Roxy TS #19

My conversation topic with Amir during this tutoring session was more lighthearted than usual, but it still circulated around an interesting area of American life and culture: entertainment and pastimes. We compared Kazakhstan entertainment and leisure activities with those of America, including TV. Amir told me how television in Kazakhstan works, which I found totally interesting. In Kazakhstan, television is operated by the government, which means that they are in control of what gets shown. For example, they do not have advertisements the way we do in the United States, with our proliferation of commercials. I wondered how this might affect a person’s disposition toward consumerism and materialism. Amir has complained about how people in Almaty often wear showy clothes to display their class and wealth levels, which I find an ironic result of the country’s former position as a part of the USSR. I think this shows just how much the East has been Westernized economically (that is, made to be capitalist-minded).   

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