Two stories I heard recently about human trafficking both sicken me and they make me want to do MORE to help those who are trapped in Kazakhstan. The first is about a woman I know named Candy (fictitious name) and her sister who are from Guatema...
The following are the Core Values that should be our trademark as a Western institution of higher learning in Kazakhstan, approved by the Board of Trustees at a Nov. 20, 2009 meeting. 1. We value the well-being of our students, faculty, and sta...
I love a quote used by John Piper which I found on his Facebook status. Back in the mid-1980s I first heard about Kazakhstan when he talked about this Central Asian land. Perhaps he knew about it from his German connection. Back then, nobody real...
I feel like the Helen Hunt character, Carol the waitress, from “As Good As It Gets” which came out the same year Titanic did. Both Jack Nicholson and Hunt deftly swept up the Best Actor and Best Actress award against all the other awards Titanic...
I wanted to share a few quotes with my readers the wonder of this little short story by Chingiz Aitmatov. You can find on the Internet and read it for yourself. Though short, the haunting refrains of a father-son relationship with an old grandp...
Thanks to the work of Russian or Kyrgyz translators and Iraj Bashiri’s efforts to put Chingiz Aitmatov’s writings on the Internet in English, I just finished reading the simple little story by Aitmatov titled “Piebald Dog Running Along the Shore...
The following are logical fallacies used by the Soviets as written by my Kazakh students told to them from their parents or grandparents’ perspective. M.K. Strawman Argument – In Soviet Union it showed that crime level was low, but the real sta...
“The Embrace of Stalinism” by Arseny Roginsky This paper was read at a conference on the History of Stalinism in Moscow on 5 December 2008) The search for a Great Russia At a certain level, that of personal recollections, the terror is al...
The Embrace of Stalinism by Arseny Roginsky Books of memory Books of memory are one reference point about the memory of Stalinism. These books, published in the majority of Russian regions, form a library of almost 300 volumes. They contain...
This paper, written by Arseny Roginsky, was read at a conference on the History of Stalinism in Moscow on 5 December 2008, I have broken it down into three parts, I thought it was fitting after sharing for the past month stories from my Kazakh stu...
I want to tell you about the story that I heard from my mother. This is a story about the person who was a commander of division in land forces, a very good carpenter and he was my grandfather. My grandfather was born in 1922 in a small village....
This story began in 1941. It was the Second World War. Somewhere in Russia was a small village. The war had just begun. All the men went to the Front. Only women, children and old men stayed. Everybody was hungry. There was not any food or cloth...
Let me tell you about my grandparents. First of all, I want to tell you about my mom’s parents. My granddad went away when my mom was a baby. I still do not understand him and even I do not know the reason he went away. What about my granny she ...
This story will be about my grandmother. When I started to write I didn’t know what title this story should have because most of our grandparents have there own exiting stories. They are all very old, most of them were born before World War Two...
To be honest, I seldom meet my grandparents, but if I have free time I spend it with my grandmother in the kitchen with cup of tea and tasty pancakes. When I come to her, she likes to tell me about her childhood and always wants to explain to me...
Childhood without grandparents is not sterling and children who have grandparents are very happy. So, can I say that I am happy? Of course, in spite of the fact, that I have never seen both my grandfathers and one of my granny lived far from me,...
It was in 1951. One young beautiful woman arrived to Uzbekistan from Russia. Exactly, from the Molotychi country. It is related to Kursk region. After graduating from training college she was sent to another country that doesn’t have a name in o...
As I am an ordinary Kazakh girl I also have got a lot of grandparents, because we call “azhe” our own grandmother and her sisters, and call “ata” our own grandfather, and his brothers, even though many of them passed away, I still have a grandmo...
My mother’s parents are closer to me and I know more about their lives than about my father’s parents. My grandmother’s name is Kulzada and I’m going to write about her life. She was born in 1934. Her parents were rich people and that was a time...
“Some are wise and some are otherwise.”Ben Franklin turned this saying around with “Some men are weather-wise, but most men are other-wise.” “Swim like a stone (brick).” “The game is not worth the candle.” French (referring to gambling a...
Sir Winston Churchill, the former British Prime Minister, recommended: “It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations” I think Churchill’s quote applies to reading through puzzling proverbs and sayings. Some of these proverb...
“The wisdom of nations lies in their proverbs, which are brief and pithy. Collect and learn them; they are notable measures of directions for human life; you have much in little; they save time in speaking; and upon occasion may be the fullest a...
These English Rhyming Proverbs are taken from “Dictionary of English Proverbs, Sayings and Idioms in Russian, Kazakh and German” by Sakina Akmetova, published by Mektel in Almaty, Kazakhstan 2009. “A hedge between keeps friendship green.” ...
In my big family, our authority and source of pride for us was and will always be my grandfather. His name is Amangaliyev Kalesh, and he was a participant of Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. All of us, that is grandchildren, grew up hearing his i...
The generation of our grandparents lived during heavy times. Their families were pursued by repressions which there were a lot in our country at that time. When they were young, the Second World War began. Many of those who went to the war didn’...
