Kazakhstan.neweurasia has an interview up with Merkhat Sharipzhan, director of the Kazakh language service of RFE/RL. Very interesting look into attitudes toward Kazakh langauge–by Kazakhs (”I was unpleasantly surprised to see a “Who wants to be a Millionaire” show in Kazakh, where the majority of questions were about the nomadic way of life. Why not ask about James Bond in Kazakh?”), the freedom of press in Kazakhstan, social attitudes toward the first President (”Sooner or later the government will change - the second president will not be the “First” anymore and the society will know how to deal with him better.”) and the death of his brother, a journalist and critic of Nazarbayev.

The interview can be found in English or in Russian.

Overall more diversity I think than before. The show featured mostly Central Asian designers and in the past there was a lot of blending of traditional patterns and materials like felt and fur with haute-coutre. I think this time around it was more haute-coutre.

Little to clearly distinguish this show as Kazakhstany:

Transparent thin dress plus heavy beaded mask!

Feather bras are the next big thing.

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The New Zealand Hearld is reporting that the CEO of a car auctioneer in New Zealand is optimistic about the “Kazakhstan factor”, citing the decision to ban Japanese (right-wheeled) cars, which will mean more Japanese cars going to New Zealand.

Kazakhstan has entered the global marketplace!

Thanks to Nathan at Registan.net:

A video testament from the Krishna community in Kazakhstan:

Also, the OSCE has released a statement on the destruction, reading in part:

The Advisory Council … calls upon the Kazakh authorities to halt any further demolitions and to extend immediate humanitarian assistance to those whose homes have been destroyed …This raises serious issues regarding the enjoyment of the freedom of religion and belief by members of the Hare Krishna community in Kazakhstan.

Video on Youtube of the destruction. Note the snow falling. Also note that the Krishnas appear to be Kazakhstany, not Hindu though there is reason to believe Hindus are being targeted.

According to Forum 18, the President’s brother may have been behind this, wanting to get his hands on the property, though this is unconfirmed. The farm is located in Nazarbayev’s home region of Keskelen. They also note that houses on the same property were not destroyed, only those belonging to Krishnas:

But two human rights activists who witnessed the destruction despite police attempts to stop them, Ninel Fokina and Andrei Grishin, pointed out that while 13 of the 66 Hare Krishna homes were destroyed on court orders, “the adjacent houses of other people who do not belong to the Society for Krishna Consciousness were left untouched even though their title deeds have the same status”.

Apparently, Tony Blair raised the matter with Nazarbayev (more…)

The New York Times has yet another article out about lifestyles of the fabulous middle class in Kazakhstan, this time on Fashion Week in Almaty.

It’s an interesting piece because it gives a view of what the upper and middle classes think about fashion. As the designer, Saida Azikhan, says usually brand names are in in Kazakhstan–and this is true even of the less rich who may not be able to afford all Prada, all the time but will pick up a piece when they can, preffering one designer piece to several cheaper bits. However, the consumer culture has obviously evolved to the point that ennui has set in, which must be a benchmark of some kind:

“Our own designers are making stylish high-quality clothes,” said Anna Kuzembayeva, a producer of the Kazakh collections. “Louis Vuitton is boring to us already, but ‘Made in Kazakhstan’ is sounding very chic.”
…“Like everyone else, I went through a phase when I thought that famous classic brands were the best, but then I got tired of Hermès”

It also gives insight into what bored housewives can do. Her husband is a gold-mining executive.I wonder how typical this is of wives of the wealthy starting little boutiques or expensive services. Another benchmark it would appear; the rich single-income family.

Finally, we see confirmation that some people can afford not only imports, but shopping trips to foreign lands:

“Now everyone is trying to find their own look, which may mean buying vintage at Portobello Road market in London or buying from original Kazakh designers.”

Certainly everyone I know who goes on a business trip to Europe or the US brings back clothing for friends and family. And there are rumors of high-level officials planning trips based on the shopping seasons. But now we know that some segment of the Kazakh population can jet set to London, Paris, New York and be hip to the latest fashions.

For a look at what is popular now, I refer to another expat’s blog entry: Outings, Architecture and Barbarella. High boots and miniskirts. Everywhere in Astana!

On the 22nd of November, outside Almaty, local authorities destroyed the only Hare Krishna commune in the CIS, a total of eleven houses on 48 acres. The group apparently was not prepared because:

The group apparently was not prepared because there is currently
a state special commission – appointed to investigate allegations of religious harassment against Hindus in Kazakhstan – had promised that no government action would be taken until the commission made its findings public.

RFE/RL notes that temperatures were predicted to be below freezing last night and that an OSCE official was observing. It is not the first time this has happened, on the 25th April five cottages were destroyed by order of the regional court on the 29th of March. At that time, there were protests that the court did not give the prescribed 5 days warning, but the regional officials claimed everything was done by proper procedure, and announced that five more cottages were up for confiscation and demolition. The regional court also decided that the commune not be compensated.
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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 the left side and vice versa. In Kazakhstan, drivers drive on the right side. Right-handed vehicles come from Japan and tend to be cheaper. However, it is not at all clear what owners of these cars are supposed to do. The government has made no plans as of yet to compensate them for banning their vehicles. Some plan to try to sell them in Russia, or convert them to left-handed vehicles but these will be expensive and difficult solutions.

According to New Eurasia there are 117 000 such vehicles in the country. That’s a lot and a potentially large loss of money for a lot of people, even though the President’s announcement appears to make some sense, and aims at public safety. There are questions of whether this is something the President himself, and the Security Council should be taking up instead of the police or the Ministry of Transport, but leaving that aside, the proposal makes sense if the facts are accurate.

Sean Roberts attributes the displeasure over the law to an emerging middle-class who can afford cheap cars (which are still better than Ladas or 20 year old Muskovichs).

And so in Almaty and Semi-Palatinsk a protest/demonstration was organized and according to a participant, Nothing bad happened to anyone, despite being in violation of laws on assembly by not giving enough notice to the local authorities! Which is really good. Hopefully the idea that one can voice ones opinion publically, creatively and en masse without there being any trouble, will take hold.

There is also this clever (if potentially address-mining) web peition with a picture of the President in right-sided vehicle:

At the same time, as no resident of Kazakhstan would deny, The Washington Post is reporting on other car-related problems like pollution. And if you haven’t seen This post by narcogen on driving in Almaty, you haven’t lived.

One of the few areas where shopping in Kazakhstan varies dramatically from shopping in the US is in the attitude towards coins and change. Practically every time I try to buy anything from a store, they ask if I have exact change.*

Now, people don’t generally use amounts less than 5 tenge, even though 1 and 2 tenge coins exist. Instead we use matchbooks and candies (and once, at the drugstore, a hemoglobin bar). So, very often if you are buying something for 67 tenge and you give them 100 tenge, they hand you, not your 33 tenge change, but 30 tenge and a book of matches.

It’s really cool if you have a gas stove, because you need the matches anyway. And a box of matches often costs more than the change. In fact, once I bought something and didn’t have exact change. So they handed me a book of matches as the equivalent of 2 tenge. It reminded me that we were out of matches at home, and it might be good to bring home another box. So I asked how much another box would be. 4 tenge, they said! Having only 10 tenge in coins left, I ended up taking home another 3 boxes of matches: 4 boxes in total for 12 tenge.

But the ultimate moment for me was the other day at the cafeteria. Now this cafeteria always wants coins. They ask for exact change every time, huff and puff if you don’t have it, and once extracted from me 200 in coins, instead of bills; she practically grabbed the coins out of my hand when she saw them. The other day, I went and had some odd total—326 tenge, call it. The cashier sucked in her breath when she saw my 500 tenge note.

“Oh, don’t you have exact change?”
“Sorry, I don’t have any coins.”
“Oh, please check. Maybe you do.”
“Sorry I have exactly 3 tenge. Look.”
“Oh, oh. Is that all your change?”
“Yes, it’s all my change!”
“Well, ok.”

She proceeded to open the cabinet behind her, revealing bags and bags of change!

I recently had the chance to contrast this with American attitudes when I returned to the US—because one is always afraid that one has forgotten what it was like back home. The one time I was asked for exact change was when the cashier literally didn’t have the change, and had to overpay me by ten cents, giving me a quarter instead of 15 cents change

I invite foreigners and Kazakhstani—and especially Kazakhstani who have been to the US—to comment on this, give me your stories. Am I missing something here? Are we the crazy ones?

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* one irrelevant linguistic note. In Russian, the phrase “Do you have 6 tenge?” would transliterate as “Will there be 6 tenge?” And I am always tempted to answer, “Well somewhere, sometime there will be!”

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 before Russian colonization and assimilation in the Soviet Union. So the move has some historic roots. Many blogs have taken up the issue of the new alphabet, and I was going to sum them up, but as I’m writing this, I got scooped by NewEurasian Live Journal, so I’ll just link to their summary here. Great minds think alike!

I will post directly to this blogger’s informal transcription proposal with examples, because it’s fun to look over.

Uzbekistan moved to a Latin alphabet for Uzbek after independence, which many viewed as a move to assert independence from Russia and the Soviet past. Kazakhstan may be making a similar stand. In the end I suspect it is a move toward making it easier for both foreigners to learn Kazakh (and make it a more “friendly” language), and for Kazakhstani to learn English.

The current thinking in the government is to produce a tri-lingual nation and new textbooks for kids have come out recently, including one called The Kingdom of Three Languages which teaches Kazakh, Russian, and English through the adventures of two Kazakh brothers, a Russian boy, and a British girl.

Recently, at the meeting of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev said that civil servants who do not speak Kazakh will be out of a job. This comes in the midst of ministries switching to Kazakh as the language of memos and internal letters. Also, the President announced that there will need to be new words in Kazakh for scientific and technical terms, so that Kazakhs are not just borrowing Russian or English words. This creates a great deal of prestige for Kazakh, but does make it harder for non-speakers—this non-speaker relies heavily on borrowed words to understand things in Kazakh. (more…)