I was amused by one of the searches that popped up twice recently in my list of searches that bring people to this site:
“if invited to dinner in kazakhstan what time.” It seems like someone who might have a concrete dinner invitation and wonder either a) what time do people have dinner in Kazakhstan? or b) what is the etiquette surrounding dinner invitations and punctuality.

I thought I would answer because I was recently subject to what in the US would be an unforgivable sin. The invitation for dinner was at 5pm and the host didn’t show up until 7:00. Not because there was bad traffic or something awful occurred, but because he was tired from a long day and decided to take a nap. He didn’t oversleep mind–he had planned to be there 2 hours late! This is not typical in Kazakhstan but it does give you an idea that being late is not a problem here and if you show up on-time or early, expect to be there alone. I would say add half-an-hour to any invitation and don’t worry if you are an hour late.

As for when people have dinner parties, it can vary. Often people dine late because the working day ends at 7pm. And you have to give people the time to get out of work, go home to change, buy flowers or gifts. Most dinner invitations on a work-night will be 8 or 8:30, sometimes later. It is not strange to be invited for dinner at 9 or 10pm! On weekends, dinner can often start much earlier, 5pm or 6pm. And every invitation to a party or celebration will be an invitation to eat. So even if the invitation is for 3 or 4pm, expect a full meal.

Don’t be surprised if even business associates invite you to a restaurant for what you think is a working meal. It is common to eat whenever you assemble people together, even if the main purpose is work. And if you are traveling to do business, the host organization will usually make dinner plans after any business, both to celebrate the (hopefully) successful meeting and to make you feel welcome. Expect to be taken to a Kazakh restaurant. Expect to eat politely horsemeat (at least one piece) and to drink a bit of vodka to show that you are an alright sort of guy.

Other than that, etiquette does dictate that you bring a gift, commonly flowers or chocolate for a woman and vodka or wine for a men. And have a good toast prepared, you will be called upon to say a few words.

Hope that is useful information for people being invited out to dinner in Kazakhstan.

EDIT: Check the comments for Chris Merriman’s posts on these subjects. I meant to include the links but couldn’t find them at the time I wrote this article.

I apologize for not posting more often. Mainly I’m just busier with other things. Normally I don’t like just posting links and summaries of big stories. I prefer to post stories when I have some more in-depth information or some angle or information I don’t see covered elsewhere. Or something I have a strong opinion on.

That being said, there has been a lot of news these past week or two and while I can’t editorialize on all of them, or spend hours doing research, I wanted to bring them to people’s attention, if you haven’t already gotten it anywhere else: (more…)

Happy Subbotnik

Why is this Saturday not like other Saturdays? A subbotnik, derived from the Russian word for Saturday, is a day when all workers clean up their office, when students and teachers clean the school grounds, when community members sweep the yards around their houses, when everyone pitches in to make the town a little bit cleaner. It’s like a giant communal spring-cleaning.

While I’ve noticed this sort of behavior before, this is the first year I saw such a mass effort on one specific day. Even as I walked to work today at 10am, I saw students at the nearby university being given brooms and heading out to different parts of campus to sweep away dirt and liter. Workers at the construction site nearby are also busily sweeping away and hauling spare parts over to the dumpsters.

It’s a neat idea, especially as it is entirely democratic. The teachers and the students work together, do the same manual labor. I was assured by one acquaintance that even Ministers have been known
to spend the day filing their own papers, straightening and polishing their desks. This is not abuse of power to get free slave labor from underlings; this is community spirit in action. Of course I may only be being so optimistic because I have other work today, and can’t join my fellow residents in sweeping our litter-filled yard.

Even so Happy Spring Cleaning Day everyone! And may people learn by their efforts to not litter in the first place and make their community dirty at all.

From the Kazakhstan Embassy in the US comes the announcement that a new holding company will be established. Samgao (which means ‘to soar’, I think!) National Science and Technology Holding is charged with improving management in these areas. This follows from comments made by the President and more recently, his Address to the People, in which he called for development of Kazakhstan’s scientific potential. One discussion of Kazakhstan’s strategy for science development can be found on Kazakhstan.Neweurasia.net, including the need to tie science with Michael Porter’s evaluation of competitive clusters in Kazakhstan three years ago. Among others, he identified biotechnology and nanotechnology, as well as oil and gas related technology. In short, Kazakhstan can use good scientists and good scientific research. It has a well-educated population, high ambitions, and the money to fund a new biotechnology center, a new science fund, as well as equip universities and institutes with excellent equipment.

Nonetheless, many people’s reaction on hearing of a new State holding company was: another one? (more…)