Jan 6, D.C. - Never Forget (Meanwhile, in Kazakhstan...) · 10:41pm Jan 6th, 2022
I thought long and hard as to whether I'd have anything to write today, the first-year anniversary of the Trumpian right-wing coup attempt in Washington D.C.
Sadly, nothing much comes to my mind. Nothing any smarter or more insightful than, of all things, a reference to Kazakhstan.
News from a country in Central Asia rarely draws much notice from the Western public, unless we are told it affects us directly, somehow. Kazakhstan is that place a lot of us probably only know as the alleged place of origin for a funny character played by a British comedian who, after thoroughly roasting Bush-Era America in a feature-length Borat movie, had officially retired the character in 2006; that is, before Sasha Baron Cohen felt compelled to bring him back fifteen years later, upon witnessing the state of things.
What is presently going on in Kazakhstan is no joke, but it is, perhaps, an example to consider. Because Kazakhstan is run by an authoritarian regime backed by Russia, protests are rare. Yet somewhere along the line, what started off as expressions of discontent towards the doubling of fuel prices has morphed into the largest swathe of public upheaval since the country broke off from the USSR in 1991.
Naturally, the official statement from the President, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who sacked his cabinet earlier today, is that these are the actions of terrorist groups, and Russia shall be sending in "peace-keeping" forces to quell the unrest.
The outlook on the horizon is, as often, quite likely grim.
Nonetheless, consider that throughout the world - in Kazakhstan, in Myanmar, in Hong Kong, and so forth - there are still places where ordinary people find the will to stand up and clamour for freedom, because they know what it truly means to live without.
Only in America, Land of The Free, does the crowd rise in support of despotism and oppression.
This is truly our winter of discontent. You know I kinda of anticipated that trumps supporters would try something like January 6 but I didn’t think it would be as bad as it got. I hoped that a year out trump support would start to fade and it has somewhat but not nearly enough. The majority of republicans remain trumps loyal foot soldiers and I feel there is a chance trump might win in 2024. Something that fills me with true dread. Although I don’t think my country will devolve into a Latin American tin pot style dictatorship I do feel that it might resemble something like Italy in the 1960’s where political terrorists make life a living hell and ineffectual government is constantly squabbling amongst itself. I can only hope that this leads to a new summer at some point in the future.