Comments on: Kazakhstan Is Still Very Poor, in Places

By: Turgai Sangar

Turgai Sangar — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 07:21:19 +0000

“the rural poor are the “real Kazakhstan” while the urban/suburban middle and upper classes are not?”

They’re BOTH the real Kazakhstan. It’s just that the money and the development that ones sees in Almaty is not representative for ‘the country’ as a whole.

By: Narcogen

Narcogen — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:37:04 +0000

The urban/rural split out of KZ’s 15m population is about 50/50 at last I read.

And somehow the rural poor are the “real Kazakhstan” while the urban/suburban middle and upper classes are not?

What’s the “real America” then? The Ozarks?

By: Frederick

Frederick — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:31:45 +0000

Also let’s recognize it isn’t as if the cities in Kazakhstan are wealthy. There are some astoundingly wealthy people, of course, but even with the wealth in cities here, on balance the people in cities are also quite poor. Lots of disparity in wealth. Of course, Kazakhstan is not alone in that–the US has its own problems in that area, as do others.

By: Oldschool Boy

Oldschool Boy — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 03:32:38 +0000

These guys are not the poorest. They have the house millions of immigrants in USA would ever dream about. And a horse! Little girls around America would kill for that.
It is not that I am saying that there is no poverty in Kazakhstan. It is just ridiculous how everything is relative. In America you have water and electricity but you will own your house only after you paid all your mortgage when you are like 60 and you can never dream about having land or a horse, but you do not think that you are poor. Then you look at these bitching peasants, who have their own house, some land, even a horse and a few cows, and think “what poor people”:(.

By: ChrisM

ChrisM — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:13:14 +0000

^^oops, American dating confused me once more, I glanced up at the last comment and assumed 6/1/2009 was 6th January 2009. I’ therefore assuming you’ve not yet been on your trip.

By: ChrisM

ChrisM — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:02:34 +0000

Re. the gold teeth, this isn’t the same as when you American/UK music stars showing off their bling. At points, it was the only decent option for false teeth/implants/crowns etc.

Note for Michael, I’m sure you’re aware already, but just in case… if your DV camera uses DVDs you might want to consider an alternative. Despite the ludicrousness of the situation, customs can give you a hard time taking optical disks out of the country, unless they’ve been inspected first, though memory sticks/mobile phones with huge capacity memory cards in them, and even portable hard drives don’t seem to ever be picked up. Thats assuming you haven’t already been and gone of course.

By: Turgai Sangar

Turgai Sangar — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:27:18 +0000

I agree with Michaël. Many ‘city Kazakhs’ have not the slightest clue about reality outside of their own surroundings, and I do not even mean in remote villages in more ‘extreme’ areas like Kyzyl Orda but also on the very outskirts of Almaty.

By: Michael Hancock

Michael Hancock — Sun, 31 May 2009 20:57:50 +0000

I understand, but have finite patience for, Kazakhs living in cities like Almaty, or even Shymkent, saying such people are not real, that their life is not representative of Kazakhstan. And it isn’t representative of everyone, but there are literally millions of people that live like this. I say this not because I watched this video, but because I’ve seen it myself, and not in one tiny little aul, but in many. And it’s many times worse in Uzbekistan and other countries, but Kazakhstan is not without its poverty.

By: areke

areke — Fri, 29 May 2009 22:09:15 +0000

It is not real which seems like in this movie… exaggerated…. did you see she has gold teeth, nice. Of course nice when foreign guys as you pay her green money

By: Michael Hancock

Michael Hancock — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:01:22 +0000

I’ll be taking my digital camera and DV camera with me to Kazakhstan, so we’ll see what kinds of fun things I can bring back. Granted, I’m not a journalist, but I’ll be in Kazakhstan for 2 months, so we’ll see what I see!