A week ago I went to Kazakhstan on a business trip. It was my first time there. We stayed in Astana all the time. I liked the city: it seemed very spacious and bright and clean.
Since I've not been able to make it to Ukraine for this or that reason for quite some time already, it appeared to be a very nostalgic trip as well. It's been a long time since I saw the "width of the Russian soul" reflected in the urban architechture (no sarcasm implied).
But talking business, it was a curious trip. I realized that the countries have made incredible changes, which I know did not come easily after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but at the same time there's such a long way to go yet. And I realized that the root to these further changes is no more in financial or political or fiscal reforms. It is in the mentality of people. And now it's the hardest part: how to open it up to the rest of the world, how to make them think they are just the same - not worth or not better (the latter being the prevailing point of view among the locals themselves, which stretches itself to quite scary circumstances) - that they can achieve the same once they respect the world and want to be an EQUAL part of it..? Is it an achievable goal..?
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