KAZAKHSTAN: LIFE ON THE STEPPE, JANUARY 10-16

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ASTANA 000090

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/CEN, SCA/PPD, IIP

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV ECON SOCI SCUL KPAO KCRM KZ
SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: LIFE ON THE STEPPE, JANUARY 10-16


1. The following is the first in a new series of weekly cables from
Embassy Astana with tidbits on daily life in Kazakhstan.

MASIMOV JOINS BLOGOSPHERE


2. Prime Minister Karim Masimov has joined the Kazakhstani
blogosphere by starting his very own weblog ("primeminister.
government.kz"). In a bid to connect with the people -- or at least
those 14 percent who have Internet access -- Masimov started
"blogging" on New Year's Eve, and his first post attracted wide
attention from fellow Kazakhstani bloggers. With the hope that the
blog provides the "end user interested in the doings of the
Government and the socio-economic situation" with interesting,
useful information, Masimov announced that "in the future, the blog
will be filled with practically all necessary information."


3. Masimov asked his readers and fellow bloggers to leave comments
which he promised to read in full. A number of people responded; at
last count, the first post has received almost three hundred
comments. The contributions ranged from wishes of wellness to
questions about the status of the economy and complaints about the
quality of tap water in villages. Masimov has since ordered the
cabinet to investigate the criticisms, Reuters reported. One topic
that received specific attention was the case of LiveJournal, a
popular blogging platform which has reportedly been blocked in
Kazakhstan. A number of readers asked why it has been blocked, when
the blockage would be lifted, and what the Prime Minister himself
(as a fellow blogger) intends to do about it.


4. The blog launch certainly generated a buzz and won approval among
Internet users in Kazakhstan. Obviously happy with this step,
Masimov told his ministers on January 12 to start their own personal
blogs to get closer to the people. "I have opened a blog on the
government website," Masimov told a government meeting, "so I order
all ministers to start personal blogs where people will be able to
ask you questions that you must answer."

"INTELLECTUAL SCHOOL" OPENED TO EDUCATE FUTURE ELITE


5. On January 12, President Nursultan Nazarbayev officially opened a
new school for gifted children in Astana. As part of the
President's project, "20 Intellectual Schools of the First
President", 19 other schools are soon to follow in all Kazakhstani
major cities. The government allocated 5 billion tenge
(approximately $42 million) from the 2009-10 budget to fund the
project. Astana's first "intellectual school" will focus on natural
sciences and will provide an education to 1,200 students. Each of
these students will be provided with a laptop computer and access to
a broadband wireless network. Moreover, the school will have its
own online education portal through which parents will be able to
check on their children's progress and participate in the
educational process.


6. According to preliminary information, the government will foot
part of the bill, while the rest will be paid by the parents of the
"young intellectuals." The schools are to provide an experimental
platform to test new learning programs and modern educational
technologies. "We are confident that the best children in all of
Kazakhstan showing exceptional talent in these fields (i.e.,
mathematics and physics) will find themselves in these schools, in
which we will raise the future elite of our country," Nazarbayev
said at the opening ceremony.

COURT BRIBES MOST EXPENSIVE, SURVEY FINDS


7. In a survey conducted by the Association of Political and Social
Scientists (APSS),71.7 percent of respondents reported that they
were at least one time involved in corruption during the last three
months of 2008, Interfax reported. Courts topped the list as
requiring the most expensive bribes (an average bribe of nearly
$3,746),followed by military enlistment offices ($1,591). The
average bribe for purchasing and registering land was $1,415, and
for employment and career advancement $776. The survey showed that
people consider customs and police to be the most corrupt government
agencies. The courts, education and healthcare institutions, and
procurator's offices do not fare much better in the survey.

GOVERNMENT APPARENTLY READY TO DITCH "TALON" SYSTEM

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8. Several years ago, ostensibly in response to the increasing
number of traffic violations, Kazakhstan's lawmakers came up with an
idea to force greater accountability on the part of the local
drivers. In addition to their driver's licenses, each driver would
be issued a card called a "talon" (which can be translated as
"voucher") with an electronic chip that would store a driver's
traffic violation history. The traffic police would then be
equipped with mobile terminals to read the information stored on the
talons. In fact, drivers would even have the option to deposit a
balance on their talons and use them to pay their fines
electronically at the scene of a violation. A local company called
Kazakhstan Processing Center was selected, without a bidding
process, to produce the talons and distribute them among the driving
population. The deadline for introduction of the talon system was
set for January 1, 2009.


9. "Talonization", as the process has been dubbed in the local
media, has received considerable attention among the public, most of
it negative. Questions focused mostly on the opaqueness of the
entire process. Why does one need to introduce a card with
information almost identical to already existing driver's licenses?
Why is the entire process, including the management of the personal
information of millions of citizens, to be controlled by a virtually
unknown business entity?


10. Critics did not have to wait long to be justified in their
skepticism. Kazakhstan Processing Center, which was supposed to
issue the talons, showed itself not up to the task. As requests for
talons started coming in, the backlog grew, and as early as the
summer of 2008, when only about 10 percent of all drivers turned in
their applications, the wait time was several months to receive a
talon. Questions about how the company would be able to handle the
expected rush leading up to the deadline of January 1, 2009, became
more pressing. A "solution" came from Kazakhstan Processing Center
itself, which announced that due to the high demand, talons would be
sold for 1,200 tenge (approximately $10). Only after thousands of
drivers had paid did the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) finally
insist that all talons had to be issued for free. Kazakhstan
Processing Center itself never removed the price information from
its website, despite promises that it would return money it received
for the talons.


11. However, with the deadline fast approaching, it became clear
that the company would be unable to provide all drivers with their
talons in time. At first, the MVD took a hard stance and announced
that every driver would be required to have a talon by New Year's
Day 2009 and would be fined if they did not obtain one. Later, the
MVD softened its tone, and suggested a six-month transition period
when drivers would only be warned and asked to get their talons.
Soon rumors began to spread that the entire talon system would be
brought to an end before it even took effect. It finally appears
that the "talonization" idea will be put out of its misery.
Purportedly relying on high-ranking MVD sources, Mazhilis
(parliament) member Sat Topkapbayev announced on January 14 that
talons would, in fact, be abolished. An official MVD announcement
has yet to be made, but it seems that the majority of Kazakhstanis,
already used to similar schemes, chose the right strategy to wait
out the talon.

BALLET DANCERS ON STRIKE


12. Ballet dancers from the National Opera and Ballet Theater in
Astana protested their poor living conditions and miserable salaries
by canceling a January 9 performance. Most of the 60 dancers live
in dormitories, four to five per room, though some of them have
spouses and children. The dancers, who were invited to join the
theatre when it was started nine years ago, were promised apartments
in Astana. Since then, only one of them was able to secure an
apartment, and recently the theater management announced that no
apartments will be given out. With salaries of around 50,000 tenge
(approximately $420) a month, the dancers find that buying
apartments in Astana with their own financial resources is out of
the question. The theater has national status, and thus falls under
the competency of the Ministry of Information and Culture.
Therefore, the Astana akimat (mayor's office) does not provide
housing to the theater's employees as it does to the employees of
municipal theaters.

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HOAGLAND