Kazakhstan: Bloggers’ Summer Pessimism  · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Summer is predominantly a dead season for the netizens around the globe. Kazakh bloggers keep on writing – providing less citizen journalism, but producing broader insights. Isabekov opines on the Kazakh national mentality feature [ru]:
One of the most favorite Central Asian entertainments is called “praise a Kazakh”. The rules of this game are as follows: a Kyrgyz, a Tajik or an Uzbek must praise a Kazakh when they meet. The compliments should fall both personally on the interlocutor and on the Kazakh nation as a whole. For example: “Kazakhstan are cool and rich, with enormous territory, oil, Contador and cosmodrome, with high pensions and salaries etc”. By the end of the game a Kazakh get soaked and a Kyrgyz, a Tajik or an Uzbek can do whatever they want. The game is very popular on the governmental level.
Gde-Marat is concerned over another feature [ru]:
Kazakhs have a phobia of public opinion. In order to avoid stigma they get into debts, sell their property and then live in poverty – especially when it comes to a “decent funeral”. The worst thing is that they call it Islam […] What is the use of all huge expenses for the deceased? None. There is not a word in Islam about magnificent funerals. Why not spending all of this money for charity on behalf of the late? […]
Sadenova draws an allegoric parallel between her apartment house and the civil consciousness of the citizens [ru]:
The house is awful – broken, damaged, trashed and fouled. You can’t do anything, because 85% of its inhabitants are the tenants. They live here temporarily and do not care of the house and its future. This is not fair. The house is doing its best, making no difference between the tenants and proprietors. It gives shelter to everybody, takes everybody up and down on the elevator. The same happens in the country – too many tenants.
The people in Kazkahstan widely believe that extractive business is one of such “tenants”.
“I was told that our oilmen sadly and sorrowfully recollect the year of 2006, when there were both the largest oil production and the price for it. Probably, it was so pleasant to spend money like water that they can’t forget this feeling up until now. Happy people – they have good things to remember, unlike the rest of the population”, thousand-pa writes.
Another category of “the pick of the nation” that is often considered a ballast are members of the parliament. Elected in a fraudulent vote (none of the votes in Kazakhstani history were deemed free and fair by the OSCE; the number of opposition deputies was constantly decreasing and now equals zero), it has little power and is primarily busy with weirdly populist initiatives. One of such ideas was to legislatively ban abortions. Ellenbarkin reacts [ru]:
I insist that the MPs should not confine themselves to half-measures. They must legislatively prohibit masturbation too – as a sort of abortion – and to introduce death penalty for it