Zombification And its discontentsZombification

ALMATY, Kazakhstan. At first glance, Almaty, the former capital of this once Soviet republic in Central Asia, offers the typical drab of Soviet-style graying buildings, some badly in need of a new coat of paint. The city’s wide avenues, initially designed to allow official Communist Party Zil limousines to race through the city unhindered, are now filled with shining new European and Japanese luxury cars, all vying for space. The Zils, along with their center lanes reserved for high-ranking party apparatchiks are long gone – though the system from those darker days still lingers.It’s a big step from the Soviet days, yet Kazakhstan’s political system is not exactly Jeffersonian democracy. Call it democracy-lite, if you will. At least that is the view adopted by the Bush administration, which wants to keep Kazakhstan as a friend in a part of the world where making, and keeping friends, is not easy. A