о кумысе и не только :-)
Hoi, Aigulism :-)
Айгуля написала первый коммент, так что по принципу first-come, first-serve я запощу ответ на него. Правда, немножко схалтурю - это будет отрывок из архивов. Семь лет назад, когда я еще был зеленым студентом и открывал Китай для себя в первый раз в жизни, а жж еще не существовал я бродил по форумам Lonelyplanet'a и естественно читал, что же люди имеют сказать про центральную азию.
В одном из форумов несколько кретиноидов занимались борьбой в грязи с Казахстаном. Being what i am - написал туда "маленький ответик". Кумыс в нем также фигурировал :-)
Пощу его сюда - правда кое-что урезал по некоторым, к сожалению, важным причинам.
Why Kazakhstan matters?.
If you want the background to this post please read thru the posting number 89 and the ensuing discussion.
Hello, All It is almost midnight here in Guangzhou. I am the only one in the office building and I feel very very strange. For the last two hours the only thing i did was to track this discussion. Have you seen the movie "The Fifth Element". Do you remember a powerful scene when the alien girl learns on CD-rom about the human civilization and doesn't understand why she needs to save the world, which could be so cruel? Now, I was born in Almaty twenty years ago and lived there a better part of my life. Just two days ago i was asked by my Chinese friends (at the moment i am a student of Mandarin in China) what do i love to do the most? I've answered - walk thru the streets of Almaty in spring...
This post is not intended to be another hate-mongering masterpiece of which there are many on this bb. I am not as fluent in English as some of the very opinionated native speakers so please excuse me for that.
This message is intended to provide some insights from a person, who spent the best years of his life in Almaty (well, my life has been enjoyable and tremendously interesting most of the time i can remember myself:-)) First! I am dismayed by the language of many a letter. Yes, English language is much more flexible and permissive than many others, but using words like "shithole" when talking about a country? Basic human decency prevents most people from doing that. I must say that i have done my share of world traveling and, indeed, find it hard to understand, that some people don't seem to grasp the Bibliac concept that all is in the eye of the beholder. Things like architecture and food - there is a french saying "chacun a son gout" (everybody to her own taste?). Talking of Kazakhstan: we were a nomadic people and did not need great cathedrals and temples. Our house - "kiiz yu", or an yurte, which is a foldable tent was an acme of nomadic architecture. Simplicity is genius. The tent which keeps cool in summer and warm in spring and autumn could be dismantled/ put together in a couple of hours and was not heavier than a camel's load. That's all a nomad needed. As for aesthetics - many people and not only kazakhs, find it extremely elegant and charming. As for food - if fermented mare's milk (qymyz) is not to some people's liking, than let me add that it is only 42 kl per 100 gr, some 4 gr. of protein, 2 gr. of fat and whole lot of micronutrients. Qymyz was known as a miracle cure for TB, and today it is used as an immune system booster,
digestion aid and it is known to have certain geriatric properties. There are more than a 100 varieties of this miracle drink. Some of the best is the fresh qymyz (fermented for only one day), from the milk of the mares tended in the alpine valleys and fed on mountain flowers. Milk saves the fragrance of the wildflowers and the drink you get is worth dying for!! what about slightly bitter (tastes like balsam pear) varieties from the mare, eating willowgrass or strong qymyz (fermented for four days) which is as strong as light beer but never gives hangovers? BTW. I have been for a long time trying to find something appealing to a black, chemical concoction, known by the name of Coke? if you have any answers could you please e-mail them to me. Kazakh food is that of a nomad and like any non-cedentary civilization, the lifestyle dictated simplicity and frugality to be the name of the game. However, if you are a meat-eater, there are more than 40 varieties of sausage and about 400 other meat dishes, dozens of ethnic pasta varieties and countless dairy products. Of course, if your everyday route is office-mediorcre-quazi-Western eateries - home,(typical expat style in Almaty - maybe that's the reason many of them on this bb are way angry, or the way they brilliantly say it in Chinese "eat too much vinegar"), than you will never experience the true taste of Kazakh food.
Now, there is one huge misunderstanding here. We are a proud country and all 14, 900, 000 of us are not Kazakhs, or Russians or else - we are Kazakhstanis. We are trying to rebuild a community spirit and a feeling of oneness that has been forgotten during the Soviet times. There are more than 10 large ethnic groups in KZ. Almaty is home to a much spicier mix. Kazakhs, Russian, Koreans, Ukrainians, Hui (Dungan/Muslim Chinese), Turks, Azeris and many others. Talking of food. Yes, eating out is not a home-grown concept for many of us yet, since going out is prohibitively expensive, but most Kazakhstanis have friends from different ethnic groups and enjoy food from all four corners of the world. So, talking of just Kazakh food would be completely nonsensical. Of course, food and architecture - these things are things which appeal to the visitors However, the topic of this discussion has taken on an entirely different dimension. It is not about the attractiveness of one place or another based on the state of development of the catering industry, but rather, a cultural multilogue, and, however much i hate to say it, is reminding me of a perverse cultural superiority theory.
All the countries outside Western Europe, North America, and other small english-speaking nations are simply lumped together into the so-called Third World (may I ask where the Second World Countries are?). It eerily reminds me of yet another categorical system: First Class/Second Class/Third Class?... I am in no position to blame entire countries since that is the privilege of the culturally and worldly challenged but this theory still holds. On subconscious level be it or a reasoned choice, I don't know. There were the people hundred years ago who wrote that, although African blacks did not create anything worth mentioning they were good singers and dancers ...
There are people today, who judge entire cultures by their culinary and visual preferences. What i try to communicate is - when you understand the culture of any particular nation, you understand that there is no truly benevolent one as there is no innately evil. Every culture is exciting and there is something to learn and know from every part of the world. There is nothing black or white. All is just shades of grey. When talking about more serious matters (i will omit all the vitriol) such as gender issues, than KZ is way more open and progressive than some of the countries. The yardstick being what? The fact that a considerable number of our congresspeople are women, or that we have women ministers? Yes, discrimination does exist, but, we, the young generation do find it a shame and try to fight it. Most people, versed in basic history would know that real discrimination of women took place in the cedentary civilization where there was a clear differentiation of roles between a man and a woman. However, me, after living in KZ for some 16 years and working for 3 years i did made some curious discoveries about my own country from the first flaming letter, which spurred this discussion. Never knew that it is a business custom in my country for a male businessman to have a mistress? Discrimination, It does exist everywhere where there are men and women of lower intelligence. Talking of the government. This is indeed a thorny one. Government and country are not synonyms. Officials, dealing with foreigners and the rest 99.999 percent of people are not the same. Kazakhstan has suffered so much during just this century that political passiveness has been burned into our genes probably but it is changing and it is changing fast. (crushing the rebellion against tsarism and further pacification raids - 1916, destruction of the independent Kazakh state 'Alash-Orda' and further repressions by the Soviet authorities - twenties, the genocide of 1933 - 49% or 2.5 mln of 5 mln population of Kazakhstan died of hunger, induced by Stalin's "reforms" aimed at cleansing Kazakh lands for immigration; Stalinist purges - annihilation of the educated layer of pop. - 1937; )
_cut_ does anyone hate the common people of Iraq, who die of hunger right now, because Saddam is sick? Corruption is rampant and many abhor it, but not everybody is corrupt and not the entire nation is that way.
The world is a much trickier place than we take if for. As for interpersonal relations - the people, who started this discussion should indeed take a crush course on cultural differences and maybe just get some life experience in choosing the right friends. I don't feel there is something i as a rep of my country, need to be apologetic about. Shit happens and it happens everywhere. And i laugh when i think that my life-time friends are not really my friends but i am just using them (roflol). Anyone who has ever studied logic and forensics can see that most of the arguments of the first letter are "pathetically" ad emotio and ad hominem. I might not have covered everything which was discussed in this topic but i don't believe i have to. If somebody doesn't like me, as somebody said, well, that's his problem. I understand my weaknesses and i will work on them. KZ is a young country, beset by many problems but we don't complain, we try to do something. There are many, many things I am proud of in my country. I am not being overpatriotic but sensible: When WW2 hit, thousands and tens of thousands of children all over the Soviet Union were orphaned. Kazakh families, who did not have enough food themselves adopted them. When Soviet Union broke up we did not automatically made Russians the scapegoats of all the troubles but struggled to create a new identity for a new nation. We've rid ourselves of the nuclear weapons and signed land and peace treaties with all the neigboring countries. We've made both Russian and Kazakh language equal (Kazakhs and Russians are the two biggest minorities of about 40% each, but Kazakhs are the so-called titular nation). In 1995 a new criminal code was published. Homosexuality was decriminalized._cut_
The natural beauty of the country is not easily accessible but it will give the memories of a lifetime if you only try. Now, at last - the city, where my heart belongs! "The City of the Apples" waking up in the morning and see the sun make it's way up the Kok-tobe (The Blue Hill), watching the mountains change their hues and appearance every hour. They haven't been the same for two days in a row for 16 years that i've lived in Almaty, skating in the mountain rink in an alpine valley, surrounded by stunning beauty of the Heavenly Mountains (Tian Shan), walking thru the countless alleys in spring and listen to birds sing. Watch the whole city turn white and pink when the apple, apricot and plum trees start to blossom, or when some crazy god-painter fancies a rainbow of colors of autumn leaves. Going to a disco and partying till sunrise and walk home thru the sleepy streets. Going out with friends or when in contemplative mood, than alone, to ballet, Korean theatre, opera, national opera, classical music concerts? cultural offerings are many. Russian language has a saying: "it's better to see once, than to hear a 100 times".
In case, you ever get interested in my country with all its ups and downs, feel free to contact me. I'll try to do my to to give you a realistic view on what is up in the "Land of the Sons and Daughters of a Swan" (a poetic interpretation of the name of the country)
P.S. I would like to remind us all: next time we want to see a twig in another's eye let's not forget about the log in our own's. When harshly scrutinizing other countries think of what happens in your own backyards. Churches are burning and gay people are being killed in the "Land of the Free", neonazis march thru most european capitals, consumerist society has reached its peak in the "First World", while every sixth person on the planet will go to bed hungry tonight. . Let's not think about how unpleasing to the eye the landscape in the other country is, but instead try to understand them and maybe help.
Айгуля написала первый коммент, так что по принципу first-come, first-serve я запощу ответ на него. Правда, немножко схалтурю - это будет отрывок из архивов. Семь лет назад, когда я еще был зеленым студентом и открывал Китай для себя в первый раз в жизни, а жж еще не существовал я бродил по форумам Lonelyplanet'a и естественно читал, что же люди имеют сказать про центральную азию.
В одном из форумов несколько кретиноидов занимались борьбой в грязи с Казахстаном. Being what i am - написал туда "маленький ответик". Кумыс в нем также фигурировал :-)
Пощу его сюда - правда кое-что урезал по некоторым, к сожалению, важным причинам.
Why Kazakhstan matters?.
If you want the background to this post please read thru the posting number 89 and the ensuing discussion.
Hello, All It is almost midnight here in Guangzhou. I am the only one in the office building and I feel very very strange. For the last two hours the only thing i did was to track this discussion. Have you seen the movie "The Fifth Element". Do you remember a powerful scene when the alien girl learns on CD-rom about the human civilization and doesn't understand why she needs to save the world, which could be so cruel? Now, I was born in Almaty twenty years ago and lived there a better part of my life. Just two days ago i was asked by my Chinese friends (at the moment i am a student of Mandarin in China) what do i love to do the most? I've answered - walk thru the streets of Almaty in spring...
This post is not intended to be another hate-mongering masterpiece of which there are many on this bb. I am not as fluent in English as some of the very opinionated native speakers so please excuse me for that.
This message is intended to provide some insights from a person, who spent the best years of his life in Almaty (well, my life has been enjoyable and tremendously interesting most of the time i can remember myself:-)) First! I am dismayed by the language of many a letter. Yes, English language is much more flexible and permissive than many others, but using words like "shithole" when talking about a country? Basic human decency prevents most people from doing that. I must say that i have done my share of world traveling and, indeed, find it hard to understand, that some people don't seem to grasp the Bibliac concept that all is in the eye of the beholder. Things like architecture and food - there is a french saying "chacun a son gout" (everybody to her own taste?). Talking of Kazakhstan: we were a nomadic people and did not need great cathedrals and temples. Our house - "kiiz yu", or an yurte, which is a foldable tent was an acme of nomadic architecture. Simplicity is genius. The tent which keeps cool in summer and warm in spring and autumn could be dismantled/ put together in a couple of hours and was not heavier than a camel's load. That's all a nomad needed. As for aesthetics - many people and not only kazakhs, find it extremely elegant and charming. As for food - if fermented mare's milk (qymyz) is not to some people's liking, than let me add that it is only 42 kl per 100 gr, some 4 gr. of protein, 2 gr. of fat and whole lot of micronutrients. Qymyz was known as a miracle cure for TB, and today it is used as an immune system booster,
digestion aid and it is known to have certain geriatric properties. There are more than a 100 varieties of this miracle drink. Some of the best is the fresh qymyz (fermented for only one day), from the milk of the mares tended in the alpine valleys and fed on mountain flowers. Milk saves the fragrance of the wildflowers and the drink you get is worth dying for!! what about slightly bitter (tastes like balsam pear) varieties from the mare, eating willowgrass or strong qymyz (fermented for four days) which is as strong as light beer but never gives hangovers? BTW. I have been for a long time trying to find something appealing to a black, chemical concoction, known by the name of Coke? if you have any answers could you please e-mail them to me. Kazakh food is that of a nomad and like any non-cedentary civilization, the lifestyle dictated simplicity and frugality to be the name of the game. However, if you are a meat-eater, there are more than 40 varieties of sausage and about 400 other meat dishes, dozens of ethnic pasta varieties and countless dairy products. Of course, if your everyday route is office-mediorcre-quazi-Western eateries - home,(typical expat style in Almaty - maybe that's the reason many of them on this bb are way angry, or the way they brilliantly say it in Chinese "eat too much vinegar"), than you will never experience the true taste of Kazakh food.
Now, there is one huge misunderstanding here. We are a proud country and all 14, 900, 000 of us are not Kazakhs, or Russians or else - we are Kazakhstanis. We are trying to rebuild a community spirit and a feeling of oneness that has been forgotten during the Soviet times. There are more than 10 large ethnic groups in KZ. Almaty is home to a much spicier mix. Kazakhs, Russian, Koreans, Ukrainians, Hui (Dungan/Muslim Chinese), Turks, Azeris and many others. Talking of food. Yes, eating out is not a home-grown concept for many of us yet, since going out is prohibitively expensive, but most Kazakhstanis have friends from different ethnic groups and enjoy food from all four corners of the world. So, talking of just Kazakh food would be completely nonsensical. Of course, food and architecture - these things are things which appeal to the visitors However, the topic of this discussion has taken on an entirely different dimension. It is not about the attractiveness of one place or another based on the state of development of the catering industry, but rather, a cultural multilogue, and, however much i hate to say it, is reminding me of a perverse cultural superiority theory.
All the countries outside Western Europe, North America, and other small english-speaking nations are simply lumped together into the so-called Third World (may I ask where the Second World Countries are?). It eerily reminds me of yet another categorical system: First Class/Second Class/Third Class?... I am in no position to blame entire countries since that is the privilege of the culturally and worldly challenged but this theory still holds. On subconscious level be it or a reasoned choice, I don't know. There were the people hundred years ago who wrote that, although African blacks did not create anything worth mentioning they were good singers and dancers ...
There are people today, who judge entire cultures by their culinary and visual preferences. What i try to communicate is - when you understand the culture of any particular nation, you understand that there is no truly benevolent one as there is no innately evil. Every culture is exciting and there is something to learn and know from every part of the world. There is nothing black or white. All is just shades of grey. When talking about more serious matters (i will omit all the vitriol) such as gender issues, than KZ is way more open and progressive than some of the countries. The yardstick being what? The fact that a considerable number of our congresspeople are women, or that we have women ministers? Yes, discrimination does exist, but, we, the young generation do find it a shame and try to fight it. Most people, versed in basic history would know that real discrimination of women took place in the cedentary civilization where there was a clear differentiation of roles between a man and a woman. However, me, after living in KZ for some 16 years and working for 3 years i did made some curious discoveries about my own country from the first flaming letter, which spurred this discussion. Never knew that it is a business custom in my country for a male businessman to have a mistress? Discrimination, It does exist everywhere where there are men and women of lower intelligence. Talking of the government. This is indeed a thorny one. Government and country are not synonyms. Officials, dealing with foreigners and the rest 99.999 percent of people are not the same. Kazakhstan has suffered so much during just this century that political passiveness has been burned into our genes probably but it is changing and it is changing fast. (crushing the rebellion against tsarism and further pacification raids - 1916, destruction of the independent Kazakh state 'Alash-Orda' and further repressions by the Soviet authorities - twenties, the genocide of 1933 - 49% or 2.5 mln of 5 mln population of Kazakhstan died of hunger, induced by Stalin's "reforms" aimed at cleansing Kazakh lands for immigration; Stalinist purges - annihilation of the educated layer of pop. - 1937; )
_cut_ does anyone hate the common people of Iraq, who die of hunger right now, because Saddam is sick? Corruption is rampant and many abhor it, but not everybody is corrupt and not the entire nation is that way.
The world is a much trickier place than we take if for. As for interpersonal relations - the people, who started this discussion should indeed take a crush course on cultural differences and maybe just get some life experience in choosing the right friends. I don't feel there is something i as a rep of my country, need to be apologetic about. Shit happens and it happens everywhere. And i laugh when i think that my life-time friends are not really my friends but i am just using them (roflol). Anyone who has ever studied logic and forensics can see that most of the arguments of the first letter are "pathetically" ad emotio and ad hominem. I might not have covered everything which was discussed in this topic but i don't believe i have to. If somebody doesn't like me, as somebody said, well, that's his problem. I understand my weaknesses and i will work on them. KZ is a young country, beset by many problems but we don't complain, we try to do something. There are many, many things I am proud of in my country. I am not being overpatriotic but sensible: When WW2 hit, thousands and tens of thousands of children all over the Soviet Union were orphaned. Kazakh families, who did not have enough food themselves adopted them. When Soviet Union broke up we did not automatically made Russians the scapegoats of all the troubles but struggled to create a new identity for a new nation. We've rid ourselves of the nuclear weapons and signed land and peace treaties with all the neigboring countries. We've made both Russian and Kazakh language equal (Kazakhs and Russians are the two biggest minorities of about 40% each, but Kazakhs are the so-called titular nation). In 1995 a new criminal code was published. Homosexuality was decriminalized._cut_
The natural beauty of the country is not easily accessible but it will give the memories of a lifetime if you only try. Now, at last - the city, where my heart belongs! "The City of the Apples" waking up in the morning and see the sun make it's way up the Kok-tobe (The Blue Hill), watching the mountains change their hues and appearance every hour. They haven't been the same for two days in a row for 16 years that i've lived in Almaty, skating in the mountain rink in an alpine valley, surrounded by stunning beauty of the Heavenly Mountains (Tian Shan), walking thru the countless alleys in spring and listen to birds sing. Watch the whole city turn white and pink when the apple, apricot and plum trees start to blossom, or when some crazy god-painter fancies a rainbow of colors of autumn leaves. Going to a disco and partying till sunrise and walk home thru the sleepy streets. Going out with friends or when in contemplative mood, than alone, to ballet, Korean theatre, opera, national opera, classical music concerts? cultural offerings are many. Russian language has a saying: "it's better to see once, than to hear a 100 times".
In case, you ever get interested in my country with all its ups and downs, feel free to contact me. I'll try to do my to to give you a realistic view on what is up in the "Land of the Sons and Daughters of a Swan" (a poetic interpretation of the name of the country)
P.S. I would like to remind us all: next time we want to see a twig in another's eye let's not forget about the log in our own's. When harshly scrutinizing other countries think of what happens in your own backyards. Churches are burning and gay people are being killed in the "Land of the Free", neonazis march thru most european capitals, consumerist society has reached its peak in the "First World", while every sixth person on the planet will go to bed hungry tonight. . Let's not think about how unpleasing to the eye the landscape in the other country is, but instead try to understand them and maybe help.