By Wallace Kaufman
Pittsboro, NC, May 24
(The GLOBE)
President Clinton�s friend Senator Joe Lieberman said Sunday, �We are trying to break the will of the Serbian people.� I looked at my notes and wondered if once again he was leaving the official party line as he did in the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal when he became the first Democrat to say the President committed a serious crime and had lied under oath. Within a half hour Secretary of State Madeleine Albright appeared on a television talk show and said, �Eighty percent of Serbia is now without electricity and it�s going to stay that way.� The war began as surgical air strikes against military targets.
Over and over when NATO or the White House listed targets hit, spokesmen carefully explained the target�s role in supporting Milosevic�s military and police units in Kosovo. NATO hit oil storage to deny fuel to the troops. It hit a television tower to cut off propaganda for the war effort. It hit government buildings because they were supposed to be command centers. It hit a car factory that was said to be making military equipment too.
Suddenly at the end of this week NATO was bombing to break the will of the Serbian people. If this was a silent assumption in the bombing strategy all along, no one said so. In fact the White House and NATO were loud and clear in saying they did not want to hit civilian targets. That meant more than simply avoiding civilian injuries.
These revelations follow closely a week in which the Clinton administration cited several signs that Serbs who had initially rallied to Milosevic were now staging demonstrations in which they blamed him for the bombing, for refusing to negotiate, and for forcing young men into a disastrous war. In at least one town demonstrators demanded that soldiers from their region return from Kosovo. Washington also distributed to the press news that a Serbian human rights group had for the first time protested the treatment of Kosovars.
The punishment of the civilian population also follows increased talk about returning the Kosovars to their homes before winter makes that impossible and brings on conditions that would make the entry of a peace keeping force very difficult. Facing this deadline and seeing some signs that the air war is turning Serbs against Milosevic, NATO has intensified the bombing.
NATO has also accumulated some 50,000 troops in neighboring countries and Sunday one NATO military commander said the troops could begin to enter Kosovo with as little as a week�s preparation. Exactly under what conditions NATO nations would send in troops has developed from a shunned topic into a lively and persistent debate. Here too changes are evident in recent official statements.
When the air war began in mid March, President Clinton adamantly stated he would not commit combat ground troops under any circumstances. All Serb forces, he said, had to be out of Kosovo first. That changed to saying ground troops could go in if there were a �permissive environment.� When NATO celebrated its 50th birthday in Washington in early April the President still ruled out ground troops, but said if NATO commanders wanted to reassess other options, that would be agreeable. Later in the month, pressured by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Clinton and his team began to talk of committing troops when Serbian forces had begun a clear exit. Last week the administration was talking about planning for troops in a �non-permissive� environment.
On Sunday President Clinton wrote in a New York Times opinion article that while he expected the air war to succeed, �I do not rule out other military options.� Secretary Albright said the 50,000 NATO troops in neighboring countries were not meant as an invasion force, but she added, �having them in the region has its importance.� The clearest change in administration policy seems to be that it has taken the advice of its strongest critics, like Senator John McCain, a former war hero. McCain said in March that Clinton had made a fundamental mistake in public declarations that repeatedly ruled out the use of ground troops. �You let the enemy know your goals,� he said, �but you don�t tell him how you plan to achieve them.�
President Clinton, who once ruled out everything but an air war and only on military targets, has now come around 180 degrees and rules out no means of achieving his ends. This will not make the Serbian citizens any fonder of the messenger, but as the lights have gone out for 80 percent of the country, more people are reading and understanding the message.
(Continued from # 39(357))
Bakhytzhamal
Bekturganova, President of the Association of Sociologists and Politologists
ALMATY, May 19
(Specialli for THE GLOBE)
Thus, for several centuries, the �ak-suyek� class was the only one that played a role of the �patrimonial administration� in the Kazakh State. The State (its territory and the subjects) was considered as the patrimony, i.e. the inherited family property.
The patrimonial law system secured safety and self-reproduction of the traditional (tribal) power institute. The peculiarity of this political-administrative structure of the Kazakh society was decentralisation. The traditional Kazakh society was a rigid hierarchical conglomerate of tribal formations (or unions). Each union was a patrimony of a khan or a sultan from the �ak-suyek� class and this union was an independent political unit.
Form the end of the 16th century the largest measure of the political-administrative structure of Kazakhstan (which coincided with its social system) was zhuz. According to V.P. Yudin, this date is not final, as it is probable that some information about its earlier existence will be found later.1
Zhuz was mainly based not on the territory (land site) principle, but on the headquarter (or headquarters) of the khans and sultans, which was a centre of the pasture cattle-breeding economy, around which the tribes and families of the zhuz gathered.
Cattle was the main value, a criteria of wealth, power, social weight and status in the Kazakh society, i.e. the mean of power. A number of cattle demonstrated wealth and power, and played a role of values. Without cattle the power of the �ak-suyek� was not grounded either territorially or politically.
Possession and managing the cattle were of private-family character. Cattle was the desired article of the fight for power between the clans of the ruling dynasty. The fight was caused by not only economic, but rather by political interest. Cattle guaranteed a stable foundation of their authority.
The �whole cultural system� was concentrated around the cattle (S. Kodak). The ruler�s (khan or sultan�s) headquarter was economically and politically self-sufficing and functioned as a social organism. The tribal units (zhuzes) were the original �nomadic towns�, the political content of which coincided with the composition of the proprietors of cattle.
The main economic and social unit of the Kazakh society was a family, house-ownership, which owned private cattle. Actually, every tribal unit was a big patrimonial family. The size of a patrimony depended on a number of the polygamial (for rich people) and monogamial (for poor people) families included in the patrimony. The master of the patrimonial � the superior ruler (khan, sultan) was a head of the family, his subjects were his household.
In general, the patrimonial order prevented from development of the rational capitalistic economy. To develop the capitalistic enterprises, a state apparatus, working �like a machine�, is required. Though �the patrimonial administration� ruled basing on the genealogical tradition and vassal system. Salary of the latter was replaced by �feeding� � legalised duties and collections from the population, such as collection of tribute (�yasak�) �with a definite purpose under different pretences� (S.Ye. Tolybekov), �cult� presents on solemn occasions or sad events (�baisazy�, �aza�, �soiysty�, �zhylu� or �zhortshylyk�), court duties (�handyk�), etc. The system of presents or �extortion of voluntary tributes� had a form of a non-economic exchange. More often the subject of the �alienated property� was cattle, replacing the function of money.
The �governing-submission� relations had a character of personal dependence, based on the blood relationship. A number of traditions and customs required to maintain the tribal system of the society grew on the basis of those relations. Customs and traditions imparted the economic relations with a cultural character. Usually exchange was timed with celebrations, meetings (parties or funeral repasts), ceremonies, etc. More often this exchange of cattle, cattle-breed products, articles of the handicrafts was caused by necessity, not by excesses and growth of consumable production. Wealth accumulated in hands of the ruling class prevented trade and handicrafts, and barter from growth, as its �unprofitable� usage promoted a withdrawal of capital from consumable turnover.
�The prebendial type� (Weber) of governing of the �family administration� (feeding owing to tributes from the population) did not differ the private pocket from the state one. The main function of the authorities was concentration of wealth. Economic activity of the ruling class was to withdraw from mass consumption as much resources (mainly cattle) as it was possible to increase private wealth.
The union of economic, political and court functions of the authorities is traditional for the Kazakh state system. The functional union of the power led to social stagnation and destruction of the economy.
The patrimonial system is mainly uneconomic. The edicts of the ruling class codified the legal norms �with respect of persons�. There were no guarantees of private right and private property �without respect of persons� in the terms of the rational right.
A khan or sultan combined functions of sponsor, employer, administrator, judge and commander. Trust to him was based on relations of personal dependence basing on relative links or charisma, not on the business or co-operation relations.
The form of co-operation was dependent and was extremely concrete, i.e. connected with definite traditions and circumstances. Such a co-operation had an umbellate structure of family mutual aid: a large private farm was an original preventive umbrella, under which middle-sized and small private farms, serf- and hired labour (sharua, zharly, malai, kul) hid.
In the Kazakh society wealth was accumulated in three ways: i) owing to tributes, ii) wars and robberies, iii) exploitation of poor people. There was a lot of hunger people who were ready to do any job. Rational labour free from private dependence was outside traditions and moral.
The umbellate structure of the family aid was extremely functional: it fixed in consciousness of the members of the family an especial archaic type of redistribution and social parasitic attitude, anti-rational labour ethics. That was an especial form of the inside-family co-operation, which did not promoted the development of Kazakh business.
Social status in the society was determined by a number of cattle. Directly or indirectly, cattle became �an instrument� of social differentiation.
An owner of a big number of cattle used apart from hired labour based on agreement, labour of slaves (�kuls�) in his farm. The latter, nevertheless, were not the private property of the owners of cattle and were not a mean to accumulate wealth. This social group was not �a stable component� of the society and did not play a significant role in its social structure.
The tribal links fixed the vertical structure of stratification of the Kazakh society. It caused that significant influence of the �ak-suyek� class. All the strata of the Kazakh society identified their territorial, ethnical and political unity with the names of the representatives of the �ak-suyek�.
Wastefulness of the ruling class, who regularly held celebrations and holidays for their subjects (�toi�, �konak-as�, �as�, etc.) was a legitimisation mechanism of the authorities, as well as a channel of recruitment to vassals, which was the main foundation of the power. The main source of vassals was a family noblemen, as well as some separate people from different social groups who had extremely prominent personal features and battle courage.
1 �Ordas: White, Blue, Grey, Golden� Utemish-haji. Chingiz-name� by V.P. Yudin (Almaty: Galym, 1992, p.44)
(to be continued)
Michael Paterson
ALMATY, May 22
(THE GLOBE)
I was recently invited to participate in the English classes of secondary school #107, here in Almaty to witness the unorthodox teaching methods of Mr. Valery Lapshin.
Mr. Lapshin is currently writing a book explaining the specific methods that he has incorporated, but some of his secrets seem to be a genuine affection for the children, an entertaining presentation, and the active encouragement for the participation of his students. In order to constantly build the students� self-esteem, bad marks are never given. Every lesson begins with the US pledge of allegiance, but with �United States of America� changed to Kazakhstan. Then the class sings a number of songs to energize the children. In return for Mr. Lapshin�s energy and imagination, the children are prepared to offer respect and an eagerness to work hard. The progress that they have made together in only one year is truly remarkable.
The accomplishments are even more impressive considering the number of obstacles facing the teaching profession. Persistent budget cuts have trimmed educational resources to the bone, as was evident by the condition of the school. Although clean, everything was so old that walking the halls was like stepping back into my elementary experience more than 20 years ago. The desks and black boards and other teaching aids dated from the Soviet era and there were no computers. Outdated, mismatched textbooks often must be shared. Reflecting the scarcity of books, borrowing from the library requires a deposit.
Although the government of Kazakhstan obviously does not have the same resources as developed nations, teachers� wages lag way behind the compensation of other functionaries. In the west, teachers� salaries are above average workers, and the job security, number of rights and benefits won by teacher�s unions are envied by many in the private sector.
Kazakhstan�s teachers can only be motivated by a love of children. Though often this is not enough as many teachers are leaving the profession. This exodus is especially apparent in the older grades �when problems of discipline, school violence, and inter-ethnic relations can sometimes become strained.
Added to the indignity of the poor working conditions, ever-growing classrooms and poor salaries, Kazakhstan�s teachers must put up with interference by administration. For instance, most teachers must spend at least one hour every day, writing down what they hope to accomplish that day. Of course, the more paperwork that teacher must fill out for the ministry, less time the teacher has to spend marking homework and working with the children. Whereas teachers in the west are shielded from the education administration by the school�s principal and protected by powerful unions, Kazakhstan�s teachers are vulnerable to the whims of the central administration.
The grass-root but powerful parent groups that lobby the government for education in the west have not yet developed in Kazakhstan. Though all of the teachers stressed the importance of parent involvement and interest in children�s education. Kazakhstan�s young people are vulnerable to many social problems, but those that place stress on the family unit such as divorce, alcoholism, and unemployment can be particularly distracting and de-motivating �making the teacher�s job especially difficult.
It is not evident in Kazakh society that teachers perform one of society�s most important occupations. But this is simply confirmation of the government�s inattention to a knowledge-based culture. Many other of the most educated and hardworking employed such as professors, doctors, scientists are also poorly paid. But this must be a priority if the government wishes to continue to promote the capitalist system. In order for the system to work, the young people must realize that they can get ahead based upon hard work and merit, not connections and immoral nepotism. It is how the American dream survived. Without incentive system to work, capitalist system is endangered.
At the present moment, the government�s greatest hope for the future, and therefore energy and resources seems to be directed towards ensuring the exploitation of oil and other natural resources by TNCs. Besides the fact that such policies tend to have isolated benefits with little trickledown. The prices of commodities, primary goods continue to decline over the long period, compared to knowledge-based products.
As was documented by former US Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich�s book The Work of Nations, the gap in wages between those educated between and within and between countries continues to widen. One need only look at the manufacture of a car or any other manufactured project, to understand the reasons. What gives a car its competitive advantage is not base materials is made out of, but rather research and development, engineering that molds them and the marketing and services that sells it. Therefore countries that can only provide the iron, zinc, or other raw materials will not advance but continue to primitize.
The same is true in simple manufacturing processes. Those processes requiring little skill, judgement, and education continue to disappear in the west, being replaced by robotics or moved overseas to developing countries. Stuck with an uneducated workforce, Kazakhstan will not only be forced to compete with cheap workforces of India and China and rest of the third world, but will be forced to compete with the West�s machines �in a race to the bottom rung of the production ladder. Further, working in this capacity will require working like machines capable of only repetitive tasks with compensation not exceeding the costs of the most efficient technology or cheapest third world worker.
In order to avoid this fate, it is imperative that Kazakhstan�s government be forward thinking, ensuring that Kazakhstan�s future workforce be connected to developments in science and business which are occurring in the world. As the speed of technological development increases, the penalties of isolation also increase.
One of inheritances of Soviet system and potential salvation is a relatively well-educated workforce. The present authorities must build upon this temporary competitive advantage. Not only the quantity but more importantly the quality of investment which can be attracted depends upon it. In order to escape the present investment crisis and move the country up the production ladder, Kazakhstan will require a highly, educated, skilled and motivated workforce
The language not only of international business, but increasingly international communication over tools such as the internet is English. Therefore, in order to track and take timely advantage of scientific developments and business opportunities occurring outside the country�s borders, knowledge of the international language is increasingly essential.
Any program to increase enthusiasm in education, particularly English, as in Mr. Lapshin�s class should be encouraged and supported. I hope that both the school administration and parents take an interest in newer, successful teaching techniques.
To the students, I hope that you won�t lose interest in the international language and you continue to make progress in your studies. I look forward to seeing you again.
To the government, I hope that as you continue to invest more money in digging holes in the ground that you will also please invest in the bright young faces that I witnessed at secondary school 107.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
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