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Kazakhstan may be a modern country but there are still plenty of social issues. Due to traditional attitudes to women, like in almost all other old societies, they treat their women with less respect and don't give them very good jobs. Women do have equal rights under the law though they tend to only get low-level, low-paid jobs. Another issue is that violence against women and domestic abuse is still a problem however it's mostly unreported. There are about 30 women's rights organizations that work to obtain support for families and increase women's participation in public life.
Kazakhstan used to be a part of Russia which causes ethnic tensions between Kazakhs and Russians. Ethnic Kazakhs receive preferential treatment in housing, education and employment even though the Russian language is still predominate, however, the 1995 Constitution specifies that Kazakh is the official state language. The government is responsible for many violations of democratic freedoms and human rights as well. Prisoners are beaten and tortured, and killings are committed by security forces. An example of how corrupt the government is would be when an top political leader was jailed for a year for insulting the president and then barred from running for parliament because he had served time in prison.
The government and society of Kazakhstan still has a long ways to go and is quite corrupt but if the UN or a righteous political leader comes into power then I feel like they can enforce their laws better and that will help fix their society.
There are many popular tourist spots in Kazakhstan. One of them would be Astana, their capital since the 1990's. Astana has some of the most amazing, awe-inspiring architecture I've ever seen along with all sorts of entertainment. Here is a picture of their capital.
As you can see there's a draw from all sorts of different types of architecture that span from ancient Greece to contemporary. Astana will always make you smile due to their interesting architecture. :D
I went down to what they call the Golden Ring which is in Southern Kazakhstan and it's where some of the World's earliest cities had been. There's all sorts of things to see like old caravan routes, such as the Great Silk Road, and ancient settlements. Southern Kazakhstan also has the world famous space port, Baikonur. There has been talk of adding an entertainment complex full with modern hotels, 'cosmic cafes,' mini-mission control center to simulate spacecraft launch, a planetarium, a museum of space development, restaurants and it's very own shopping network.
That's what Baikonur looks like now but they apparently already have plans for how it will all be laid out.
In addition to all of that Kazhakhstan has the second lowest land are on our planet, the Karaghiye Depression which is about 132 meters below sea level.
The bank of Japan is going to add about ten trillion yen to its asset-purchase program. Their economy has been having issues like ours has. It was in the 1980's when rising stock and real estate prices caused the Japanese economy to burst in what as later known as the 'Japanese asset price bubble' which was caused by the policy of a low interest rate by Bank of Japan. The economic bubble came to an end as the Tokyo Stock Exchange crashed in 1990-1992 and real estate prices peaked in 1991.Growth in Japan throughout the 1990's was 1.5% slower than the growth in other major developed economies which gave it the term 'Lost Decade.' However, Japan's GDP was better than Europe's and the United State's throughout 2001-2010. As for today the JSE is down 1.19% and the yen is down about .33% compared to the US dollar from yesterday.
My name is Connor Hasting and currently I'm in Japan and I'm just simply amazed by their culture. They have all sorts of art everywhere ranging from their traditional art style which you can see on the right to a very contemporary, colorful style like on the left done by Takashi Murakami. Japan seems to have a society that is filled with both new and old ideas. Like how many people still wear traditional clothing such as the kimono even in this now modern society. The only real differences between mens and womens kimonos is that men's are typically dark, subdued colors. Casual styled ones seem to ahve texted and be more bightly colored and sumo wrestlers seem to prefer wearing the brighter colors.
So a popular way to travel here is by rail. Get this, it's so crowded that they actually hired people to cram the passengers inside the train. It's crazy busy in Tokyo.
As for food here....well I tried raw horse meat...it wasn't that bad I guess. Not as good as some of the sushi I had. I also had raw squid which was just unflavorful and slimey, I don't recommend it. Luckily they have different kinds of noodles like soba, ramen and udon EVERYWHERE which I find delicious. It also turns out that most people slurp their noodles super loudly as a sign that it's delicious and to cool down the noodles.
Also, if you think we're lazy in the United States, here in Japan they sell beer, cigarettes, hot and cold coffee and tons of other miscellaneous items from vending machines. I find this to be a great idea as most people drink coffee...and eat rice at pretty much every meal...They like rice here.
Japan has a very strong sense of family especially considering how economically strong they are. Just about every home has a butsudan which is an altar of the ancestors and elderly people are taken care of by their families in a home. Something else is that most people work for the same company their entire work lives. Typically layoffs and dismissals of employees is very rare and in 1997 their unemployment reached a record 3.5%.
Their current insurance system includes national health insurance, welfare annuity insurence, maternity coverage, unemployment insurance, workers' accident compensation, seamen's insurance, a national government employees' mutual aid association, and day worker's health insurance. They also have pension plans designed to maintain living standards for the elderly determined by their years of employment and for families of deceased workers. Something else that's pretty unique is that there's a family allowance for all residents with children under the age of three. Just about everyone that lives there receives some sort of benefit from the health insurance system. You're either insured through your work or the National Health Insurance program if you're unemployed.
It's quite a change from the United States to know that just about everyone here lives on way more benefits and with a much stronger since of family. It seems to be working for them pretty well even though they're not necessarilly an economically stable company.
Sadly most non-Japanese minorites and ethnic Koreans and strongly discriminated against and bullied. Bullying is a serious social problem for the children in japan. There have been several reported cases of suicide due to bullying. There's also a growing problem of violence against teachers.It's not an issue with the government as they genrally respect all human rights, it's just a social issue.
There's a book about the issue of violence against teachers rising and what they do about it called Battle Royale. What they do is they randomly select a class each year and make all the students in that class fight to the death until the last man is standing as punishment for treating teachers so horribly.
Japan overall has a lot of old traditions mixed in with new ones and it's quite a unique culture over here. Especially clothing wise, you may be at a festival and see everyone in traditional clothing, students in their uniforms, businessmen in suits or some truly crazy outfits in the cities and shopping districts like Shibuya.
Here's a video showing what their vending machines are like and how high tech everything is.
