Viva Astana!
Translation of the Adam’s post from the Russian-language blog.
In spite of crisis, which was acknowledged by president Nazarbayev in his latest State of the Nation address, the Kazakhs have to celebrate 10th anniversary of Astana. Especially because this day luckily coincides with the president’s birthday. Last year the festivities were taking place for 6 days - a record for many wealthy cities of the world. This year, it certainly has to surpass all previous ones. Hopefully, it won’t be a rule for the years to come…
So, what’s the plan for July 6th? Ooops, sorry. This year the celebrations are to start in… April!!! There are 300 events to be held, 40 of them in the period from June 27 to July 6. The first joy will be brought by sport competitions and concerts of world-scale stars (so far, only one name is known - magnificent tenor Jose Carreras). It is expected that 10,000 guests will come to Astana from various countries – including mayors of 100 largest cities of the world (who will hardly be travelling to the heart of Eurasia at their own expense).
According to the mayor of Astana, the events include large conference and symposia, exhibitions, thatric shows on the brand-new stadium, presentation of a new galactic star “Astana”, dance, circus and opera festivals. The super-surprise set includes a Venice carnival on gondolas, Vienna Ball with the participation of world stars of opera and ballet (master of ceremony - prominent Russian arts expert Sviatoslav Belza; chef from Austria), and even a football game “with the participation of one of the world’s best teams” (rumors say the match will take place between Kazakhstan and Brazil; they also say that Pele will come to see Astana).
One more expensive part of the celebrations - video ads of Astana that are to be shown on CNN, BBC and EuroNews.
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State of the Nation Address 2008: “First of all, the government has to … cut state expenditures on all state programs except social ones. Everything that can be postponed for 1-2 years, should be suspended. It refers to all regions. We have to have this kind of economy”.
on February 13th, 2008 at 8:06 am
What is a “galactic star”? A bit of hyperbole?
on February 23rd, 2008 at 11:15 am
State of the Nation
Taken from the Eurasia Daily Monitor
Nazarbayev looked somewhat nervous as he addressed the audience, frequently fumbling for his papers and pausing for the right word. When a carefully edited “transcript” of his speech appeared in government newspapers the next day, it became clear that it was not identical to his prerecorded and noticeably awkward televised speech. Some comments that Nazarbayev had made in Kazakh on television, such as that an education scheme had failed due to an acute shortage of schools and trained teachers, were omitted from government-controlled newspapers.
Taken from the Eurasia Daily Monitor
Even in its full text, the presidential address leaves many questions unanswered and causes deep disillusionment. He announced a 25% pension rise in 2009 and a similar increase in salaries of civil servants, but he did not utter a word about soaring food prices and utility costs. Electricity prices in some localities soared 59% this winter, causing chronic blackouts. In his address to the nation Nazarbayev offered no better solution to the problem than “belt tightening” and conserving electricity. “We are running short of cheap electricity. If we want to pay less, we should economize. That should be everyone’s concern,” he emphasized. He partially acknowledged that the country’s power industry was in bad shape, and that he had no idea how to steer it back on track.
My Comment – Whilst the Kazakh worker is freezing to death, I suggest he spends less on his Astana vanity project ($15 Billion and rising) and spends more on new power stations! There is no shortage of fuels in Kazakhstan, coal, gas, oil by the millions of tons.
I wonder if there were there power cuts in Astana?
Oh, and 25% of nothing is nothing.