Recently, I got to know some people from Kazakhstan.
Yes, the same one made famous by His Royal Hairiness.
Anyway, there’s already been enough PR done for Kazakhstan, so today, I shall talk about it’s neighbour Kyrgyzstan, or rather, part of it…
Now Kyrgyzstan (pronounced: …. ermmm…. let’s skip that for now…) shares her borders with other countries in Central Asia such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. (isn’t that a mouthful?). They were all once part of the Soviet Union and with the dissolution of the Union, they were split up and borders were drawn.
Being an International Issue, I’m sure the people involved in drawing up the borders put due thought and the utmost diligence into dividing up the borders, however even the best laid plans will have some inherent problems, which, in this case is that it does not make any friggin sense at all.
Apparently, there is this village in Kyrgyzstan called Stepnoye (you’d think that after the various “tans” I’ve spelt thus far, I would be more sure of this spelling) where a wedge of Kyrgyz territory protrudes into Kazakstan. The town square, the village cemetery and the village hospital are in this area and some of the villagers have fields there too.
I don’t like to make wild accusations but now comes the part where the I think the borders dividers either
a) have a wicked sense of humour (one that I can appreciate)
or
b) were high on drugs
Either way, for the villagers to reach this wedge of land, they have to cross the highway running between the Kazak cities of Almaty and Tara. And if that is not wicked enough, the delightful Kazaks decided to plant a checkpoint along the way. meaning that you actually need a passport to get to the hospital and… yes, get buried.
Well done !
