The scandal of the sale of MIGs to North Korea, repeated speeches by the Kazakhstani opposition leaders in the US Congress and criticism of Parliamentary election by OSCE has not imbued relations between the US and Kazakhstan with warmth. President Nazarbaev will have to regain international trust in his country, and that is a difficult task. The government plans to reduce the budget deficit, but this depends mainly on external factors. Despite a large debt and large expenses for building a new capital, the country has �entered the post-crisis period,� according to an official statement. Whether the end of the crisis is in fact in sight depends largely on Nazarbaev�s forthcoming visit to Washington.
Today the Kazakhstani government faces only one problem � internal and external debts. The state�s debt to pensions and budget salaries is about 36 billion tenge. As far as the external debt is concerned, it is high time to repay the credit of US$ 2.5 billion allotted under governmental guarantee when Sergei Tereschenko was the Prime Minister. Besides, Astana demands more money. According to the first deputy of the Astana Akim Farit Galymov, the government has spent 61 billion 800 million tenge towards construction in Astana. This money was collected from national and local budgets, as well as allotted by sponsors. In the next year, obviously, more money will be required for construction, as work on 43 projects, including the new international airport, diplomats� block and others, has been started in this year. Under the economic crisis, these expenses will be a heavy burden for the national budget.
What�s more, the last undemocratic presidential and Parliamentary elections that proved the strengthening authoritarian regime in Kazakhstan did a lot of harm to the country�s authority. That is why it is difficult at present to receive credit from international organizations, including the World Bank and the IMF. If before it was easy, now no international organization is interested in loans to Kazakhstan. America was always ready to assist, but now it does not trust Kazakhstan. The incident with the sale of 21 MIG fighters to North Korea particularly spoiled bilateral Kazakhstani-American relations. In this regard, the USA announced an embargo on the Kazakhstani Metallist plant and Czech company Argoplast. That means that these enterprises cannot have any trade relations with the US, and are prohibited from selling weapons.
All these problems significantly affect the present state of the Kazakhstani economy. How these problems can be settled? Recently the sale of the Kazakhstani share in Tengizchevroil was actively discussed. Possibly, Kazakhstan has nothing else to sell. According to the Finance Minister Mazhit Yesenbaev, for the time being the Kazakhstani government is not going to do this. The minister said that Kazakhstan would soon receive credit of US$ 175 million from IMF and World Bank and a loan of US$ 75 million. Then it will be possible to narrow the budget deficit, according to Yesenbaev. The Kazakhstani government is also going to issue Eurobonds for the amount of US$ 200 million and place them in the western financial institutions. Besides, oil prices may rise soon. Money from sold harvest, which was rich in this year, is expected soon. But for the time being there are no revenues. There are just suppositions. How will Kazakhstan�s debt be repaid, if both IMF and World Bank refuse to give credits, if Eurobonds fail, oil prices are the same and grain is not sold? The President has to settle these problems before his visit to the US on December 17.
What will be agreed during his visit? Will the Kazakhstan�s share in Tengizchevroil be sold? Will IMF and World Bank allot credits or make new terms to Kazakhstan? Now it is unknown. Taking into consideration how the Parliamentary election was undemocratic, and media were pressured, it is possible to suppose that the US government will speak to Nazarbaev in different way.
The forthcoming negotiations in Washington will be difficult. For the republic that is an OSCE member, but does not fulfill its responsibilities, but instead sells weapons to a country with a dictatorship, this visit to the US (if it happens) will prove a most peculiar exam.
04.12.99
Kazakh Service of Radio Liberty
(Full text, translated form Kazakh by THE GLOBE)
Almaty Guide
Almaty Guide: Millennium Edition
Almaty: Almaty International Women�s Club, 1999
188 pages, spiral bound. English.
Price: US $20.
Available at the US embassy Community Liaison Office or through the AIWC, which meets Wednesdays at the Regent Almaty (formerly the Ankara) Hotel (tel: 50 37 10) or by email at: [email protected].
The newly released Almaty Guide falls somewhere between a telephone directory and an advice column. The book is filled with chatty, sometimes inaccurate, �Almaty For Dummies�-style advice for ex-pats living in Almaty, combined with lists of addresses and phone numbers for restaurants, hotels and other businesses.
The Almaty Guide is written by members of the Almaty International Women�s Club, a social organization made up mostly of the wives of diplomats and business executives. The book was entirely written by volunteers, according to Lavina Gilliland, Vice President of the AIWC. While Gilliland conceded that the book was not perfect, she added that it is �perfect as a starting point for helping those who are coming here to live and/or work for the first time. It is a work of hearts.�
The volunteers of the AIWC have clearly labored long and hard to produce the sort of book which they would have wanted when they arrived in Almaty. The book�s major strengths and weaknesses stem from this fact.
The book is well organized. The chapters move logically from information someone would need upon arrival��What to Bring�, �Finding a Place to Live��to chapters on the basics of establishing oneself in Almaty. These sections offer wide-ranging advice on an encyclopedic list of topics. Everything from earthquakes to purchasing a car is addressed.
Later chapters discuss entertainment, leisure activities, shopping and other commercial services. These directory listings are fairly comprehensive, although by no means complete. One oversight is the absence of information on the working hours of most stores and restaurants. There are useful appendices with an annotated bibliography, embassy listings and old and new street names. A tear-out map is included, but it unfortunately lacks much detail. More attention has been paid to graphic design than in previous editions, with black and white photographs of the city and a readable layout. Overall, the Almaty Guide provides a large amount of advice and useful information not readily available from other sources in English.
The two major shortcomings of the book are the misinformation sprinkled throughout the book and the perspective from which it is written. A passage on arriving at the Almaty airport, for example, advises travelers to pay US$20 for a taxi into the city center, and gives wrong information about buses. It is amusing to imagine wealthy foreigners spending twenty dollars on a taxi while any Russian-speaker would refuse to pay more than 500 tenge.
This, however, points out a fatal flaw inherent in the guidebook: a group of well-to-do foreigners, few of whom speak Russian, will inevitably produce a book biased by their perspective. The bias is obvious in a passage about walking around Almaty, which describes the slope of the city and states that �when you go downhill you obviously have to go back up... trudging back uphill laden with heavy shopping bags can be pretty tiring at this altitude.� One can only assume that the authors mostly live in the exclusive neighborhoods at the south end of the city. Another example is the listing of hotels, which list only the pricier places, with an average price of US$112 for a single room.
Clearly, the AIWC has written a guidebook oriented to others like themselves. As such, it is an interesting cultural document for anyone not a member of such an elite community. Unfortunately, those newly-arrived foreigners who most need a book such as the Almaty Guide will not know enough to spot the errors or the skewed perspective.
Although it has flaws, the new third edition of the book is a vast improvement over previous editions. Most importantly, the book has been thoughtfully edited, and the offensive, elitist tone present in earlier editions has been softened. For instance, a passage in the 1996 edition entitled �Hire Some Help� celebrated the availability of cheap domestic labor due to economic problems in Kazakhstan. �It�s frustrating to try to keep house by yourself in a foreign setting. But you don�t have to do that in Almaty... Most of us have some sort of household help... One of the writers of this chapter employs an engineer for a part-time gardener, an accountant for a housekeeper and a high-school teacher for an interpreter. It�s a win-win enterprise for everyone.� While the perspective of the book remains that of an embassy wife, the new edition is more culturally sensitive, and insulting passages have been omitted.
Two other English language Almaty guidebooks are currently available. The colorful Almaty (Baur Ltd. Publishing House, 1998, 130 pages), is oriented towards tourists, and primarily filled with sight-seeing information. The more thorough Guide-Book: Almaty & Environs (Rahat-Film, 1997, 111 pages) is stuffed with useful, detailed information, but is written in awkward, non-native English.
Considering the US$20 price tag of the new Women�s Club Almaty Guide, one might be better off spending the same amount of money to buy either of the older guidebooks, plus a copy of the A-Business Guide, an Almaty yellow pages directory, now available in English. All three of these books are available in bookstores and upscale hotel gift shops; the cheapest place to buy them is at the Hotel Otrar.
Aia MURZABEKOVA
ALMATY, Dec 6
(THE GLOBE)
The International Day of Volunteers was celebrated in Almaty on December 5 with a press conference and round table discussion devoted to this holiday established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1985. The holiday is now celebrated in over one hundred countries worldwide. The Almaty festivities were organized by the UN Development Program and the Soros Volunteer House.
The press conference highlighted the programs of a number of volunteer organizations and international non-governmental organizations such as the US Peace Corps, Koika of the Korean embassy, the Association of Single Mothers, the International Red Cross, Zhusan, and Doctors Without Borders. The main objective of the forum was to bring together local and foreign volunteers. Participants discussed principles of volunteer activity, exchanged their experiences and planned future joint projects.
In Kazakhstan, the concept of volunteer service was introduced in 1993, and has proved to have a stable and powerful influence. Although �volunteer service� was known in the Soviet era, the label had negative connotations as it was rarely in fact voluntary. Volunteers include professionals (doctors, psychologists, economists, teachers, and ecologists) and businessmen, as well as pensioners, students and unemployed people The Soros Volunteer House has been a leading organizer of volunteers in Kazakhstan. It supports non-governmental organizations with volunteers who actively participate in the social life of the country.
One success story is that of volunteers from a drug rehabilitation, addicts who have withstood all difficulties and negative aspects of their life. Having changed their lifestyle, they now dedicate themselves to ideas caring for people who require their help. The first tasks of the development of the volunteers� activity are as follows: to hold workshops and training, to create a network of oblast centers, to cooperate with the media, and to associate with dying children.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
© 1998 IPA House. All Rights Reserved.