Typographically I found it interesting that the country was attempting to shift away from Cyrillic to a more romanized (??) written form; i.e., "Qazaqstan."

https://www.youtube.com/c/baldandbankrupt/featured

Doesn't look like he's been to Kazakhstan yet though...

I can't help but feel modern Western society has lost and forgotten something within. It's hard to describe but easier described as nearest to changes in warmth and compassion.

It's only getting worse and these old places it seems ingrained.

https://stevenpinker.com/publications/better-angels-our-natu...

The presence of peace, or the absence of war is indeed a big plus, but doesn't mean automatic happiness for everyone.

Baikonur the city, not the cosmodrome, was an entirely different experience. Baikonur is essentially a Russian military outpost that continues to exist as a place for the personnel and families of Roscosmos and the various entities that exist to operate the cosmodrome, which is several kilometers away. You must pass through a military checkpoint to enter the city and military police patrol the city. Don't stay up late drinking in the central square! You will be helpfully escorted away by the militia.

If you talk to the local non-Russians living in Baikonur, they are not huge fans of the Russian presence. You can observe the youths swearing and yelling at the buses of Roscosmos personnel and tourists returning from launches. They would be glad to see the Russians leave, even though it would be a massive blow to the economy.

One of the first things the native Kazakhs did after the collapse of the Soviet Union was build a mosque right outside of the entrance of the city of Baikonur. It is quite nice and I visited it with no problem. Those who wish to attend mosque that live within city must pass through a checkpoint to leave the city and another to get in. There is no mosque allowed within the city, although there is a Russian Orthodox church, which I also visited with no problem.

The cosmodrome itself is an amazing place worthy of a huge essay, so I will save my observations for a topic relevant to that.

I am hopeful the Kazakh people can find a future free from Russian influence and the Russian-backed strongmen that have controlled the country in post-Soviet times. Other than Russian colonial outposts like Baikonur, the culture and religion of the people there are quite different that those of Russia.

There are still at least a million of ethnic Russians living in the Northern and North-Eastern Kazakhstan who settled there starting from 18th century. What do you propose them to do?

when an American (or other rich Westerner) shows up in remote area, they are treated like a king,

basically you are treated as people treat ridiculously good looking and popular people around them that they want to be around,

that generosity you feel is nothing more than being popular and center of attention

start living there, all of a sudden that generosity is not so obvious, families are at each other's throats for that bushel of corn one guys grandfather stole from the other fifty years ago, random shit gets stolen, the whole garden is trampled because someone is stealing a few of your tomatoes, trash is thrown over your yard because the neighbor wants to "save" on trash collection fees, people cut ahead of you around in the queues, people have untrained dangerous dogs that are a menace to the whole community ...

etc

So basically all the same petty BS that you get in the urbanized inner suburbs HN raves about without the bickering being laundered through lawyers and local officials to give it a veneer of acceptability?

Humans gonna human.

If this is supposed to be the description of Kazakhstan, I haven't seen a post with more bullshit in my life. Like "bushel of corn ... fifty years ago", "the garden is trampled", "save on trash collection fees", "people cut ahead of you in the queues" gee.

It is about the rich westerner's naive gushing when visiting African, Eastern European, Central American remote villages etc

"Everybody is so nice and generous around here ... not like back home in the civilized world"

They confuse how people treat them in particular with what it is like living there.

And after all, next time it might be you looking for a bite to eat and a place out of the wind and rain for the night. There's not a lot of Holiday Inns on the steppe or in ancient Greece.

How high is the risk, if you make an effort to behave well?

As if people felt the need to compensate for their hospitality and generosity elsewhere.

The other more concerning thing, is this clueless chipper tourist act he does constantly - many times, I've seen him interview desperate, bitter, destitute people who lived in derelict former industrial centers of the USSR, telling stories of how their towns were the centers of industry, culture, activity - only for the factories to shut down, the opportunities disappear, the buildings turn to slums, and the only escape that remained was drinking.

And he just grills them question after question - and grins like a five year old at his first time at the zoo. It made me think something is very wrong with that man.

https://www.reddit.com/r/internetdrama/comments/d4zo17/1_mil...

https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldAndBaldrDossier/comments/judnlm...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz3hBuq-Huk

While it’s possible to differentiate these two things like you mentioned, if you look at honor as a concept, it’s useful function is about curbing higher cost of distrust. And that Sapolsky does explain in the linked video.