Marat recollects the 1990s, when Uzbekistan was believed to become the regional locomotive of growth and notes:

In actual fact Islam Karimov, the preisdent of Uzbekistan largely contributed to the Kazakhstan's success. His policies brought Uzbekistan to the desperate poverty and decreased regional competition in favor of Kazakhstan… Perhaps, the Kazakhs owe a monument to Karimov in Astana.

Slavasay is concerned over deteriorating situation in the country's outdated infrastraucture, which the authorities seem to be unable to maintain effectively [ru]:

I knew that we could have problems with water and electricity supply in the future, but I didn't expect to face them now. I, my folks and several friends don't have hot water in flats. There was a two-week interruption in natural gas supply. Electricity blackouts have already become a regular thing. Now the mayor of Almaty, the largest city and business capital of Kazakhstan, says that we are going to have troubles with heating during the coming winter. I'm glad he is an honest man. But I'd really like to live in 2008, not like in mid-1990s.

Dass is anxious about possible interethnic tensions in Kazakhstan [ru]:

There won't be massive renaming of the northern cities in the near future [those cities, situated near the border with Russia are having Russian names, and the campaigns are taking place to rename them in a “more Kazakh” manner]. The authorities understand that it would have been too dangerous to give another reason for tensions against the background of economic problems. But it won't help - there will be a reason in any case.

Mantrov-kz reports on his recent ride in a taxi in his town called Shymkent in the poorest southern part of Kazakhstan, when he was shocked by the sincerity of the cabman [ru]:

At first he actively expressed his irritation about prices for gasoline and criminality level. Then he suddenly said: “I wish there was war. I'd fight - it's better fight than to live this way”. The popular discontent is growing…

Another highly debated issue in the Kazakhstai blogs is toughening of the penalties for violation of traffic rules, including fines for failure to use safety belts. And here's some place for humor and quick wit of the people:

I am glad that the traffic regulations have been made stricter - people now drive more carefully and use belts. However, lately I've been told that there are t-shirts availabl, which havean image of worn safety belt on them!

globuszz writes [ru].

Cross-posted on neweurasia.

Alim Atenbek is upset with the uniform of the Kazakhstani team [ru]:

Officials always want to make a buck on everything, and the Olympiad is not an exclusion. The government allocated 68 milion tenge for 226 kits - or 2,500 US dollars for each - but eventually the quality of fabric and tailoring was so bad that they had to remake it hastily. The tender for sale of tours to Beijing Olympics was very dubious too - a barely known tourist firm won it.

KZBlog also notes poor quality of the uniform, saying that

“the blazers have huge shoulder pads that make all the athletes look like little kids wearing Daddy’s business suits. And the orange skirts and little hats are way too bright on their own. The combination of white, bright blue and bright orange is a little hard to take!”

Mantrov-kz posts a list of money awards, announced by the government of Kazakhstan for the medalists (gold medal is worth 250,000 dollars), and marks out that the Azerbaijani president promised $720,000 for each medal won by his sportsmen: “Here we have already lost”, he notes [ru]. However, the overall performance of the Kazakh team is pretty good - as of now 8 medals is already in the Kazakhstan's “piggy bank”. This amount is the same to the result of Kazakhstan on the Athenes Olympics. Wondernews found out a curious thing [ru]:

If the CIS republics performed as a single “soviet” team, they would have won the first place by the amount of medals in Beijing!

Meanwhile, epolet, a prominent political blogger in Kazakhstan, could not resist the temptation to draw attention to the political component [ru]:

All presidents of the Central Asian countries (Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, Karimov of Uzbekistan, akiyev of Kyrgyzstan, Berdymukhamedov of Turkmenistan and Rakhmon of Tajikistan) have come to Beijing to watch the opening ceremony. Five countries were living without their presidents these days.

Cross-posted on neweurasia.

What still causes sincere amazement in Kazakhstan is a Stoic serenity of the higher officials, responsible for the so-called “breakthrough projects”. What yesterday used to be a pride of the government, today is rapidly becoming a trash and profanation. The whole last week everybody in Kazakhstan was debating about failure of the Unified National Test [a test-based examination for the graduates of high schools and university entrants at the same time], shutdown of the first Kazakh satellite and corruption,

sarimov writes [rus]. Programmilla elaborates further on the Unified Test [rus]:

The results are depressing. The national average score is 68 out of 120. The threshold for entry to the universities is lowered down to 45 from 50. So, a graduate with only 45 out of 120 is actually considered to be able to study in the university, on a paid basis. Then why do we need this test at all - why not just letting children continue study automatically?

For almost two last months Kazakhstan was swarmed with rumors around the head of the state and socio-political outlook in general. One of the most noteworthy were hearsays that the president is allegedly ill and is about to resign soon; that the president's alleged double is currently replacing him; that after Astana celebrations the country's economy will collapse, the national currency will be ruined; that the parliament will be dissolved; and finally that Almaty will be striken by the destroying earthquake etc. Alim-atenbek reacts [rus]:

I am not inclined to trust or disseminate those rumors. But all this stuff is a reflection of anxiety in the society. I think it is connected most of all with the crisis developments in the economy - high inflation, unemployment, landslide of prices for housing, lack of access to credit.

Meanwhile, although the whole economy did not collapse after the Astana festivities, the instability continues taking place. The kazakhstan community in LiveJournal informs that the price for diesel fuel, which is one of the main inflation catalysts because it is used in agriculture and commercial transportation, sharply jumped up by nearly 10% [rus]. At the same time, miss-crazy marks out an amusing detail [rus]:

Everybody is talking about crisis. But it is sometimes funny to listen to the news like this: police has detained a gang, which was robbing people near currency exchange points. One of the victims had $100,000 in cash, the second loser had $87,000, the third one was a poor thing with only 50,000 - also, certainly, in cash… It looks like the meridian of crisis passes in some other place, not here…

Cross posted on neweurasia