As 2010 draws to a close and Kazakhstan’s chairmanship of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) winds down, the country is shifting the focus of its image-shaping efforts from politics to sports. The country’s next big project – hosting the seventh Asian Winter Games -- will run from January 30 to February 6.
Kazakhstan is joining an illustrious bunch by avoiding the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony today in Oslo. This year the award goes to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. But despite their invitations, the likes of Kazakhstan, China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and Sudan will not attend.
Mr Liu will also not attend, as he is serving an 11-year prison term for his human rights activism.
When pressed about the visible absence, Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry spokesman Ilyas Omarov said that the diplomatic representative accredited in Oslo was unable to attend the ceremony due to a previously arranged business trip.
The awarding of the prize to Liu Xiaobo for co-authoring a document calling for political reforms, has caused widespread controversy, with China accused of behind the scenes arm-twisting to encourage countries to boycott the event. Of the 65 diplomatic outposts invited to send representatives, 44 have agreed, 19 have declined and two have abstained.
China, which shares a land border with Kazakhstan, has significant investments in the country's oil and gas sphere. Astana, in turn, is a staunch supporter of Chinese foreign policy. Democratic reforms are also a touchy subject in Kazakhstan, which has a one-party parliament and a long-serving president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who can stay in the job for as long as he likes while reveling in his official title, Leader of the Nation.
In the run-up to World Aids Day on December 1, Almaty's Central Museum is hosting a photo exhibition to draw attention to the spread of HIV and TB in Central Asia. The images on display give an insight into the daily lives of people affected by the HIV epidemic, which is quickly spreading throughout Kazakhstan and Central Asia. According to official statistics there are around 50,000 infected people in the region, though the real figure may be much higher.
The exhibition, entitled “We are Near! We are Together!,” brings the work of Ukrainian freelance photographer Alexander Glyadyelov to Kazakhstan for the first time. Glyadyelov has been working on documentary photography projects involving socially deprived children and the HIV/AIDS epidemic since the mid-1990s.
His striking black and white photos are being exhibited alongside images taken by young photographers from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan who are working in the NGO sector, living with HIV, or are from groups at high risk of contracting the virus.
Juxtaposed with everyday scenes of people living with HIV are some harrowing pictures from prison camps in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. HIV and TB are chronic in Kazakhstan's prisons.
It's not only the prison population that is suffering from these infections, however. According to the UNAIDS/WHO 2009 report “AIDS Epidemic Update,” Central Asia and Eastern Europe are the only areas of the world where HIV infection rates among all sectors of the population remain on the rise. The problem is most acute among people injecting drugs and those having unprotected sex.
Almaty's commuters have a new choice. Since last weekend, the sidewalk on central Abai Street has been divided into lanes for cyclists and pedestrians, offering two-wheelers a safer alternative to the chaotic, traffic-choked streets of Kazakhstan’s financial capital.
The new bike lanes are the first in a planned 40-kilometer network that will snake alongside some of the city's main traffic arteries. The first section runs from KIMEP University to the city's Central Stadium. The routes will eventually follow Dostyk and Zhandossov streets through downtown.
Plagued by traffic jams, Almaty ranked ninth in a 2008 survey of the world's most polluted cities. However, it may be some time before biking catches on. A walk along Abai this morning revealed not a single bicycle, but simply pedestrians taking advantage of the wider pavement.
Yesimov has made tackling the city’s chronic traffic problems central to his tenure, undertaking a massive project this year to widen central arteries. The city also wants to present its best face to the expected international inflow when the 7th Asian Winter Games – to be held in Almay and Astana – open on January 30.
Over the last few weeks, yellow and black signs have begun appearing on Almaty's sidewalks. They warn drivers of a new weapon in the war on atrocious driving -- speed cameras. City authorities are finally getting to grips with Almaty's nightmare traffic problems by installing cameras at points all over the city.
Some 1,100 cameras are to be installed at traffic intersections along with a network of more than 100 control centers at a cost of 4.5 billion tenge ($30 million) in a bid to bring some order to the city's unruly drivers, Vecherny Almaty reports. The cameras will not only check for speeding violations but also collect data on illegal stopping and red light violations.
The suits that run Kazakh football are impatient for success, but the mission to gain three points in qualifiers was always going to be a tough one for a team ranked 126 worldwide, especially with fixtures against Germany, Turkey, Belgium and Austria.
Storck, who took charge of the team in July 2008, was an unusual choice given his lack of managerial experience, especially at an international level. He worked as assistant coach at a number of clubs in his native Germany and Serbia before arriving in Kazakhstan. During his tenure the national team played nine competitive games, losing seven and winning two, but those wins came against relative minnows.
The football federation has ambitious plans. The 30,000 capacity Astana Arena, the national team’s new home, recently opened in Kazakhstan’s capital, but it will take time before the country has a team worthy of playing in these impressive surroundings. The new boss will have to continue Storck’s work focusing on the next generation of players if Kazakhstan is to achieve the success the suits crave.
Kazakhstan’s lawmakers have decreed that the newly opened Nazarbayev University is to be given a free hand in choosing its academic policy, with no interference from the mandarins in Astana. The decision unshackles the institution from having to provide a wide range of subjects that have no relation to students’ majors, a long-time bone of contention for the country’s overburdened learners.
The university will be able to set its own curricula, distinguishing it from rivals who have to follow rigid course content guidelines from above (and which overload students with extra, irrelevant coursework).
The ministry recently took on KIMEP, one of Nazarbayev University's main rivals, over its alleged failure to issue state-standard diplomas. KIMEP’s license was initially suspended for six months, but – no doubt to the relief of thousands of students and graduates – this decision was revoked in an October 6 court ruling.
Kazakhstan's flagship sponsorship project, the Astana cycling team, is in the not-so-glamorous spotlight once again after news media learned on September 29 that this year's Tour de France winner Alberto Contador tested positive for a banned substance late in the race.
Contador, whose controversial July win was a tarnished blessing for Astana, was tested on July 21, and the sample revealed traces of the banned steroid clenbuterol. At a press conference in his Spanish hometown on September 30, the three-time Tour winner proclaimed his innocence and said that the positive result was due to his having eaten contaminated meat from Spain. The International Cycling Union has provisionally suspended Contador from the sport while the case is investigated.
Kazakhstan's state asset holding company Samruk-Kazyna supports Team Astana, a PR vehicle for the country on the world stage. But cycling -- with its regular doping scandals -- is a dangerous sport for promoting Kazakhstan's image abroad. In 2007, Kazakhstan's top rider Alexandre Vinokourov was kicked out of the Tour de France along with the whole Astana team after he tested positive for doping.
Veteran German punk group Die Toten Hosen is blazing a trail through the hearts of Central Asian rockers this week. It's the band's first visit to this part of the world and gives lovers of alternative music a rare chance to sample very different sounds from what's usually dished up in local bars and clubs.
Industrial giants Mercedes and Siemens and Germany's diplomatic missions in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan are sponsoring the tour, which opened in Astana on September 21. Tickets are free.
Die Toten Hosen play in the open air on September 24 at Tashkent's Turkestan Theater and then move on to Samarkand's Mujiza Amphitheater on September 25. Tickets are available by registering online with the German Embassy in Tashkent.
Tajikistan's punk cognoscenti will get the chance to pogo the night away at Dushanbe's Kokhi Borbad hall on September 27, the final date of the band's Central Asian visit.
Die Toten Hosen, whose name is often translated into English as “The Dead Pants,” formed in 1982 and are one of relatively few German bands to enjoy success outside their homeland.
In an email exchange, the group said it is not motivated by money, but enjoys the experience and the fans. The same cannot be said for all aging rock stars visiting Central Asia.
The movers and shakers of Central Asia's cinema world are gathering in Almaty, Kazakhstan as the sixth annual Eurasia International Film Festival kicks off on September 21. The five-day festival will highlight recent Kazakh productions while focusing on new movies from Central Asia and the Turkic speaking world.
Kazakhstan’s cinema industry produced 15 films in 2009 and has been enjoying a renaissance over the last few years as directors tackle tricky social issues and the Soviet legacy.
There will be a screening of Ermek Tursunov's Oscar nominated "Kelin," which caused controversy on its release for its depiction of the trials and tribulations of a young bride. It raised the hackles of Mazhilis (parliamentary) deputies, who attacked the film for negatively portraying Kazakh society.
The prudish politicians, who have taken it upon themselves to be the guardian's of the nation’s morals, also had the knives out for "Kairat-Champion. Virgin #1" – including its scenes of homosexuality – and for "Tulpan" which showed Kazakhs in an “ignoble” light.
