This Week's NATIONAL ETIQUETTE AWARD goes to....Kazakhstan!

Kazakhstan page in Wikipedia

Lonely Planet Guide: Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan Country Analysis Brief

I hereby grant the National Etiquette Award to Kazakhstan, as it is customary in that country to remove shoes in homes.

Kazakhstan has been in the news recently as a result of the actions of one Sacha Baron Cohen, a Jewish comedian from the UK. He used to pretend to be a Black urban television interviewer called Ali G. This character was terribly funny, but very rude. More recently, he is pretending to be Borat, a spoof television interviewer from Kazakhstan. He has caused incredible offence to the government of Kazakhstan by making a mockery of the country, presenting the Kazakh people as misogynist and anti-semitic. The government of Kazahstan are so offended that they have invested millions in a film entitled Nomad about the history of their nation.

Kazakhstan is a huge country. After Russia, it is the largest country in the former Soviet Union or the Commonwealth of Independant States (CIS). Most of the country is steppes (arid grasslands), with some desert and several mountain ranges. It does have quite a bit of fertile land, where considerable amounts of wheat are grown.

Kazakhstan is becoming quite rich, as a result of its plentiful supplies of gas.

Kazakhstan has quite a bit of ethnic diversity. As well as the Turkic Kazakhs, there are Russians, Tatars, Ukrainians, Kurds and others. Old Stalin had a nasty habit of taking whole people groups, loading them in trucks (donated by the Yanks during the war) and dumping them in the mroe desolate regions of the Soviet Union. Hence, there are Germans and Koreans in Kazakhstan. The German community has diminshed considerably since the end of Communism. The presence of Koreans in the country has been somethign of a blessing for Kazakhstan (and other Central Asian republics) since most were faithful Christians fleeing persecution by the Japanese.

Kazakhstan is mostly Islamic, but Christians make up a large minority.

Radio broadcasts make up a key part of strategies for evanglizing Kazakhstan. Radio ministries include Trans World Radio and the Far East Broadcasting Company.