Registan.net

Here follows my review of Apples Are From Kazakhstan: The Land That Disappeared by Christopher Robbins. This book was informative, but precious little of the information was first-hand knowledge. My primary complaint is that the reader is really taken on a ride as Christopher Robbins tells us other people’s stories. This is fine in fiction, but as non-fiction, it’s hard to know why Robbins is so trusting. Before I really get into this review, I want to put up the disclaimer that I’m not calling the author a liar, but merely asking how he drew his conclusions and whether he’s aware of the biases he cultivates on how they might affect his judgment. A large part of his first-hand experience with Kazakhstan involved the elite of the country, including extended interviews with the President over the course of two years. Again, I’m not doubting the author’s love of the country, only his knowledge of it.

Also, and this might seem petty to some, this author has a history colored by not checking his facts accurately and letting fiction slip into his non-fictional accounts. Not too long ago the LA Times ripped another of his works apart. As one commenter mentioned, “At least Ian Fleming knew to change the name of his character and call it fiction,” when retelling his WWII exploits. [James Bond was based on Ian Fleming’s own war stories, at least to begin with] The story in question is Test of Courage, a biography covering a short part of the polyglot Michel Thomas‘ life. After the LA Times review, Robbins’ response did not help his reputation, as he backpedaled and restated some of his books passages. That book, unlike this one, actually advertised that the author had carefully checked all the facts - I guess he learned his lesson.  [Edited:  I guess it IS petty.  According to a commenter, this claim has been proved wholly bogus.  Michel Thomas really did some of the things that the LA Times called into question.  I’m afraid that doesn’t change my opinion that Robbins hasn’t done enough of inspecting Kazakhstan from the bottom up, instead of from the top down.]

I’m afraid I couldn’t find a single picture of the author through the usual methods, so I’ve resorted to photoshopping this lovely image of Winnie the Pooh’s pal Christopher Robin adoringly looking on as Nazarbayev does something industrious. After reading the book, I think this picture is as accurate a portrayal of the author as you’re likely to find.

The strong suit of this book is that it’s long on history, short on small talk. The problem is that the history is very disjointed. It’s difficult to keep track of places and times, and this would become even more confusing if this is the first time you’ve heard of Karaganda, the Aral Sea, Astana, or any other place in Kazakhstan. Mr Robbins’ portrayals of historical figures is interesting, and his retelling of Gulag survivors’ stories makes the book wholly a worthwhile purchase. And yet, knowing about his penchant for embellishing stories and whitewashing certain “unexciting” details, it’s hard to take everything at face value.

He does touch on one aspect of “Western” journalism I find very prescient - that the media in the West only looks on Kazakhstan to crack a new joke about autocracy or to dredge up old horror stories about the Soviet Union. This is a real and valid complaint, but I think Mr Robbins’ has gone too far in the other direction. It’s one thing to assume that the West is being unfair to the “poor Soviet states”, but another to assume that we want them to fail. I’m sure the average Western civilian, let alone journalist, doesn’t care whether Kazakhstan is successful or dismally poor. They have very little to do with each other, economically, culturally, or otherwise. The Uranium market being what it is, that may change as Kazakhstan rises to supply more and more of the world’s ‘fuel pellets.’

Here’s an example from the story of Robbins’ inability to look at the hard facts. During an interview, Nazarbayev is quoted as saying,

“All the major religions insist there is but one God. Well, in my opinion that is so - but we all approach him in our own way. The Koran states that if you kill one person you have killed everyone in the world, and the prophet Mohammed has said it is the duty of Muslims to spread love among people. I want to disprove the Huntington theory which says that the clash of civilizations is inevitable because we are all different. Yes, you can prophesy disaster and apocalypse, or you can think that humans are smarter than that and will not push themselves to that confrontation.

We have forty-six different religions in Kazakhstan operating in peaceful co-existence. No one is restricted from building his own house of prayer. No one is afraid to pray to his own God. And there is not a hint of one group deliberately offending another. The Kazakhs of the twenty-first century should be tolerant, modern people. I tell young people here that they should be citizens of the world and that for them there should be only one nationality - humankind.”

Good speech! The man is a talented politician, definitely one of the best that Central Asia has to offer, and he’s done well by his country. Could he be doing better? Is there room for improvement? Is this any of our business? If you think the answer might be at least a timid “…yes?“, proceed, gentle reader.
These are very strong words from the president of a country with no freedom of religion [as it is defined in the West, anyway]. Indeed, these are strong words from a country with internal passports that arbitrarily demarcate nationality in blanket terms. There is no one I know with a passport saying “Half Kazakh, Half Russian” or “Quarter Kazakh, Three Quarters Uzbek.” I personally know people with no Russian ethnicity with “Russian” stamped in their passports, simply because they identify with Russian culture as opposed to their native mix of Greek, Russian, Kazakh, and Polish. This is what happens when you’re required to play the Nationality game, even when you’re blessed with the lack of a clear nationality. [Yes, that is a blessing.]

About Religion, and the Freedom Of…

Quoting Wikipedia here:

On September 15, 2006, the deputy chief commander of the KNB Counter-Terrorism Center stated in a press interview that the KNB was drafting legislative proposals to address so-called destructive sects and organizations. He named the Grace Church, Scientologists, and Jehovah’s Witnesses as organizations that should be banned.

The Baptist Council of Churches has a policy of not seeking or accepting registration in former Soviet countries, and church members criticized the intrusive nature of the registration process for requiring information about ethnicity, family status, religious education, employment, and political affiliation. During the reporting period the Council of Churches noted several court cases against churchgoers throughout the country for participating in the activities of an unregistered group.

The Karasai regional government near Almaty continued a campaign to seize title to land used by the Hare Krishna movement. Following the Supreme Court’s August 24, 2006, denial of the Hare Krishna’s appeal, the RIC formed a special commission to resolve the issue and promised that no further action would be taken against the commune until the commission completed its work. Some participants described the commission as disorganized and subjective; Hare Krishna leaders alleged it was created merely to deflect criticism of the Government on the eve of the Congress of World and Traditional Religions, which took place in the country in September 2006.

In February 2007, Northern Kazakhstan Oblast authorities conducted a preventative sweep entitled “Operation Religious Extremism” which resulted in the arrest of eight pastors and church leaders for violating religious registration laws. The authorities claimed that the operation was part of a larger CIS-wide program to combat terrorism and violent extremism. In most of the cases, Baptist and evangelical Christian church leaders were prosecuted and fined.

Now, is it true that the Constitution of Kazakhstan provides for free religion? Yes, it is true. Whose job is it to make sure the Constitution’s laws are executed? The executive, one Nursultan Nazarbayev. And to back up Wikipedia, I have a personal anecdote. For some time, I was not the only American in Sayram. There was an Uzbek-speaking missionary worker, teaching and working in local hospitals. She was a very soft-spoken woman, and kept her religious beliefs to private conversations. During my second year, the KNB arrived in town and started asking questions about her - to my knowledge she was deported after that, though I can’t be sure. We weren’t very close, but I never saw her again.

In any event, this book makes for a fine introduction to the country for those planning to read more. But if this were the only book you read about Kazakhstan, it would give you as accurate a picture of the country as watching the movie Dave to get an idea of what life in America is like.

And while wild apples are from Kazakhstan, it wasn’t the Kazakhs who gave them to the world. Nationalism is no good for anyone - a security blanket at best, a security blanket made of thorns at worst.

Stumble it!