Welcome To The White Grave

Okay, so there's this country in Central Asia called Kazakhstan (not to be confused with Kyrgyzstan, which is my current favorite country in the world). Its president*, Nursultan Nazarbayev**, is going rather insane.

For reasons best known inside his own apparently rotting brain, he decided to move the capital of his country to Astana. While this is more central (and closer to the Russian border) than the former capital, Almaty, it is also quite possibly the coldest capital city in the world. Locals refer to it as "the white grave."

Maybe I'm way off base, but it seems to me that when the name of a place includes the word "death***" it is best avoided, not made the capital of one's country. Perhaps in his delusions he neglected to consult his PR people. Who knows.

Anyway, this new cold capital is looking to host an Olympics at some point. Somehow I don't think the world is yet ready for the White Grave Olympics. I could be wrong though. We shall see.

*Dictator

**With a name like that I think insanity was inevitable even without the buckets of vodka and decades spent under Soviet rule

***Much like my personal favorite, the Hadramawt**** region/desert in Yemen

****Death awaits