It appears that a new candidate has made headlines across Central Asia and pretty much the rest of the printed world. Amantay Asilbek has tried to run for office already twice before, once in 1998 and for the second time in 2005. The infamous Asilbek has come at it again, this time starting his campaign on issues such as Afghanistan and nuclear energy, but how does one really make the headlines in the pretty much apathetic Kazakh world? Asilbek has decreed the women of Kazakhstan as lonely, unmarried, and numerous, which is troubling for him due to his own personal believe that men who spend majority of their time in the Kazakh air are fruitful up into their 80s. Mr. Asilbek has publicly stated that polygamy would be a solution to this problem, he even has considered this himself, unfortunately Mrs. Asilbek has not passed any of the candidates as worthy of second wife status.

The country has been experiencing a negative birth rate due to many Kazakh men going abroad to Russia and other countries of Asia for better chances of finding higher paying jobs. Many of these men do not come back, or many just find a wive from abroad and try to bring her back. Whatever the cause may be, the people of Kazakhstan have been experiencing a great depression in the marriage bed, the birth rate is toppling and unmarried women are rampant. Could Mr. Asilbek save this country? The only hurdle that he has now is to pass the grueling test of the Kazakh language, a qualifying prerequisite to run for office in Kazakhstan. Even if he passes the test, which 3 out of the 15 candidates have already failed, he still needs to collect at least 90,000 signatures to get his name on the ballot.

If anything, the idea of polygamy has been raised and practiced in many parts of the world. The bible speaks of it, the Koran talks a great deal about it, and we hear about it in the news constantly. It can only be considered natural for humans to want to multiply, especially when you have a nationalistic ideology to back up your multiplying efforts. What good is a sovereign nation when there is no work force or a tax paying populous to push the nation into a new era? Mr. Asilbek's addressed issues are legitimate, his solutions might be old world but still none the least practical and feasible. The only concern that needs to be addressed here is the issue of extremism and religious zealotry. One can predict that some fanatics will be born out of this system and there would be issues of human rights and personal rights being infringed on. But as history has shown us polygamy is only a temporary fix to a problem, the concept dies out when the scales have become balanced within the population.

After watching HBO's Big Love for the past four seasons I can soundly say that it is the men in polygamist marriages that get screwed mentally, not the women, power in numbers.