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This dude just grassed on all the people who bent the rules to be nice to him. With pictures. For a moment of blog fame. Very uncool.
by grizzles 10y ago
This dude just grassed on all the people who bent the rules to be nice to him. With pictures. For a moment of blog fame. Very uncool.
- nicolas_t 10y agoThis was exactly what I was thinking. All of them have been very nice and with this blog are likely to get into trouble. He could have told the same tale but anonymized things and definitely not post a photo of Irlan when he requested not to.
- zanny 10y agoHopefully any higher up officials can recognize this just gave what is probably on average a fairly affluent tech class on HN a more positive outlook on Kazakhstan. Its positive advertising for the country to hear that you don't end up in a gulag for having your passport lapse.
- adventured 10y agoHigher up officials in Kazakhstan have never heard of HN.
- NKCSS 10y agoYou'd be amazed; even Borat frequents HN
- boratsagdiyev 10y agoiz very nize!
- jumasheff 10y agoI shared the link on Twitter. Got about 100 followers from Kazakhstan.
- piaste 10y agoTwitter is roughly a brazillion times better known than HN.
- andrepd 10y agoI think you grossly overestimate the impact and reach of a minor blogpost on a country far removed in distance, language and culture.
- gravypod 10y agoFrom many stories of family and friends who live there, this is not only Kazakhstan. This is every Eastern European country.
- creshal 10y agoKazakhstan isn't even in Europe.
- rusabd 10y agoTechnically part of Kazakhstan is in Europe
- lunchTime42 10y agoEurope is where the debt is. Khazastan is not in europe.
- petre 10y agoWell not quite. At least not those in the EU. It used to be like that in the 90s, but for locals, not for foreigners.
- gravypod 10y agoNot quite. Yea I've got friends who've gone to places in the EU on the Eastern European block. It's just as corrupt as before.
- EpicEng 10y agoYes I'm sure those in charge of Kazakhstan are just foaming at the mouth to win over the hipster web dev crowd. I think you're really overestimating your own importance.
- RangerScience 10y agoAhhhh from personal experience? They kinda sometimes are. (I know my situation was special/unique, but I don't know how special/unique). Whole country is really gung-ho about modernizing, and modern tech is a huge part of that.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 10y agoShame that they are still run pretty much by a dictator. At least the dictator is pro tech I guess.
- Muromec 10y agoHigher up officials simply get their share from bribes - no need to know about your techie forums in the internet.
- blastrat 10y agobut who will bust the busters? guy got busted by some people who turned around and helped him. now he's returning the favor?
- true_religion 10y agoI'm not sure if they bent the rules to be nice to him, or bent the rules because bribe money is shared between all parties involved.
- 762236 10y agoI just learned a new word: grassed
- teh_klev 10y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supergrass_(informer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supergrass_(informer)
- turar 10y agoThe guy sounds like an asshole. His bemused depictions of friendly border guards reek of self-superiority and total lack of empathy.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- glogla 10y agoHe does sound like a monster.
- loup-vaillant 10y agoWhat? I got the opposite impression.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- pmarreck 10y agoThis is crazy because I did not get this impression at all. Being rational and clean-cut and descriptive does not an asshole make. I mean seriously, if THIS is your definition of "asshole..." But I can't help but now wonder if his mere being just triggers vastly different things in people unfortunately (such as instant hatred of "tech elite" by SFPD cops in the San Francisco piece he wrote).
- Unbeliever69 10y agoTry spending even a night in a U.S. jail, or worse yet, any considerable amount of time in a US jail while awaiting trail, and ONLY THEN can you appreciate how easy he got off. Before reading the article, my gut told me that he was going to get it much harder in Russia. I was surprised to find out how humanely he was treated compared to the way we treat suspects/inmates in the U.S.
- oh_sigh 10y agoHe was in Kazakhstan....
- 10y ago
- TTPrograms 10y agoSo your problem is more with the publication of government corruption and bribery than with government corruption and bribery itself?
- 00098345 10y agoIt is unclear what exactly happened. And my guess would be that it was deliberately left out because the blogger initiated the convo. One should try it in the US after having his visa expired there.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoSometimes highlighting the problem can cause a bigger problem than the original was. Do you think that this post will make a dent in corruption issues in Kazakhstan? That it will fix anything? The only thing it may cause is repercussions for the good people in this story. Which will leave the system even worse. There is this concept of responsibility when publishing the story. I have a feeling that it's often forgotten.
- witty_username 10y agoBut the "good" people tried to take bribes. So, they aren't perfectly good.
- tripzilch 10y agoNo. Bribes are part of a culture, and carry consequences into behaviour of society. It's weird (even alien) if you're not familiar. To me as well. But the US situation with tips, service staff and their separate minimum wages is just as weird and alien to me. Doesn't mean the people living that culture are not good. I understand that tips are basically mandatory in the US or I'll be screwing people out of their needed income (I got great use from the tipping % calculator app that happened to be in the burner phone I bought for the trip). The way it's often solicited is distasteful (to my Dutch cultural norms), flat-out passive-agressive messages on the receipts, occasionally pushy servers (just a few though) trying get rapport, while I'm just there to eat. But I understand these people aren't being bad either, they're just being people manoeuvring in the cultural environment they are part of. I can disagree with this, or think up improvement, fixes. But at the end, I'm still a tourist, a guest in this country. I'm there to experience the culture, not to tell them they're doin' it wrong. That would be activism, not tourism. Addition: experiencing other cultures has taught me things as well. Having to barter in Turkey, I probably got screwed but did learn a few lessons that are applicable at home (particular from watching other tourists handle it) (though sometimes they were dicks). All that tipping in the US, coupled with the fact that listed prices are never what you pay (because they're pre-tax) (this is not the case in the EU, it feels very weird not being able to calculate the final sum before checkout--a little exercise I often do in NL to keep my mental math sharp) I took home a bit more fluid idea of prices, and this makes for a lower barrier to tip in NL as well (but I still feel 20% is just crazy :p).
- elliottcarlson 10y ago> Irlan (left) wouldn’t let me take pictures when I was in custody, but over eclairs he let me sneak one in.
- hueving 10y agoThe article states that they didn't want him to rat them out to their superiors about the nice treatment and the help. Being allowed to take a pic doesn't mean he was meant to sell them out on the Internet. The guy who will particularly be screwed is the one that accepted the bribe.
- iamdave 10y agoThat line was edited, it did not read this way yesterday.
- stordoff 10y agoThat line initially read "Irlan (left) wouldn’t let me take pictures, but occasionally I’d sneak one in."
- cft 10y agoIs "grassed on" Australian or British? Never heard this before.
- rangibaby 10y agoBritish rhyming slang. Copper > grasshopper > grass
- kqr 10y agoI will never understand this. Rhyming slang is always so far fetched.
- TheSpiceIsLife 10y agoAustralian here, heard it a bit but not a lot though. Haven't used it in a while.
- rplnt 10y agoIt does sound like this happened 7 years ago though.
- crispyambulance 10y agoIt appears that this adventure happened ~6-7 years ago. Folks bent the rules for him, but its not like their bosses haven't ALSO done the exact same thing (and probably more so) throughout their careers. I seriously doubt anyone is getting "in trouble". Bribing and twisting rules is "a thing" in some places that is part of the normal functioning of society. Is anyone _REALLY_ going to be shocked in Khazakhstan? The article is a nice contrast to his dehumanizing police experience in SF.
- maho 10y agoAt least he deleted the pictures of the girl. To share her story (edit: I removed some details here) along with her (hopefully fake!) name can already put her in danger, considering the extremely conservative environment she is likely still in. But to include pictures of her - I am at a loss for words at this level of insensitivity. Here's hoping the pictures won't show up in archived versions of the article.
- caiowilsonb 10y agoI honestly (as a brazillian native) think that working with the GIVEN rules and CULTURE of a given place is NOT being an asshole; Yet, I really wish he didn't posted pics nor gave real names. Bribe culture is bad, but it's not something to dismiss in such situations, eg, here, it would get him into way MORE trouble just to put up a firm NO about bribing and social skills. Being out of your main cultural context is pretty much about "going with the flow" and social engineering rather than enforcing your own beliefs onto an already established and deeply rooted status quo.