i don’t think modesty is the range of human emotions known to u ))

as for ur questions,
1) i can’t speak for ‘the people of kazakhstan,’ but the people i know tend to shrug off his antics as uneducated and catering to lowest possible denominator tastes, kind of jackass meets benny hill. to me he is not funny because his scatological homor is on the level of a three year old. his primary audience r those who find pull-my-finger irresistibly hilarious. having said that, i don’t know why the haves in astana got their panties in a twist over him. i guess in their pr naivité they tend to forget that the more u criticize something, the more u draw attention to it. the foreign ministry in astana has even held a seminar for expatriate journalists dissecting the flaws of cohen’s movies. that’s just stupid. but then again, if the government reacts to barat like that, it deserves all the ridicule it gets.

2)kazakhstan is more unfree than russia, hands down. there’s no competition here. we don’t have investigative journalists at all, and if polyatkovskaya had lived in kazakhstan, she would have ‘commited suicide’ with two gunshots, one in the heart and one in the head (that seems to be the most common fate for anybody willing or deemed to willing, to challenge the ruling family) or been thrown in the slammer on phony child molestation charges (the fate reserved primarily for the opposition-minded chateratti) years ago.

3) as far as the mood on the street goes, kazakhs, including urs truly, r as anti-american as russians. the government can’t afford to be, as america provides security guarantees to the ruling family and the usa is where most of the money that the power clique has purloined the country of, has been heading all this years.

hope i’ve answered ur questions

With all due modesty, the post didn’t generate all the comments, I did. I either wrote or provoked most of them.

Now let me ask you: What do the people of Kazakhstan think of this comic?

And: Do you think Kazakhstan is less free than Russia?

And: Who do you think is more anti-American, Kazakhstan or Russia?

no, if u don’t mind to hear from someone who’s living in kazakhstan and who by dint of holding a kazakh passport is considered a kazakh, i’ll post my two cents.

first off, there was something fishy about the visit. u would have thought that the nazarbaev entourage would have exploited the visit for what its worth, for domestic propaganda consumption above all. in reality though, the visit got precious little airtime on government-owned channels, and private – although very much muzzled -outlets barely mentioned it, sandwiched as it was between the latest car pile-up on the streets of alma-ata and the new batch of unfortunate investors unlucky enough to have sunk their nest eggs into shoddy real estate deals. curiously enough, there was no footage – that i know of – of nazarbaev actually meeting bush. all the newscasts did show were panoramic views of washington and scenes from the streets of d.c. taken from a passing car. that’s all. not once did the anchors even hinted at the fact that bush had deigned to classify kazakhstan as free, which u would have thought would be pounced on by the kazakh propaganda machine. i guess even the powers that be in astana blushed at the thought of stating something that even they knew not to be true. some people i know, very cynically, even speculated that nazarbaev in reality didn’t go anywhere and the news of him being received at the white house was pure and unadulterated propaganda as his handshake with bush was not shown on national tv. now, i would not go this far, but the ducks r most definitely not in a row here.

please don’t call me darling. i have attempted to address you in a respectful manner. I have admitted the errors in my arguments, pointed out where I still disagree with you, as well as where we agree.

You have proven my point exactly. Speaking about Israel, just like about Russia, is more about American identity than about what it actually happening in those countries. Realities and fact are always far more complicated than your political identity.

I have no problem with criticising Israel, as you have noticed I do it myself incisively. Your position, however, has been severely misinformed. Talking to American lefties I have heard that Israel is an Apartheid state, that there are no Arab parliament members, that Arabs are not citizens. It is so very easy to refute your position on the basis of facts that you don’t even challenge “Pro-Israelis”.

Saying that an Arab member of Kadima sells off his people, i.e. is not a real Arab, simplifies Israeli politics beyond recognition. Reality is far more complicated than that. It’s not a clear cut of indigenous and white colonialists. Not knowing anything about the guy and his politics, not even knowing that he existed, I wonder how you can be repulsed.

The similarities between your anti-Israeli position and LR’s position on Russia are striking. Both of you have read quite a bit. Both of you however take the information that you have read only to prove the point you had held before you ever embarked on the reading. After refuting almost every point you raised, I couldn’t even shake your position a little bit. Why? Because the facts don’t matter, what matters is that somehow if you accepted the complexity of the situation, it would question your identity and your politics.

I can’t think when I’ve heard more ignorant remarks. You’re such a total blockhead. MAYA is my CRITIC, you dolt. It doesn’t prove you can be civilized that you, my critic, can talk to ANOTHER one of my critics without using personal insults. Now, if you can have a civilized discussion with an ALLY of mine, that might prove something. Where did you study logic, the Kremlin?

BTW: Maya really showed you for the fool you are. You claim to have expertise about Israel then repeatedly make giant fact errorts about it on basic points. You’re a total fraud.

So you are right, there are 12 Arab members of the Knesset. I am surprised. But good for them, though an Arab who would be a member of Kadima I personally find quite repulsive. But then there have always been Arabs willing to sell out their people, and that is a shame.

And though I can’t recall where I learned about the never being able to change the Jewish State thing, I stand by my comment on that.

And while any Isreali may worship as the please, which I didn’t disagree with, you cannot say they are all on equal footing as Judaism.

And the “blood” requirement, as you said, was based on Hitler’s race laws. What more can be said about that. No other country in the world has such a law.

And would you not consider 2% of the population as Christian “many” as I stated?

And as a non-Jew, a find it also extremely diffcult to criticize Israel. You don’t know how many times I’ve been called an anti-semite, by simply stating things I’ve read in ha’aretz or that has been written by Israeli authors And I disagree that leftys (why is that always used as a derogatory term?), and I admit I am on the left on many issues, can do nothing but criticize Israel. The Democratic Party (though I hesitate to call that the left) are as pro-Israel as anybody. That icludes Barbara Boxer and Ted Kennedy, those considered to be the most left. The Nation, definitley considered a lefty magazine, has a continuous pro-Israeli line. While the left may critisize Israel more so than the political right, to sy that the left can do nothing but, is mistaken. This comes from my own personal experience as well as my readings.

And I did not know about the Arab in Sharon’s govenment. So there has been one in the almost 60 years of Israel’s existence. But neverthelss, no Arab political party has ever been asked to help form a government.

I believe while there are things we disagree on, there are also mnay things we would agree on. And I hope this discussion between us, bereft of personal attacks and inflamed rhetoric (which I admit to have taken a prt of, some people bring out the worst in me), shows that informed and respectful political discussions. this was the norm before you-know-who showerd up.

1. Jamal Zahalka
2. Wasil Taha
3. Azmi Bishara
4. Mohammad Barakeh
5. Hanna Swaid
6. Abas Zkoor
7. Ahmad Tibi
8. Talab El-Sana
9. Ibrahim Sarsur
10. Raleb Majadele
11. Nadia Hilou
12. Majalli Whbee
Actually we were both wrong