Thursday, January 21, 2010

Back on the Blog Again

I am sitting in a hotel in Istanbul and will fly home tomorrow to Dnipro.  This is the first I have been able to access blogger.com since I left.  Media including internet is highly censored in Kazakhstan.  Accessing any websites proved to be a pain as one would have to try several times over several minutes before it would clear the filters and come up on Firefox. Standards like BBC or The Economist were first click.  Sasktel or CBC took many tries as they were new to their filters.
Blogs are considered mass media in Kazakhstan and subject to all the rules, written and unwritten.  Blogger.com is simply blocked permanently. It must be impossible in China where control is really tight.
I do not understand why leaders like Nazarbayev who are popular and doing a relatively good job feel they have to resort to the strong arm stuff.  In an honest and open election he would still get 60% of the votes.  Instead of 99.3%.

In other news, after I got off the plane this morning in Istanbul, I got on the shuttle bus that takes us from the plane to the terminal.  A pretty girl in her 20's smiled at me and got up so I could sit down.  Some days I get too much respect.

7 comments:

  1. Ha. I love you Dad. You are officially a senior citizen. I don't care what your birth certificate reads.

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  2. I had to ask myself, "Now why would a nice girl give up her seat for you?" and then I read your son's response and remembered ... oh ya, you're old!! So glad you are finally getting some respect!!

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  3. Well they must have some way of getting through they seem to be able to hack just about anything. As for respect take it where you can get it.

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  4. If I lived in Kazakhstan, I would try to find a way around it. In China, they have figured out how to get around much of the censorship,I understand, but it is dangerous.

    And yes, I am old. I may think I am 35 but reality is somewhat different.

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  5. Not 35, not 85; somewhere in between. Maybe you're finally getting the respect you deserved a long time ago. From impressionable 20 year olds.

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  6. RB - I think I looked and certainly felt closer to 85 that morning. Didn't sleep. Up at 2:30; 3:00 taxi; 5:00 flight etc.

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  7. Life is such fun when you're a "consultant," isn't it!

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