Seeing Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan, what an interesting country. Before I started reading some blogs about living in Kazakhstan, I knew only a few facts about this country:

• Former Soviet Republic
• Somewhere south of Russia
• New capital city: Astana (moved from Almaty)
• There are (were?) a few "closed cities" in Kazakhstan
• Steppes, steppes, and more steppes (plus harsh winters)

Then, I started reading two blogs:

• Adventures in Kazakhstan
• Kazakhnomad's Blog (includes other Central Asian countries)

Before you start complaining about the conspicuous promotion of other people's blogs, let me just tell you that, as of the time of this writing, this blog has received a total of 96 visitors, mostly from shady SEO websites.

Anyways...

Guess what I found out? Normal life exists in Kazakhstan. First, the drivers seem aggressive and they have gas station attendants. Apparently, looking for foreign products (like peanut butter) is a pretty onerous task. However, everything is new and modern in the shiny new capital of Astana, which was just built by the government. Construction is going at a breakneck pace. Western franchises are setting up shop (literally). Might this be a auspicious harbinger for Kazakhstan?

Going to the hospital might not be such a negative thing. Apparently, all the doctors are at the hospital (which is a pretty reasonable statement, but of course, they might also be at home or in the library). If all the doctors work at the hospital, that means that you have to go to the hospital for medical checkups. I think that grouping medical professionals in one location is pretty efficient. It's like the concept of stratifying in Statistics; you group people in buildings based on profession.

One would expect people to speak Kazakh in Kazakhstan. That is totally true, however all the official documents have an equivalent Russian translation. In fact, it can be said that most official documents in Russian have a concomitant Kazakh equivalent. Russian is very prevalent in the major cities, probably due to USSR rule. It is also the language of instruction in schools.

Speaking of official stuff, let's segue into matters pertaining the government. In Kazakhstan, the traffic police technically can't give you a ticket if you don't understand what they're saying. I guess this might be useful to foreigners, but it also facilitates corruption. Demanding money from a foreigner is probably easier than explaining the traffic regulations that were violated. It might also be viewed as an expedite way for both parties to extricate themselves from this situation. However, I still do not believe this system will ameliorate the trust between the public and the police.

Apparently, the concept of cheating is very foreign to Kazakh students. (Obligatory disclaimer: I’m sure that not all Kazakh students cheat). Their willingness to cheat actually has an interesting rationale behind it that is inextricably linked to the history of Kazakhstan. Basically, Kazakhstan used to be a Soviet republic and therefore adopted some Soviet ways of thinking. One of these ideas was helping each other. It sounds so magnanimous on the surface, but has some far-reaching consequences. If you ruminate on the idea of helping each other, you will arrive at the idea of putting the welfare of the group before that of yourself. By aiding other students, everybody moves forward together. However, this aid is often given at the wrong time, i.e. during tests. Apparently, students in one class were so eager to aid a girl who was falling behind, that they did not stop to think about the possibility that they themselves were stymieing her intellectual development by not letting her think for herself.

Supermarkets in Kazakhstan function a little differently than the ones in the United States. I guess the main difference is that you have to bag your own groceries. I would not be able to do this seemingly easy task because I have a very acute difficulty in opening flat plastic bags. Wow, first world problems, right? Except most people don’t consider Kazakhstan to be “first world”. (That was a sentence fragment). Maybe in the cities, you could immerse yourself in a western lifestyle. Besides, the original definition of “first world” doesn't really refer to the country’s wealth.

Well anyways, that’s the end of this segment. Now that I look back upon it, I realize that the writing is very disjoint. Oh well. Next time, expect either Bulgaria or Albania (or maybe somewhere else?)...stay tuned!