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Big_Bird · Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 5:12 pm Post subject:

Here is an article by the Kazakhstan Ambassador to the UK. He is a bit cheesed off....

Offensive and unfair, Borat's antics leave a nasty aftertaste

Sacha Baron Cohen exploits the west's ignorance of Kazakhstan to the full, but his jokes are racist and slanderous

Erlan Idrissov
Wednesday October 4, 2006
The Guardian

Humour can be used to defuse tensions and heal divisions - as Tony Blair demonstrated to brilliant effect at the Labour party conference. But if it exploits ignorance and prejudice it can have quite the reverse effect.

I fear that the British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, the creator of Borat Sagdiyev, whose new movie opens here next month, does not understand this. Baron Cohen possesses a great comic talent and remarkable inventive powers. So inventive, in fact, that in creating Borat he has also created an imaginary country - a violent, primitive and oppressive place which he calls "Kazakhstan", but which bears no resemblance to the real Kazakhstan.

Borat's most striking features are his rudeness, ignorance, racism and chauvinism. He is a pig of a man: stupid, belligerent, charmless. In one show he asks a dating service for a girl with "plough experience". He says that in his country women are kept in cages, and that wives can be bought from their fathers for 15 gallons of insecticide. He proudly declares: "In Kazakhstan we say, God, man, horse, dog, then woman, then rat."

In what is probably the most offensive of Borat's jokes, he invites the audience of a Tucson country and western bar to join him in a song called Throw the Jew Down the Well.

Kazakhstan is in reality an increasingly modern, prosperous secular state. Although the population is predominantly Muslim, we have many synagogues, not to mention churches of several denominations. Kazakhstan has a small but thriving Jewish community. The chief rabbi of Israel, John Metzger, has praised my country for its tradition of openness and tolerance. So indeed did Pope John Paul II during his visit in 2001.

Why has Baron Cohen chosen Kazakhstan as the vehicle for his comic talents? Kazakhstan is the size of western Europe. Far from being a backwater, it is set to become one of the top five oil producers in the next decade; in the past six years it has had an annual growth rate of about 10% and, over the past three years, the proportion of those living below the poverty line has fallen from 25% to 16%. There is growing appreciation of Kazakhstan's importance in the fight against terrorism and of its role as regional economic and political pace-setter.

But, sadly, it is still the case that few people in Britain or America know anything about Kazakhstan or can even locate it on a map. They are in no position to judge whether Borat or his movie is remotely credible or fair. Baron Cohen exploits this ignorance to the full.

We are an easy target. Borat could have been made the citizen of a country with a truly awful record on human rights - say Afghanistan in the days of the Taliban. But that would have been risky for Baron Cohen. Many Kazakhs who have seen Borat on television have been offended and incredulous. But the critics of my country, including Baron Cohen, are more likely to receive an invitation to address their concerns at an expenses-paid conference in Kazakhstan than they are to receive a fatwa.

Nor does Kazakhstan have the advantages of a well-connected diaspora to defend its interests in the same way as Israelis, Palestinians or Armenians. Again, Baron Cohen could have caricatured a powerful developing country - like Turkey, Brazil or India - but there would have been sharp reactions, perhaps even at a political level.

To continue reading article click here

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

Canadians don't get very raw assed when the Simpsons makes fun of them.

Boodleheimer · Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 5:25 pm Post subject:

i totally want to visit Kazakhstan. and Uzbekistan. and for reasons completely unassociated with Borat.

stevieg4ever · Joined: 11 Feb 2006 Location: London, England

thats a really interesting article big bird. its funny because i dont envisage the Kazakhstan thing to be anything more than an mythical identity. when people laugh at his antics they aren't really laughing at Kazakhstan as such (i dont think anyway).

the last co i worked for, actually a charity, my line manager went to the same synagogue as Mr Cohen and they tried to have him removed (not sure how that works in the Jewish faith). I know there is widespread disention amongst the jewish community in uk over his whole act, including ali g and bruno.

i just see it all as comedy, but then again im not Kazakhstani / ian / person.

Interested · Joined: 10 Feb 2003

Interview with Borat in The Guardian

Big_Bird · Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 5:53 pm Post subject:

I've just had such a good laugh watching these clips...I thought I ought to share them.

Here is one of Sacha Cohen, actually being interview as himself by David Letterman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0b_lTEgICw The first time I've ever seen him out of character!

Here he is interviewing Andy Rooney: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpDyJObCKOY&NR

Here is a clip from his show, interviewing a bigwig of the British police:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMtMAxWbJ2I&NR

Enjoy!

ddeubel · Joined: 20 Jul 2005

All good and well ........... this humour.

But I would add that we should be disgusted how Bush recently courted the Kazakstani president in Washington, but EVEN MORE SO by the bribery allegations, how the U.S. govt officially bribed their leadership to the tune of 174 mil +. all this money going for luxurious villas, cars etc.........

I'll link some things later but this case also could bring down the administration in Washington. Now, if only Borat could have that kind of success....

DD

ddeubel · Joined: 20 Jul 2005

Here is a brief synopsis, if anyone cares. Giffen contends that Bush and company, in the highest reaches of the White House, knew and approved of his "spending" on Nazarbayev's luxurious lifestyle. He is pleading not guilty, precisely on this fact. Despite this, hundreds of subpoened documents which show/allege White House blessing and involvement remain sealed and whited out......

We will see what happens but I think both Bush and Nazarbayev are far up each others asshole.....especially given how Bush treated him while he was here (buddy buddy, use of his retreat, hunting, lavish banquet, etc...).

DD

Big_Bird · Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 8:35 pm Post subject:

ddeubel · Joined: 20 Jul 2005

I didn't mean it in any derogatory way, the "cares" part.

Please note this is an old article but best (on the presumption of innocence) describes the charges. Since that time, many U.S. officials have been subpoenaed. Griffen is singing (given his closeness to Bush, this is remarkable) and lawyers are busy trying to keep everything under the radar, inside the little huddle of lawyers and judges......

DD