Here is some news about how Kazakhstan authorities are spending the petrodollars - actually, a very colorful illustration to the Dutch Disease concept with the presumed spendings on grand though useless projects like Astana, or simply irrelevant waste.
Michael Hancock on Registan shares some information on the employment opportunity for the people, who somehow can […]
Cross-posted on Global Voices Online
A month ago Nurgeldy told at neweurasia how they are fighting poor knowledge of the state language in the Kazakhstan’s northern city of Kustanai. His post gave rise to quite a heated dispute both in Russian and English versions of the blog, covering such issues as why urban population speaks […]
This is a translation of the post by our Russian-language author Nurgeldy.
September 22 is celebrated as a Day of Languages in Kazakhstan. Usually, such days are meant to provoke some thought about achievements or troubles. But it is much more important to work for improvement of the situation and to do this work […]
This is a translation of an excerpt from Ksenia’s post in Russian.
The Kazakhstani children have entered the new school year with ambitious novelties: more Internet access and 1,000 “interactive blackboards” – everything necessary for the new era education. However, the main problems occur in the very elementary basics.
Many pupils are starting the […]
Recently, you may have noticed a new addition to the weblogs called Artpologist.net. This blog documents the life of an art project that I’ve started working on with several artists and an anthropologist from Kazakhstan.
The project focuses on the studios and personal spaces of artists amidst the dramatic building boom influencing the daily […]
Recently I went to visit the Soros Center for Contemporary Art and witnessed the beginning of the destruction of this art community center on Tulebaev Street. They were already putting up the synonymous metal walls to hide the destruction.
The Soros Center for Contemporary Art has been housed in this humble constructivist building for almost […]
Aminatou Echard is an experimental video and film maker and installation artist who lives in Paris. She is currently working on a movie about her trip to Kyrgyzstan and on a new project in Kazakhstan. I met Aminatou last fall at the end of her three-month trip through Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. I was […]
An unexpected gradualism prevailed in some Kazakh politicians’ words recently, especially over the country’s formerly ambitious oil export targets. ‘We don’t have to rush at any price’ seemed to be the word of the day - maybe also in the light of Azerbaijan’s increasing woes with oil windfalls that are becoming more and more […]
…says President Nazarbayev, knowing that he himself prematurely rejected his own one. To achieve that, first of all, all countrymen currently abroad are invited back home:
“We will create conditions for you on par with what you have abroad. Your education, energy and knowledge are needed at home.”
With the help of American experts, a […]
President Nazarbayev visited Education City yesterday, Qatar Foundation’s ‘landmark’ tertiary education edifice. Reportedly, the president was impressed by the quality of the institution and announced that a delegation would visit Qatar soon to study more carefully the approach the Foundation has taken. It provided the small Gulf state with a centre of excellence that […]
