Magzhan Kenesbai

Region/Concept: Riche Wedding / Madness

Sub Contents: power, wealth, envy, madness

Situation: The grandson of our president was engaged in the most sought out wedding in modern Kazakhstan history. The young and highly influential grandson had picked his soulmate and was staging a 3 million USD wedding in the heart of Almaty. Singers like Beyonce, P Diddy, among others were part of the start-stubbed celebrity guests. At the same time, Kairat Nurtas, a famous local singer, was staging a free concert in the auditorium of Almaty’s largest mall. This concert was organized by the Governor’s office in order to please the working class and give them an enjoyable friday. Long-story short, Kairat Nurtas decided to cut his concert performance earlier than planned and left the stage. The crowd grew wild and eventually tensions escalated. They went on a rampage and destroyed lots of private and public property as well as got into confrontations with the police.

Theory: The class difference and the expression of wealth is very visible in Almaty. The young “oligarchs” and their children tend to show their newly riche concentrated lifestyle, while the working class become poorer by day. Orchestrating a grand wedding 2 years after a devastating global financial crises, caused lots of internal discontent between the general public. The governor’s office tried to provide some relief by staging a free concert for the working class of their favorite idol, yet when he failed to honor his duty hell broke lose. The general public felt the moment of madness and lost themselves to the desire for destruction and sending a message to the government.

Interpretation: Kazakhstan is a very rich and vibrant nation. We are in the top 10 of world oil producing nations and our capital resembles the architecture of Dubai & Singapore combined. Yet, as with any resource based nation, the distribution of wealth is very uneven. In the territory of one city, the grandson of the president was staging a 3 million dollar wedding marking a significant day for himself, and on the other a large crowd of working class people could not even have their idol artist perform his duties. In my opinion, the unfairness and mistreatment felt by the crowd caused them to experience a moment of madness and begin the obstruction. The moment of madness was a abnormal act among the general public. Kazakhstan has never experienced massive protests, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, and people were mostly settle with the conditions of their lives. Yet, during this symbolic day, hell broke lose among the working class and caused a cold shiver to run up the ruling parties back. The general public acted as beasts in their purge of destruction; causing the government and the rest of the society to see the potential of madness among our countrymen.