Kazakhstan: About children and president’s speech · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

The bloggers of Kazakhstan were talking about children and the President Nazarbayev's annual address to the nation. The kids topic, probably, aroused from the news about the death of Casey Johnson, heiress of the multi-national pharmaceuticals empire Johnson&Johnson, whose daughter Ava Monroe was adopted from Kazakhstan in 2007.
Thousand-pa says [ru]:
I am very happy for the girl. Although she has lost her mother again, nevertheless it looks like a Christmas fairy tale – be born as an orphan in Kazakhstan and grow up as the Johnson's heiress.
Izhanov believes that attempts to develop a uniting national idea for the Kazakhstani society should end up with puttling children to the top of it [ru]:
Children, families having many children, everything for the children. The idea is simple: you help the society by bringing up children. The goal is to sharply increase the population without immigration. Youth would stop degrading, creation of children-related infrastructure would provide for employment, giant family parks would boost tourism. The country's image would improve too – children are the future. Unlike the resource nationalism.
Megakhuimyak wonders how modern pop art would influence the today's children [ru]:
There are two cultures fighting for their minds – American one (Sponge Bob, Spiderman, Batman et al.) and Japanese (Naruto, Bakugan Battle Brawlers, Pokémons). In the Grand Meloman Store (major DVD, gaming and books retailer) the amount of anime and manga production is equal to the amount of Soviet films and books.
But the Kazakh bloggers wouldn't be themselves if they omit the topic of politics. This time the presidential annual address was in their focus. Pycm ironizes on the verbal symbols of autocracy [ru]:
According to the news, “the President delivers Poslanie [Address] to the people in the Parliament”. All words are with a capital “p” – except “people”.
Zhuldyz comments on the social bloc of the presidential promises to the people of a country having abundant mineral and energy reserves [ru]:
He said that the basic pension will reach 60 per cent of the minimal cost of living by 2015. Well, Kazakhstan looks as a country of high ambitions and opportunities – can you imagine, more than half of a minimum…
Idsg adds [ru]:
The wholly beloved president stressed that crisis did not hurt our country, and all we have ahead is success. I think the crisis is here, because selling oil, minor increase of pensions and a handful of new schools are not signs of a developed country. We still don't have middle-class […] and quality development of cultural life.
Last week, the a court in Kazakhstan banned all Kazakh media and printing houses from publishing any information that discredits the honor and dignity of president's son-in-law, a high-ranking energy executive after a series of allegations about corruption, brought up by Mukhtar Ablyazov, the fled and prosecuted Kazakh banker. Adam Kesher says [ru]:
The court did not investigate the circumstances or arguments of the parties and just introduced a full-scale censorship in the country at the request of one man. This fact proves that notorious dependency of the Judiciary branch on the Executive power is only a part of the disaster.