Days 381 to 400

I know it has been about two hundred days since the last entry of this blog. The purpose of this blog was always to compare life between the UK (or a more Western country) and Kazakhstan, reflecting how Nazarbayev University and Astana impacts on our life as a family, as Christians, me as a research scientist and whether we could ever impact on Nazarbayev University and Astana. It seems that the majority of issues were highlighted in the first few hundred days and since taking on the Acting Head position (of Chemical Engineering) in September last year, there has been little time to reflect.

Well time is still a scarce commodity, but a distressing contrast arose that was worth trying to resurrect the blog. Kazakhstan has a strict health and safety code, but a new building was opened and faculty moved in. Whilst one faculty member was showing his children his new office, he noticed that the safety glass for most of the hand rails, which protected pedestrians from a 6th story fall, was missing. He contacted me as I am leading the Health and Safety Ad Hoc Committee for the Faculty Senate and I immediately forward this to 2 of the leading managers (the Provost and the Executive Vice President) plus an individual appointed to implement the Health and Safety policies at NU. Soon after this individual responds to me alone thanking for the notification but asking me to never copy the senior management into such emails again for a minor health and safety issue. My response was very direct.

It seems that Kazakhstan has a different mentality. Had this happened in the West, a building with clear H&S violations was allowed to open, there would be an instant investigation, fines and potential criminal proceedings. But here it was a case of “don’t ask, don’t tell”. Unless there is a reform of attitude, I do not see how we can influence the changes necessary to make NU a leading institution, not just in Kazakhstan but in Eurasia and beyond.  
 
This may seem like a critical point and actually it becomes a deal breaker. The UK (and Europe, North Americas, Japan, Australia, etc) have well developed policies for health and safety, which comes at the price of membership – the cost of living in such countries. Of course accidents and incidents occur, but there are procedures and watchdogs providing active protection. I know this will come in Kazakhstan, but the question is when? There are H&S laws in place, but strict observance, transparency is lacking and this “don’t ask, don’t tell” mentality has me worried that something serious will happen before the situation gets better.

This, the bureaucracy and the availability and accessibility to goods are the starkest points of contrast. Naturally the earliest days in Astana highlight a plethora of other issues that seem hard, difficult or just plain dumb-founding. But one can try and understand what it would be like for a foreigner invited to come to the UK to work and live, especially one that does not speak but a few words of English. There are severe restrictions in this exercise, but recall that not all UK Border Control Agents are that friendly or talkative. The South East of England often is regarded as less friendly than other areas of the UK, how would the foreigner survive, how would they be treated, how would they cope with local transport, etc? Ali recalls a friend coming from South Africa tried to pay for a bus ride with a £20 note. How do the UK police interact with people on the streets? Quite a variety, people always have tales – although there is a greater accountability with the IPCC – so they say.
One can dismiss Kazakhstan as a hostile, unfriendly, unwelcoming place. I could do it based on experience, but equally and trying to be fair, I could choose to focus on the lifestyle it affords, the positives that it brings for the family, how safe it is (seems) from street crime and alcohol related violence. Kazakhstan certainly has its issues. But we know from close friends who have been here for many years, who speak the local language, that there is a greater cultural wealth and warmth than may at first meets the eye.

Life in Astana in deep winter has become almost manageable and we are very fortunate in our position here. We have friends who have been here over 8 years who have not been to the number of restaurants we have, but equally we have single friends who have sampled almost every restaurant Astana has to offer. Perhaps it’s the distraction needed for Ali and I and the children, trying to last till the next stretch of holiday.

Nazarbayev University in deep winter

Whilst one should never judge a book by its cover, there is still hope that the story can be changed for the better. The children are dreaming of warm weather and Ali of prawn baguettes. And salt and vinegar crisps.

Days 211 to 220

Finally got back to NU and back to work. The holiday is certainly disruptive to the pace of life, so whilst we had set things in motion before the break we were assuming that it would mostly be resolved by the time we returned. So we are still waiting for certain claims to be reimbursed, which is over 2 months of waiting and talking and waiting some more. Things have progressed that one of managers has now sent it to the Kazakhstani’s version of the President of the university, the one has the actual power (rather than sending it to the President of NU or the Provost), called Maxat Mamashev. So we must wait even longer. The only thing I can say is that at least we did not have to worry about the claims sat on a credit card, but would be extremely frustrating had we been unable to clear the debt ourselves. It is a disastrous state of affairs for NU and yet they do not see it, or do not care or simply will not or cannot do anything about it. The one thing you need is expatriate staff to help develop and stabilise the university before its handover. In order to achieve that you need to ensure your employees are happy (generally speaking). Giving them the run around over finance issues and arguing over interpretations of the wording in the contract is not. Then having such a poor response to the hot water being turned off for 3.5 weeks is a killer.

Various people and the faculty senate raised this issue through the chain of command. The faculty senate was able to go straight to the Executive Vice President Maxat who in essence said that’s life and you’ll go through it for the good of the university. You can imagine how well this went down with the expats. Eventually, NU did come up with some ideas of what to do. Faculty staff could take a bus, at a discounted price, to a banya (sauna), at a discounted price, twice a week. Families tried to point out that this was utter ridiculous and all communication went quiet. About a week into the hot water switch off, they finally install some hot water heaters into the gym showers in our block, but didn’t tell anyone. It had to circulate by word of mouth, until someone told them that an email with information would be a good idea. During this time we were trying to fill baths for the children using a kettle. After 15 loads, the electrics blew accompanied by the smell of burning plastic. We went on to a combination of kettles and pans of water on the stove. It wasn’t that bad, but the poor response by the university senior managers was. Again, they fail to see the link between an academics personal life and their work life, given that the academic is (more often than not) living on campus and subject to the decisions and infrastructure that the university has decreed. Think Ali was somewhat frustrated too by going to use the hot shower in the gym just when they turned off that hot water too. Turns out that the engineering company effecting repairs had turned the hot water back on to our block, but again no-one told us.

A few cold showers during the Summer were not a problem for me after some cycles. But feeling very run down and feeling a lot of pain from my right hip. Possibly early onset of arthritis. So the running has ebbed to a few short sprints and the attempt to run the marathon distance has become a dream. Thinking that the hot weather is a little too oppressive as even getting up for a 6am cycle is taxing my body.

I am now gearing up for the beginning of the academic year and all the modules I thought I had are now changed for the undergraduate programme. I am coordinating chemistry for chemical engineers, but another department is actually doing the work. The thermodynamics I was going to help had been given to another entirely. And the PhD lectures have not been timetabled so I cannot even begin to prepare anything. The stress comes in two parts. The first is lack of real leadership within our department as it feels more like trying to carve out a day-to-day routine to cover what is necessary. The second is that we are understaffed and having to do everything that needs doing, but having to wait to the last minute because we do not know who will come back from the break. For our department all have come back that we were expecting, but the grumbling has escalated. I also heard from the grapevine that our Dean is going to replace the Head of our department, but no-one else was told who.

Was going to take Friday morning off, in lieu of having to work a number of Saturday mornings, and was going to go swimming, but my Dean asked me to go along to a Strategic Research meeting with the Vice-Provost, which actually held a smidgen of potential for the future. But I do not want to get over-excited.

Ali and children were really jet-lagged and this lasted for some time until Ali felt keen enough to get up and start schooling. Children have been non-responsive before 11am most days. Cannot say I blame them. I have dragged them away from their friends and family. They had a great Summer break and now back to Kazakhstan. Was very concerned, but Rebekah found her friends, Matthias had his Lego and Kyria was her usual easy-go-happy self. So that just leaves Ali with the kids 24-7 until we can get a babysitter. Have been trying to soften the blow and took them all to a restaurant called Ali Babas where the theme is Arabian including all the staff costumes. The food was really good, there was a play area for the kids and the menu was in Chicken. Or what I meant to say was in English, but the heat got to me, so I squawked like a chicken for a few minutes until the waitress took our order.

The other bribe or treat I should say, for keeping my family in Astana is a regular trip to find some DVDs. If you were ever wondering the power of branding, then look at this photo. The titles are in Russian and yet you wont need to know any Cyrillic letters to know what these movies are. You can tell from the style and colour of the lettering.

Days 181 to 210

8^th July, I got to head home. After a frantic 45 minutes of trying to find out where the minibus got to, I am safely delivered to the airport. I also had to endure the 10 minute detention at passport control. The officer even left his booth with my passport to talk to someone else. I could not help thinking of another colleague that tried to leave a week ago but his police registration had expired. He was refused entry to the plane and taken to court the next day. He was fined in excess of 30,000 tenge and it took another 6-7 days before he could get his passport back. I think he had this trouble a year ago and seemed pretty chilled about it. The university helpers in the International Affairs and Hiring Office issued several reminders that they are not responsible for checking the validity of the passports, visas and police registration expiry dates. Funny that, because very few can actually read the blooming things let alone understand the rules and regulations of this country. I guess it’s their way of shifting blame.

It the holidays and we’re back in the UK. Greeted by my wife and girls; Matthias had an overnight stay with his grandparents, which he enjoyed immensely as Rebekah had a chance to meet up with a friend and go to her old school in Eastbourne. I had a day to recover and then off to Disneyland Paris. This was the start to a busy holiday.

This blog is supposed to be about Kazkahstan experiences, so will not be writing much during the holidays, but will perhaps cover anything relating to Kazakhstan.

So I managed to embarrass Ali. Not too difficult when she is married to me, you say. How rude! It was on the second day back in the UK and we go to Sainsburys to prepare for the trip to France. It is an amazing experience when you can walk into a supermarket and read everything on the shelves, understand what other customers are saying and the cashier when she asks you questions. Of course I should learn some Russian for our time in Astana. But when I saw Sarsons vinegar, I was very moved. Close to tears. Almost hugged the cashier and gave her a couple of hundred tenge notes I had for her grandchildren.

There’s lots of great things about coming back to the UK. The friends and family we stayed with and met. Those we camped with at New Wine. Those we shared fantastic meals with. But sadly we could not get to see everyone. I was hoping to completely ignore work, but had a few things to attend to at Brighton Uni. The situations there with a whole load of renovation reminded me of what I had just got away from in Astana. There will always be struggles and stress where work is concerned, perhaps that is rooted firmly where money/salary is a necessary part of the job.

I did have to Skype into an interview with a chemical engineering consultant somewhere else in the UK as part of my attempt to apply for Head of Chemical Engineering and for Full Professor. Although my chat with people back in Astana had said that neither was going to be a possibility this year. So spent an hour trying to first explain the situation at NU and then convince him that I was an ideal candidate for the Full Professor position. This sparked emails with the Dean of Chemical Engineering at NU who said that, in discussion with the rest of the Engineering Interview Panel, which comprised the senior figures (Heads of Discipline) in the Engineering School, I needed to improve my research profile and demonstrate my ability to publish and raise money at NU. So they had advised against giving me an interview. So I was shocked that I was asked to Skype in. Perhaps the last 6 months had gotten the better of me, so in response to the Dean I listed all Full Professors in the School (apart from the Dean and Vice Dean) and their H-index (an often overused and not very telling metric for research) and number of publications. And then listed mine. Turns out that I have over twice the number of publications and H-index value than the best performer of the Full Professors currently in post. I also suggested that we could look at the impact factor (another research metric for each journal), over-citations, etc, because I knew I had been successful with this – I am fully aware that some of my contemporaries in the same field of research have developed far better metrics than I, but then there’s a lot of history to unpack, especially regarding which universities they’ve been at, which groups they’ve associated with, etc. I also reminded the Dean that I had been running several research grants successfully and that the ability to perform at NU was part of the job description not the Full Professor application. So far, all communication has gone quiet.

It may sound like I have been moaning and perhaps I have. I think in some respect I talk about it to distress from that situation. However, the event seems to hammer home that NU has a long way to go to get things organised. There appears to be some internal battles going on, between the Schools and the Administrators. I wonder if the sudden Skype interview had something to do with another Full Professor wannabe who happens to be Kazakhstani and I’ve become a pawn in a game of politics. I doubt I will ever know. It underlines the thought that expatriate staff are bought and paid for. We are just window dressing. If we said yes to our current position, why pay us more by giving us a better position. Still, I carry a small amount of hope.

Towards the end of the holiday and worrying about our return to Kazakhstan. This is not helped by emails saying that we will be without hot water for 3.5 weeks and their solution to it is to send us by bus (at our expense, albeit with a discount) to a sauna in the city (at our expense, albeit with a discount), only twice a week. And no mention whether children are allowed. In trying to discuss this with the Managing Council of NU, we are dismissed out of hand and told to face the difficulties for the good of the university. For us old timers at NU (even after 6 months!) this is another drop in the well. Another tale in the saga of life at NU. But for new staff, this will put them on the back foot. I cannot count how many faculty members have all said that they are looking for a job elsewhere.

We got back safely to Astana. We had checked the flight path before boarding. Whilst it goes over Russia, I wonder if Air Astana will be affected by the closure of Russian airspace to EU and US flights (or perhaps it is only the country of the registered owners of the airlines rather than destinations). Our apartment is still here and there is a sense of returning home, despite the lack of hot water. We did blow the electrics trying to fill a bath for the children with a kettle. Now we battle on till Christmas. So much to do. Hopefully it will keep our minds from missing the UK too much. Rebekah was my greatest concern, but she found her friends back here and is happy. Matthias earned enough money to buy his Lego Star Wars Rancor set. Kyria is as she ever was. Ali, I think, misses home. Family, friends, coffee. They’re here in Kazakhstan too, but some will take a bit longer to cultivate.

The most immediate challenge is to get to sleep earlier each night and wake up earlier in the morning. Currently we've got it down from 3am to 1am sleep time, and from noon to 10am waking up time. Jet lag. Such a pain.

 

Days 171 to 180

Family back in the UK having a good time. Would like to think they were waiting for me, but alas they had their fish and chips and dared to enjoy it! It is odd to be in Kazakhstan without my family for no other reason than we are now living here which makes it harder. Previous trips to abroad meant I was focussed on completing the job at hand and tuning into the family news via Skype when we found the time. Now it’s a case of having completed all my jobs, I’m twiddling my thumbs, straightening out my CV and watching the Tour de France.

There was some revelation this week. I needed to sign a form to return money to the university for not going to Korea. Money that I would have used for a hotel and flights. Not sure how good the news was, but one of our HR ladies informed me that we no longer needed to sign contracts with the NURIS organisation but could have done this direct with the School. And she seemed surprised that I didn’t know this. Perhaps this is pay back after giving her a hard time about getting an apostille for my PhD. I was frustrated that they couldn’t accept my PhD certificate and a letter from Sussex University that I had a PhD. Perhaps universities that produce only 2 Nobel Prize winners are not good enough? I also had to sort out my Kazakhstan and UK criminal background check. The former was easier enough, with a trip into the city to a stall in one of the shopping centres and signing a bit of paper. The latter was not too problematic, after finding a company that could do the checks over the internet, but was costly though. Still, it keeps me employed at NU for a little longer. Though I was in two minds as to whether I should have pushed them to see if they would withhold my pay or fire me. Some weird Kazakh employment rule that says anyone in academia must have a background check from the home country and also when working in education a certificate from a university approved by the government. So I had forgot that they are only doing their job, so I grew up a bit and purchased some nice cookies to say sorry.

With the majority of staff on holiday, now seems the time to try and conduct some repairs to the site, so they turned the power off for a full day and I spent my Saturday in the office alone, waiting for the TdF stage to start and wondering if grass is greener in another country.

Two men, suddenly pseudo-batchelors in Astana. Nathan’s misses and boy had stayed out of the country longer than Nathan, so off to find steak and chips. Fusion was calling. Must have been a thick accent as we turned up to their site to find it undergoing renovation. The whole things had moved elsewhere in the city. Thankfully Nathan could speak Kazakh and managed to get there in time to finish a meal before the football started. Trouble was that whatever taxi company the university use, it took over an hour and repeated phone calls before I cancelled them and ordered a proper one who took 5 minutes to get there. Naturally there was no apology from the receptionist or explanation as to the general incompetence of the taxi driver, but then after 6 months I have learnt that none would be forthcoming.

Days 161 to 170

Finally, the PhD interviews arrived. Frantic last minute organisation and trying to remember who is available for conducting the interviews. Of course a lot of staff have already headed out on holiday, leaving the rest to take on the candidates and act all professionally. Mostly it worked and there were some keen potentials. Students that is. And perhaps staff too who may have missed this aspect of academia. We’re pinning a lot of hope on these students to do some research and remind us of why we all really wanted to do PhDs in the first place. A bit like trying to live your missed childhood through your children.

Had a visiting Professor over for a week whom I met in Krakow at a conference last year. Nice guy and also an entertainer of my children as we all went out to sample some of the restaurants in Astana.

So day before Ali and the children are due to fly out, Rebekah is sick. Ali was somewhat frantic trying to get everything organised and I don’t think my “chuck it in the suitcase and do up the zip” attitude was helping. They flew out from Astana on the 26^th, Rebekah was in floods of tears, which were kind of prolonged. They had to wait 10 minutes at Passport Control to be allowed out of the country and hung around waving goodbye throughout. When Ali finally waved me away, I get a phone call with Matthias sobbing in the background. He didn’t get to do his last goodbye wave. At least Fred was on the same flight which made it easier for Ali to get the hand luggage on and off the plane and keeping the kids in check.

I went back to university and had a chicken sandwich and chips, mulling the next 13 days without my family. But I had some companionship. The next day I must have caught whatever bug Rebekah had and became ill, which put a stop to the longer distance running I planned to do for about a week.

It’s so quiet at the university. Hardly any academics around. Most have got a longer break. This just leaves me, a few extraneous members of Faculty and the admin team. Really unfair for them. One administrator was sent to China to chaperone a whole load of undergraduate students, to sit in meetings and then head back to work to debrief. And this was considered their holiday. Must always remember that whatever the expatriate staff suffer, the locals probably have it worse and because of their culture they do not complain.

Still not too long to wait for the Tour de France to start. Got to keep occupied until I get to fly back to the UK.

Days 151 to 160

Took two weeks for most of the feeling to return and have dutifully abstained from cycling during this period. Instead have been trying to pour my efforts into running. Went out and ran 12 miles. This is 2 laps around the perimeter of the site in which the university stands, about 5 miles. So had to run a couple of miles in the gym prior to heading outside into +25 ^oC. Took a while but managed to get close to the average speed I was hoping. Then went out quite a few days later to only run a single lap in +30 ^oC, which nearly finished me. It has taken a long time to recover from that effort.

So I got some initial feedback on Full Professor application. Of course nothing is written down and therefore subject to subtle changes through verbal communication. It appears that I have not been at the university long enough to be considered for this post. Plus it was felt that my research “prowess” should be stronger. I understand that a Full Professor in the UK usually has an amazing CV when at one of the top universities and I had discussed my track towards this end with colleagues and managers at Brighton Uni. So of course I retorted that my position should be that of a Full Professor anyway because my last post was on par with a Full Professor outside the UK. I also was quite aware that if one simply does not want to promote you, they can always say “need more X”. X being papers, citations, funding, PhD students. The criteria for a Full Professor is not exactly objective and really does depend on the field you are working in. Nothing happened in response, which is as expected. Never get to talk to the right people and even then, when their minds are made up there’s no moving them.

Ali went for an MRI scan. The back of her head has been hurting, but only when she pokes it. I came up with a most wise suggestion. It is reassuring that we have access to modern medical technology, though it does take private medical insurance to pay for it. I doubt we’d get this level of treatment back in the UK. I also wonder if only the rich Kazakhs would be able to obtain this service. The results came back and showed everything was as it should be. No obvious complications that might explain the headaches. Other than the continual poking of her head.

There was a mad dash to get a British Council funding application in on time and then onto prepare a whole load of forms for the Equipment Committee meeting. Suddenly they need a lot of information that I cannot see actually helps. Once the item is approved, then one can go for quotes through the tender process. Why they have to have delivery charges, customs charges, users identified, location for installation, connection requirements in the decision making process to approve that the item can go to tender is dumbfounding.

Met a few junior staff during the week interested in applying for PhD program in materials. So at least I may have something to come back for after the summer break. They also had a lot of experience with equipment I want to lecture on, so suddenly can find myself with some guest lecturers, whilst I evaluate their lecturing capability as part of their professional development course. Also got my tentative lecturing load for next year on the undergraduate programme. Not too horrific, but no point in trying to prepare anything until they are confirmed. This will mean a lot of work in the run up to the start of lectures mid-August.

Had to evaluate a tender process for a machine back at Brighton. One I hoped to have during my time there. We had developed the specifications with a local company and if it works, then should have access to the one of the world’s leading XPS. Whether it will be available in time before Gee (my PhD student at Brighton) completes will be a close thing, but hopefully very useful to him.

Had to cancel the conference in South Korea and the beach side hotel. Very disappointed not to visit the island of Jeju, but I could not go under the yoke of the NURIS contract. They tried to persuade me and I refused. I had one of our Engineering team try and persuade me, but had to be equally as firm. They said my refusal would not bring about change. This is true. And maybe will affect any chances of negotiating an extension to a contract should we survive 3 years here. But part of the reason for being here is to show them a better way of running things. If they don’t listen, then my being here is pointless. To that end I’ve become part of the Faculty Senate, which is supposed to be the communication arm of the Faculty for concerns over policies and decisions. The reality is that within any form of power (other than limited voting rights in other Senates) then it is just a voice that can be ignored. At least they do get to hear of developments before anyone else. Whilst this may be seen as gossip, I think it actually helps to brace oneself and limit the impact of shock.

Ali and the children are excited by going home soon. Though their reason for heading home early was because I was supposed to be in South Korea, which now isn’t going to happen. I think a trip to Hardees and a chocolate milkshake is in order.

Days 141 to 150

A rather bizarre visit to the hospital. Our police registration had not run out. It was for 6 months, but the university decided we should undergo the formal procedure to get re-registered early. So Ali, the kids and I all went to the hospital where we had to endure being marched in front of 6 different doctors and nurses and repeat the same thing. “No we’ve had no problem with X”. X being ears, nose, throat, brain, lungs, hands (only for blokes?!?), eye sight. This took 3 hours and as you can imagine the children were bored. Problem was that we didn’t see everyone we had to and so had to go back to find the remaining examiners. Blood was taken, blood pressure assessed and the final summation from the head doctor. Another 2.5 hours wasted, just so we could get the stamps and signatures required. Ali also had to pay for her “treatment”. Thankfully we had a translator, although needed a female one when Ali went to see the nurse. Just had to keep repeating "no we've had no problems with X". What we couldn’t figure out was why any of this was actually necessary. After all, we could have flown out of the country and returned to get a new police registration certificate. How does that equate to the need for a full medical work up? Anyway, not looking forward to having to do this again as part of the Visa renewal in December.

With the imminent departure of Joe and Penny back to the States and repeated reminders from Matthias to Joe, we sat down to watch Star Wars, which was just for the boys. A great excuse to over dose on chocolate and get excited by a New Hope. The downside was that Joe and Penny did leave a few days later. Matthias in particular was upset, but I too was sad to see them head home. In part because I will miss his enigmatic presence, as well as his confidence when things seemed to hit the wall. On the upside, we replenished our food stocks and our kitchen utensils as they had to limit the number of bags to take on the plane. Hopefully not too long to wait before we can go see them in New York.

Been chatting with Kazakh undergrad ladies about them sacrificing their career for their men. A few of us were in Gloria Jean’s Coffee, drinking whatever they actually had available from the menu and one of the lasses said she had been shot at in America, which detached part of her finger and re-sown. Sadly one of her companions in the party being shot at was hit and killed. Somehow this didn’t put her off going back to America. Anyway, as the conversation unfolded they were commenting on how sad it was to see close girl friends give up their entire career just to be a stay at home wife. I obviously have no objection to Ali staying at home and would be quite happy if she wanted the situation reversed. However, it was the fact that this is a very male dominated society, which I had not really come across before. There are a lot more women than men, though the higher up jobs tend to be populated with men, whilst the women stay at home raising children. The theory is that the men have a lot more women to choose from and if dissatisfied with their current wife, can leave them to find a new one. This in turn means that the current wife will do more to keep the husband happy, including sacrificing their careers, even if they were higher up the echelon than their husbands.

Naturally, we were reflecting upon the stereotypical 1950s house wives and what it took to bring some form of equality in society or even in the relationship. Withholding sex. But with the gender imbalance I guess this would force men to find a wife that would not withhold sex and so the problem continues. There is perhaps little impetus in the current climate to address the issue, though Kazakhstan whilst being intrinsically Muslim appears not to be heading towards a Sharia law. In fact it is difficult to know where the country might head in terms of religious views. I’ve mentioned before some of the problems if a person is not Muslim or Russian Orthodox and that freedom of religion is not the same as in the West. Despite there being allowances to practise different religions, when they affect an individual citizen then the state steps in and hammer home very secular trials. Try and match that with the presence of superstition even among the top educated Kazakhs, it is a strange mixture.

Some say that Kazakhstan’s society is emerging out of a similar scene in 1950s US, but the geopolitical nature combined with advanced technology pervading every part of their society will make for a very different outcome. There are many that want to see greater change and greater reformation here, but to what end. Introduce any modicum of change in one aspect of the machine will cause another part of the machine to change and in ways that will not always be beneficial. There’s a lot to do, but it will take time. One could adapt a quote from The Patriot “I would not swap one dictator concerned with the needs of the many for many dictators concerned about the needs of a few”. There are many ways in which one could derive meaning from this, but never let it be said that a dictator, especially a benevolent dictator, is a negative thing! In the UK I’ve always wanted to believe that there was stability, security and trust in the system that represented the people, so that no-one could take advantage and yet there are stories of what the UK government has done over many centuries and sometimes still does. Perhaps it is on a much reduced scale compared with developing countries and perhaps there are greater standards of protecting the rights of the individual. Though I’m sure this will be disputed by Julian Assange, Ian Tomlinson or Christopher Tappin, etc.

Some struggles still persist. Been waiting for a month now to get some shipping allowance and home schooling budget repaid. Apparently purchasing the bike through the internet means that I never owned the bike before shipping and cannot use the shipping allowance as it is not a personal item. I tried to reason with them given that I or a friend could have purchased the bike and sent it to Kazakhstan from a private address, without ever having unwrapped it, and the Finance team would be none the wiser. Alas all communication went cold after that. Had to meet HR to discuss the issue of home schooling budget. We had purchased a lot of books according to one contract, but HR and Finance insist that they got the age range wrong in that contract. So we discussed what it should be and then Finance turn round and say we can only claim according to the new wording. We also discussed what could be procured through this budget and it turns out that the Kazakhstani’s policy for education is to have one approved curriculum disseminated to all schools. All text books are derived from a single list only. And they want us to do the same. I tried to reason with them, reminded them that we are here to build a better, more Western style university, not to have our children educated according to the Kazakh system. The funny moment came when I said that we had purchased the collected works of William Shakespeare, which they deemed was fiction and not educational. Naturally I was irritated by the whole affair and reminded them that at the time of purchase the old contract was effective. All communication went cold after that too.

Went for a ride with Sean after replacement tyres finally turned up. 80 km onto the Steppe and back again, not too problematic. No punctures. Turns out it was partly my fault. I had read on the website for Continental tyres that the maximum inflation pressure was 175 psi. So I put 150 psi in and went for the ride, which blew a tyre somewhere along the way and another tyre on standing back at the apartment. Turns out that the operating pressure should be around 115 psi, which I used for the 80 km trek. So all seems fine with the tyres and the ride. Keeping up with Sean quite well until I ran out of water and hit the wall. Only when I got back to the apartment the usual numbness that sets in after 20-30 km in the lower regions of the male body didn’t instantly return. After a few days still no feeling. Ali has forbidden any cycling until I get a better saddle.