Foreign Policy

This week I had to take our relatively old laptop into the computer repair shop, which typically has a moderate turnover of employees. The new and attractive young woman at the counter had an accent. I asked her where she was from. It was Kazakhstan. I hesitated for a second, then said, “Alma Ata.” She broke into an absolutely radiant smile. “How you know this?” she asked.

No, I wasn’t psychic. Alma Ata is not her name. That’s the capital of her country, and happens to be her hometown. I know this because I’m an amateur radio operator and I’m constantly consulting maps. Kazakhstan, of course, was a part of the former Soviet Union, and is where the Russian space center is. Baikonur is that area’s Cape Canaveral.

My knowledge of geography made me a new friend – knowledge which might have been even more useful if I were 40 years younger and unmarried! Anyway, I can safely say that this is the first Kazakh I have ever met in person (I have talked to them once or twice on the radio).

Reverse the process. Let’s say you were parachuted into Kazakhstan, whose language you barely spoke, and you encountered someone who knew a city or two in your country – especially if you were from a smaller city in a less-populated state, and you ran across a Kazakh who knew something about it and perhaps had even been there. You’d probably be smiling yourself, right?

Anyway, seeing the smile on this girl’s face reinforced for me the concept that knowing something about the “Ubeki-beki-stan-stans” of this world, to reference Herman Cain (who?) can have its benefits.