Kazakhstan
Musta Kemal striking an Ataturk pose in Turkey's Cankaya Library.
I’m knee-deep in exam season at the moment, studying my level один Russian and writing essays, so I haven’t had the chance to look closely at the Kazakh parliamentary elections. From what I’m hearing, preliminary results are giving Nur Otan party 80.7% of the vote, while two other parties — the business-oriented Ak Zhol and the People’s Communist Party — earned slightly more than 7% each, clearing the threshold to enter parliament. Unsurprisingly, Western press has been mostly negative, but what my inner cynic just finds hilarious is this remark from Miklos Haraszti, head of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights’ observation mission: “This election took place in a tightly controlled environment, with serious restrictions on citizens’ electoral rights.” Well, OSCE, I guess all you can really say is: whoops.
However, putting my hypocrisy radar aside for a moment, they’re right. Although I am not so quick to condemn Kazakhstan — as there is usually more than meets the eye to this country, both in good and bad ways — nevertheless, this election definitely was shoddy. My colleague from Ghent University, Dr. Bruno De Cordier has brought to my attention an article in the Washington Times with this telling remark:
“‘Even the government doesn’t hide that they have no intention of copying Western democracies,’ said Lilit Gevorgyan, an analyst and IHS Global Insight in London. ‘I think what they are trying to do is to show that they are responding to social discontent.’”
The article also quotes a taxi driver who refers to most of the so-called opposition parties as “pupils” of the main party. As some of you know, I am currently working on an MPhil at the University of Leuven concerning the phenomenon of managed democracy in Russia and Kazakhstan, so these kind of tidbits are right up my alley.
Not only is Internet in my part of Belgium about as reliable as the Internet in Dushanbe, but December and January are the academic busy season here, so it’s difficult to juggle all the papers I need to write with my duties covering Central Asia. Such is life as a full-time graduate student/full-time editor, I suppose, but this business going down in western Kazakhstan really needs to be mentioned.
“The water that serveth all that country is drawn by ditches out of the River Oxus, into the great destruction of the said river, for which it cause it falleth not into the Caspian Sea as it hath done in times past, and in short time all that land is like to be destroyed, and to become a wilderness for want of water, when the river of Oxus shall fail.”
Sometimes I think that people of Uzbekistan with a 28 million population know less about one of the greatest catastrophe in their own country than people worldwide. One of the reasons of it is the governmental propaganda of the successes in the policies towards its citizens. Another one is that the tragedy is being considered as not only the one of Uzbekistan but also of Kazakhstan, neighboring country rich of oil, and, considered as a main responsible side.
I found out about the Aral Sea ecological disaster when I became a freshman in my undergraduate studies. We had an introduction of our class and my then-future fellows introduced themselves. As myself, majority of students were from the capital city of Tashkent. The distribution among provinces represented the wealth and accessibility of the education in the most prestigious university of Uzbekistan: Tashkent, ancient cities of Bukhara and Samarkand were in top three in representation. All of them were telling their mostly enthusiastic live stories and what inspired them to study at the University. Except for one 17 year old guy who looked much older for us: skin on his face was flabby; he had a permanent cough and was breathing very hard; he was so thin and tall that for the rest of our five year education he had been called a “Skeleton”; the manner of speaking was slow but the way of thinking was critical and, as I understood later, more realistic than ours. Read the full story »
The story of the life of late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is for sale in Kazakhstan.
Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson, is Amazon’s top grossing book of the year – in both “print and Kindle editions combined” said The News. The book went on sale on October 24th, less than 3 weeks after Jobs’ death, and Business Press Network said that “In less than 2 months on the market, the book had become the online retailer’s best selling title of 2011.”
About this biography being sold in Kazakhstan, on December 15th, Central Asian News said:
“About 40 copies of the publication were sold out for the first few hours of sales. The applications for purchasing of the book come every 20 minutes. Bestseller is available as in the online store as in the non-virtual boutique in Astana, which was opened in September 2011.”
Corruption in Post-Soviet Central Asia is something very familiar to people living in the region. Without bribing, one is destined to see their case be delayed for a long time, very often beyond time limits defined by laws.
Be it application for a new passport, or registration at a new place of living, or even finding a day care for your kid — bribing is the easiest way to get it all done faster and without a hassle.
Transparency International (TI) has released its annual Corruption Perceptions Index 2011 (CPI) that ranks countries/territories based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be. According to TI, it is a composite index, a combination of polls, drawing on corruption-related data collected by a variety of reputable institutions. The CPI reflects the views of observers from around the world, including experts living and working in the countries/territories evaluated.
This year Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have proved that they can also have stablility in something — if not positive and progressive, then at least something not really desirable by leaders of developed countries. That something is the abuse of public power. Read the full story »
Central Asia: Censorship and Control of the Internet and Other New Media briefing paper has been released by International Partnership for Human Rights, the Netherlands Helsinki Committee, Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights and the Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Defenders of Uzbekistan.
The document explores problems of censorship and control of the internet and other new media in Central Asia. It focuses on the situation in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, where the authorities closely monitor and restrict the use of the internet and other communications technologies, filter and block access to undesirable online content, and intimidate and put pressure on websites and internet users who publish or share information that is critical of official policies.
According to the research, the authorities of the three Central Asian countries have sought to justify their repressive approach to the internet and other new media with the fight against ”extremism”, ”destructive” forces and other vaguely defined threats to national “security” and ”stability”. However in reality this fight is used as a pretext for implementing measures to stifle free speech and help preserve the governments’ grip on power. Read the full story »
“On stage, the leader of the nation treks into a nighttime magical forest and begins talking to the trees, which turn into his opponents.” (Associated Press)
On November 24th, a new play proud of autonomy and self-government premiered at Astana’s Palace of Peace, in Kazakhstan. Associated Press describes the play as “…the latest example of the mythologization of the man…”.
“Teren Tamyrlar” (“Deep roots”), written by Playwrite Erkin Juasbek and directed by Nurlan Jumaniyazov, is the new feature presentation that tells the story of 71-year-old Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Through theatrics, the story of how — for the past two decades — the leader has risen and developed a nationalized Kazakhstan independent from the former Soviet Union, is told. This is the first time that the Kazakh head of state has appeared in a theater play as a character.
A press release by the National Ministry of Culture, about the play, says:
“Our goal is to communicate to the audience the role of the head of state in the development of Kazakhstan’s independence”.
Our friends over at the Registan are running a guest post from an American Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) regarding the sudden departure of the Peace Corps from Kazakhstan. I must say, this is really news to me, not least of which because, as I understood the situation, Kazakhstan is one of the Peace Corps’ biggest countries of deployment. Apparently rising violence and ongoing suspicions of PCVs as intelligence assets are key factors in the decision from the American and Kazakh sides, respectively:
[M]any of us have been attacked and assaulted — according to our Country Director, Kazakhstan has earned the highest rate of any country in Peace Corps – and they know exactly what pressures have begun emanating from oblast- and national-level governments. Volunteers will never be privy to all of the information, but we have enough of a patchwork network that we can piece together a picture of what serving in Kazakhstan is like. KNB agents sitting in classrooms. Upper-level ministers all but booting volunteers from numerous oblasts. Questions of espionage and revolutionary tactics. The shooting in Taraz, which saw eight Kazakhstanis die, taking place only a block from two volunteers’ houses. Brass knuckles, attempted break-ins, bizarre opium plant-and-frisks — to say nothing of the near-daily harassment, and worse, for the female volunteers — all added up to a setting those DC-based officials deemed far too dire to pursue.
It’s pretty chilling in my opinion. Read the rest of it by clicking here.
Who could forget Kazakhstan’s ‘Stripping Journalist’ – the successful, sassy, strong and sophisticated – Guljan Yergaliyeva. neweurasia wrote about the controversial on-spring of her independent news website Guljan.org back in June 2011. But it’s not YouTube’s naked Yergaliyeva who is making the news 5 months later – rather a different Guljan.org journalist, Valery Surganov.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) introduces the situation:
“A criminal case against Surganov was launched on July 20 after the deputy chief of the Pavlodar Oblast financial police, Sanzhar Aliyev, sued him for libel.”
The journalist’s article, “The Knights of the Financial Police,” accused Aliyev of not only promiscuity, but alluded to sexual violence, accusing him of having had raped a local woman – a story that was said to be referenced from a former colleague of the Aliyev’s. But Aliyev used his influential position in society to avoid prosecution. Aliyev very obviously denied these allegations – after all, who would actually admit to such a shameful crime? And so now, rather than the bad guy being punished, it’s the journalist who is being unjustly reprimanded.
Read the full story »
Esquire-Russian analyzed UN’s World Population Prospects (2010 revision) and The Economist data and came up with a map that shows a forecast of the extinction of various nations based on the so-called net replacement rate – the average number of girls, delivered by an average woman in a lifetime in a particular country and survived until the end of the reproductive period at these levels.
According to the map, countries which has less than millennium to exist are marked in brown. “Light browned” nations will live in the 3000-3299 years period. “Milky” identifies those who live from 3300 to 3999 years more. “Orange” countries will exist from 4000 to 9999, and those countries colored in “gray” will live for 10,000 or more.
All green countries on the map are the luckiest — they will never disappear, the “immortals.” Read the full story »
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