Stories about Kazakhstan from July, 2007
Central Asia: Expert interview
James of neweurasia interviews Central Asia specialist Dr. Eric McGlinchey – the topics of the long conversation include radical Islam, Russian influence, the regime in Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan's development.
Afghanistan/Kazakhstan: Moving around 42 kids
Tom T retells his adventures of accompanying 42 young Afghan students across the border from Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan.
Central Asia: Google Trends
Michael Hancock shares his experience of learning about the world's attention to Central Asia using Google Trends.
Kazakhstan: Team Astana withdraws
neweurasia reports that this year's Tour de France is over for the Kazakhstani Team Astana following the positive doping test of the team's captain Alexander Vinokurov.
Kazakhstan: Officially no choice
On neweurasia, Adam Kesher says that a French PR company is preparing the Kazakhstani public for a landslide victory of the ruling party.
Kazakhstan: All-nation leader
Arthur finds that a recent press release of the Kazakhstani embassy is not even trying to hide the fact that President Nazarbayev, following recent constitutional changes, is now the “all-nation leader” with seemingly limitless powers.
Kazakhstan: Blogs not only for debate, but also a source
A lot of goodies in the Kazakhstani blogosphere this week: The big bosses walk away unscathed after two important trials, right-hand-drive advocates celebrate their victory, Kazakhstan is set to advance in nuclear energy production, many facts and figures, and much more in this week's roundup.
Kazakhstan: Nuclear proliferation?
At Registan.net, Nathan is discussing whether the purchase of 10% of Westinghouse's shares by a Kazakh nuclear energy firm is really as problematic as argued by a prominent blogger.
Central Asia: Evil ranking
BordersCA, a blog on borders in Central Asia, is reporting that Turkmenistan is slowly loosing its “Evil-Number-One” status to Uzbekistan. A sign of this are the small, yet continuous changes put in place by the new Turkmen president Berdymukhammedov, such as the removal of the arduous and omnipresent highway passport...
Central Asia: Clash of opinion
Josh Foust engages in an extremely interesting discussion with an Uzbek journalist (working for a Russian news agency) about Western promotion of democracy in Central Asia.
Kazakhstan: Transforming spaces
Kazakhstan's economic boom has led to manifold and ambitious construction projects of often questionable quality. Artpologist.net focuses on the studios and personal spaces of artists (such as Galim Madanov) amidst this dramatic building boom.
Central Asia: The week in the news
For all news junkies out there, Central Asia Now features a comprehensive roundup of last week's headlines.
Kazakhstan: Bloggers discuss politics
This week the Kazakh blogosphere is brimming with post about the country's all-powerful President, Nursultan Nazarbayev. He decided to rename a whole city and has continuous trouble with his former son-in-law. And there's much more that Kazakhstani have to say about what's going on in their country.
Kazakhstan: HIV scandal
On neweurasia, Arthur gives an update about a trial in southern Kazakhstan, where doctors, but no bosses, were jailed for negligence and corruption leading to the infection of more than 100 children with Aids.
Kazakhstan: Statistics
LJ user megakhuimyak has a bunch of interesting statistics about Kazakhstan in 2007.
Kazakhstan: Free lunch
Irene thinks (RUS) that the behaviour of certain government officials is not really promoting foreign direct investment in Kazakhstan. KZBlog provides the gist of the story in English: A German delegation was made to pay for their “friends'” lunch, although the friends hastily disappeared in government cars once they finished...
Kazakhstan: Music
Music in Kazakhstan finds that Kazakh rap doesn't get the attention it deserves while an entire new magazine is devoted to the dombyra – a classical string instrument.
Kazakhstan: Fun food
KZBlog finds some funky food in Kazakhstan's supermarkets, including USSR icecream and horsemeat-flavoured chips/crisps.
Central Asia: Ask the expert
James of neweurasia asks regional expert Dr. Johannes Linn about economic development, regional geopolitics, human rights, and development prospects for Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
Kazakhstan: Saving the Saiga
News from the Caravan has an in-depth post about the Saiga Steppe antelopes and what needs to be done to save the endangered species from extinction.
