Day 50

We made it to post 50 on our blog! But it makes me think as to whether we have achieved our purpose in terms of blogging. I had hoped to introduce elements of Kazakhstani life, our family’s integration and the stresses, happiness and general experience of Kazakhstani work and wider culture. I am sure there is more, but the intervening time may become a laborious diatribe of my musings as I try and encourage Ali to share more of her day with the world or at least the regulars who access these pages on a daily basis. Numbers do shoot up anytime Ali posts.

It is possible that I have selectively defined what it means to blog. There are several reasons that one may do so and I am reminded that it should not be about the numbers. Neither should it matter whether this is hot, popular or widely accessed. It should not matter that I am not a gifted writer with such philosophical musings that would shape current and future societies. I could try and switch paths away from our original ethos and focus on science and try and develop a more specialized audience. But I am sure that would require far too much hard work. And we are some time away from getting the university ready for advanced materials research.

Anyway, getting back to Kazakhstan. It seem that we have been caught up in some Google vs Kazakh government battle, where Google had been redirecting its users away from Google.kz. In response Kazakhstan government had blocked several sites including Google’s blogspot.com. At least for the last few days (I had tried a number of Browsers and different computers). Quite strangely, access suddenly appears to have been restored. There’s a lot of politics and power shifting that goes on behind the scenes. It’ll be fascinating to watch how that spills into the public arena, though I’m sure the people of Kazakhstan will not care too much about internet access (as a nation). But the recent devaluation in the tenge will cause some headaches in the future. The government has taken steps to support the basics so far (apart from a problem with importing silky underwear, which as you can imagine has upset me greatly). My mind jumps to the current turmoil in the Ukraine (nothing to do with underwear, silky or otherwise). Though the Ukrainians I’ve spoken to do not believe that the country will split, I’m sure those same people would not have thought it possible to topple their President and his power structure. Truly amazing how so much could be accomplished by the tenacity and conviction of so few. But isn’t that something that could be said of how many of the major conflicts are precipitated?

Ray

 
Rebekah and I have just spent the last half an hour trying out the various flavours of Jelly Belly jelly beans. Ray’s work colleague brought them back from the USA this morning. A great entertainment. And a second brushing of Rebekah’s teeth. Ray reckons Jelly Belly should sue J.K. Rowling and her Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans. Turns out Jelly Belly are selling Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans: https://jellybelly.com/product/596

Verdict has just come in. Best flavour: Dr Pepper!

Ali