KZBlog

Tag archive for ‘Astana’

• The Sting of Criticism

  Sting, who was scheduled to play tonight as part of the Astana Day festivities, has cancelled his engagement in Kazakhstan after Amnesty International apprised him of the situation with striking oil workers in West Kazakhstan: Amnesty International recently apprised Sting about the situation in Kazakhstan regarding the repression and crackdown against oil workers, their union […]

  7/04/11 • (1)

• More on the Carbomb in Astana

  Found a good report on the car bombing of the KNB detention center in Astana that occurred on 24 May of this year, including some disturbing details and photographs of the damage. Apparently the blast was strong enough that neighbors 50-60 meters away found bits of steel Buildings in the area were also damaged, with […]

  6/20/11 • (Comments Off on More on the Carbomb in Astana)

• Self-Immolation Protest in Astana

  According to Kazakhstan Today, this morning, a woman set herself on fire in the public reception of Nur-Otan in Astana. There’s not a lot of official information out yet, but apparently she was protesting the conviction of her son. And she is apparently alive and in the hospital. A comment on zakon.kz claims that the […]

  6/20/11 • (Comments Off on Self-Immolation Protest in Astana)

• More Snow?

  Break out the electric blanket. After a sunny, Nauryz, the temperature has been hovering around freezing, which is warm in Astana. But now they’re calling for more snow and the high below 0C this week. If we get the usual April blizzard where snow sticks on the ground for a good week, I will seriously […]

  3/27/11 • (Comments Off on More Snow?)

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  Wedding Rings in Kazakhstan

  Recently, I’ve been going through my photos of Kazakhstan, organizing, editing, looking for duplicates and also looking for things I want photos of, but haven’t actually shot yet. Like for example, these giant Kazakh wedding rings: Actually when you see these rings in the museums, they are referred to as matchmaker rings. I assume that’s […]

  3/24/11 • (Comments Off on Wedding Rings in Kazakhstan)

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  From Akmola to Astana

  Ran across a great series of photographs by Manuel Capurso called From Akmola to Astana, which documents Astana capturing both the old and the new. It’s an interesting set. Anyone who has lived in Astana for some time will have noticed the sharp contrasts between the two cities and the surrealism of new modern buildings […]

  3/24/11 • (Comments Off on From Akmola to Astana)

• Being an Expat in Kazakhstan

  Despite my attempts to be a serious blogger, I have noticed that some of my chattier “what is life like in Kazakhstan” posts actually get more attention than the news coverage. And I certainly get lots of emails with questions about what to bring to Kazakhstan, can you get ketchup here, what’s the food like. […]

  3/14/11 • (4)

• Koktem Keldi

  Inshallah. Finally it’s getting a bit warmer out here on the frozen steppes. Astana is not as exciting a place to live as Almaty for outdoor fun, but over the years we’ve discovered a few places to go. I’ve posted on some of them before like the yurt camp near Astana and Eco-Village where you […]

  3/12/11 • (2)

• Steppe Diet

  Not to suddenly harp on food, but I had an interesting conversation the other day with a group of colleagues. I mentioned in an earlier post that one stereotype here of the US is that our meat does not taste good (I put this down to differences in what constitutes properly cooked meat). Another is […]

  3/10/11 • (6)

• UFOs in North Kazakhstan

  I haven’t seen anything, but apparently there was a mass UFO sighting. The News-Kazakhstan agency (Kaz-Tag) has video of a glowing ball moving about which would be more convincing if we could see anything else in the shot at all. A photo posted on the same site also shows a tiny white blur in the […]

  2/08/11 • (1)

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