West Meets East in Kazakhstan
Life in and Around Almaty, Kazakhstan, in the 1990's from the Perspective of an American Expat
by
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“While foreigners continue to arrive for their first time in Almaty, they no longer seem to sense that they are entering an unknown part of the world, like stepping out on a strange planet where one simply does not know what to expect. They have missed what was for some of us a unique and interesting time to witness the opening up of a country.” “Last summer I saw someone purchase a plastic litre bottle of Coca-Cola which had been stored (baked) on the sunny side of a kiosk, and the purchaser immediately started to take swigs from the bottle. From where I come from, that is practically unpatriotic. You simply do not treat Coca-Cola with that kind of disrespect.” “… discos in Almaty are somewhat like new highways in the West. Building more does not solve overcrowding; building more simply calls into existence ever increasing numbers of users.” “Over the years many kindnesses and courtesies have been shown to me by local residents of Almaty for which I am thankful and which persuade me that the overwhelming disposition of local residents is of basic honesty and decency, with hospitality for strangers which is particularly warm for foreigners.” “The flight was about two-thirds filled, mostly with local residents including quite a few teenagers and younger children. They were not obvious 'New Kazakhs', and they were not obvious government people. They seemed quite ordinary. One of the signs of the times perhaps.” “I have observed that local residents eat with their chins over the dish from which they are taking their food. Often, the chin is not only over the dish, but the chin is also very close to the dish. If you want direct proof, go take a look at the stand-up eating counter at the Green Market.” “This definitely was not welcome information. I was somewhere near the end of the world, the twice-a-week plane was about to leave, and my luck had just run out.” “I still go on “a business trip”, not “the business trip”, but maybe in a few years I too will go on “the business trip”. “Strangers must be welcomed, and welcoming means providing food, meaning much food. It also often means providing meat - lots of meat. I have been the beneficiary of much hospitality by Kazakh families. That is to say, I have eaten much. Sometimes so much food is presented that you begin to worry if the family is mortgaging its eating future in order to provide the present meal.” “Although the horse is much revered among Kazakhs due to its traditional importance to life on the steppes, it is also much eaten.”
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About the Book
The author gained considerable experience of working in countries in the Soviet sphere in the 1980s—Yugoslavia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary—but this did little to prepare him for a long-term stint in Kazakhstan, commencing at the outset of 1993. If his eyes were opened wide in Belgrade, Warsaw, Prague, and Budapest, they were bug-eyed in Almaty, Kazakhstan. There he keenly experienced the harshness and wonders of post-Soviet Kazakhstan. The good news is that Tom Johnson wrote a series of articles for a local English language newspaper, The Almaty Herald, detailing his observations about life in and around Almaty in the 1990s from the perspective of an American expatriate. West Meets East in Kazakhstan is based on those articles, to which the author has added substantial new material. With wry humor, a positive attitude, and an easy-to-read writing style, the author recounts the gentle and not-so-gentle culture shock that he experienced. It is difficult to describe the book’s content. Each chapter stands by itself and might be devoted to such topics as the following: the heavy weight of documentation required by the bureaucracy, the peculiar habit of carrying flowers with the wet ends up and the flowers down, the lack of public gathering places, or the outlandish nature of goodbye parties for departing expatriates. Several chapters describe the author’s forages into the countryside to visit lakes, waterfalls, burial mounds, and “singing” dunes. West Meets East in Kazakhstan makes a good read for anyone interested in life and living conditions in Kazakhstan, as well as the former Soviet Union. Foreigners who lived or worked in Kazakhstan during the period when the Communist economy was collapsing and before the market economy took root should particularly enjoy the book.
About the Author
As the first lawyer to set up the office of an international law firm in Kazakhstan, Tom Johnson experienced firsthand the chaotic years after disintegration of the Soviet Union, the collapse of the command economy, and the start of the open market economy. For several years he contributed articles to the weekly English-language newspaper The Almaty Herald, many of which are collected in this book. Tom grew up in South Dakota. He obtained his bachelor’s degree at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and his doctor of law degree from Harvard Law School. Before coming to Almaty, Tom practiced law in New York City and London. He now lives in England with his wife and daughter.