Road Rage . . . Kazakh Style

Here is an interesting, although scary, story told to us by our coworker. First, you have to know that Almaty is really stupid when it comes to road construction. They will close the closest thing we have to a highway just to fix a pothole. They love to do it during high traffic times, too.

One of our office staff members was driving home the other day and witnessed this scene. There was a section near our house that had to be fixed last week, so they closed it and blocked off the traffic. A traffic cop was standing there redirecting the traffic. A black Mercedes with tinted windows pulled up to the traffic cop. Of course, the traffic cop told him to go around. He couldn't go through. The guy in the Mercedes inched forward, almost bumping into the cop. They proceeded to argue with each other. The driver would say, "I'm going," and the cop would say, "No, you can't go through. You have to go around." The driver kept nudging his car forward into the cop. They got more and more heated, but the traffic cop wouldn't give in.

So, what does the driver do? He steps out of his car, holding a Kalishnakov(AK-47), points it at the traffic cop and says, "Do you want some of this?" Now, I don't even know if the traffic cops have any weapons here. What could the guy do? He stepped aside. The guy in the black Mercedes got what he wanted and leisurely drove through the blocked road. I'm sure there was no punishment for this guy.

I didn't really believe it at first, but our source is extremely reliable. She said, "Why don't I ever have my camera when I need it?" We really don't know about the mafia here. Maybe this guy was mafia connected, maybe not. We do hear about mafia-run casinos (There are more here than in America, by the way.) Our accountant at school has several people whose business she has to list as a "holding company" because their business isn't really on the up-and-up. Interesting. I can't really comprehend it. We didn't have these issues where I grew up!

Another item of note this week. I can feel Sophia's first tooth breaking through the surface. We can't see it yet, but it's there!