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I got arrested in Kazakhstan and represented myself in court

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Re: I got arrested in Kazakhstan and represented myself in court

#131

Post by skewart »

exabrial wrote: post #128

I don't know even what to make of this... The preamble suggests that Kazakhstan justice was superior to American justice, but after reading the whole story I'm like... dude, grow a sense of self-responsibility. It's not like your visa expiring was a surprise... you knew exactly when it was going to happen, and YOU CHOSE to violate it without giving yourself any wiggle room. Then you willingly participated in a corrup…

But then he wouldn't have had a cool story to post on Medium. He wouldn't have gotten all this attention.

Alternatively, one could argue that he took one for the team - he did something risky and stupid so he could find out what would happen, see if he could get out of it, and share the experience with those of us too responsible and sane to try it ourselves.

Either way though your point stands. He clearly chose to put himself in the situation he was in.

Re: I got arrested in Kazakhstan and represented myself in court

#132

Post by jumasheff »

adventured wrote: post #84
zanny wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully any higher up officials can recognize this just gave what is probably on average a fairly affluent tech class on HN a more positive outlook on Kazakhstan. Its positive advertising for the country to hear that you don't end up in a gulag for having your passport lapse.

Higher up officials in Kazakhstan have never heard of HN.

I shared the link on Twitter. Got about 100 followers from Kazakhstan.

Re: I got arrested in Kazakhstan and represented myself in court

#133

Post by rangibaby »

mildbow wrote: post #10
csmajorfive wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might've actually worked out better if he hadn't spoken Russian. Speaking the local language evokes a "who are you to bypass the rules?" sentiment and enables the officers to pass the time hanging out with you. A non-speaker would just be a huge hassle.

I haven't found the same to be the case. Being able to speak the local language and to be able to portray yourself as "local boy made good" seems to bring out something in people where they want to root for you.

Japanese police and other bureaucrats are definitely more obstructive to foreigners who don't speak a high level of Japanese.

Re: I got arrested in Kazakhstan and represented myself in court

#135

Post by dakics »

asymmetric wrote: post #60
dakics wrote: post #32

Great story! 5 years ago we went on a Mongol Rally. Driving European vehicle through the Stans makes you easy prey for local policeman. My co-driver had a strategy of befriending them and sharing small gifts (pens, lighters etc.). Most expensive were Tajik GBAO guards, they got headlamps. During my shifts I had 2 encounters but played dumb, even though I'm native in similar language and could communicate. No bribes g…

Would love to read about your experience on the Mongol Rally!

There are plenty of videos and blogs, and in fact 2016 MR just started, so you can follow teams. This is how they got me, took me few years to prepare.

We were with convoying Mongolia with bunch of cool guys from AUS, NZ and UK. One team went through northern Iraq (it was relatively safe back in 2011) and later had to double as Kyrgyz emergency as they were driving an ambulance. Links are mostly broken, but you can read some of it here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20111122143223/http://www.travel...

We had another trouble in Novokuznetsk, as we were filming clip on factory there, for a project on environment and pollution. Part of the sponsorship deal, so we took Wikipedia and found bad spots along the route. Of course, few minutes after setting up the camera we were busted. Screeching tyres of UAZs as they were coming out, like in the movie. It was tense, but we played Slavic card there and so they just deleted memory cards. At that point after 30 days or so in a van, I guess we were not much of your typical spy. :). We were told it's good it was private security company, because they could just kick us out from the scene without all the paperwork required by regular police.

Good times :)

Re: I got arrested in Kazakhstan and represented myself in court

#136

Post by donretag »

tralgos wrote: post #120
dakics wrote: post #32

Great story! 5 years ago we went on a Mongol Rally. Driving European vehicle through the Stans makes you easy prey for local policeman. My co-driver had a strategy of befriending them and sharing small gifts (pens, lighters etc.). Most expensive were Tajik GBAO guards, they got headlamps. During my shifts I had 2 encounters but played dumb, even though I'm native in similar language and could communicate. No bribes g…

I did it last year, same experience. A few times it seemed they were looking for bribes but gave up when they realised we spoke absolutely no Kazakh. The only bribe we had to pay in the end was $5 on the Ukraine/Russia border. Side note, Google translate's OCR feature saved me from eating testicles so many times.

In Vietnam, outside of the populated areas, there are no menus, so I might have eaten dog once or twice while in the extreme north.

Re: I got arrested in Kazakhstan and represented myself in court

#137

Post by donretag »

asymmetric wrote: post #60
dakics wrote: post #32

Great story! 5 years ago we went on a Mongol Rally. Driving European vehicle through the Stans makes you easy prey for local policeman. My co-driver had a strategy of befriending them and sharing small gifts (pens, lighters etc.). Most expensive were Tajik GBAO guards, they got headlamps. During my shifts I had 2 encounters but played dumb, even though I'm native in similar language and could communicate. No bribes g…

Would love to read about your experience on the Mongol Rally!

The Mongol Rally is on my bucket list, but there is no way I could ever find like minded people to do it with.

Re: I got arrested in Kazakhstan and represented myself in court

#138

Post by RangerScience »

skewart wrote: post #131
exabrial wrote: post #128

I don't know even what to make of this... The preamble suggests that Kazakhstan justice was superior to American justice, but after reading the whole story I'm like... dude, grow a sense of self-responsibility. It's not like your visa expiring was a surprise... you knew exactly when it was going to happen, and YOU CHOSE to violate it without giving yourself any wiggle room. Then you willingly participated in a corrup…

But then he wouldn't have had a cool story to post on Medium. He wouldn't have gotten all this attention. Alternatively, one could argue that he took one for the team - he did something risky and stupid so he could find out what would happen, see if he could get out of it, and share the experience with those of us too responsible and sane to try it ourselves. Either way though your point stands. He clearly chose to p…

> He clearly chose to put himself in the situation he was in.

The thing that always bothers me about that attitude is that it removes any and all responsibility from the people who make the situation within which the choice is made.

It actually reminds me of basic Bayesian considerations: just as you can't know what a test means without knowing the false positive rate (and false negative, and true positive and negative...), you can't pass any kind of reasonable judgement on a choice unless you know what the alternatives were (and the situation in which the choice was made, and whether the alternatives were known or unknown, or...)

So no. He did NOT clearly choose to put himself in that situation.

Re: I got arrested in Kazakhstan and represented myself in court

#139

Post by RangerScience »

EpicEng wrote: post #99
zanny wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully any higher up officials can recognize this just gave what is probably on average a fairly affluent tech class on HN a more positive outlook on Kazakhstan. Its positive advertising for the country to hear that you don't end up in a gulag for having your passport lapse.

Yes I'm sure those in charge of Kazakhstan are just foaming at the mouth to win over the hipster web dev crowd. I think you're really overestimating your own importance.

Ahhhh from personal experience? They kinda sometimes are. (I know my situation was special/unique, but I don't know how special/unique).

Whole country is really gung-ho about modernizing, and modern tech is a huge part of that.

Re: I got arrested in Kazakhstan and represented myself in court

#140

Post by sankoz »

tn13 wrote: post #52
_delirium wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But don't flush any ex-soviet train toilets when you're stopped at a train station. Not just ex-Soviet trains, British ones too. Newer and renovated trains have sewage tanks, but older trains flush directly onto the tracks (and often therefore have a sign in the toilet asking you not to flush when stopped at a station). According to the BBC, as of 2015 this applied to about 10% of the trains in service: http://www.…

Almost all modern Indian trains are like this too. But I dont think you will get into trouble for shitting on a station.

It is a big health/hygiene problem. If you happen to be in fairly large train stations in India in the mornings, you can see cleaning staff spreading bleaching powder on the tracks to cover up the mess.
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