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Comment by joelhaasnoot | Hacker News Reader

Cute story, but wonder if the outcome would be the same if the author hadn't originally been Russian and didn't speak Russian.

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While speaking a common language usually (but not always) helps, being a US citizen is the way more important part of the story.

Police in the United States are used to generally treating everyone (including foreigners) with impunity, while cops in other countries dealing with US citizens are more wary of causing a diplomatic incident. There's also the novelty factor: people from high status countries are seen as interesting, and the more uncommon your presence is there, the more friendly interest officials take.

He's making a mistaken inference by assuming that how the police treat US citizens also reflects how they treat locals.

Everything you say is true. I fully acknowledge that. I hope it's not implied otherwise.

I still think it's a great story that's funny and well told while being respectful to the people involved. It's definitely indicative of a meaningful part of the culture that's very different from the western/american bureaucratic mindset.

In my experience police / border guards in the west threat people worse in normal situations. In most of the rest of the world they are just local bureaucrats who are trying to get through their day without trouble. If you do something wrong it's mostly a bureaucratic process and you're not suddenly a suspected terrorist. Of course in less normal situations that might imply jail time or getting beaten up I'd take the western version.

> There's also the novelty factor: people from high status countries are seen as interesting, and the more uncommon your presence is there, the more friendly interest officials take.

My in-laws were in Iran during the revolution. He's American and she's Thai. They have a long story whose climactic confrontation with guards is suddenly resolved when they decide that the Thai lady with the fuzzy hooded coat must obviously be an American Eskimo and that this is the most amazing thing he's ever seen.

So the two of them have a story about the time they got out of a terrifying situation, and there's an Iranian somewhere who has a story about that one time, for reasons he will never understand, an American Eskimo wandered through his guard post.

While it most likely would have been different in some way, the treatment he received in Kazakhstan still seems to be better than the authors treatment in the US prison system.

That seems to be largely due to the small-town nature of where he was, and the boredom of the guards. Plus, presumably the author is a friendly, affable sort.

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.

Yeah, I think it can go either way. I've had a few situations in Russia where speaking the language evoked "You idiot. You should know better and let me set you straight." while speaking English evoked "Stupid American. Here's how we fix it."

Exactly.

Both your responses have the person taking on the role of a --short term-- mentee: they show some sort of of connection + naïveté that prompts the authority figure into rooting for them ie caring enough to indicate next steps. '

Yes, on this trip I had many Police encounters. Most of the time, the best course of action was to feign ignorance and speak very loudly and excitedly in English, "Good Morning Officer!" and just keep repeating that and smiling. Then they would give up on you and move on to easier targets. I tried that at first here, but then changed tactics.

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

The outcome would be worse if you were Russian or Kyrgyz or Uzbek or Tajik or of whatever 3rd world origin and knew Russian/Kazakh. My father used to buy cars in Europe to sell them in Kyrgyzstan and he says that there is no other country as corrupt as Kazakhstan. Example: On the last checkpoint on the road to Kyrgyzstan cops wanted him to give a bribe. He was out of money (he ran out of them giving them to Kazakh policemen all the road down from Russian border), and the cop asked my dad to give him a first-aid box as a bribe (!). That desperate. Why they wanted bribe? Just because. Even if you don't break rules, they'll rob you. Because you are not Kazakh (and not from a Western country).

Update: To be fair, I'll add that some cops in Kyrgyzstan like that kind of easy money -- they could harass you until you give them some money. But don't bribe them. It is best to play a total idiot like "you me, me you, me friend to you, you friend to me, yes, I like your country, nature mountains ... " etc. Don't forget to smile :)

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