. Large churches and small alike have sponsored and inspired religious violence and subversion. Nothing in this law seems to address law enforcement or surveillance or crime-prevention. Rather it invents a whole new set of ways that religious organizations can break the law. It’s a bit like trying to go after the Mafia by demanding that all Italian restaurants redo their health inspections. And insofar as there have been indications that religious groups in Kazakhstan have become radicalized because of state repression, I’m unclear how it will help to pass new law that could be perceived as more state repression.
As the HuffPo piece says, two previous attempts to pass a stricter religion law were blocked by the Constitutional Council. So it’s possible the President will not sign this one.
Apples, Sure. But THC is from Kazakhstan too? (3)
Yet another story about Kazakhstan and marijuana in only a few weeks. This little teaser for a documentary to be shown today on Australian TV implies that THC first evolved in Kazakhstan. Off-hand it seems to me that would be a much bigger tourist draw than apples OR wolves….
Plus, the tourists you would attract would be up for eating pretty much anything!
So the question is, are any Australians planning on watching this? And can you post clips on YouTube? Or KazTube perhaps.
Naked Man Pot (2)
Heard about this one via Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me and tracked down an RFE/RL article about it:
the most concentrated and popular form of marijuana is so-called “plastilin” (plasticine), and the way it is harvested and produced has not changed for centuries.
It begins with a freshly showered person riding naked for hours on a clean, washed horse inside a two-meter-high “forest” of marijuana.
Afterwards, the human body and that of the horse are covered with a thick layer of resin mixed with sweat.
It only takes a few tiny pieces of “plastilin” to get high.
This produces a substance that is usually dark brown in color, which is then thoroughly scraped off the human and horse’s bodies.The mixture is subsequently pressed, molded into bars, and dried.
The “plastilin” that results from this process effectively comprises very concentrated marijuana bars.
A couple of small, pinhead-sized pieces from one of these bars added to a regular cigarette is enough to make the smoker happy.
from RFE/RL
Olzhas Suliemenov ill http://t… (Comments Off on Olzhas Suliemenov ill http://t…)
Olzhas Suliemenov ill http://t.co/0KFCRox
WTF? RT @randomdijit: Register… (Comments Off on WTF? RT @randomdijit: Register…)
WTF? RT @randomdijit: Registering poor voters is anti-social, Un-American and “like giving burglary tools to criminals” http://t.co/y5WMhJp
No Marrying Foreigners? (Comments Off on No Marrying Foreigners?)
This was one I couldn’t pass by without commenting on even though it will probably come to nothing.
One citizen of Kazakhstan, Arman Turdaliyev, left a comment on Karim Massimov’s blog recently, saying that the only way to stop China from taking over Kazakhstan slowly was by preventing all foreign marriages.
Dear Karim Kazhimkanovich!
As a patriot of my country, I am concerned about her safety.
Citizens of other countries seek to enter Kazakhstan and become citizens by all means possible. The most popular method is to marry to a citizen of Kazakhstan. Many Kazakh women from Almaty (for financial reasons) do this almost automatically. In Almaty, thousands of Chinese have thus been granted citizenship like this
I propose to make the following law:
“If a citizen enters Kazakhstan married to a citizen of another country, he (the citizen of Kazakhstan) automatically loses their citizenship. Moreover, a citizen of another country, in this case, will not receive the citizenship of Kazakhstan.”
After the adoption of this law, China “quiet” expansion into Kazakhstan will be stopped as well as other disadvantaged countries (South-East Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the Caucasus).
Only in ways we can survive in the neighborhood with such monsters.
Sincerely,
Arman
As Eurasianet points out, it’s hard to square such extremist views with Kazakhstan’s image as a country of tolerance and inter-ethnic peace. And as Express-K points out, Arman’s paranoia is quite unfounded (more…)
Wow! RT @RussianSphinx: From t… (Comments Off on Wow! RT @RussianSphinx: From t…)
Wow! RT @RussianSphinx: From the archive, 2 September 1918: Reported death of Lenin – shot by a woman http://t.co/iXpO4P5 #Russia
A few years back I was mugged … (2)
A few years back I was mugged by a group of Russians. Was there a riot to protest Slavic lawlessness? No.
Can You Read This in Kazakhstan? (3)
I suppose it would be a badge of honor to be on the list of 13 foreign sites blocked by Kazakhstan (that article seems to no longer be there, but this link takes you to the same article) because, “These Internet resources … spread materials with propaganda of terrorism and religious extremism and open calls to committing acts of terror and making explosive devices” according to Aylana Iskendirova, spokesperson for the Astana City Court. I’m not sure how the Astana Court can make decisions that affect national policy, and I haven’t seen a list of all 12 sites, but apparently Live Journal is one of them. I have a lot of friends on LJ and I have yet to see one open call to terrorism.
Let us not forget that Raxat Aliyev had a blog on LJ for a while until Live Journal agreed to delete it.
Apparently the decision was made at the request of government prosecutors who felt that foreign sites were inciting people to acts of terrorism. I suppose I have to hold off judgement until the full list of sites is published, if it ever is. But in the meantime, it appears that the Prime Minister is getting involved. In response to a tweet from Alexei Venediktov, a journalist in Russia, Massimov wrote, “Re: LJ, I’ll deal with it”
RT @randomdijit: #Kazakhstan: … (Comments Off on RT @randomdijit: #Kazakhstan: …)
RT @randomdijit: #Kazakhstan #Aqtau activist jailed after returning from protest at Kazakh embassy in Moscow. http://t.co/uKDh9rL can they?
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