Five years ago, Laura Tagasheva came to the US with a family who had adopted a Kazakh child. The family hoped Laura would make the transition process easier and she lived in Port Chester, NY for several years. However on August 4th 2007, she was attacked in an apparent random assualt on the street. The assailant(s) broke her neck and she could have been left for dead. Instead she did live, confined to a wheelchair as she is paralyzed from the neck down. She has remained in the US because the quality of healthcare is better than in Kazakhstan and because there are more options for the disabled as well. For the time being however, she is dependent on the kindness of strangers.

Besides being a horrible story, I personally feel connected not only because she is Kazakh but also because Port Chester is my old stomping ground. In fact if I remember correctly, Leonard Street (where she lives), is home to a It’s not the safest town in the world, but it’s hardly a haven of crime. It’s also a region that is surrounded by more wealthy neighbors like Greenwich, CT and Rye, NY. Great medical care in these well-off suburbs of New York City, but high bills for that care! So if you feel moved to help, check out her facebook page.

How to send money:
1. if you are in US and would like to write a check, please write a check to Madina Tagasheva. However, on the envelope, please put the name of Laura Tagasheva and her address. You can get Laura Tagasheva’s address by calling at +1(914) 907 3855 or emailing enlila@yahoo.com.

2. by PAYPAL
PayPal account: almaty.kazakhstan@yahoo.com

Also, you can call Laura at the following number: +1(914) 907 3855
Or email her at: enlila@yahoo.com

For any questions, feel free to contact Shakhnoza at shakhnoza@live.com

Also a more detailed article on Laura here.

And a sidenote to those surprised that such a typically English name like Laura is also a typical Kazakh name (or thinking that her real name is Lolita or Lyazzat and she took an American name), it turns out that the name Laura is typically Kazakh, but is pronounced La-URA, A and U as seperate vowels, stress on the U.

KZBlog was featured twice this past week. The first one I knew nothing about, but I was selected as the weekly pancake at at Uncle Shal’s Pancakes. The word Blin in Russian translates literally as pancake, but figuratively it means something like “darn”, a mild swear word. This site however uses it to refer to sites in the Kazakhstan Internet space (Kaznet) that attract his attention, for better or for worse! I was very pleased to be featured even if my main merits for Uncle Shal seem to be that I like living in Kazakhstan!

I was also interviewed a few months ago for Culture Shock, run by Kristie Dugan, an expat living in Norway. She’s done a series of interviews with expat bloggers focusing on what it’s like to live in another culture, how to adjust and practical advice for expats. Check out all the interviews here.

Some more photos of Astana on my redbubble. So far my best seller is Dombro hero but I’m proud of a lot of my pics. So check them out and if you like them, buy a print. The quality is really good and yes, they do deliver to Kazakshtan (as well as anywhere else in the world).

Statue near the Canal in Astana at sunset.

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Do they do that in European sports events?

Anyway, in case you didn’t know, today at 16:00 GMT or 21:00 Kazakhstan time, England and Kazakhstan will meet in the World Cup qualifiers. If your local station isn’t covering it, or someone else in the house is watching the French Open, Eurosport looks like it will have nice play-by-play coverage online.

We will remember that the last time Kazakhstan and England met, in October of last year, Kazakhstan lost 5-1. Here’s hoping the homefield advantage will play out. It does look like even though the match is taking place in Almaty, the England fans will be in better shape to cheer their team on. According to a Neweurasia post, locals are relegated to the east side of the stadium where there is no roof and the afternoon sun gets in people’s eyes. (more…)

The St. Petersburg Open is not perhaps one of the biggest tennis matches, but it might become a favorite in Kazakshtan. Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan, made it to the finals after beating Marat Safin, ranked number 8 in the world. Although he lost to Andy Murray, Murray is ranked fourth in the world and considered to be an up-and-coming player. So there’s not shame in the loss. Golubey is ranked 150th.

Yeah, lame post title. I haven’t written about the firing of Mukhtar Dzhakishev as head of Kazatomprom, Kazakhstan’s state uranium company. Dzhakishev. In and of itself this would be newsworthy because Kazatomprom can genuinely be called an internationally competitive country. Kazakhstan has been blessed with a lot of uranium but Dzhakishev has done a lot right in running the company and Kazatomprom is considered a major player in the uranium industry. Dzhakishev is also one of the few (possibly only) people who has worked in the same industry and the same job since independence. Whereas other government officials and businessmen seem to shift here and there every couple of year, Dzhakishev has been doing the same thing. Some of us had hoped his success would grab someone’s attention and create a new model here in Kazakhstan where experience
is valued.

So Dzhakishev’s removal was already newsworthy before the general prosecutor’s office announced they were arresting him for corruption; specifically he is accused of using shell companies to buy state-owned uranium mines for (presumably) himself and his friends. Dzhakishev is known to be close to Mukhtar Ablyazov, an opposition leader and ex-head of BTA Bank, who is also under investigation for corruption. Some claim that evidence that Ablyazov and Dzhakishev were working together came up during the investigation of BTA Bank. Others claim that the move is purely political; Dzhakishev’s friendship with an opposition member is simply unacceptable as the government tries to consolidate power and influence. Still others say the arrest is part of a larger campaign to weed out corruption, one that has already seen the removal of top management in Kazakh Temir Zholi and KazMunaiGas.

The reason I mention it now is an article by the AFP makes an intriguing point:

“Our information confirms the illegal tranfer of more than 60 percent of the state’s uranium deposits into the property of Dzhakishev and the companies he owned,” a KNB spokesman told reporters in the capital Astana.
Authorities did not explain how Dzhakishev managed to steal more than half of the country’s uranium deposits out from under the government’s nose. All uranium deals in Kazakhstan are heavily monitored and audited by the state.