KZBlog

An American expat living in Astana, Kazakhstan

Tag archive for ‘President’

  • Leaders of Kazakhstan on Niyazov’s Passing

    Nazarbayev, currently in China, sent a telegram to the acting President, reading in part: Saparmurat Atayevich was an outstanding leader of the Turkmen people, a politician with foresight, constantly working hard for the good of his homeland. He played a key role in creating and strengthening the independent state of Turkmenistan, and developing the economic […]

    12/22/06 • (Comments Off on Leaders of Kazakhstan on Niyazov’s Passing)

  • Respect Wealth

    Yesterday, President Nazarbayev announced that Kazakhs should learn to respect rich people, that there should be some kind of cultural program to inculcate this new attitude, and that businessmen should be more open about their wealth. The comments at Zonak.kz are well worth reading. In short, the questions that will need to be worked out […]

    12/14/06 • (Comments Off on Respect Wealth)

  • Right Hand Cars

    As has been widely reported, on the 14th of November, Nazarbayev announced that Kazakhstan will ban cars with right-side steering wheels. The reason cited is that these vehicles cause traffic accidents, and presumably there is a reason why nations that drive on the right side of the road tend to have cars with wheels on […]

    11/27/06 • (Comments Off on Right Hand Cars)

  • Kazakhsha

    Kazakhsha

    A number of issues regarding Kazakh language have come out recently. First, there was the announcement on the 24th of October that Kazakhstan will switch to the Latin alphabet, whereas now it uses a Cyrillic alphabet. Historically, Kazakh was originally written in a Turkish script and then in Arabic script, and briefly in Latin script […]

    11/16/06 • (18)

  • Astana, two sides

    Two articles came out last week about Astana. Both focus on the Palace of World Peace and Unity—the new pyramid designed by Lord Foster, a well-known British architect. The pyramid was designed to host the second World Congress for Religious Tolerance, a conference of religious figures and political leaders which attempts to bring together religious […]

    10/26/06 • (Comments Off on Astana, two sides)

  • This time has he gone too far?

    Borat’s defense in my mind was always that he had nothing against Kazakhstan itself. And many say that Kazakhstan has brought the personal war on themselves. But, this might be going too far. While Nazarbayev is in the US, Borat gave a press conference in front of the Kazakhstan Embassy in Washington, claiming that the […]

    9/26/06 • (Comments Off on This time has he gone too far?)

  • Shakeups, Rumors and Scandals

    Registan.net reports on the HIV crisis in Kazakhstan. Yesterday the Minister of Health and the akim of South Kazakhstan oblast

    9/21/06 • (Comments Off on Shakeups, Rumors and Scandals)

  • Poppa, Monarchiya

    When in the course of human events, a nation suffers hardships and prospers and one group of people prospers beyond the limits of all predictions, they get odd ideas. Many accuse the Bush administration of trying to use political and material capital to remake the fundamental core of the United States government. Now in Kazakhstan, […]

    9/20/06 • (Comments Off on Poppa, Monarchiya)

  • The Visit

    On the eve of Nazarbayev’s visit to the White House on Sept. 29th, speculation and analysis abounds as to what the issues on the table will be. The White House site has a nice list: Democracy Promotion: Kazakhstan Neweurasia has put up a slighting cartoon from The Economist. This is one big issue. And one […]

    9/01/06 • (Comments Off on The Visit)

  • News Wrap-Up

    US ambassadorial jeep barely misses crashing into Kazakh President’s car My brother-in-law just called me to warn me to be careful about anti-Americanism in reaction to this. Presumably the guy was drunk, but that ain’t right, my friends, that just ain’t right… But from the US side: The AP story So maybe it was just […]

    4/25/06 • (Comments Off on News Wrap-Up)